Hello from NW Ohio

Hello, everyone! I’ve been struggling with learning to play fast, cleanly picked phrases for over 40 years. I could never understand why I could barely play moderate speed pentatonic phrases across strings cleanly, while others could speed pick with relative ease. I have been buying lesson after lesson, starting with the old VHS format up to the current online offerings. I had gotten to the point where I was just resigned to being a hack lead player.

Yesterday, as I was scrolling through more YouTube lessons, I stumbled onto the Cracking the Code videos. This was the first time I had ever seen anyone explain exactly what my problem has been all these years - a very severe case of string-hopping and holding the pick totally parallel to the strings.

Last night I sat down with the Picking Primer to try to correct 40 years of bad habits. It will take a lot of time but I can already tell the DWPS and pick angle will help immensely. My biggest problem is, when I stopped the intense focus on how I was holding my pick, I was reverting right back to my old methods.

Here’s hoping to a successful journey!

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Welcome aboard. You’re in the right place. CTC is the resource we all wish we had back in the day.

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I’m in Central Ohio. Columbus area. How far away are you?

Sorry for the long delay. Not sure how I missed this post! I’m in Defiance.