I think the secret with the wide swing is that the pick is not really following a straight line. Instead, it goes along a curve, swooping down on the target strings and pulling up again like a fighter plane. The hand desrcibes a half circle with every stroke. At least, that is how I do it.
From a point of view, this is a reverse fiddle concept: the fiddle has a curved bridge to let the straight bow play single strings - the mandolin has a straight bridge, so it takes a curved "bow". Sorry for this excursion - I was forced to learn the violin for 9 years when I was a boy, and I hated it (but I use that same left-hand technique on the mando today, thanks Mom and Dad).
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
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