Anyone here try Speed Mechanics for Lead guitar?

[bluepowder]

I just bought Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar by Troy Stetina so I can start working on my techinque AGAIN. At my current technique level I am not able to play most of the exercises at Stetina's speed so its good to see that Im gonna learn something new.

I wanted to know if anyone else is working on this book and how long it took them?? I know I know...you can always work on your technique and always get better BUT when were you satisfied and could say ya Ive learnt all the techniques and how to practice them, in this book!!

cheers

[Crossroads]

It's a very well known book and it's been around for a long time. Not surprisingly, many people here have used it. Though I suspect very few have perfected everything in the book at lightning speed, which is the main aim of the book/CD.

I suspect most people have simply dipped into the book and tried a few exercises here & there. That's partly because people give up too easily (the book does contain a lot of material). But it's also because it's far easier to learn from a DVD, and if your goal is to play fast by alternate picking ("shred") then the Paul Gilbert DVD in particular is excellent & covers very similar material.

IOW - Speed Mechanics is very good, & I like it, but for me it's eclipsed by Paul Gilberts DVD (Intense Rock 1&2).

2:cents.

Ian.

[bluepowder]

I think I would definitely try both ....starting with speed mechanics

[Crossroads]

I think I would definitely try both ....starting with speed mechanics

Yep, good idea ... different players do seem to prefer different tutorial stuff sometimes.

Ian.

[CC323]

Yeah, it's a great book IMO. While nothing beats having a teacher there while developing your picking technique, once you get past that, it's a matter of constantly learning new music/licks and making sure that you have good hand position. I'd suggest practicing in front of a big mirror all the time. That would have helped my left hand technique tremendously had I done that from the start. It wasn't until I saw a Joe Satriani video from guitarworld in which he said play on your tips, not the pads of your fingers that I could play fast legato runs without that horrible line 6 insane style distortion.

[matrixx333]

I've been working from the book for a couple of months now but I find it hard to progress past the first section (legato). The reason being is because I am concentrating on the first 30 or so exercises and haven't gotten any where near perfecting them.

How do you progress through the book if you can't even master the first section? That, and there are a ton of examples throughout the entire book, is someone supposed to practice every one of them every day?

I was thinking on incorporating a few exercises each day from each section to try and tackle the amount of material the book covers, but I'm not sure I will make any progress that way.

Any thoughts?

[Crossroads]

There is a great deal of stuff in that book.

I don't really use that book any more, and I never really did use it much (because I found a better option). But from memory - I think that unless you are already starting from a fairly high level in the first place, then it's going to take you quite a long time to really become proficient with all the exercises in the book. Maybe a year or two, if you practice 2 or 3 hours a day.

But I bought that book purely to learn how to pick fast, call it "shred" if you want. And for that, I found Paul Gilbert's DVD was far superior. In fact Gilbert's DVD is waaaay better than any other comparable book/DVD/video.

Now the Stetina book is not only about fast alternate picking, it has some other more general stuff too. But it's not really trying to deal in any depth with all those other essential issues except fast picking. It just skims the surface on all that. So again, it's easy to find better self-teaching material for all the other more general aspects of playing/practicing.

Ian.

[CC323]

I guess so, but for becoming truly versatile and technically proficient, nothing beats the combo of Sheets of Sound and The Improviser's OS IMHO. The latter is the greatest study on guitar improvisation IMO. Sheets of sound not only has great picking exercises, but some of the most useful applications of them.