Speed Mechs. for Lead Guitar Book

[None]

I bought this book a long time ago and I didn't have the patience or ability to gain anyhing from it. I think that now I'm ready to start working through it but I'm not sure how. Should I work through it one excercise at a time, maybe excercise 1 for a week, then excercise 2 etc. or maybe take a few left hand excercises and a few right hand ones......or whatever. Any advice?

[J4mmy]

I dont have the book, but i figure just go slowly make sure your doing everything right and not missing notes...

[None]

I know how to work at each individual excercise, but what I'm unsure of is, how much to bite off at one time. Thanks anyway!

[J4mmy]

ahh ok, well... as much as you can, say work on each 5 mins a day, dedicate 30 mins to the book and those excersise, meaning you can be working on 6 at a time, i dont know how much u pracitce so i cant say exactly, just as much as time allows without rushing each one i guess

[jazzIII]

I wouldn't be too concerned about CURRENTLY having the ability to gain from the book; it's designed to to increase your ability level. It's a great book to use, just take it slow.



Kel

[None]

Perhaps I should maybe pick one excercise from each section every day. Like one from the Finger independance bit as a warm up. Then from the trill excercises, then from the next set etc.

[Andrea79]

I've got the book myself, and Troy himself tells you it's not a book you go thru from the first to the last page... but it gets sometime and you can focalize on the needed stuff. It's split into sections, so it should help you choose what to focalize more for your playing needs.

[Caffeinated Cat]

I'd recommend reading the whole thing - he covers a lot of different areas and you'll get a good idea of what interests you the most by reading through all the different parts. You might decide you want to work on several different parts of the book simultaneously.

What I did was to start with a few left hand exercises and a few right hand exercises. I noticed most of my problems were with picking, so I work on the chromatic exercise, the cross-string picking mechanics and the cyclic patterns. I've also found the three-note-per-string stuff to be very useful if you actually want to apply any of the stuff to an improvised solo. Also, if you're working on a solo to some song and you're having trouble with a certain part, you can find an exercise in the book that's similar. And just use your own judgement to figure out what you need the most work on. I wouldn't recommend just going from the beginning to the end - there's no sense on putting a lot of work into something you may already be good at while ignoring the stuff you've got problems with, just because that's in a later chapter.

[Bad Alchemy]

Well I do have this book and I find it very useful for practising/warming up etc. I can't claim to have studied all of it and as the author says it's not meant to be read cover to cover. I try and concentrate on the pieces I feel I need most practice and / or enjoy the most ! and play each for at least two minutes. The tab for Prelude in D is my favourite bit at the moment :)

[Unhorizon]

Actually he says that the book is meant to teach you how to practice, what to practice, etc... and that the book shouldn't be the only thing you practice. So you should read it and try all the exercises in the book and focus on the ones that give you the most trouble.

[jcharney]

SUCH a good book. Just keep going with it and doing some exercises out of it before you start playing other stuff, or even noodling. Even just that will help. This book is great.

[None]

Thank everyone! I'm going to spend some time working on excersises from the book, whatever I think needs work, each day, and then just noodle, write some stuff, play along with backing tracks etc. :cool:

[Sakkaku]

I have the book, read it once, listened to the CD, and never even tried. :( I was too discouraged at the time to even TRY. I was intimidated beyond belief! But now I'm going to read it, and actually take it apart piece by piece.

Anything you can learn from, is a good thing! But you must always practice ;)