Trouble choosing between 2 motions that I often use

Playing Technique
#1

Hey guys!

I’m new and I need your help! My second time subbing to CTC, but I believe this is my first time posting, although I am not sure at all.

So I’ve been binge-watching and figuring out all sorts of things last night and I’ve come to a realisation.
I don’t really know how to explain this stuff, but I’ll try my best!

I’m using 2 different USX motions: a suspinated “wrist-only” form with a spread grip, and a compound forearm/wrist motion with a pretty nice gypsy slouch.
I’m often switching between the two depending on… something… I don’t really know what. I do believe that it’s speed, so let’s get into that.

When I’m playing slow or moderately slow:

  • With the wrist-only form: I don’t notice any tension, although I sometimes feel that I might be making a few useless moves or something of the sort. I will be filming my self later, to try and figure it out.
  • With the gypsy form: everything kinda feels way too free and slighty flubby (for lack of better word). It is also fairly inaccurate and my picking strokes don’t have any real force behind them.

When I’m playing fast:

  • With the gypsy form: I don’t feel any tension, the strokes are nice and strong and precise. Perfect basically. (this motion is the one that I’ve always stumbled upon randomly and it always worked at faster speeds)
  • With the wrist-only form: I feel a slight muscle burn on the exterior side of the forearm, somewhere in the middle between the wrist and the elbow. It’s also a little bit slower.

When I’m playing moderately fast (I would say that this covers 120-160 bpm 16ths), I run into problems with both motions: the downsides of each one respectively.

So I’m guessing my question is this:

Should I focus on practicing and using solely the wrist-only form at all times? From what I understood, it is much easier to switch to DSX motions and the crosspicking motions using this form, so I figured that it may be more versatile, in the sense that the arm position stays pretty much the same across all these motions. In that case, it leads me to the following question: is the slight muscle burn normal and due to the fact that I’m simply not used to using these groups of muscles? PS: also is it normal to change strings by moving your elbow/arm when using this form?

OR

Should I focus on practicing and using solely my gypsy form, since its completely effortless at high speeds? What would be the optimal way of “slowing down”? And how would I switch to DSX or crosspicking motions in this case?

Basically, I’m asking which motion to focus on, but if you have any suggestions that may not even be related to my questions, I’d love to know them too!

Thanks a lot guys! :smiley:

#2

Welcome to the forum Tonio!

I’m not sure why you want to focus on only one of your available motions - you have yourself identified that they are both good for different things! Why not just use the most comfortable one for each situation?

Apologies if I misunderstood the question :slight_smile:

#4

Thanks!! :grin:

Well… I can’t switch smoothly between the 2… And my body sometimes gets all confused and does a mix of the two (if that’s even possible) and at that point everything becomes really messy and I have to “reset” by taking a small break… And also, there’s the problem of the moderately fast speed, where both of these motions don’t do the trick at all :sweat_smile:

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#5

Hey Tonio!

From what you describe the two setups are very different - so how is it possible to do a mix of the two? Maybe it would be good to have a look at a video where you show the problem, I’ll share the filming instructions link below. Have you ever tried to film your picking hand in slow motion? That can be very revealing and show you things you may not be aware of.

As for the other question: I think it may be difficult to use the gypsy" form for DSX or double escape (although you never know, always worth trying and see what happens, possibly with slow motion filming), but it’s a very good form for USX stuff so I’d definitely use it for that.

About the problems with the wrist form… I’d recommend again to make a short video showing the problem, because it can be difficult to understand what’s happening from text - and the problem may not be what you think it is until you see it on video :slight_smile:

In general, I’d still practice both setups using a variety of tempos and patterns, and making sure that you don’t do a random mix of the two motions but you choose one each time.

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