Members Rushmore Posted March 17, 2003 Members Posted March 17, 2003 I've been playing guitar for a long time, but have never been extremely fast, because my music has never demanded it. I decided I wanted to be able to blaze, just to further my arsenal and bought the Speed Mechanics book. I thought it would be simple for me, since I'm far from being a beginner. I was wrong: My question is: Should you stay on an excersise before you can play it just as fast as the fastest version of it, or practice for a while on one and move on, and go back to them as you continue to progress? It seems that the dude is so much faster, that I'll be on the first 5 excersises forever. Any advice or opinions? Thanks.
Members Martin Straka Posted March 17, 2003 Members Posted March 17, 2003 I have had the book for 3 months and I just turned to page 18 yesterday. As you may now the first group of exercises really focus on the left hand and I use these as a warm up but I don't spend to much time on them. I am at the point now where Troy says don't go any further until you can play exercise 25 at 132bpm 16th notes. I may be stuck here for another month.
Members edeltorus Posted March 17, 2003 Members Posted March 17, 2003 Haha.. Jep. I'm also stuck at the same place, but I don't try to become the next Yngwie. I haven't set my goal to play all that stuff at insane speed. The single string exercises are a challenge to play clean and I'm still busy practicing them. I decided to play the exercises at a speed that is comfortable for me and ocaccionaly push the speed up a bit up (when I'm bored I can work on that). My primary goal however is to get a good pick-motion and left/right hand coordination at moderate speeds like 140bpm / 8th.
Members Chris Lenk Posted March 17, 2003 Members Posted March 17, 2003 I have been wrestling with the same thing. I really want to get to the Bach piece. My natural instinct is to turn the page, but I gotta figure this Troy fellow knows what he's talking about. I promised myself when I get the picking exercise up to a nice clean 140, then I'll go to the string crossing mechanics. One thing I've noticed is that there are no shortcuts in practicing. Cranking up the metro just so you can say "there, now I'm officially fast" only reinforces the kind of sloppy playing that slows you down in the first place. Also, focus seems to make a huge difference. Going through the excercises robotically seems to yield very little improvement; but when you keep you eyes and ears open to every detail of what you're doing and concentrate you can really make some progress. Practicing this way is much more difficult mentally and I notice my brain getting tired way before my hands do. I constantly ask myself things like: are my upstrokes as sharp as my downstrokes? am I dividing the beat evenly or swinging it unintentionally? am I tensing up any part of my body? am I minimizing the pick motion? Come to think of it, I think this last one is the reason why he wants you to master the single string exercises first. String crossing requires a larger movement of the pick and before you do that, he wants you to be able to do a very small, sharp single string pick motion on automatic pilot.
Members gooman Posted March 17, 2003 Members Posted March 17, 2003 Which volume are you guys working on, and which would you recommend?
Members Martin Straka Posted March 18, 2003 Members Posted March 18, 2003 Speed Mechanics - Mastering Lead Guitar Technique Troy Stetina Speed Mechanics Great book highly recomended
Members straightblues Posted March 20, 2003 Members Posted March 20, 2003 You can also buy this book at Amazon.com for about $5 cheaper like I just did.
Members Kachana Posted March 25, 2003 Members Posted March 25, 2003 I got this book recently, it's by far the best instructional book I have ever bought, I am really improving now! I can't wait to get to the Paganini sweep picking piece. Does anyone have any other books by Troy Stetina? Any recommendations?
Members mohsin Posted March 26, 2003 Members Posted March 26, 2003 This is by far the best instructional book I've ever seen. I haven't set myself a time limit to get to the recommended speeds, but, I have made big improvements by regular practise. I think you just have to stick at it and make sure you don't get bored, by playing lots of other stuff as well. Good luck!
Members Martin Straka Posted March 26, 2003 Members Posted March 26, 2003 Originally posted by Kachana I got this book recently, it's by far the best instructional book I have ever bought, I am really improving now! I can't wait to get to the Paganini sweep picking piece. Does anyone have any other books by Troy Stetina? Any recommendations? all of his stuff is at www.stetina.com He has a bunch of free exercises up there as well.
Members rostb Posted March 27, 2003 Members Posted March 27, 2003 Have you guys tried the John Petrucci Video on Rock guitar. If you think that book take awhile it would be a decade before I get thru his video. That guy is amazing!! His hands sync up perfectly.
Members Hell Bites Posted July 6, 2005 Members Posted July 6, 2005 Originally posted by Rushmore I've been playing guitar for a long time, but have never been extremely fast, because my music has never demanded it. I decided I wanted to be able to blaze, just to further my arsenal and bought the Speed Mechanics book. I thought it would be simple for me, since I'm far from being a beginner. I was wrong: My question is: Should you stay on an excersise before you can play it just as fast as the fastest version of it, or practice for a while on one and move on, and go back to them as you continue to progress? It seems that the dude is so much faster, that I'll be on the first 5 excersises forever. Any advice or opinions? Thanks. I was wondering the same for a while. I actually find the biggest problem is my pinky which is considerably slower and moves way more than my other fingers which makes it difficult for me to speed up those 3-note-per string exercises.
