I’m having difficulty moving the forearm freely up and down for proper string tracking when playing on an acoustic with a wide body. Has anyone else encountered this problem?
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I know what you mean. My acoustic is a pretty big guitar. I think the key is to really get the upper bout tucked under the inner bicep so you can attain a comfortable approach to the strings.
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Wrist and elbow is the key here, more so than shoulder. Meaning, most electric players, especially when sweeping, will slide the entire arm perpendicular across the strings in a straight line from bass strings to treble strings. This is what I think of as shoulder or arm tracking. Michael Angelo Batio’s sweep technique is a classic example of this:
https://troygrady.com/interviews/michael-angelo-batio-2017/clips/arpeggio-sweep-crunch-tone/
However most acoustic players that have to reach over the big box will not do this. Instead, they will anchor the wrist in one spot and use wrist tracking for small string distances like a three-string roll:
https://troygrady.com/interviews/molly-tuttle/clips/beaumont-roll/
And this can also work for four strings:
https://troygrady.com/interviews/molly-tuttle/clips/four-string-arpeggio-fast/
However if you’re making bigger jumps, then you can bring in some elbow movement to help out, as Carl Miner tends to do:
https://troygrady.com/interviews/carl-miner-2007/clips/crosspicking-4str-asc-skip/
The forearm is so long, that you only need a very small amount of elbow movement to move the hand two or three strings. And that’s all you really need. The wrist itself can cover the remaining distance.
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Thanks for the suggestions! For some reason I was trying to use shoulder tracking and it was very awkward.