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
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
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
Join us for our first-ever Talking the Code discussion — a live webcast where we’ll discuss the latest episode, play additional examples, and take viewer questions to help you break the cycle of the constant search for technique. Read More
UPDATE: The Season Pass is now the Pickslanting Primer! Learn more here:
We’re launching Season 2 of Cracking the Code, and with it, a truly groundbreaking exploration of picking technique.
Throughout history, great players — much like great athletes — have worked their magic by feel rather than by analysis. These gifted geniuses rely on mechanical optimizations to do things with picks and strings that they themselves may not even be aware of. In Season 2 of Cracking the Code, we’ll dive deep into what those optimizations are, and how they work.
Along the way, we’ll elaborate, for the first time, a complete system for advanced picking that unites a vast roster of all-time great players. Season 2 follows the thread that connects Yngwie and Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson and Albert Lee, Shawn Lane, Michael Angelo Batio, John McLaughlin, Steve Vai, Rusty Cooley, Al Di Mieola, Paul Gilbert, and so many more. It’s going to be an amazing ride. Read More
The design of our smartphone camera mount has taken a quantum leap of sophistication in its most recent iteration. In fact, it has matured to such an extent that we’ve been using it in our own projects here at Cracking the Code. We recently produced a series of special features spotlighting Season 2 picking techniques in various musical styles. Read More
Word of the Code has been ricocheting around the Internet, from Facebook to forums to sites like Guitar Noize. We love reading your comments and emails, and following the discussion that’s been happening around the show. Every one of you who identifies with the project validates all the work we’ve put into this. And we’ve recently gotten some pretty awesome further validation from the web server behemoths and Internet at large: we’re now on the first page of Google results for “Cracking the Code”! Read More
2018 Update:
If you’re finding this post via search (or heroic blog-dive) please note that the Code Archives are a legacy product, no longer available in the form described below. They were, however, an important predecessor to our Masters in Mechanics interviews — of which you can find many on the Interviews page, with more coming soon!
—The Cracking the Code Team
The Cracking the Code project is the most comprehensive investigation of picking technique ever undertaken. And now, we’re making the raw materials of that investigation available for you to watch, study, and enjoy. Today we’re officially launching the Code Archive, the most unique collection of high-speed analytical guitar footage ever assembled, and a rare opportunity to study world-class technique up close and in action.
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