Mainly neutral wrist in DWPS?

I am new here, but I have been playing for many years. I just started my year membership! I have been working at the POPTART lick with DWPS but just on acoustic gtr lately. I will pull the electric very soon.

So I haven’t really played much malmsteen, in my guitar life. I learned the interlude on I’ll See The Light back in the 80s. Never played consistently, because I focused more on my left hand accuracy as new player. Then I got DEEP into Satriani, and legato and EVH -hammer on, pull-off, economy picking, tapping)… I finally got SICK of only playing consistently well on my rig! As soon got on an acoustic or someone else’s vintage amp (3 12ax7’s!) I couldn’t tap or do legato very well… I eventually started picking a lot more… I became naturally drawn inside picking, especially since I was holding the pick with barely the tip being exposed. This works well with full-size picks and shreddin’ on acoustic with max volume I think…

These type of posts are tedious :frowning: but I am dedicated to getting better and better.

Cracking code, has been a reshuffling for me, which uncomfortable, but necessary. I have been trying the jazz III XL and holding the pick more like Troy ( I have thread detailing that with photos).

So, since I am just working on DWPS right, and the poptart lick focusing high speeds… nearly to tempo on Troy’s example vid… but my acoustic strings on quite high compared electric so I think that is the main hindrance. Also the acoustic being much fatter than electric! With fast picking in the assumed position: I place my palm across the bridge, and let it fall to the right pick angle, still exposing wrist supination, I find as I descend (higher to lower strings) my wrist is getting more extended (looks like extreme anchoring) to maintain the pick angle. Since I cropped these photos, you can really get a sense of the wrist supination. Photos are shown in succession while descending:
Sorry I forget wipe dust and worn plektrum off the guitar!

So why go to the trouble to document this? Well, moreso on acoustic, I find that once I have a comfortable hand position/ pick angle. grip for max articulation and speed on the high E string and B string, as I descend I notice 2 things: After finishing 6 note YJM pattern, ending with an upstroke, I still often end up inside picking because the pick hasn’t lifted above to the otherside of the lower string. I know @Troy demonstrated this in exaggerated of supinating the hand to show on to move above the lower string, to begin a downstroke. I actually elbow extensor fatigue or pain from this excssive turning the hand after a time. So this reverse arching helps main the downstroke to the next successive lower string… why??? Well, upon inspection, I realized that my arm and elbow were fixed. The reason I mentioned the acoustic being fat, is because usually when you play acoustic you tend to rest the arm on the body no? This seems even more the case with flat picking for me. If I am doing fingerstyle, I seem as set on the resting my arm on the body as much… I dunno why…

Ok so, to keep my wrist more neutral ( still with the wrist supination explained by troy in the pick slant video) while descending using DWPS, I consciously tried to not rest my forearm on the body (funny the skin wants to almost stick to the finish of anacoustic!) …pulling my elbow and raising shoulder to maintain the same wrist neutrality. It worked, but it didn’t feel natural…but I guess that the only to do it!!! While sitting with an acoustic on your lap… I notice the Troy also raises right shoulder and or pull it backward slightly, when descending to 5th-6th string quickly - so I guess this is what is needed? Using an electric, standing up, with a strap in middle position ( not too high or low) the shoulder doesn’t need to raise up or backwards all that much, but sitting with an acoustic, it feels more extreme to me. Photos of the wrist neutrality below. Maybe Troy can weigh-in, after experimenting with acoustic, DWPS poptart lick to see if experiences this as well?

Also, as mention, on acoustic but I have history of this on electric - without having my foreward floating and hand in a sharp downward angle, I find the my pick doesnt easily clear the lower string sometimes to enable me to do the downstroke ( poptart lick). That is why I thought ’ no wonder why all the guitar giants are tall and or big hands, they have the advantage of clearing the strings easier ’ I seem to almost doing inside picking, upstroking lower string in error and messing up my alternate picking pattern. I don’t know if anyone has this problem?

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I like to use a flexed wrist, with the wrist close to neutral at the high strings, and with a more pronounced wrist flex on the low strings. I also typically have an ulnar “deviation offset” most of the time. Net of this is that I have more “downward slant” on the low (pitch) strings than the high strings.

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What is ulnar deviation? I want more slant on the low strings and I want it feel more natural, without feeling like I am having lift my shoulder. I also want my pick to be ready for a downstroke on the successive lower strings without feeling I need to excessively turn (supinate) the picking hand and or hop up. On electric, the resting the hand in a sharp angle with a guitar angle and strap length is easier to achieve… the sharper angle allows the movement to razor through the strings at high speeds.

Wrist deviation is “side to side” wrist movement (e.g. palm down on a tabletop, wrist moving the hand side to side, parallel to the tabletop). The ulna is the long forearm bone on the “pinky finger” side, so ulnar deviation is “sideways” wrist bend in that direction.

More comprehensive discussion here:
https://troygrady.com/channels/tutorials/guitar-anatomy/

Another thing you can do if you feel like you’re being forced to “lift” your shoulder is point the headstock more to the ceiling so the tracking movement across the strings is less vertical.

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I guess no one else experiences any awkward positioning of the hand\wrist to keep a sharp DWPS on the 5th 6th string?

Hi @CARYCHILTON.

I have no such issues. I created a thread about the several distinct “modes” I identify in my picking technique. Each of these modes allows for DWPS, or is strictly DWPS.

Perhaps you might be interested to read this thread and experiment with the hand positions I use?