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Speed Mechanics - Do you Guys Like it?


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Posted

Hi,

 

I need to have more speed for solos and stuff. No, not that I want to shred, but just to have a decent speed and better accuracy for some stuff that most of you here would call simple. My question is, will the Speed Mechanics book help me with this? Also, what level is it written for? I've been playing for five years, and I'm not horrible, I'd just like some extra speed and precision under my belt so I can begin to learn more solos.

 

Thanks for your time!

 

Dustin

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Posted

are you talking about troy stetina's speed mechanics for lead guitar book? thats a great book, and no i don't think it will hurt your abilities any. the focus of that, and most other books that have to do with speed, is building skills around building a good internal clock. the key is the metronome, and the book will be about half as effective without it. if you go through the book properly, your not just learning shred riffs, but your practicing beat division & speeding that process up over and over again. its a great idea for any instrument to do this. it will make you more accurate, and more comfortable playing against various tempos, in any genre.

i play mostly blues, jazz, classical, etc and i used the book.

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Posted

A+ book.

it doesnt REALLY have new things in it, I mean its stuff you CAN find on teh net (mostly just timing excercises)

but the cd lets you hear what most of it should sound like, his explanations of things are usually pretty good (tells you why each exercise is important and what it will help you work on)

I dont even think its a good book for shred to be honest ;) I think its more oriented to people that just want to be able to think faster and have more control over the instrument...

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Posted

nit-pick: what I didn't like is that most of the exercises are over melodic or harmonic minor scales, or some weird derivative. Gives them that heavy metal sound, which is cool for that genre but less useful for jazz or pop (than say ii-V-I licks from jazz method books.)

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Posted

I like this book.. It could explain a bit more here and there (especially the chapter which does the switch from one to two strings).

Also I would like to have one or two more easy pieces in it (caprice #24 and flight of the bumblebee are for folks who worked through the entire book imho).

I missed stuff like Auggie's speed exercise #2 (that pick, hammer, pick, pull stuff).

Otherwise I like the book. Definately worth the money. The exercises are metal influenced, but keep in mind, that they are just technical exercises. It's no chop-building book.

The exercises could as well be entirely atonal or whatever. If you want to transpose them into a mode you like more, then do so.

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Posted

Flying Fingers by Dave Celantno is a good book in the same vein. ALso, if you can find any of the Guitar Techniques magazine from England, they have some great speed exercises, as well as lessons on CD.
As far as videos, John Petrucci's might help.

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