Hi everyone,
my name is Phil(ipp),I’m from Germany (*1981). I’m a hobby-level player and started playing guitar back in 2001. I’m mostly into progressive metal, but also other kinds of metal sub-genres and metal based fusion/jazz (anyone here, who knows Panzerballett?). I have to admit, that the music I listen to is more or less way beyond my personal musical horizon. John Petrucci was my initial guitar hero, but I’ve discovered so many other incredible players out there since then - @Troy, you’re definitely one of them! I got to know Cracking the Code, when I was searching for stuff, that focuses on the picking hand, because I’m struggling with clean picking at higher speeds. Well, it’s a very subjective issue, what higher speeds are, isn’t it? 
I can’t compete with all this hyper-speed shredding, but I like it… Anyway: As far as I could find out, Cracking the Code is the only product, that focuses on picking techique in depth. It helped me to identify my weak spots. I didn’t know or care about pick-slanting at all and became aware of it’s importance by watching the CTC-videos. I figured out, that I’m an upward pickslater, maybe because I practised the three-note-per-string-scales a lot more than the pentatonic scales. I just get into problems when changing from the second to the third string when playing three-note-per-string-scales. CTC solved that problem: I have to play these scales with TWPS to get it fast and clean. Many players do that automatically, I didn’t… I became aware that DWPS in general is something, I have to focus on, because I haven’t played that way most of the time and it is very sloppy compared to UWPS.
Now I’m working on DWPS and TWPS as well and my playing has already improved a bit.
A player, that I would suggest to be interesting for many CTC-members is Wolfgang Zenk. He’s manager and teacher at the Munich Guitar Institute. If you don’t already know him, check him out! He recorded two albums with Sieges Even (German Progressive Metal) back in the 1990s . His current (fusion) band is 7for4. His effortless playing and switching between different picking techniques is just jaw-dropping for me. I’d be very happy, if you manage to get him for an interview and get a close look on his picking hand.
Thanks for having me in this community!
