Cracking The Code

Rich G.

Experienced
Ok, I know I'm a little late to the game on this. I did a search for "Cracking the code" and found posts going waaayy back. However, maybe some of you, like myself, were unaware of this series.

I recently was told about and watched this 12 part series: Cracking The Code. It dives deep into the picking hand speed techniques of guitar masters such as Yngwie, EVH, Eric Johnson, and MA Battio.

I'm an old dog and not sure I can un-teach my right hand to do certain things it just does after 40 years of playing (has it really been that long?!?). I do feel I learned a few things watching the series. At the very least I found it completely entertaining and extremely well done. I also found it very nostalgic. I felt like I walked down the same exact path as was documented in the series. I remember doing some very specific things as mentioned in the series. Things like playing the 45's that came with Guitar Player magazine, looking at tab books in music stores trying to memorize how to play certain songs (and being told to either buy the book or get out), slowing down songs to 1/2 speed to learn them (he used a Casio keyboard sampler, I used a turntable and rotated it until the strobe locked in at half speed and then recorded it to cassette tape like that... you young guns will never know the struggle. lol)
 
I really liked that series. I started learning in the early 90's just trying to figure out by ear, making cassette tapes to take in to lessons and the like. Paul Gilbert talked about that learning process some in his "Scarified" series on YT as well, and one of things he said that really clicked with me was that it was instrumental in developing style. As in, you don't figure out how they exactly played it, but you figure out how you would play that sound, which was probably different than them, which in turn leads you down developing your own unique voice.

It's been interesting to continue to learn theory and techniques now with how different and available the resources are and reflect back on how difficult it was to try and learn stuff at full speed just pushing start and stop over and over again for a 5 second segment of music.
 
Ok, I know I'm a little late to the game on this. I did a search for "Cracking the code" and found posts going waaayy back. However, maybe some of you, like myself, were unaware of this series.

I recently was told about and watched this 12 part series: Cracking The Code. It dives deep into the picking hand speed techniques of guitar masters such as Yngwie, EVH, Eric Johnson, and MA Battio.

I'm an old dog and not sure I can un-teach my right hand to do certain things it just does after 40 years of playing (has it really been that long?!?). I do feel I learned a few things watching the series. At the very least I found it completely entertaining and extremely well done. I also found it very nostalgic. I felt like I walked down the same exact path as was documented in the series. I remember doing some very specific things as mentioned in the series. Things like playing the 45's that came with Guitar Player magazine, looking at tab books in music stores trying to memorize how to play certain songs (and being told to either buy the book or get out), slowing down songs to 1/2 speed to learn them (he used a Casio keyboard sampler, I used a turntable and rotated it until the strobe locked in at half speed and then recorded it to cassette tape like that... you young guns will never know the struggle. lol)

I know exactly what you're saying...when I watched it was like watching an exact animated version of my childhood (less the Yale parts), I suspect Troy and I are nearly the same age. I did learn something from it for sure. it's a great resource. I also highly recommend Claus Levins Channel. Troy is the what Claus is the how...If you were just starting out and only had those two resources, Your picking chops will develop and an alarming rate.
 
The comments on the YT page have got me intrigued. All of them have a really positive endorsement.
 
The comments on the YT page have got me intrigued. All of them have a really positive endorsement.
If you've never watched any of them, definitely do it.

Educational and entertaining.

I haven't watched all of them but at least 4-5.
 
Troy Grady is great . I graduated class of 88 too...So it like we kind of went through the same Experiences together. The first time I heard troy play was when He Absolutely Nailed the Crossroads Lick. It wasn't the classical part. It was the Part right after jack butler takes off his jacket. Troy calls this the "intimidation" lick.

 
Finished the series. I’m shocked it’s been out there for years but I’m seeing a lot of people are recently discovering it. The series was excellent IMO. Here’s a guy who was so passionate about breaking down the technique of the guitarists that floored him. He breaks down the picking techniques more detailed than the artists probably even are aware of.

I thought he presented it in a manner that holds your attention and his analysis is very credible. Here’s a guy who’s my age that was obsessed with guitar, who had to be obssesive and years later puts it all together in an entertaining video series. I’ve seeen that some People are ragging on him about trying to capitalize by offering subscriptions etc.. Hey, why not??? He put his life into this. If Ihad that video on VHS back in ‘85 I’d have gone on to be balding fret master who’s genre was killed by grunge.....lol. Seriously though, that is a great video series.
 
Finished the series. I’m shocked it’s been out there for years but I’m seeing a lot of people are recently discovering it. The series was excellent IMO. Here’s a guy who was so passionate about breaking down the technique of the guitarists that floored him. He breaks down the picking techniques more detailed than the artists probably even are aware of.

I thought he presented it in a manner that holds your attention and his analysis is very credible. Here’s a guy who’s my age that was obsessed with guitar, who had to be obssesive and years later puts it all together in an entertaining video series. I’ve seeen that some People are ragging on him about trying to capitalize by offering subscriptions etc.. Hey, why not??? He put his life into this. If Ihad that video on VHS back in ‘85 I’d have gone on to be balding fret master who’s genre was killed by grunge.....lol. Seriously though, that is a great video series.

If you're diggin' the series, Check out his "how it's made" follow up HERE. You get to see the process of creating scenes. He had to have spent an enormous amount of time on this project.

He has a lot more worthwhile vids on his YouTube channel as well.
 
I’ve watched pretty much everything Troy put out. He is a genius imo the way he sleuthed out what was really going on with the picking techniques. I did the subscription for a while too. I can definitely say my picking technique has drastically improved based on his ideas. It took a couple years to really come to fruition but I had previously plateaued and was treading water for many years. Highly recommend this to anyone that wants to work on their picking.
 
I wonder what he did for a living after Yale. I could totally be off on this but it doesn’t seem like he could make a sustainable living off his website subscription. He’s seems like a real smart guy. I wonder if he had a job that paid the bills but came back to what he loved as the digital age grew.

When I finished the last episode I went up to my cave and blew thru 2 hours of what seemed like awesome picking. Came back a day or two later and it wasn’t the same. The coordination wasn’t there that day. Good days, bad days? My end game goal is to master the Trinity scale and picking and a few penatonic ‘5’ runs ala EJ and Joe B.

And when I say master, I mean fool the casual listener and friends. Not you guys.
 
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