What Is Stringhopping? Know Your Enemy (and How to Defeat It) | Guitar World

What is stringhopping? It's time you got to know your enemy!

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Troy Grady is the creator of Cracking the Code, a documentary series with a unique analytical approach to understanding guitar technique. Melding archival footage, in-depth interviews, painstakingly crafted animation and custom soundtrack, it’s a pop-science investigation of an age-old mystery: Why are some players seemingly super-powered?

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Dave Keuning’s uncanny ability to craft huge songs like Mr. Brightside from simple melodies is at the heart of the Killers’ blockbuster sound – here’s how you can use his rhythm approach and hook-filled lead style

Players like Larry Carlton use chords as a launching pad for improvisation, and you can, too. Learn how polychords and slash chords hold the key to musical exploration, just as scales do

“An unapologetic approach to thrash rhythmic precision”: Weaponize your picking hand with this lesson in the bruising thrash-stomp riffing style of Anthrax rhythm kingpin Scott Ian

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“McLaughlin’s ferocious picking and mastery of the fretboard raised the bar for what could be achieved on the guitar”: Learn the trailblazing style of John McLaughlin, one of the true pioneers of jazz-rock fusion

Think punk is just power chords and rubbish technique? Think again – here are 10 lessons you can learn from the last 50 years of punk

“The idea of the ‘rhythm’ side and the ‘lead’ side as distinctly separate entities has become somewhat blurred”: Mateus Asato is a modern master of combined rhythm and lead playing – he shares his poetic soloing secrets

“Over time, her arrangements became more creative and composed and could stand on their own as melodic instrumentals”: A pioneering protest singer, American folk legend Joan Baez draws on jazz and flamenco for her intricate picking patterns

3 easy rock guitar solo licks you need to know

What if Jimi Hendrix jammed with Eric Clapton, or Gary Moore traded solos with Joe Bonamassa? We imagine 5 all-star fantasy blues jams and what they would sound like