Pick grip and its impact on the hand position and picking

Playing Technique
#1

Change in the grip
I’ve been away from playing guitar and training for a few weeks due to the constant pain strokes in my index finger and in an area around my little finger (I’ve had previous trauma in that area). After returning to practice I watched a Paul Gilbert video where his wrist is almost 90 degrees to the strings and his thumb is bended kind of backwards. After trying to replicate this I came up with a position that helds the pick very losely. My thumb is almost strait and I use much less edgepicking that normaly but picking feels much more fluid and easy. Also I am constantly reminding myself about the lean angle because pick in this position tends to slip back into my fingers but It’s not flopping around(at least from what I see)
Impact on my speed
I went from playing at 95 bpm sextuplets with a kind of a strugle to feeling comfortable at 110 and a little sloppy 120 in aprox 20 minutes. Now it feels like I need to work on my timing but moving the hand at that speed stopped being the problem. Lack of experience with this position makes it hard sometimes to do it correctly on the spot because i need some time to find the right spot for my wrist and to get the pick in the correct spot.
Here are pictures of what I used to do and what I am doing now!
Before

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After
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On the other hand when I see most shredders play it seems to me that they are using the grip I have abandoned. So I would like to get some feedback on which of these is “correct” and what really causes this difference in results in the first place. I will include some footage a bit later because I wanted to get my technique observed and critiqued anyway.
P.S. Also I noticed that with a bend in the thumb this position works better in DWPS although I dont really use it for fast playing. Downstrokes also became much easier.

2 Likes
#2

There’s not a “correct” here. There are just variables. The short story is that lots of grips, perhaps even most grips, work fine, but they might just require different positions of everything else. For example, grip doesn’t really change edge picking - it just changes it all other things being equal. But you can have almost any kind of edge picking with almost any kind of grip provided you alter the position of the rest of what you’re doing.

Picking motion and speed are yet more variables. They are not strictly affected by grip, i.e. you can take the pick out of my hand entirely, and I can stick all my fingers straight out, and the motion won’t necessarily change.

Ergo, if you’re having issues with picking motion I would say post a clip and we’ll take a look.

#3

Which Paul Gilbert video did you watch? I’d like to check it out. Thanks!

#4

I recommend larger picks for people with hand injuries. A large pick helps you to keep a relaxed grip.

#5

I notice effects: If I have a pick grip that is too firm the result is that I am getting tensed. This is “ok” if my hand is locked for a full elbow Motion, but it hinders the full capacity of the wrist. On the other hand, when it’s a loose grip the sheer Speed of only my wrist is much higher. Loose means here like you have a little ant between your thumb and index that you don’t want to crush but hold tight with authority in danger of hurting that little innocent insect (in my case, not so loose that the pick is moving)

Edit: I have to add two Things: First that sometimes musical purposes require a very firm pick and Maybe a therfore exhausting Speed Picking. Second that M*****oft Edge is constantly autocorrecting the words I am writing. It’s set to German language. It’s often helpful, but in this case…