Failure to Fracture: Learning to Play King Crimson’s Impossible Song

 
“Anthony Garone’s ‘Failure to Fracture’ is a success story.”
— Robert Fripp
“The best story of the long path of craftsmanship I have come across.”
— Trey Gunn
 

In Failure to Fracture, musician Anthony Garone chronicles his 22-year journey to learn a song called Fracture by the British progressive rock band, King Crimson. The song’s composer, guitarist Robert Fripp, wrote in 2016, “Fracture is impossible to play,” which only strengthened Anthony’s resolve to learn it. He spent a week attending Fripp’s guitar course in rural Mexico learning the techniques required to perform the piece. They included new approaches to sitting, standing, breathing, and walking. He also had to relearn how to physically play and hold the guitar. He finished his journey by releasing a full video performance of Fracture and its more difficult “sequel” composition, FraKctured, in 2020.

F2F+Book+Mockup.jpg

Failure to Fracture is now a book!

High-quality, hardcover with a matte finish. Printed on premium 70lb. paper in full-color at photo quality. Every page turn is a new design/layout. It’s incredibly beautiful.

Preorder Now

Failure to Fracture is a comprehensive guide for musicians looking to overcome creative obstacles and limitations.

 

Video Episodes

Featured
Fracture All Over The World
Fracture All Over The World

37 players, 15 nations, 7 months, 1 impossible song.

This is a very special international collaboration of players attempting to tackle Robert Fripp’s “impossible” composition.

Failure to Fracture Book Preorders Now Open
Failure to Fracture Book Preorders Now Open

After several months of intense work, I am excited to announce that it is officially available for preorder. All you need to do is go to FailureToFracture.com and take a look at the exclusive preorder bundles and savings. But before you head over there, let me tell you about it because it’s really incredible.

FraKctured Performance
FraKctured Performance

In this piece, I detail the difficulties of learning FraKctured as opposed to learning and performing it’s older sibling, Fracture. I close with a performance at the end of the video. It’s adequate!

Fracture Final Performance
Fracture Final Performance

After 22 years, I am finished with learning and playing King Crimson's impossible song, "Fracture." In this video, I talk about destinations versus journeys and wrap it up with my final performance of Fracture. Thank you to Robert Fripp for his incredible music, technique, and inspiration.

Failure to Fracture Book Teaser
Failure to Fracture Book Teaser

"Failure to Fracture: Learning King Crimson's Impossible Song" by Anthony Garone is a new book coming later in 2020, published by Stairway Press. Here's a teaser.

Practicing Fracture, FraKctured, and Other Fripp Pieces
Practicing Fracture, FraKctured, and Other Fripp Pieces

Here’s a bunch of videos of me practicing Fracture, FraKctured, and other Fripp stuff over the years.

Failure to Fracture, Ep. 6: Fracture is Impossible to Play
Failure to Fracture, Ep. 6: Fracture is Impossible to Play

Welcome to the 6th episode of Failure to Fracture, a series that highlights my now-20-year struggle to play the hardest song I've ever encountered: "Fracture" by King Crimson. Robert Fripp, the composer and guitarist on the track, writes: "Fracture is impossible to play." What on earth does this mean?

Failure to Fracture, Ep. 5: Alex Anthony Faide Interview
Failure to Fracture, Ep. 5: Alex Anthony Faide Interview

Alex Anthony Faide is the only guy on the internet who's actually able to play King Crimson's Fracture at full speed. He studied for many years with Robert Fripp in the Guitar Craft/Guitar Circle courses and continues to this day in pursuit of right- and left-hand clarity. He is an inspiration to many of us.

Failure to Fracture, Ep. 4: Overzealous Precision
Failure to Fracture, Ep. 4: Overzealous Precision

In this episode of Failure to Fracture, I talk about how I was unable to succeed after interpreting and following the Guitar Craft rules a little too seriously. Once I let go, I was able to get through the death picking section of the moto perpetuo.

I also do a practice run at 128bpm at the end of the video.

Failure to Fracture, Ep. 3: Inefficient Picking
Failure to Fracture, Ep. 3: Inefficient Picking

In this episode, we talk about how inefficient picking can lead to failure. When you're picking 500+ notes per second for multiple minutes, every bit of energy and distance savings count!