Members Little Dreamer Posted July 6, 2005 Members Posted July 6, 2005 Does anyone have any other books by Troy Stetina? Any recommendations? I've got quite a few of his books. Speed Mechanics, and also Metal Lead Guitar Volumes I & II, and Metal Rhythm Guitar I & II. Metal Lead I is pretty good - the solos in it are a nice blend of fast stuff and melodic stuff. He teaches some basics about the pentatonic minor scale (like box 1), then gets into using box 1 in two octaves, going between the third fret and 15th, sort of a call and response type idea. Then I think he touches on the natural minor scale and dorian mode. He's got some exercises in there where you have to figure out the scale degrees of the notes in the solos, which I think is a great exercise. A couple of the solos are fairly easy, but the rest are quite challenging. If you're a beginner, it's going to take you a very long time to master them. Metal Lead II immediately gets into modes, and the solos are pretty fast. I think the solos are fantastic, some of the best I've heard. This one gets into theory a lot more. Metal Rhythm I is good as well, fairly easy stuff to start with but then he gets into a blues shuffle based hard rock song, and if you really pay attention to accurately palm muting the notes that are supposed to be muted, but not the ones that aren't, it's a challenge. One song gets into some double tracking stuff, which is great fun if you've got a 4-tracker. Metal Rhythm II is quite a bit harder. I haven't really done much with it yet, but I fiddled with the first song a bit and it will take a lot more work than the Metal Rhythm I stuff. I've heard that comment from other people on Stetina's website as well. One complaint, and this is just a personal opinion, but I'm not really into some of the songs in Volume II, they just don't do it for me. But I'm sure they're great instructional tools. With all the books there are a pile of other exercises and information in addition to the solos and rhythm parts. Personally I like them all.
Members Joe Merlino Posted July 6, 2005 Members Posted July 6, 2005 So - question: I'm mainly a fusion-type player, and I'm NOT looking to make my playing sound more metaly, but I would like to be comfortable at higher speeds. Would these books be helpful to me?
Members Hell Bites Posted July 6, 2005 Members Posted July 6, 2005 Originally posted by Little Dreamer I've got quite a few of his books. Speed Mechanics, and also Metal Lead Guitar Volumes I & II, and Metal Rhythm Guitar I & II.Metal Lead I is pretty good - the solos in it are a nice blend of fast stuff and melodic stuff. He teaches some basics about the pentatonic minor scale (like box 1), then gets into using box 1 in two octaves, going between the third fret and 15th, sort of a call and response type idea. Then I think he touches on the natural minor scale and dorian mode. He's got some exercises in there where you have to figure out the scale degrees of the notes in the solos, which I think is a great exercise. A couple of the solos are fairly easy, but the rest are quite challenging. If you're a beginner, it's going to take you a very long time to master them.Metal Lead II immediately gets into modes, and the solos are pretty fast. I think the solos are fantastic, some of the best I've heard. This one gets into theory a lot more.Metal Rhythm I is good as well, fairly easy stuff to start with but then he gets into a blues shuffle based hard rock song, and if you really pay attention to accurately palm muting the notes that are supposed to be muted, but not the ones that aren't, it's a challenge. One song gets into some double tracking stuff, which is great fun if you've got a 4-tracker. Metal Rhythm II is quite a bit harder. I haven't really done much with it yet, but I fiddled with the first song a bit and it will take a lot more work than the Metal Rhythm I stuff. I've heard that comment from other people on Stetina's website as well. One complaint, and this is just a personal opinion, but I'm not really into some of the songs in Volume II, they just don't do it for me. But I'm sure they're great instructional tools.With all the books there are a pile of other exercises and information in addition to the solos and rhythm parts. Personally I like them all. Heh, I have the exact same books. Man, this is interesting, I pretty much totally agree with your comments. When I first began electric guitar I bought metal lead guitar volume 1 and probably shouldn't have. It took me forever to finish. I probably should have started out with rhythm volume 1. I can't believe Troy never entered a classic metal band like Iron Maiden. His soloing and rhythm technique are amazing and some of his solos such as To the Stage and Drastic Measures are very memorable. I also agree about your comments on rhythm volume II. Oddly enough I'm doing alright with with lead guitar volume II but I'm not progressing very fast through the rhythm volume II book. I just can't get into it. I swept through the whole rhythm vol. I book really fast but vol. II is really hard. The songs aren't really very metal and I was told he used a POD on the accompanying CD and I REALLY prefer his marshall tone on lead vol. I and II and rhythm vol. II over the POD tone.
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