Performance notes for the Seminars

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#1

Hi, first post here.

I’ve been a big fan of the Cracking the Code stuff in the last few years, I see it mentioned a lot too, in random online videos and ironically the guys who know the least about it (have only heard of it), seem to struggle the most with complex right handed stuff (picking hand stuff). Some of them are absolute beasts but only in ‘their way’ if that makes sense. And what this series really does, is break down all of the different possibilities and understanding the mechanics behind it, so that you can become a chameleon of sorts in tackling many different picking situations. And on top of that, it’s just really entertaining, maybe it should be aired on Discovery Channel.

Eric Johnson’s style has always puzzled me, so it was great to see his stuff explored in depth. I’d love to see his chordal rhythm stuff explored in depth one day but I guess that’s a discussion for a different day.

Around 12 months ago I bought Cascade Seminar, and while it was expensive than my usual guitar learning materials it was a great journey in going through that. Suddenly Eric made more sense. Anyways… long story short…

I decided recently to go more indepth for the other ones, Volcano and Anti-Gravity. I was going to buy them but discovered this subscription thing, so here I am. I figured it was cheaper so that it was worth a try, and so far… the content seems great value for money.

I do have one question though, in terms of subscription vs purchase. I noticed that for Cascade the same performance notes from the PDF are on the site, and it’s integrated in such a way that it’s easier to follow in terms on exercises vs the notes vs the chapter of the video you are watching. Great job on that.

But for Volcano and Anti-Gravity, I haven’t been able to find any notes with the videos. Is this an intentional thing? If that’s true I do find it sort of ironic that the one seminar that has notes is the one where I already have the notes for it. But what can you do… life has a funny sense of humor I guess. I enjoy the notes, because sometimes I don’t have a guitar with me, or can’t watch video… but sometimes enjoy going over it and studying it sometimes. That’s for Cascade… I’m not so sure with the other ones, but that’s what I enjoy about this subscription service in that it’s cheaper so you can dip your toes in so to speak… as opposed to diving right in. This is probably too long already, so I guess should wrap it up. It’s just that it’s a lot of extra money to pay soley for the performance notes… as opposed to everything else I have access to now. Is it because the notes for the other two seminars are less integrated in terms of each individual chapter? I noticed that Cascade is pretty well integrated, and the subscription service in terms of how the licks, and the tabs and the video are all integrated… it works really well.

Anyways, thanks again… I love this stuff. I love that somebody took the time to go so indepth in terms of seeking to understand how these guitar wizards of the 80’s and 90’s could do what they do… and I loved the guitar forum thing with MAB… and at the time it would have seemed so wierd… or unpaved territory and then it’s years later… and MAB is being interviewed and suddenly it makes more sense… and Troy is being taken more seriously now… as opposed to being a random a forumer with some out there “theories”. And animations are great as well. Anyways I guess I’ve said enough… :slight_smile:

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#2

Hey, welcome and thanks for signing up! Correct, for the Volcano and Antigravity seminars we don’t have the performance notes integrated on the site. We do however have them as PDFs! I’ll send you an email with those.

As for why this is the case, you’re pretty spot on, mainly that the others aren’t as tightly integrated by chapter. Troy wrote the original performance notes for these at different times and I believe the Cascade ones happened to be in a format closest to what we needed for splitting apart to match up chapter by chapter. We may get them on the site eventually but it’d take some work to get them reorganized and ready to post online.

#3

Sorry for the late reply, been juggling a lot of stuff in the last few days.

Awesome… that’d be great. Do I need to give you my email here, or PM or is it already in my membership information?

What you said makes a lot of sense in terms of how Troy’s style has evolved from the beginning until now in terms of things like this. And seeing the evolution of each group of videos or seminar.

It’s like it keeps getting streamlined or more and more efficient as time goes on. And the current website layout and subscription thing seems to compliment the latest videos really well. If there had have been one minor complaint with the original seminar I bought, it would have been that it’s great info… and that’s all there but would sometimes be hard to follow the pdf vs the tab vs the video (at the same time).

The whole Cracking the Code thing is really good learning material and I recommend it to anyone when I get the chance. A lot of people’s first thing is either… “I’m already good at picking I don’t need to worry about it”… or it is something like… “spending so much time on that ONE thing?”… but anytime someone has a picking problem it’s nearly always related to the stuff that Troy talks about.

It’s like 20 hours or more, of learning material solely related to picking (and understanding it) and I just think that it can benefit a lot of people who are able to dive deep into understanding it thoroughly. From an entertainment point of view, but also for guitar playing as a whole. To me, Ben Eller on YT is the best so far in terms of translating that to people and incorporating it into his lessons but I’ve noticed quite a few others do it as well. Every serious guitar teacher out there should look into this stuff and be able to translate the basic fundamentals to any student if they need to.

You don’t need to be a shredder or super fast player either, in order to benefit from some of this stuff. Even outside of guitar… I just think it’s really cool that we live in a world… where technology allows us to be able to go so in depth so much into one specific thing, and to be entertained at the same time… hopefully more stuff like this pops up in other aspects in guitar playing, but also in other things in life. Troy is sort of a pioneer of sorts in terms of paving new ground of the possibilities out there.

#4

Hey no problem, I do have your email and actually sent you a note already a few days ago. Subject line “Volcano and Antigravity performances notes” — let me know if you don’t see it and I can re-send.

And yes, totally, one of our big goals with the platform vs. downloads was having it more clear how everything fits together. Always room for improvement but I think we keep moving in the right direction :slight_smile:

Indeed it’s been cool to see how other teachers incorporate this stuff, including many here on the forum. We learn a lot from folks here about the variety of challenges learning / teaching technique, and are grateful to everyone sharing their experiences and collectively pushing the field forward!

#5

Oh! That’s embarrassing, sorry, I’ll have a look now. This might be a sign that I need to filter my emails better, so that when something good comes along I notice it easier.

Awesome… thanks for that.