Here’s a question we get all the time: what’s the difference between pickslanting and edge picking?
This seems to be a source of frequent confusion. The two are very different, and do completely different things, but since both involve pick angles and rotation, this can be hard to intuit without a direct visual comparison. The above image is from an animation coming up soon in Episode 3, “Eric the Right”, and is designed to make the difference as clear as possible. Read More
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Our acclaimed Masters in Mechanics seminars are now an amazing monthly video series! And we’re jumpstarting the series with our incredible 4-hour Antigravity lecture.
The extensive Antigravity investigation is organized into 25 chapters, and includes a course pack of 70+ slow-mo videos with tablature and insanely detailed performance notes.
Delivering Antigravity live was an amazing way to develop the seminar. But as Troy began staggering into the office baggy-eyed and delirious from marathon four-hour sessions, only to read piles of emails from viewers who couldn’t make the seminar, but still wanted to watch it. It was clear there were still plenty of viewers we’d never be able to fit onto our calendar.
So, with dozens of Antigravities under our belt, we began translating the many live versions of Antigravity to an accessible video version, and we’re thrilled with how it’s turned out.
For a long time now, we’ve been working on an amazing tool that allows you to film your guitar playing with an unprecedented degree of clarity. And that amazing tool now has a name: The Magnet.
We’re proud to launch the Kickstarter campaign for the world’s best camera mount for guitar players. The Magnet uses the power of your smartphone to film your playing at speeds up to 240 frames per second, for an intimate view of your technique. Read More
Contest registration is now closed! Thanks so much for the interest everyone. We’ll be announcing winners this week.
It’s that time of year! And in honor of this season of gluttony and hedonism, Cracking the Code is giving away — not one — but two Masters in Mechanics seminars.
Antigravity and Inside the Volcano deliver over 5 hours of our pioneering investigation of picking technique. Even more fun than egging your neighbor’s house! Read More
Cracking the Code Season 2 heats up with Yngwie’s positively volcanic combination of right-hand techniques. Episode 2, Inside the Volcano, completes Yngwie’s right-hand strategy with a critical catalyst of his picking power: sweeping. Read More
The only thing more terrifying than being chased by a guy with no head is doing justice to an American icon in animated form. So when author and historian Betsy Bradley approached us about applying our animation chops to the Headless Horseman’s famous equestrian pursuit of Ichabod Crane, we were quaking in our boots. Read More
Today we’re proudly launching the second Masters in Mechanics seminar! It’s called Antigravity. And it’s all about breaking the rules. Read More
Eddie Van Halen reinvigorated ’80s rock guitar with a double shot of blazing energy and subversive creativity. In the process, he kickstarted a kind of breathless arms race in guitar technique — a promise of stardom via innovation — that was sometimes a little like a Silicon Valley guitar bubble. But out of the melee of technical competition, something ironically straightforward actually happened: we all got better.
A particularly stunning product of the generational advance of musical technology is fusion virtuoso, and Cracking the Code viewer, Derryl Gabel. The archetypal modern lead player, his total command of the guitar’s many colors is both highly enjoyable as a listener and terribly scary as a fellow player. Derryl employs his seemingly effortless dominance of the instrument’s physical mechanics, both left hand and right, in service of an encyclopedic and endlessly tasteful command of modern jazz and fusion harmony. His blazing speed and tasty phrases have won a number of celebrity admirers, from George Lynch to Dweezil Zappa — with whom he’s set to release an album later this year. Read More
Today we’re launching an amazing new way to learn about picking technique. It’s called Masters in Mechanics, and it’s something we’re really excited to offer — in fact it builds on all the work we’ve been doing so far. Read More
Bruce Lee’s famous exhortation to be like water may just as well have been directed at guitar players. The first of Season 2’s revelations, downward pickslanting, is shapeless and formless. It becomes Yngwie. It becomes rock. It becomes music. It’s one of the most universal and adaptable mechanics in picking — and for guitarists, the root of many of the most celebrated techniques in history. Read More
