I’ve recently reviewed the van halen tremolo technique as well as Troy’s quick summary of the different types of picking (wrist flexion, forearm rotation, elbow, etc). I believe I’m using mostly wrist flex and have been for 30 years. I sat down today to see if I could do any of the other techniques with any speed at all… Not pretty! I just cannot rotate my forearm quickly at all. I’m wondering if this is something that can be learned without dedicating a huge amount of time. Are any of you trying the different types of picking and any of you able to get a decent amount of speed despite being very slow when first trying? I would really like to be able to use the forearm rotation technique.
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I have been playing 34 years with mostly wrist motion and after reading about forearm rotation a decided to try it - not because I expected to abandon my picking style in favor of it, but just out of curiosity to see how picking by using forearm rotation felt.
I can’t rotate my forearm to pick worth a damn! It felt so awkward to try to rotate my forearm fast that I tried rotating my left forearm just to see how much of a difference it would make since I’m right handed and not the least bit ambidextrous. Still, I could rotate my left forearm just about as fast as my right forearm. Not because my left forearm rotated fast but because my right one rotates so slow! I have no need to use forearm rotation, fortunately! It was just an experiment. What I found was support for the old adage: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”!
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@Tahoebrian5, I am currently exploring forearm rotation picking. I’ve been practicing it only for five days so there is not that much I can comment.
I can say this much: so far, my speed sucks. There is no way around it. I am also quite clumsy and imprecise. Funny thing is that I can rotate my forearm in air much faster than on guitar. I hope that I simply have to get used to that movement on guitar.
So…I didn’t really write anything you may have expected. Sorry 
Wait, something potentially helpful came to my mind. Check out Pebber Brown on youtube. He uses what he calls sarod picking which is basically a forearm rotation. (Well, he also adds some finger action.) Anyway, he has developed that technique quite a bit.
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Seems many of us figure out that we can’t do the roatton fast 
I blend that rotation with flexion, that works fine for me - the feeling is kind of the movement still comes from felxion but direction from rotation.
I was basically inactive for almost 20 years before CtC (and before used flexion too),
I don’t know if my picking became faster,but for sure now it’s less effort, I think blending motions splits the work on different muscles.
Edit: Sorry i think deviation is my movement … doesn’t matter at all, just realized it when clicking on a link in another topic.
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I was always able to rotate my right forearm very fast in the air, but not able to actually pick that way. Last year I spent some time doing the movement very slowly (starting at quarter notes at about 40 bpm and then speeding up). It took 3 days before I could pick consistently this way. Within a week, I could tremolo pick faster this way than with any other mechanic, with almost no strain or effort. It took about a month before it became habitualized.
Afterward I noticed that I couldn’t rotate my left forearm fast at all. I was curious, so I started practicing that in the air. Again I started very slowly. Each motion was a single movement. After about two weeks, I could rotate my left hand as fast as my right. It took another month of daily exercises before my left forearm had as much stamina as my right (essentially unlimited). My bending and vibrato have improved drastically as a result.
So my answer is yes. It is possible to learn. I suggest slowing it down enough to consciously fire the supinators and pronators individually before switching direction. Once that gets boring, speed it up slowly. You can use a small hand weight (I used 10 lbs) to add resistance if you feel like you need to strengthen those muscles, but be careful not to hurt yourself.
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Just yesterday,i was listening to an interview with Michael Angelo baytio. In which Troy asked him about learning a new guitar technique.and he said in order to play some thing fast, you must learn to play slow. But he also said in that same statement, you should first try to play any scale at you’re speed what ever you’re picking speed may be. And fine tune the sections of speed you are wanting to be able to play at.
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I only use forearm rotation for Strumming really (it’s a combination of rotation and deviation).
I’ve been trying to work on my wrist orientated crosspicking (combining deviation and extension/flexion) as normally I am a 2WPS (Deviation, and then forearm rotation to new position to switch pickslant if needed) .
I wonder if they have any Hybrid picking tutorials and licks to practice as I’ve been trying to get into that as well. So far I’ve just been doing classical fingerpicking exercises to develop it.
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