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Supporting COVID Relief and Black Lives through GiveDirectly

By News, Uncategorized No Comments

Man, it’s rough out there right now! There’s a lot going on in this country, and we at Cracking the Code wanted to do something to help in whatever small way that we can.

On the one hand, we’re facing a viral invader that simply won’t take no for an answer, and on the other, the spectre of systemic racism that we still struggle to vanquish. Both have impacted our country in significantly real and material ways. The virus in particular has delivered a one-two punch in poorer communities, and specifically communities of color, where long-standing economic disparity has made worse health outcomes an unfortunate reality and an especially impossible challenge this year in particular.

So we decided to see if we can get some cash into the hands of COVID-affected families, and also families of color who need it most right now, especially since these two groups often overlap in poorer urban areas. So for the week starting on Juneteenth, or Friday June 19th, we’ll be donating all revenue from our store to GiveDirectly, a very cool online platform that facilitates electronic cash payments directly to needy individuals.

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Cross-training on Mandolin!

By Lessons, Uncategorized 10 Comments

My girlfriend is a violinist who has been playing mandolin the past couple years. So we have a very nice-sounding bowlback classical mandolin sitting in the living room which I will pick up once in a while — maybe every couple weeks. And the technique does seem to be coming along despite very little specific focus on it. Here’s a section of the presto from Bach’s first violin sonata in G minor: Read More

The Mika Tyyskä interview is here!

By Uncategorized 34 Comments

It’s time to enjoy the spellbinding sounds of an amazing musician who also happens to be an internet pioneer.

Mika Tyyskä is the creator of the Guitar Shred Show, an ingeniously inventive Flash animation that took the incipient guitar internet by storm over ten years ago. In the Shred Show, intrepid Web 2.0 surfers could use their keyboards to control a shredding avatar named Mr. Fastfinger. Armed with a battery of ’80s-inspired licks, the sensei-like Fastfinger waged musical warfare against an accordion playing demon who had possessed a horde of finger-tapping dwarves. The concept was clearly insane. Read More

Strunz & Farah — Free Tablature Download!

By Uncategorized

It’s time for a free download from the Strunz & Farah Interview!

Jorge and Ardeshir composed an awesome intro jam specifically for their Masters in Mechanics interview. We’ve put together a video performance of the tune, along with a complete dual guitar transcription in Guitar Pro, into a download pack just for Cracking the Code viewers. Read More