Just joined today and I’m overwhelmed lol

Introduce Yourself
#1
  • How many years have you been playing?
    Been playing 40 years
  • What musical genres are you interested in?
    Rock, blues and Jazz
  • Particular things you’re excited to learn / talk about here?

How have you gone about learning guitar so far?

  • Self-taught? Regular lessons with a teacher? Both?
  • Have you spent much time on technique before finding our stuff?
  • What Cracking the Code material have you watched?
  • Can you comfortably play a scale? At roughly what speed?
  • Any particular things you find yourself stuck on?

Feel free to modify this template as you like, and delete any extra default text before posting. Thanks!
Are there actual exercises, this is like information overload
Ken

1 Like
#2

Hey there! There’s tons of content in CtC, I don’t think you need to touch on all of it in order to find something that you dig and find beneficial!

#3

Heya! Like @Pepepicks66 said, you don’t need to go through everything, not immediately. The new Testing Your Motions chapter is a good place to start with hands-on stuff, but you’ll probably want to then go back and read up on the Getting Started chapter too.

The idea is not so much about any particular exercises. You can use any phrases you already know or want to be able to play. Watch the Pickslanting Primer videos, they explain this approach in-depth, but to sum it up:

I think the usual progression is that first you try get a fast, relaxed, smooth tremolo happening on just a single note. Use any motion, pick grip and arm setup that feels fast and easy to do pretty much immediately. Use the videos, experiment a lot and change your form if something feels awkward, don’t try to force any particular motion. Don’t worry about any particular tempo, just that it’s moderately fast - something above 150-160 bpm 16th notes.

After that, try to get hand synchronization going by playing repeatable licks like “the Yngwie Malmsteen sixes” 12-9-11-12-11-9 while focusing only on the first note of the group. After a while your fretting hand will start “chunking” the six notes into a single fluent package.

When that’s comfortable for you, start moving the pattern onto different frets on the same string. When that works out, try playing it across a couple of strings. That’s when the escape motion comes into play.

Like I said, that’s the usual progression that I see people doing. Your mileage may vary a lot, so keep experimenting with grips and motions because you might be surprised how much easier some other motion can be for you.

4 Likes
#4

Thanks guys its just how do you know if what you are trying to practice is even correct. Like should you slant up or down. My issue is it seems the pic always gets caught in the stings and I’m always amazed how these super fast players make iit look so easy and I’m a fairly good guitarplayer

#5

In addition does it matter if picking hand is anchored or not?

#6

I also thing sometimes its my fretting hand not being matched up with picking

#7

We have one main “test” that we always recommend:

Whatever lick you are trying to play, can you play it fast - even if you have to sacrifice the precision?

The ballpark figure is that inefficient picking motions tend to max out at 120-130bpm 16th notes for most people. If you can play a couple of bars significantly faster than that (even if sloppy), then you are going in the right direction :slight_smile:

We don’t have a strong opinion in either direction - whatever works and feels comfortable :slight_smile:

More importantly, do you have some examples of things you would like to play / are currently practicing?

#8

yes I do I’m working on some Jazz Etudes

#9

Sounds good! If you feel like sharing a video that is usually the fastest and most effective way to get some help on here. Descriptions in words only go so far - and can be misleading!

I’ll attach our filming suggestions for best visibility of pick & strings :slight_smile:

#10

So I just made a video, where do I post it?

#11

Please read the instructions. This is directly from Tommo’s link above:

"How to Post Your Video

Great, you’ve got a freshly made slow-motion video! Now, let’s get it uploaded and ready to share:

  • If you shot slow-mo video, please include both the normal speed and slow versions in the video you post. You can duplicate the clip in your editing software before exporting, so you have one video with regular + slow back to back, or you can just export regular and slow speeds separately.
  • If your phone allows you to set the speed range for video playback (e.g. iPhone), you can play your example twice, and edit the video to set the slow-mo in and out points just for the second repetition. Then open the YouTube app, upload the video from there, and the final video should have the slow-mo part correctly “baked in”. This is probably the simplest method if you don’t have desktop video editing software.
  • It’s not possible to upload video files to the forum directly. The best way to share video of your playing is to upload to YouTube, then paste the link right in the forum post. Make sure it’s on its own line, with an empty line before / after, and it will display nicely embedded here automatically.
  • Note that you can mark the video “unlisted” when uploading if you don’t want it to be publicly discoverable on YouTube."