What is the name of the smallest angle between the picking forearm and the guitar strings, roughly along the lines of this picture that I marked up? I note this angle changes how much the pick “scratches” on windings considerably, and that many good players seem to have a little under 45°, but I have not done a careful study.
pretty sure the CTC lingo for that is “approach angle”
So here is the interesting thing: If the approach angle is the same for most players, then:
- the lower the guitar (the longer the strap), the more horizontal the neck
- the higher the guitar (the shorter the strap), more vertical the neck
So this is an interesting optimization problem between the needs of the left hand (high neck) and right hand (low body).
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The human body doesn’t move in straight lines; it moves in arcs.
Joints approximately move as arcs, as you suggest, so this is why I used the word “roughly,” above. But the main question is if the motion of the pick is close to the orange path? (Elbow joint is a larger radius than the wrist, of course.)
I call the black line “approach angle”.
The path the pick travels depends on the motion you’re using. The orange path would be correct for forearm rotation from this perspective, i.e. it would appear as a straight line.
Blends of forearm and wrist would create various arcs that from this perspective would appear more vertical. That is what I was probably doing in the video you grabbed this from.
Wrist and elbow create an arc.
And so on!