Wrist deviation - does my movement need to be exactly perpendicular to the strings?

Hello all, I had a quick question regarding wrist movement and pick relation to the strings. So my most comfortable style of picking is primarily wrist deviation driven, or using the clock analogy presented here “903”. Since my forearm rests on the body of the guitar at roughly a 45 degree angle (ie my forearm is not parallel with strings), it seems that the 903 wrist movement results in the pick moving diagonally across the strings rather than up and down parallel with pickups. I made a quick picture to illustrate - the red line represents what I think 903 movement would be. Anyways, it seems like everyone seems to advocate for moving the pick roughly up and down (when viewed from the front) parallel with the pickups and not like the red line in the picture. Do any of you guys with primary wrist deviation movement notice that your picking motion also seems to move kinda diagonally across the string? I’m not sure if I should strive to have a more vertical picking movement, perpendicular to the strings.

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I think as you’ve noted it makes sense that the general path of the pick (in terms of the plane of the strings) may not be totally perpendicular to the strings, as it will vary based on how your forearm contacts the guitar.

When you say that everyone seems to advocate for the pick moving exactly vertical i.e. perpendicular to the strings, is that just something that feels like the common wisdom, or is there a specific argument you’re seeing for this, or reasoning for why that path being slightly diagonal would cause problems?

I guess if you picked more vertically with your posture and orientation it would not be pure deviation anymore but bring flexion into play. I noticed the same with me. In fact if you make it more vertically you are about to change your escape way probably. I therefore think more of sidestrokes instead of upstrokes and downstrokes. It also helps mentally.

It guess it felt like common wisdom. At least most “how to alternate pick” videos I’ve seen always seem to say the same stuff (kinda outdated in light of CTC): pick straight up and down, choke up on the pick, small movements, pick straight through strings, etc. I guess its something not really noticed unless you really try to analyze the movement.

Yes I have noticed it helps mentally when picking. Lately been focusing on thinking of moving the pick more diagonally and I have to say my picking feels much more smooth. Before when I tried to move the pick exactly perpendicular to the string, it felt like the pick would snag the string especially at high speeds.

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I recommend not thinking in terms of right or wrong. Try some variations and keep what’s smooth, fast, comfortable, and gives you the tone you like.

Rules without objectives cause much more harm than good.

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I hold my guitar neck at a “classical” angle, much more steeply than yours, and it would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to pick with the red line normal (right angle) to the strings. All the red line does, if I understand, is effectively make the string spacing wider, and does that matter? No, I don’t think so. And regarding slicing through the strings, I presume that is no problem.

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Short answer: no.
Longer answer:
If you use only wrist deviation, the pick travels perpendicular to the connecting line between your wrist and the pick tip. So as long as your pick is beneath your wrist it can only move at an angle < 90° related to the string. It does not matter as long as you get a clean pick attack.
If the angle is too sharp, there are two solutions (that make sense IMHO):

  1. Lower your wrist (towards the floor) a.k. String-tracking
  2. Introduce finger/thumb movement.

Again:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Thomas

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