Confusion about USX reverse-dart motion

Sorry, I get that wrong all the time. I guess I mean “more supinated”

Neutral pickslant is what I meant, sorry for not being more specific. Isn’t that your guidance on how to get DBX with the new tall mouse RDT?

I don’t think I’ve used the term “neutral” in the lessons because it’s vague. Yes, I’ve talked about certain techniques requiring the pick to be vertical, or perpendicular to the strings, or having a “zero-degree pickslant”. All word salad. I just try not to include “neutral” in the salad because I feel like it’s even less clear what it means. If I can say “vertical” or “perpendicular” I figure there’s more of a chance someone will know what that means.

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Gotcha, the zero-degree-pickslant was what I was going for.

One thing that has helped me to understand RDT (especially the USX variant) is to think of a tapping motion rather than a side to side, or in and out motion. I noticed the RDT motion quite a while ago but didn’t have the brain power or understanding to fully ‘get it’.

I mainly noticed it with metal players who often have a fairly obvious supinated position, and rest additional fingers on the strings/pickguards. I think an excellent example of this (with good closeups) is the following video for the RDT USX variant:

The actual motion is clearly a diagonal, shooing away type wrist motion :slight_smile:

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Thank you for all the replies. I think I still need some time to wrap my head around all of this.

Is there actually an example of a guitarist that uses the DT motion from a pronated position? I don´t understand how that wouldn´t make for a USX. Or put in another way: the downstrokes would end up jamming the pick into he strings, right?

Also, would we describe Troy´s playing in the following video as DT motion with the new knowledge?

I made this video on DT motion some time ago, you might find it helpful.

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My understanding is that Molly Tuttle uses DT motion with a more pronated form. The Troy clip you posted technically would be a version of RDT, but it straddles the line of a few motions as it does incorporate some forearm, and deviation rather than purely a DT/RDT motion.

From my perspective, any wrist or wrist/forearm motion will by default incorporate some RDT/DT (at least on the downstroke motion) as due to the nature of the hand, and the instrument it is almost impossible to avoid.

I think a lot of the original motion picking tutorials (pure deviation, forearm etc.) have been refined and developed considerably which is possibly adding to the confusion of some.

Long story short, if you rest the side of your hand on the bridge/strings, keep the pick relatively perpendicular to the strings, and perform a downstroke that escapes the strings (DSX) you will by default engage the RDT motion to some extent.

Yes, it was helpful, thanks. I might be stating the obvious here, but the USX from the pronated position comes from the extension + radial deviation, right?
My confusion about Molly Tuttle´s DSX then remains… if it´s a DT motion from a pronated position, doesn´t the ulnar deviation + flexion move the pick towards the body of the guitar on downstrokes?

That definetely applies to me. I catch myself juggling with all the terms in my head to check whether I still understand what´s going on. Apparently I don´t. :smiley:

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My understanding of Molly’s motion and the DT component is that she’s DBX, not DSX. Since she has a pronated setup, her downstrokes are ulnar deviation so that pronated offset allows the downstrokes to escape. Her upstrokes though are the DT part of the motion (like what you’d do as you were preparing to throw a dart) and that’s why she can escape in both directions.

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Coming back to Joscho´s right hand - as far as I see it, his general picking motion seems to be on a “seven to five” curve, if you think of the clock analogy, right? His downstrokes don´t escape. So one could say that he uses the initial phase of a RDT motion but does not end the motion in the typical RDT position.

I find it pretty interesting that both Josho and Molly seem to “mix” motions - Joscho´s downstrokes start with the RDT picking motion while not escaping (but the upstrokes do), Molly uses DT motion for escaped US and the pronated setup deviation for escaped DS.

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Yeah, it gets confusing when there are players that use combinations. I think of Joscho like a metal player that doesn’t anchor. His downstroke is primarily a RDT motion but does not escape the strings due to the hand setup and pickslant.