Learn about the incredible power of downward pickslanting — with complete blueprints of Yngwie’s and Eric Johnson’s picking techniques.

Learn about the legendary accuracy of John McLaughlin’s picking technique, and step through the fundamentals of upward pickslanting mechanics with the awesome Strunz & Farah.

The Pickslanting Primer is Cracking the Code’s comprehensive guide to developing clean, accurate picking technique.

It is evidence-based, and derived from our groundbreaking slow-motion interviews with celebrated players.  These interviews revealed, in some cases for the first time anywhere, the remarkable mechanical adaptations that great players make to get from one string to another with a pick.  In doing this work, we standardized concepts like escape motion and pickslanting, which practically redefined how picking technique is understood, studied, and taught.  If you’ve heard these terms in use, they were created here.

The techniques in the Primer are continually tested and updated through extensive Technique Critique teaching with awesomely dedicated learners from around the world.  In the Primer you’ll learn about:

• Unlocking your true maximum efficiency and speed
• Using escape motion for clean string changes
• Different joint motions and their capabilities
• The influence of mechanics on musical vocabulary and improvisation
• Notable players and how their techniques work
• Mechanics for specific musical styles, from bluegrass to metal

…and more.  If you’re ready, let’s get started!

Andy Wood is a rare triple threat player, delivering down-home deliciousness on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and mandolin.

The Andy Wood interview is two hours of amazing mandolin and guitar pickin’, served up with heaps of style and musicality, and a hefty helping of Andy’s irresistible southern charm. The number of tasty musical examples is so plentiful we eventually had to tell him to stop playing, or we’d spend the rest of the year writing tablature for all of it.

Not only that, but we’ve got a guest host on board in the form of the awesome Ben Eller. It was in fact Ben who originally suggested we meet with Andy, so it was only fitting that he lend a voice to this investigation of Andy’s crosspicking and hybrid picking magic.

In our continuing quest to understand more about crosspicking technique, we hooked up with flatpicking wizard David Grier, who was gracious enough to don the Magnet for an exploration of his lauded right hand technique.

Even if the closest you’ve ever been to a “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is a dead battery on the New York State Thruway, David’s instantly identifiable blend of modern and traditional elements is a sound that any fan of great writing and playing will appreciate. In our talk, he beguiled us with over an hour of his stunning crosspicking inventions and innovative harmonic twists and turns.

Even in bluegrass circles, David is known for his ability to get across the strings in impossible ways. This is a musical community where crosspicking torture tests like “Beaumont Rag” are considered standards, so that’s really saying something. David’s agile right hand takes traditional bluegrass picking patterns and expands them with tricky string skips in a seemingly endless variety of ways. It was an honor and a thrill to see David’s playing in person, and he gave us a rare glimpse of exactly what’s going on.