Cracking the Code Episode 10: “Inside the Volcano” — Yngwie Malmsteen & DWPS + Sweeping

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We explore Yngwie's ingenious system for integrating alternate picking and sweeping via downward pickslanting, and unlock his asymmetrical one-way pickslanting formula — among the most powerful picking strategies ever devised.

[TheMikebledsoe]

Thanks for breaking this down. You should be nominated for the Nobel Pick Prize.

[TruthSurge]

dude.... i am sitting here laughing.  you've managed to make a mystery documentary out of a Malmsteen lick. HAHAHAHAHAH   hat's off.

[cast]

Ive been playing guitar for 42 years, my technique is very good but not flawless.Ive never seen an instructional video or any teacher I've known analyze technique this way.Troy puts it under a microscope and breaks it down note by note.Someone here on the tube said"Troy is like the Mythbusters for guitar players"Great work Troy, Thanks

[MrJC]

I'd laugh if Yngwie watches this and says... "Shit maan! I didn't think I was doing all this picking stuff when I was jamming. This video has taught me so much". Then he goes away and comes back even stronger. Now that would be classic.

[CodyCleggMusic]

This episode is literally life changing. I'm re-evaluating the last 7 years of playing. I just incorporated some of these things (some of which have already been intuitive for me and I've been doing, and some of which I never even considered), and I've already said "holy crap" out loud twice at the improvements I'm already seeing while I have this video paused. This is so awesome.

[jongomm]

Man, I wish I'd had your videos when I was 14.  Your analyses of guitarists' idiosyncrasies is exactly what I was trying to do.  Maybe the precise way I personally unpicked the patterns I saw in their playing was unique to me, and helped me find a voice as a musician. It's a great approach to educating, I just cannot commend you highly enough.

P.S. I still have that little REH booklet!

[wjzhgvo]

Thank you Troy for carrying a whole generation. The only thing i can do apart from liking your videos is to share this with everyone i know. You have changed the whole way i look at the guitar through your approach.

[MartinMillerGuitar]

Been following you forever and love your work. Feel free to get in touch if you want to exchange some thoughts and ideas! Greets, Martin.

[ThomasRBowen-gqjr]

Just shows you how good Yngwie is. He figured all this out before anyone else was using it. When he was learning you didn't have instructional videos or anything like it.

[phillipaconley]

Mr. Grady,

While I'm sure you're tired of people giving you compliments by this point, I feel compelled to tell you how very impressed I am with this video series. The quality of both the presentation and of the content itself is unparalleled in my previous YouTube experience. As an individual who is often analytical to a fault (one of my childhood nicknames was Dr. Spock, and no, my ears aren't pointed), I greatly enjoy - and am extremely impressed with - your detailed mechanical analyses. I am also a great lover of professional presentation and high-quality work in any form, and in that respect these videos are above reproach (and very enjoyable). The content is also extremely relevant and valuable to me: as a left-handed guitarist who plays right-handed guitars, I have always had above-average left-hand dexterity, but I have struggled to bring my right hand up to match the left. The insights you have presented are already helping to improve my picking ability, and for that I am very grateful.

I greatly look forward to seeing all of your future content, and I am already mentally ear-marking a bit of my next paycheck to purchase a Season Pass from your website, as such excellent work deserves appropriate compensation. Anyway, if you have even bothered to read this far, thank you for putting so much time and effort into this video series. You have earned a loyal subscriber.

Sincerely,
Phillip Conley

[JensLarsen]

Thanks Troy! Your stuff is not only very informative but also very entertaining!

[ricstormwolf]

Mind=BLOWN. NOBODY ever mentioned this technique in any instructional video I've ever seen. Amazing.

[aloak]

What's brilliant about this video is how Troy have turned Yngwie's instructional video, which I've always thought was one of the most useless "instructional" materials of all time, into something really useful. Kudos for that!

[lauraeeee]

Troy - you deserve an oscar or a grammy for all of this,  

[poulwinther]

Great videos Troy! This is such a nostalgic memory lane trip because I went through almost exactly the same struggles, even the metal mechanics tapes, slowing down licks (with a Fostex 4-track) and much more.

The discussion about who invented what is pointless, especially because players at the time would hide their techniques rather than sell them. My own alternate picking sucked so hard that I started inventing "directional" picking myself in the 80's. Suddenly I saw a video by Frank Gambale and it all fell into place.

Generally a lot of players were trying to push the same boundaries and came up with a lot of similar solutions. Surely Eric Johnson, Uli Roth and many others did parts of these techniques before Yngwie and perhaps he studied all of them but at the time he could only do so by ear. The fact remains that nobody before him integrated such a magnitude of various techniques into such fluent and flawless mastery as him.

Early recordings show that at age 19 at the latest he already had everything perfectly in place. He is getting so much stick these days for being repetitive, only speed focused, poor song writer and much more. It's a pity because his articulation, phrasing, fluidity and vibrato are all still to this day among the best that ever was. Now on top of that, please take a proper listen to something like Far Beyond the Sun and tell me who else could write something 10% as complex in musicality, composition and arrangement at around 20? :-)

[jacobaagaard]

This is kick-ass story telling. I am totally hooked.

[PhilippZieglermusic]

This is GOLD. Period. You are making by far the best instructional videos I have ever seen, and just the three free Yngwie Videos kind of launched my playing into a whole new Era. I'm definitely getting the season pass. Thanks Troy for doing this!

[Yourguitarworkshop]

Awesome video Troy, wow! I remember all I had growing up was a cassette player that I could slow down. This would have saved tons of time back then. The quest of "cracking the code" by the way is something I've loved doing myself, especially where you feel you're about to crack it but you're just not there yet. :-)

Thanks Troy!

[socrate]

Scientific approach of analyzing guitar picking at its best !

[TheMurch]

I'm really loving this series. Not only are the instructional bits really useful, but it also feels like a glimpse into a different world of learning, since I grew up in the internet age where everything is already laid out somewhere, and much easier to figure out if it isn't since you can slow stuff down, find videos, eq out other instruments, chat with others, etc.. It's really interesting even beyond the actual learning, and I really appreciate that.

I'm just wondering, are all the future episodes focused on picking? I'd love to see your take on something like tapping or legato.