Some Basic Questions About The Picking Hand, Hand positions, moving the pick etc. Options

[dairwolf]

Hey everyone. I do have a hard time getting the right picking technique down and I have a couple of questions on it. Maybe you can help me.

First, I´d like to know where exactly the side to side motion of the pick comes from. I figured out there are basically three ways to move your wrist. The first one would be a side to side motion, the second one would be an up and down motion and the last one is a rotating motion.

Am I right in assuming that for the picking technique you mainly use the side to side movement? I read on the internet that someone explained it as follows: If you put your hand on a table (or any other flat surface) and move the pick from side to side, you have the right motion. This is the motion you need for playing on one string.

Now for the string crossing, it seems as if you need the up and down motion as well. If you only move your pick from side to side, you´ll end up hitting the next string you want to go to on the wrong side (depending on the picking scenario). So unless you are sweep picking, you also need the up and down motion, right?

The next thing I´d like to know is where the motion to change strings comes from. Do you always leave your Wrist resting on the same spot on the bridge so that you change the angle that the pick hits the string with when you are going to the next string, or do you keep the angle and use your arm/ elbow and just move the hand like that?

I do also have a question on the hand posture. If you lay your hand on the bridge, is the part of the ball of the hand that faces you (the "root" of your thumb, if you want so) also resting on the strings, so that it is parallel to the strings? This is how it always looks like when I´m watching guitar videos.
Or do you rotate the wrist to the right, so that the left part of the ball of the hand will go up? I noticed that this way, the pick is at a better angle to do upstrokes, but it´s at a worse angle to do downstrokes. If you lift the ball of the hand, you kinda "lean" the pick forward. Do you think this is the correct way to do it?

I know this is an awful lot of questions, but those things are driving me mad atm.

Thank you for any help!

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