I’ve been trying to get this wrist DBX motion going on and off for 2 years and I can’t for the life of me get it right. I have tried all the different pick grip and arm position and i just can’t get any smooth results, not even for a moment. Anyone here on the forum have any tips on how to get the “feel” right for wrist (supinated) DBX motion?
try thinking about going round and round instead of up and down
How do you mean? Circle motion with the pick?
with your pick, with your hand, with your arm, I dunno, just give it a whirl and see what happens
Are you talking about wrist motion, forearm motion, fingers, etc.? Because each of these operates differently and feels differently.
For example, in my experience the wrist version of it doesn’t feel like anything. It feels like the hand picking notes by moving back and forth, that’s it. I would also note that for wrist motion, I don’t do that motion on a single string like for a tremolo. I can only do it when playing phrases that require it. And when I do, I have no sensation of doing it. Here’s a good example of what that looks like:
At medium speed, you can see clearly that the pickstroke is double escape. As I speed up, the hand chooses whatever escape it needs for that particular string change. I have no conscious sense of making a double escape motion. However I can sometimes feel that the downstroke goes one direction, and the upstroke goes another. So “double escape” wrist motion to me is just what happens when you play the downstroke motion in sequence with the upstroke motion.
This is why it’s possible that the best way to learn the wrist version might be to ignore it, and just try to play the phrases you want to play, regardless of what the left hand is. Do it fast at first and experimenting with different pick grips and arm positions until you find a hand position that feels the smoothest, even if it’s sloppy. You can then slow that down a small amount and see if you can start to clean it up.
So in other words, old school approach of “do what feels easiest”, but with a modern level of knowledge about what forms might work, and what things should look and sound like when it starts to work. That’s my best guess.
Edit: Sorry! Re-reading your post again and you mention you’ve been experimenting specifically with wrist motion, and you’re saying you haven’t been able to find anything that feels smooth. Are you referring specifically to double escape motion, or any kind of wrist motion? Because, again, for me, the two are not dramatically different that I can perceive, and getting any wrist motion happening at all that is smooth is a great first step. Have you been able to get smooth motion happening with any wrist motion, or have none of the grips / motions worked? Let me know and we’ll go from there.
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Thanks for the answer troy! Yes I have also worked a lot on wrist motion, mostly the usx and pretty sure I can do that motion but it’s not super reliable. I have some trouble keeping from rotating on the upstroke still. I should mention that before I started to really begin the quest of developing my picking I was a heavily pronated dsx player (sort of David Grier without the double escape). That motion never really worked for me in terms of the types of lines i wanted to play (a lot of saxophone jazz lines, Coltrane, Parker etc.). So i switched to what was formerly known as DWPS and have done that ever since but I’m yet to getting it smooth.
I have thought about putting up some clips but at the moment I don’t have a good phone to film with.
Thanks for the details. In general, it sounds like you know what you’re doing, and what you’re trying to do, and it’s just a matter of doing it. What I can say very simply is that no matter what type of music you want to play, fluid and realistic, if somewhat sloppy, is a great starting point, regardless of the technique you’re trying to do. And yes, this is a case where some video clips would be helpful. Happy to take a look.
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Thanks Troy! I will see this week if i can borrow a phone from a friend and post some clips! I very much appreciate your time!