Different ways of achieving neutral pickslanting for RDT wrist motion

Playing Technique
#1

I was watching Primer the other day, the tutorials on RDT wrist motion, and I realized it has actually been updated, what really got my attention was this method of achieving neutral pickslanting, using thumb flexion kinda rolling the pick over the index finger, similar to making an OK sign with the fingers. I’ve been playing around with this recently, I can get a lot of edge picking this way and it kinda has started to become my main way of gripping the pick right now. If I’m not mistaken the previous way of achieving this was by adding more pronation of the forearm until the downward pickslant is gone, the difference for me is that there’s no need to bend the thumb there, that was what I believe to be my previous way of gripping the pick, to me that starts getting into that Paul Gilbert way of holding the pick, the other way with rolling with the thumb is more of a Tremonti way of holding it.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of these different methods of achieving neutral pickslanting?

#2

The big advantage of the “newer” way (i.e. the OK sign) is it allows more supination so that you can achieve the axis of motion that has more speed potential.

1 Like
#3

oh that makes a lot of sense thank you!

#4

In the lesson on setting up the arm position and grip, we have a section called “Don’t Flatten The Forearm”. I’ve cued it up here:

Keep in mind the “correct” setup you use is entirely based on the results you get. If you put a pick in the grip, it looks “mostly” vertical, and you can still see some of the underside of the arm (i.e. ergonomic mouse), you’re good. No more adjustments necessary. Just due to differences in fingers and hands from person to person, there will probably be some variation here and some players may not need to do the OK grip as much, or at all.

More generally, was this section clear in explaining the rationale? Not a knock on you at all! This is more a question of how we can make the lessons as clear as possible. There are a lot of moving parts here and it’s hard to make the important points stick out.

The fact that you are aware there are different ways to do this, and that there might be some advantage to one versus the other, is a good sign. It means we’re getting people in the ballpark! We’d like to get them all the way there. Let me know!

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#5

Thank you Troy! I appreciate the answer. I’ve rewatched the section and it’s a lot clearer this time, there’s definitely a lot of information and moving parts, I still had the previous version of it in my mind and the wrist motion reference videos talking about the wrist positions of Al Di Meola, Mike Stern and Paul Gilbert, so I didn’t come to the updated video with a “clean slate”, and I had some preconceived ideas.

#6

Gotcha sounds good. Results are your guide – if you can test / film a thing and it works, then we can’t argue with that.

#7

Tbh, now that you mention it, I didn’t notice initially but since I started applying the concepts mostly from chapter 2, also chapter 6, my wrist secondary motion has become a lot more consistent all of the sudden. Pretty much overnight. I might record a video and post on technique critique section. Maybe a before and after would be good.