It’s easy to assume that your playing is sloppy, slow, or fatiguing because you haven’t put in enough practice time. But what if the real reason is that you’re simply doing it wrong? How can you tell the difference?

In our latest update to the Pickslanting Primer, “Choosing A Technique”, we address the critical issue of evaluating the performance of the technique you’re currently using — or the one you’re trying to learn. This update arrives alongside a large batch of additional lessons and usability improvements that we’ve been rolling out in pieces over the last several months.

One of the biggest obstacles to achieving efficient picking motion is not even the motion itself: it’s the pick attack.

Cracking The Code players, we’ve rolled out an awesome update to our picking motion tutorials! Wrist technique is maybe the single most common picking motion in use across all plectrum instruments. But it is also one of the most complicated and misunderstood.

Trivia question: How many pallets does it take to ship 5,000 Magnets? Take a guess, and then scroll down:

After many hours of concerted h4x0ring, we finally launched an awesome feature we’ve been planning for a long time: Platform Technique Critique.

We’re back with another update on our progress with the Magnet. The photo above is our latest production sample that includes a few stealthy but important improvements.

If you look closely from the side, you may be able to spot a subtle tweak we made to the “tool”, or mold, between our last update and this one. See if you can spot it:

One of the most common requests we get at Cracking the Code is to help players identify which picking motion they’re using. In this most recent update to the Pickslanting Primer, we’ve leveraged our years of experience in studying expert players to put together what is probably the most detailed guide ever produced for figuring out which picking motion you’re using.

Checking in with another update, and we have some nice progress to discuss as the first functioning Magnet prototypes go for a test drive.

Magnet backers! We hope you’re doing well, and with the pandemic and the current winter bearing down on everyone, we understand that’s no small task. Just a quick update on Magnet production. The short story is we’re still stuck — pun intended — at the rubber phase, which we discussed in our last update.