Staying pronated or going supinated? And what's the definition of sloppy and fast?

Description

Hello Troy, It’s been a while. These days I’m not sure anymore whether to stay in my pronated position or supinated position. For the record: I'd like to be able to play bluegrass, being able to double escape, and to do crosspicking patterns. My pronated DSX motion is quite solid, but USX was difficult, if not impossible. We closed the previous TC with me playing Blackberry Blossom by Ben Cockman. This was for the majority just downstroke escapes (My favourite) and there were only a few upstroke escapes. It was doable for me, because I could stay in the rhythm of DSXing while focussing and preparing on escaping on those few USX moments. I need that focus and preparation time to set my hand up for escaping on the upstroke, otherwise I cannot pull it off. I can make it work. So far so good.
 It becomes more difficult to USX with my pronated setup when I play 2nps starting on a downstroke. I've uploaded a new video (pronated position struggles) to show you my next challenges and questions: 1. I show the difficult 2nps USX part without fretting hand 2. I show the difference between picking while leaning on my thumb (DSX) and leaning on my pinky (USX) 3. I play the entire lick (which starts on exclusively DSXing, but then ends in the USX part) 4. I try some crosspicking to show you what it looks like at this anchoring position. Questions:
 Do you see that trying to play the 2NPS USX part while anchoring on my thumb becomes messy? My cross picking attempt, what do you think? Is this “sloppy and fast” and is this a good way to start? Does my motion become different when anchoring on my thumb and my pinky? Secondly: This video shows me playing something in a supinated position with a different grip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auJMn2aSiW4&t=9s If you take a look at that video from 00:09 - 00:19, you can see that I’m able to pull off the lick at a decent speed. I cannot do that with my pronated position. Lastly, I’ve added another quick video of me doing some inside picking at a decent tempo. Also something that I’m not able to do with my pronated position.

Lesson Category

Understanding Escape Motion

Videos

Status

Closed on Jan 3, 2026 1:52 PM

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