9-0-2 v 10-0-3 Crosspicking Clarification

Playing Technique
#1

This weekend I’m doing a deep dive into the crosspicking info and I promise that I have already watched hours of video and taken notes before asking. Just trying to make sure I understand.

So am I correct that:

  • The Andy Wood-style 9-0-2 crosspicking setup uses a blend of wrist extension and ulnar deviation for downstrokes and radial deviation only for upstrokes.

  • The David Grier/Molly Tuttle 10-0-3 setup uses ulnar deviation only for downstrokes and a blend of wrist extension and radial deviation on upstrokes.

EDIT: I guess it’s not really that simple because the stroke kind of changes trajectory when the pick comes in contact wit the string - and then it has to backtrack - but I hope my generalization makes sense.

The Andy Wood version feels fairly natural to me and in fact I may have been doing this - if inconsistently - in the past. The Grier/Tuttle one feels really odd though. It’s the extension on the upstrokes that get me - assuming I am doing things correctly.

@Troy’s confirmation would be wonderful but I am happy to hear from other members of the forum who have a firm grasp on this. Thanks!

#2

Technically, that’s all correct but only if you’re using a lightly supinated arm position and trigger-style grip. Once you start changing the grip to more extended index finger grips that aren’t trigger, and altering the forearm position to accommodate that grip, then the actual numerical numbers are different. Refer to Chapter 2 of the wrist motion section in the Pickslanting Primer for details on how these movements change when you start altering your arm position.

In actual practice, I would encourage not overthinking this. You’re not really trying to “do” these different muscle blends motions. You’re just assuming a particular grip, arm position, and anchor points, and then just trying to make flat downstrokes and upstrokes from that position. No matter which grip / arm position pairing you use, the motions all feel the same: a shallow motion which moves side to side with respect to the plane of the strings.

Also, I’d encourage you to not only view this as an arpeggio technique which you use exclusively to play roll type patterns. Instead, I’d view wrist motion as a family of motions which you can use to play anthing from the arm position you choose, once you get that flat, side-to-side feeling happening. Again, by side-to-side I just mean, almost parallel to the strings. If you use a supinated arm setup like Steve Morse, the actual wrist motion involved will end up looking more like flexion/extension, but again, the “feel” will be similar. Shallow and wide.

When in doubt, again, try going through the different grip/arm pairings in Chapter 2 just to get a sense for what that feels like. In that chapter we’re only talking about upstroke escape, but the feel is very similar, and the arm positions and grips are identical.

1 Like
#3

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I do have the lightly-supinated arm position and trigger grip going. I was mostly surprised how very different the 10-0-3 approach felt to me.

As for the usefulness of the technique, as cool as they are, I do not see myself playing the roll-type patterns as much as using it to play lines that contain arpeggios with alternate picking.