beeroosterm yeh but with distortion you can pull off and hammer on without having to pluck the string as your finger hits the fretboard. ALOT of people hide their mistakes this way and i was just pointing out how Troy wasn't, how honest it was.
metaldudeupnorth There is some truth to what you are saying, but it certainly does not always apply. It depends on what you are practiced in. For example: I am primarily a fingerstyle acoustic player for the last few years, and I now find that distortion amplifies my mistakes, and that I actually have to play much more accurately to avoid all the little noises that start happening, which you can never hear on the acoustic. This is a very interesting phenomenon when you consider that I used to primarily play progressive metal and fusion on the electric, and found that my mistakes seemed more obvious when I played on the acoustic at that time. So the key is going to be to stay well practiced in both ways.
Vynxe Vainglory Indeed. If you only play low-gain/acoustic, and never learn to mute, your electric playing will be a wall of noise. And if you only play high-gain electric, you may never learn to hit notes with the authority and consistent attack necessary to be heard on acoustic. Conclusion, play them all!
Very nice, Troy, very nice! I would love to hear more stuff like this of your personal playing beyond just the cracking the code segments! Your playing is growing on me!
Just discovering your work and love everything you're doing. Thanks so much for including players like Mike Stern who incorporates bop phrases from other instruments on the guitar. I'd love to see some mini-lessons on technique in the style of jazz players like Benson, Metheny, Django, etc. Benson might be particularly interesting because of his unique grip on the pick. So many jazz players work to incorporate his approach. Keep up the great playing and teaching!
***** Thanks! Re: Benson, one of my favorites. He uses trailing edge picking, which may make his technique look unusual from a distance, but that's really incidental. It's his string switch mechanics that define his picking technique and he's really a pretty traditional downward pickslanter. This is the same basic strategy used by Yngwie and the gypsies, and also the strategy I'm using in the clip above.
Great playing! Would love to see an episode on someone like Stochelo Rosenberg. I'd be interested to see how he uses downward pickslanting whilst ripping through descending lines so quickly... Seems to defy physics sometimes!
Nothing really changes. Loud is still achieved with some combination of a lot of pick, a stronger grip, and bigger movements, and delicate is still the converse: less pick, looser grip, and smaller movements.
Troy, the gypsy jazz picking style is really different from the Yngwie/Gilbert positions. How do you find the switch? Especially with all the rest strokes and downstrokes involved in gypsy jazz. Great demo though, you obviously have no problem with the various picking styles and switching between them.
The Yngwie technique and the gypsy technique are extremely similar -- so much so that it's not only easy to slip from one to the other, but I've actually seen Yngwie himself do it. There's an instructional clip somewhere where he specifically comments on his tendency to tremolo pick with the forearm arch and one finger anchored on the guitar's body. Gilbert is another story though!
I picked up the bass guitar at age 16 due to my fascination of a pic I saw in a magazine that had Nikki Sixx holding a blood splattered warlock bass.I played along with my records/tapes but never got past the "mediocre" stage,I'm now 42...is there any hope,or advice left for an old schooler?
Dude, it's never too late! There's been a lot of mystique and superstition surrounding picking technique over the years, but it's largely unwarranted. What we're trying to do in Cracking the Code is remove all that and make the path as linear as possible. With the right methods, I now think of guitar more like martial arts: if you're willing to put in the time, you'll get as far as you like. Most people are not willing, and that's fine. But for those that are, the process is getting less and less problematic by the year.
That's our prototype -- it's partly printed, partly machined. Consumer printers aren't yet good enough to handle the close-fitting, smooth-sliding parts involved here, but we'll do an injection-molded production run if there's enough interest. You can read more about this on the site. Thanks!
Finally we get to see your picking technique! Some questions: I notice you're not muting - do you mute on electric guitar when picking or do you use the same pick hand position? When is season 2 going to be available? Cheers!
I'm using what amounts to the gypsy jazz technique on these clips -- big forearm arch, no muting, heavy rest strokes. This can be done on electric, but if you're playing high gain and need to mute, you'll have to move in closer. Because of the work we've done, I don't have a single technique these days so much as many to choose from depending on the situation. You will too. We'll send an update on Season 2 soon!
You could say that! But the rest stroke is not really what's important here -- otherwise you could never play on the top string because there's nothing to rest on! It's really the downward pickslanting that makes the string changes possible.
Dude you are awesome! Do you have lessons that we can buy, or some sort of skype lessons ? Or would you like to sell me the pick of destiny cause it seems you got it :D
You can flip the phone around and grab the fretting hand, but I tend to use it more for picking analysis. Either way, it's pretty amazing what we can do on a phone in 2014!
You mechanically perfect bastard.
Ha, touche!
Scary playing!
I'll don my Freddie Krueger mask for the next one!
few would even try to shred like this without distortion... bravo!
Ha. Nine-volt batteries be damned!
beeroosterm yeh but with distortion you can pull off and hammer on without having to pluck the string as your finger hits the fretboard. ALOT of people hide their mistakes this way and i was just pointing out how Troy wasn't, how honest it was.
metaldudeupnorth There is some truth to what you are saying, but it certainly does not always apply. It depends on what you are practiced in. For example: I am primarily a fingerstyle acoustic player for the last few years, and I now find that distortion amplifies my mistakes, and that I actually have to play much more accurately to avoid all the little noises that start happening, which you can never hear on the acoustic.
This is a very interesting phenomenon when you consider that I used to primarily play progressive metal and fusion on the electric, and found that my mistakes seemed more obvious when I played on the acoustic at that time.
