First post/Question about Lightly Supinated USX motion (Solved)

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hey everyone! This is my first post on here so I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Luca, I recently picked up guitar again and decided that I wanted to take learning a little more seriously, that’s how I ended up here. I’m working through the pickslanting primer right now and I’m having a bit of an issue with the lightly supinated USX wrist motion. More specifically I’m having an issue with finding the right anchor points for the heels of my palm when moving to lower strings. I think I’m starting to get the hang of the motion when I do it on a single string. When I follow the Wrist Motion Checklist I can set myself up in what I think is the correct position to play the G string (like the example in the video), that is starting to feel right, I believe I’m close to the right range of motion and I can go pretty fast without feeling any strain. The issue comes up when I try to move to lower strings, I just don’t know what part of my hand set up should move. When I try leaving the heels of my palms in the same place they are when I’m playing the G string and try to go lower I end up with a lot of radial deviation which feels wrong. When I use a motion that comes (I think) from my elbow and move my whole forearm/wrist to raise my heel anchor points to play notes on my low E my heels end up moving off the strings and my wrist ends up almost flat against the body of my guitar and I have to use a lot more wrist extension to get to the strings, this also results in almost a DSX motion on my low E. I suspect that both of these methods are incorrect for this motion and that maybe the right one is somewhere in between. I’ve watched Troy and Andy’s anchor points when they move to lower strings and have tried to break down what they do but I’ve been working on it for a bit and I still haven’t found the motion that feels right yet. I think that I might just have the wrong approach angle or anchor points to begin with but I’m really just not sure.
So I guess what I’m asking is how to keep my wrist in that same position that feels right when I am playing on the G string when I move to lower strings?
I’m including a couple clips, the first is what feels close to right to me, the second is what happens when I try to move to the low E using a radial wrist motion and the last is when I raise heels of my palms off the strings onto the body of the guitar to try to keep my wrist in the right position to play my low E

I want to sincerely thank anyone who takes the time to respond to this, I realize this is a pretty basic question that is likely answered in future videos but I just didn’t feel right about moving past this section until I feel like I have a little bit stronger of a grasp on it.

Thanks! Luca

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#2

Hey there! I don’t see any clips, were you going to post them separately?

I feel a similar struggle when I play on the low E string, I think it’s probably due to the tune-o-matic bridge on my LP style guitar (my wrist seems to be floating more). What kind of bridge do you have on your guitar?

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#3

Hey! Thanks for the response and for the heads up about the clips, sorry about that I thought I included the links but I must have forgotten. I’ll put them up when I get on my computer in the morning.

That’s an interesting point about the type of bridge coming into play. I have a fixed bridge myself.
When I’m playing on the higher strings the small amount of gap feels pretty good but sometimes when I move down to my low E I move my heels onto the body and my wrist is almost flat against the body.
I was looking at my footage (apparently I was the only one because I forgot the links lol, this will make more sense when I get them up) and noticed a couple things. 1.) I think I’m focusing on the anchor points rather than the motion itself. 2.) I think I’m putting too much pressure on my heels and that might be what’s messing up my supination and causing my wrist move flat against the body when I move to lower strings.
3.) My approach angle might be causing this, I think that in trying to avoid resting my elbow behind the body of my Guitar I’ve started holding my elbow too high causing what should be about 60° to be a much wider angle and a more verticle approach.

Thanks again for the response! Like I said I’ll add those clips when I get on my computer a little later, hopefully what I said will make a little more sense then.

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#4

I was going to respond to this with the videos I forgot to post yesterday, but in the mean time I watched the next video (Chapter 4 Downstroke Escape for anyone with the same issue who might find this) and had my question completely answered and I figured out what I was doing wrong. Guess I jumped the gun on that one. Whoops! Obviously not much point in posting them now lol but I’m glad I finally posted on here anyway.