alternate picking pivot point

[Ben Thorpe]

I’ve been trying out different alternate picking methods. One which I’ve always been using is moving the pick with just my finger and thumb and resting my other fingers underneath the strings as a reference point. I’ve tried curling my fingers inwards and using my wrist as a pivot point for alternate picking instead of my fingers underneath the strings. It feels quite unnatural at the moment. Which do you do, and what would you recommend for faster alternate picking? Any tips would be much appreciated!

 

[idssdi]

Most of my movements comes from the wrist. I feel like that’s what you wanna do when you want to play fast. Something else you can do is try looking at syns hand while he’s playing to see what he does just like you can watch at any player to see how they are doing it.

 

[Ed Seith]

Not sure what you mean by “underneath the strings?”
For me, the movement is a mix of wrist and elbow, but that may not work for you. I typically keep my three non-pick-holding fingers fanned out so they offer some additional muting of other strings.

 

[Kevin Welton]

In my opinion, movement from the wrist is an absolute must for truly fast picking speed! But as for the unnatural feeling, it will feel weird and unnatural when first altering anything to do with your playing technique as it isn’t something you are used to, with time you will get used to it. But to be fair, i don’t play with my hand curled up, i also play with my fingers anchored to the guitar under the strings and don’t have issues! The only slight variation i make at really fast speeds is to lift my fingers sligthly off the guitar and then put them back when i play slower.