Hi! Thanks for posting. I know this was a couple weeks ago, but how are you making out with this?
In general, I don’t use thumb flex as part of the grip unless I’m trying to alter the pick’s attack to have more edge picking. Most of the time, I use a relaxed thumb. I’m not saying that’s specifically the issue here, but if you’re still experiencing this, then if only in the name of experimentation, you might try this out.
In other words, just stick the thumb out straight and relaxed. If you don’t normally play this way it might feel unfamiliar to you but that’s fine. Everything feels that way at first. With your current grip, this may result in more thumb overlap, i.e. where the thumb to protrudes past the pick. Or you can use a more extended index finger grip, where the index is straighter, so that it’s farther out. This allows the thumb to be straighter too, without as much overlap, i.e. because the pick is farther away. This would create more of an angle-pad type grip. Refer to the Primer chapters on grip for more details on this.
Again, not saying this is definitively the problem, but pick attack is complicated and I won’t pretend that we’ve figured out every variable. Experimenting to replicate what I’m doing in these lesson chapters might result in stumbling on a formula that works better for you, for whatever random reason.
The other potential issue here is picking motion. The pick should return on the upstroke via the same path it uses on the downstroke. If one of these paths is deeper than the other, you can get a mismatch like this. If I use my imagination your downstroke goes deep right at the end so that when the pick comes back, it does so with more attack. In other words, it looks like you might be making an oval picking motion as opposed the semicircular motion we’re looking for from the forearm-wrist approach.
As a fix for this, I’d try changing up the form. One thing you can do is extend the supporting fingers of your grip. When I do forearm-wrist, I don’t used curled fingers. I use grazing fingers. This can affect the rest of your arm geometry, and might make something click that’s not clicking right now. That’s just one example of something you can change up, just in the interest of seeing what happens.
If you’re still experiencing this issue, I’d give both of those changes — grip and fingers — a shot to see you land on something that works better. Let us know how you make out.
