Descriptions of picking motions

Playing Technique
#1

Looking for “feel” descriptions of picking motions and their uses. From the elbow, forearm and wrist. Although I know there are many variations of all.

Elbow- Seems like it would be injury prone. You’d have to tense up quite a bit to get speedy. I would call this a “shake weight” motion, in lieu of filthier discriotions.

Forearm- This seems to me to be the most common motion. I kind of equate it with turning a key but I’ve also seen quite popular like ringing a handled bell if you bend your wrist.

Wrist- pretty obvious. Like revving a throttle. Seems nice for strumming but maybe not for picking.

How do you “feel” your picking or strumming?

#2

Using analogies to try and understand picking motions is a bit of a blunt instrument that doesn’t tell you much and is open to misinterpretation. This is especially true when it comes to more complicated joints like the wrist which can do multiple motions, and very often work together with other joints at the same time.

Our best introduction to this topic is our latest Primer update, which includes some basic hands on tests that simulate different joint motions:

The wrist tests in particular help clarify how different players move that joint along different axes based on their pick grip and arm position.

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