Good work on the grip change, that’s what you want. Ten degrees is pretty flat — you don’t need much pickslant for that, which is why it doesn’t feel like anything to you. A little edge picking is enough to make the attack smooth at this slight of an escape trajectory. And yes, ten degrees is the minimum you need to clear the string. No matter what arm position you use, whether it’s this one or a more supinated one like EVH or Steve Morse, you’re still going to end up at 10 degrees and it’s still going to feel like you’re just barely clearing the string. Those guys just use a different wrist motion to get to that point.
Which reminds me, have you tried the two other forms from Chapter 2? If you can get it with any of them, you’re that much closer to getting it with all of them. I totally recommend trying that. Especially since we’re at this stage of not being totally sure what you’re doing here is correct. Definitely give that a shot.
In the first clip, as you play more slowly it still looks like your pick is making a curved motion as opposed to a straight one. It’s going sideways and then pulling up more vertically to get out of the strings. This isn’t by itself a bad thing, depending on how that curved motion is being generated. If you look at wrist motion versus a wrist-forearm blend, for example, you can see that the motion path of the blend is a little more curved than the wrist path by itself:
The issue in your case is that there is no forearm involvement. So if we’re seeing a curved motion, it can only come from wrist extension, which is not correct for this arm position. Take a look at your clip and let me know if you can see what I’m getting at.
Second clip, I still don’t really see any ulnar bend. It looks like the wrist is going radial to straight, and back to radial. Instead, what we want is straight, then ulnar, then back to straight. If you look at what I’m doing from about 6:20 to 6:40 in the video lesson, the ulnar bend is a little more obvious here. It doesn’t feel like it when I’m doing it, but that’s what it looks like when you view it face-on like this. In the overhead shot that follows it, what I’m doing there is positioning my arm so that it’s maybe just a tiny bit ulnar when the pick is resting on the B string. Then when I push through the B to play the note, and come to rest on the E, the wrist is visibly ulnar. Maybe give that a try, i.e. using the resting position on the played string as your starting point. Look in a mirror if you have to. If the form isn’t quite right, try lowering your approach angle just a little.
Can you see the ulnar bend when you finish the downstroke? Something in that general ballpark is what we’re looking for. Doesn’t have to be exact. And I’m not saying this is specifically going to solve the other issue, but it might trigger some small form change that makes this click.
And try the other two forms from Chapter 2, even if they feel weird. Consider it an experiment. If either of those work, you’ll have some reference point for what the correct straight shot motion into the strings looks and feels like.
Thanks again for working on this.