So the key is going to be to stay well practiced in both ways.
Vynxe Vainglory Indeed. If you only play low-gain/acoustic, and never learn to mute, your electric playing will be a wall of noise. And if you only play high-gain electric, you may never learn to hit notes with the authority and consistent attack necessary to be heard on acoustic. Conclusion, play them all!
Very nice, Troy, very nice! I would love to hear more stuff like this of your personal playing beyond just the cracking the code segments! Your playing is growing on me!
Just discovering your work and love everything you're doing. Thanks so much for including players like Mike Stern who incorporates bop phrases from other instruments on the guitar. I'd love to see some mini-lessons on technique in the style of jazz players like Benson, Metheny, Django, etc. Benson might be particularly interesting because of his unique grip on the pick. So many jazz players work to incorporate his approach. Keep up the great playing and teaching!
***** Thanks! Re: Benson, one of my favorites. He uses trailing edge picking, which may make his technique look unusual from a distance, but that's really incidental. It's his string switch mechanics that define his picking technique and he's really a pretty traditional downward pickslanter. This is the same basic strategy used by Yngwie and the gypsies, and also the strategy I'm using in the clip above.
My God U are just out of this world ..i,m so glad i found u on youtube ..All the Best
reacteur84 Too kind, but thank you!
Great playing! Would love to see an episode on someone like Stochelo Rosenberg. I'd be interested to see how he uses downward pickslanting whilst ripping through descending lines so quickly... Seems to defy physics sometimes!
i admired u so much .where ar u from?
This is excellent I'm checking out the site. Is there tabs for this piece? Loving this series.
There are! We include this with the season pass, and also as a standalone download with a handful of other examples called "Down Around the World".
Muy Bueno!!! gracias Troy !!!
good sounds!
Thanks man!
Wonderful.
How do you find control of dynamic range at high speed?
Nothing really changes. Loud is still achieved with some combination of a lot of pick, a stronger grip, and bigger movements, and delicate is still the converse: less pick, looser grip, and smaller movements.
Amazing guy
Love it, how about some more Smooth Jazz. Super sound, Troy
Hi Troy! Excellent playing!! What Guitar Pick do you use on the Nylon String Jazz guitar?
Troy, the gypsy jazz picking style is really different from the Yngwie/Gilbert positions. How do you find the switch? Especially with all the rest strokes and downstrokes involved in gypsy jazz. Great demo though, you obviously have no problem with the various picking styles and switching between them.
The Yngwie technique and the gypsy technique are extremely similar -- so much so that it's not only easy to slip from one to the other, but I've actually seen Yngwie himself do it. There's an instructional clip somewhere where he specifically comments on his tendency to tremolo pick with the forearm arch and one finger anchored on the guitar's body. Gilbert is another story though!
I picked up the bass guitar at age 16 due to my fascination of a pic I saw in a magazine that had Nikki Sixx holding a blood splattered warlock bass.I played along with my records/tapes but never got past the "mediocre" stage,I'm now 42...is there any hope,or advice left for an old schooler?
Dude, it's never too late! There's been a lot of mystique and superstition surrounding picking technique over the years, but it's largely unwarranted. What we're trying to do in Cracking the Code is remove all that and make the path as linear as possible. With the right methods, I now think of guitar more like martial arts: if you're willing to put in the time, you'll get as far as you like. Most people are not willing, and that's fine. But for those that are, the process is getting less and less problematic by the year.
Love this. Where did you get the camera mount? Did you 3D-print it? If so, is it on Thingiverse?
That's our prototype -- it's partly printed, partly machined. Consumer printers aren't yet good enough to handle the close-fitting, smooth-sliding parts involved here, but we'll do an injection-molded production run if there's enough interest. You can read more about this on the site. Thanks!
Finally we get to see your picking technique!
Some questions:
I notice you're not muting - do you mute on electric guitar when picking or do you use the same pick hand position?
When is season 2 going to be available?
Cheers!
I'm using what amounts to the gypsy jazz technique on these clips -- big forearm arch, no muting, heavy rest strokes. This can be done on electric, but if you're playing high gain and need to mute, you'll have to move in closer. Because of the work we've done, I don't have a single technique these days so much as many to choose from depending on the situation. You will too.
We'll send an update on Season 2 soon!
Hi troy, are you using Rest Stroke gypsy technique?
You could say that! But the rest stroke is not really what's important here -- otherwise you could never play on the top string because there's nothing to rest on! It's really the downward pickslanting that makes the string changes possible.
Dude you are awesome! Do you have lessons that we can buy, or some sort of skype lessons ? Or would you like to sell me the pick of destiny cause it seems you got it :D
why the cut at 15s?
***** This was composed on the fly as a comp of two mostly improvisational takes -- I liked the intro of one and the end of another. Good catch!
This looks great! Though, in my opinion, it's much more interesting to watch at the playing arm rather than the picking one.
You can flip the phone around and grab the fretting hand, but I tend to use it more for picking analysis. Either way, it's pretty amazing what we can do on a phone in 2014!
really difficult do that picking on nylon
New horizons. Never thought of combining the speed of alternate picking with the capabilities of fingerpicking... I'll give it a try :).
Maxime P It's a combination with a lot of history behind it: Eric Johnson, Albert Lee -- they're masters at this!
Holy shit
Uh
Woah..
Jeezum.........
That’s not jazz bud.
Slow lesson pleaaaase. You too fast