I've been playing guitar for ages (on and off) and have never quite figured out how to get my picking faster, in particular tremolo picking on just one string. I'm working on Bark at the Moon right now, where there are quadruplets played on the open D and I can't quite get it up to speed.

I've read all sorts of advice on it.

One thing I used to do quite often was to hold the pick at the tip of my thumb verses further down toward the knuckle. But I think that causes me to pick by bending the knuckle on my thumb (extending my thumb on upstrokes and and bending it on downstrokes) which I don't think is what I should be doing.

From what I've read it seems that I should hold the pick further down my thumb almost at the knuckle, and to hold it more on the side of my index finger. I also don't know if it matters much if I curl the rest of my fingers underneath and ball my hand up more or if I should be sticking them out and really flatten out my palm.

I've heard of some of the faster guitarists getting more of their forearm into it, but for me that seems to lessen the control that I have. I was watching a video of George Lynch, who was picking only from the wrist. As I remember he uses one of the corners on the top of his pick. He didn't seem to have to an absolute focus on conservation of motion. Also, his picking didn't look all that relaxed either.

How much of it has to do with conservation of motion versus how quickly you can move your wrist back and forth? I would think that when you really get picking quickly that your strokes get a little bit longer. And I also suppose the deeper the pick is below the string, the more of the string you catch which slows the motion down.

Sorry if this is a hell of a lot of questions, but if someone could point me in the right direction that would be great.