# giving CTC a proper look
**URL:** https://forum.troygrady.com/t/giving-ctc-a-proper-look/98760
**Category:** Introduce Yourself
**Created:** [July 13, 2026, 10:07pm UTC](https://forum.troygrady.com/t/giving-ctc-a-proper-look/98760 "2026-07-13T22:07:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hoolahoop](https://forum.troygrady.com/u/hoolahoop)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2026, 10:07pm UTC](https://forum.troygrady.com/t/giving-ctc-a-proper-look/98760/1 "2026-07-13T22:07:07Z")
Hi from London.
I’m mostly a humble bedroom player into a bit of jazz.
I’ve known about CTC for quite a while. I see it mentioned on forums often, but I’d assumed it probably wasn’t for me. I’m not exactly obsessed with the technique side of things.
Anyway, I watched my first CTC video today, The Younger, Scarier Joe Pass, and oh boy, what a great video. completely my kinda thing from start to finish.
So, i know the Pickslanting Primer is the usual recommended starting point. I’m just not sure my main interest is in mastering pickslanting itself. I’m more interested in understanding picking mechanics generally, being nosey, and why different players seem to do different things. Maybe the Primer is still exactly the right place to start I genuinely don’t know. I’d appreciate any pointers.
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### Author:  [@Troy](https://forum.troygrady.com/u/Troy)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2026, 10:10pm UTC](https://forum.troygrady.com/t/giving-ctc-a-proper-look/98760/2 "2026-07-13T22:10:53Z")
Thanks for signing up! Two things:
Our focus isn’t really pickslanting per se, or any other single technical aspect of picking technique – it’s mainly just having a functional picking technique in general. There’s really only one way to go about this, in our view, and the Joe video is a good example of the steps you would take: get the tremolo working first, make sure it has an escape, and so on.
There is not really a “less hardcore” version of learning picking technique where you skip these steps, any more than there is a less hardcore version of driving that skips learning pedals and only focuses on steering. These are just core parts of the skill.
Two, the Primer has tons of “What players do” stuff:
> **[Choosing A Technique](https://troygrady.com/primer/choosing-a-technique/)**
>
> How can you tell if your current technique — or the one you’re learning — is worth keeping? For the most part, anything goes in picking technique, as long as you can perform the motions smoothly and effectively. And that’s the critical question....
My only caution here is that this can be entertaining but distracting. If you want to work on your technique, the actual path is simple and the same for everyone: start with the motion tests.
We’ll be releasing a nice site redesign / refresh soon which will make all of this much clearer.
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### Author:  [@tedtan](https://forum.troygrady.com/u/tedtan)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://forum.troygrady.com/t/giving-ctc-a-proper-look/98760/3 "2026-07-14T23:11:22Z")
I would say that if you want to understand picking mechanics generally, as you mention, that that includes pick escapes which are covered in the Pickslanting Primer. And since you want to learn how and why different players do things differently, the Pickslanting Primer discusses that, too. So it’s still a good place to start, even if you’re more interested in other videos/musical styles.