You've heard the saying "There are many ways to skin a cat" . The best way would be whatever you can execute cleanly while staying relaxed. There are advantages and disadvantages to all things. In theory the less hand movement you have the less energy you waste. I've seen a lot of great pickers up close and they all had a few things in common: Consistency...fast or slow their particular technique did'nt change, They all had the muting down with a combination of either exerting just enough pressure to keep the strings from ringing out with their left hand or using the right hand palm to deaden the strings and most importantly they use the least amount of pick stroke possible..go on you tube and watch
Eric Johnson his hands barely move he uses a really hard small pointy pick(dunlop jazz 3) and grazes the string. Whatever you're doing is fine if its clean and in time. Watch
Steve Morse...He defies conventional logic..holds the pick with three fingers,holds it backwards(uses the round part of the pick to hit the string=more surface area) and move his whole hand...He's also one of the fastest cleanest pickers ever..If you put in enough time..anything will work.
