The amazing David Grier returned to Cracking the Code for a second meeting, and that interview is now live on the platform! At just over an hour, it contains 31 musical examples, including a handful of David’s trademark beautiful full-song playthroughs. It was an awesome conversation on a sunny summer day where we learned some fascinating things about his creative and mechanical process. This includes a valuable peek into David’s higher-speed mechanics that we didn’t get the first time around.
The forearm is one of the most important joints in all of picking technique. And in the newly updated Forearm Motion section of the Pickslanting Primer, we’ve rolled out over one hour and forty minutes of in-depth, hands-on tutorials for getting its many superpowers working in your own playing.
Nearly five years after our first Kickstarter attempt, we think it may be time for another go at getting the Magnet manufactured!
The Magnet is that red camera mount you’ve probably seen clamped onto a guitar neck in our lessons and interviews. It’s an awesome tool for filming your technique, and it works with any smartphone.
We designed and prototyped it ourselves, and have had DIY instructions available for a while, but it’s expensive and time-consuming to make. We want to make an affordable version that anyone can buy and use as a tool to learn more about your playing.
As part of preparing for a possible manufacturing run, right now we’re taking a look at some small design tweaks. We’d love your feedback!
Twin Tweaks
One design tweak we’re making is to reverse the orientation of the Magnet, so it faces the bridge instead of the headstock. This way, when the Magnet expands, even with large phones, you won’t lose any more space on the fretboard.
If those upper-fret arpeggios get out of control, our next design enhancement has you covered. Sometimes the phone shifts around during aggressive playing, or the Magnet gets bumped, and we wanted to address this possibility. So we’re adding a strap! With one simple drawstring, you can lock the phone in the Magnet, and the Magnet on the guitar neck, at the same time.
These two tweaks work together — we’ve been doing a lot of testing, and it turns out reversing the orientation is also what helps make it possible for the strap to better secure the Magnet.
Five years on, we’re amazed this design still works so well. The dual-expansion nature is uniquely functional and has proven itself time and again. And the goal is for the mass produced version to work even better — better tolerances, smoother operation, and just overall nicer to use.
Magnet Feedback
Right now we’re polishing our prototype and looking into getting some new quotes from factories. If all goes well, we’ll aim to do a new Kickstarter next year. For now, a couple quick questions for you!
If you have a DIY Magnet:
Anything you’ve noticed about the Magnet design and how it’s been working? Let us know if you have any suggestions or issues we may want to address. We probably can’t make any huge changes, but we’ll see what we can do!
If you don’t have a Magnet:
What do you think…excited by the prospect of a mass-manufactured Magnet? Other thoughts / feedback welcome! We’ve gathered feedback in the past but it’s been a while, and we’d love any thoughts and impressions you may want to share.
Please share your comments in the forum discussion, linked below!
We’re happy to announce the Cracking the Code Scholarship Program, to help bring our resources for learning guitar technique to as many players as possible.
From sharing videos on YouTube, to making forum access free for all, it’s long been important to us to balance the business side of Cracking the Code with a goal of helping all kinds of guitarists learn and improve.
With the scholarship, we’re now able to offer a reduced-rate monthly membership — our all access pass to the site — for anyone who needs it.
We’ve been speaking with the amazing Wim Den Herder for what feels like forever, to figure out a time for him to get out here to NYC. We were finally able to connect the dots a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t heard Wim play, his style is an utterly unique mix of jazz, funk, and prog punctuated by unexpected dynamic changes and instantly addictive melodies. And he delivers it all on a single acoustic guitar, like a space-age Tommy Emmanuel.
The wrist is the most commonly used joint in picking technique. It’s also one of the most complicated. At Cracking the Code, we’ve been on a mission to understand how elite guitar players use wrist motion, and to simplify the instructions that let the rest of us in on the secret. Those instructions have arrived! Check ’em out right here:
Man do we have some great stuff coming up. The amazing David Grier stopped by last week for some fantastic playing and fantastick-er conversation that helped us get to the bottom of his high-speed lead playing.
Unfortunately for us guitar players, abrasion is a fact of life for most materials that guitar picks are made from. And that means your favorite pick’s character may change as you use it. In fact, you might not even like a pick fresh out of the bag, but at some sweet spot in between fresh and worn. Welcome to the struggle!
Remember when Billy Joel said the piano sounds like a carnival? That’s what it’s like being in the room with Olli Soikkeli and Cesar Garabini when they get their irrepressible energy flowing: Read More
