He does a lot of forward/reverse sweeping here, and there is some wrist motions at times… but it looks to me like with his thumb fully extended, that he’s using his elbow for fast single string, fast picking in general?
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I think he uses the “thumb muting” technique.
This is where the thumb rests on the strings lower than the one your are picking. The thumb itself becomes the anchor.
It’s important to note this, as it will essentially lock you into certain types of wrist motions. You wouldn’t be able to do a USX wrist motion for example, as the thumb stays in contact with the strings.
Also, thumb muting only really works with economy picking. Again because the thumb needs to remain on the strings and that doesn’t work too well with outside string changes.
I only know this as I took lessons from Tom Hess in the past, who tries to teach thumb muting. I’m pretty sure he learnt this from George Bella’s, as I seen some very old videos of George at “Hessfest”
Occasionally you will see George play without thumb muting, possibly when he wants the sound of palm muting. (You can’t palm mute notes with the thumb muting technique) But when he fires up his fastest playing, he goes into that thumb muting form.
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Thank you. i’m in awe of the amount on knowledge on this forum… lol.
Very unusual. what about the faster single string stuff? elbow?
I’m not actually sure, it’s a little hard to see if there is elbow motion for the fast single string stuff. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was though, as you can see the hand is quite flat against the guitar which I think is similar to elbow pickers!
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