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If you watched our âCrosspicking with the Wristâ lesson then you already know about the clock face system of wrist motion. If you havenât, or havenât worked through our Getting Started guide yet, now you can learn about the clock face system on YouTube with the masses:
The wrist is the most commonly used joint in picking technique, and forms an integral part of so many basic picking motions, that the fact it has gone essentially unexplained for this long is practically criminal. Although the concept weâve come up with is deceptively simple, it has already answered so many questions about how movements work, instantly unlocked at least one new ability, and clarified others I already had. Just knowing it has already made me a better player and improved just about everything we teach.
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Permission to interject a pointless aside:
My handshaking technique is definitely elbow-based.
Should probably be called âarm shakingâ.
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Not pointless, and totally relevant! We really donât think too much about what movements weâre actually making, to the extent that what is elbow or forearm or wrist is totally subconscious for most people. Thankfully, otherwise everyday activities would require tons of thought.
I used the âhandshakeâ example because David Grier used it in our interview. But if most people actually elbow-shake, I can update the article to hammering or some other common motion with [approximatley] a deviational path.
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Hello Iâm a new member, thank you for the great service you provide us guitarists. I am a lefty, and for me to effectively work the clock system while I study crosspicking, I believe it will need some modification. Since my orientation is from a different perspective, using a different hand, it seems the âclock faceâ analogy will not correspond to the proper direction being invited by the instruction. Is there a simple system that would allow me to translate right-hand oriented clock face wrist motion to left-hand oriented clock facewrist motion? I believe I will need this to get the proper movements. Thank again.
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Iâm a lefty too. You could do a bit of mental gymnastics to mirror the clock along the vertical, or subtract the numbers from 12 (9o2 -> 3o10, except 12 remains 12 of course), or do the motion with the right hand and copy it with the left, or bend your left arm such that your hand points towards your face instead of out and use the clockface as is in this orientation.
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This starts as a reference to the reply to a âpointless asideâ for clarity.
I would like to suggest that these so called âeveryday activitiesâ are actually thought itself the- totality of thinking, (demonstrated in movement, like making music), hence not having to âthink about themâ.
One more suggestion is that perhaps that flat land of a clock-face could be updated to a sphere(I feel this applies to any instrumental or skill oriented self description (phenomenologically speaking ).
I appreciate your work and watched some youtubes especially the one with Batio - it seemed he felt that 12 - 6 and 6 - 12 was the most effortless safe movement I tend to agree at least on one string.
Perhaps the search for the better analogy will always lead to more analogies(as Herman Hesse made clear).
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