Andy’s amazing right hand movements across electric guitar, acoustic guitar and mandolin share a family resemblance in their super fluid use of wrist motion mechanics. These movements adapt in subtle yet important ways to the task at hand, from the big box of the Martin D28 Dreadnought to the tiny violin-sized mandolin — among both the largest and smallest picked instruments most of us are likely to encounter.

While it’s awesome to know that the same basic ingredients can work on such disparate mechanical problems, it’s another to actually make that happen. In this live broadcast we look at the exact arm and hand setups, anchor points, and picking motions Andy uses to generate his famously fluid and accurate sound on both of these important instruments.

Even if you’re not an acoustic or mandolin player, the experience of making your technique work in the smaller format can be an invaluable type of cross-training for learning complicated hand movements on your usual axe.