 Great practice exercises and methodology |
| Review Date: February 8, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Edward J. Goldman, Burlingame, ca United States |
This is a great book. However, I should warn some, you'll need the appropriate mindset to get anything out of it. There's really not much theory in here. Basically it's ALL technique. Excercises designed to strengthen left and right hands separately and then putting them together.
At first when I got this book, I kind of skipped around to the stuff I liked practicing better -- more along the picking excersizes for right hand and cross picking. I found the first chapter on just left hand REALLY TEDIOUS. Basically it's lots hammers and pulls in various patterns all over the fretboard. The pull-offs I found especially tedious and difficult.
I got some speed up in the picking, but really discovered that I could only get so far because I was finding that feeling what my left hand fingers were doing was rather muddy. Then I went back to chapter 1 on the left hand and really concentrated on it.
First off, it hurts! Which is good! If you're hurting, you're using new muscles and you're beginning to teach those muscles how to move. I found that after only a few days I was getting a LOT better at hammering and pulling all over the neck and also the finger muscles were getting stronger. Also, synchronizatiion with fast picking was getting better. Now, I'm mostly concentrating on left hand technique and seeing a lot of improvement.
When I first mentioned the right mindset, what I meant was some of you may find practicing this stuff BORING. You're not going to be ripping melodic solos with these excersizes, the concentration is on TECHNIQUE. If you can't play some of this simple stuff fast amd clean, how can you expect to play a real solo fast and clean? Your mindset has to be to make the exercises interesting so you can get over the hump. Once you start seeing improvement, it will naturallty become more interesting. What helps a lot is a metronome. You can make it kind of a game with yourself too see how fast you can set the tempo and still play clean, and then go back and forth between slow and fast.
I also have Paul Hanson's "Shred Guitar". That book is more along the lines of presenting a chord progression and then analysizing the progression a bit and then covering a bunch of licks for each progression. You'll get more immediate soloing out of that book, but IMO, in terms of basic mechanics for speed, Stetina'ws book is much better. Getting both books wouldn't be a bad idea.
For what it's worth, I've been playing guitar over about 30 years although I went through several years without picking up my guitar at all. I played a lot my first 10 or so years, but really stopped progressing after a while. I just wanted to play stuff, not practice. I can tell you from experience, if you don't have a good practice methodology, you'll never get better. I picked up the guitar again about a year ago and now concentrate mostly on HOW I play, not WHAT. It makes a real difference. Also, I don't much like heavy metal. Both this and "Shred" focus on metal, but don't let that deter you from buying these books as there's plenty in here that is universally applicable. |
Novice to Virtuoso, youll learn something from this book
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| Review Date: May 15, 2002 |
| Reviewer: Andrew Renault, Lowell MA |
| My friend recommended that I try this book, so I went with him. 2 months after buying it, I cant beleive how much i have started to improve(technique wise...dont get this book if you want to learn theory)! Though most of the techniques are mainly geared towards metal/heavy rock guitar, it certainly helps with any style(as shredding is quite technical and fast paced). Ive noticed much more finger independence, speed and accuarcy on the left hand, better trem and alternate picking with the right, and better overal coordination(which = cleaner, faster lead runs) between the two. Ive only develed deeply into a few of the exercises, so this book will keep me busy for quite a long time. Everything from simple, chromatic legato exercises all the way to crazy six string sweeps. Some great song examples too....really weird version of the flight of the bumble bee. The CD is just as good as the book, and the two paired together are a great learning aid. In short...buy this book if you want to improve your chops and dont know what to do. |
Essential Guitar Book
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| Review Date: October 12, 2003 |
| Reviewer: Matthew Faulkerson, Cuyahoga Falls, OH USA |
If you are thinking of learning how to play lead guitar or need to increase the speed of your playing this book is for you. It contains exercises that are built on each other throughout the book and if you practice with this daily after a month you will see results. It does exactly as it says in the beggining it shows you how you need to practice to become the best you can be.
Troy is in my opinion one of the best guitar instructors around. |
The best I have seen.
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| Review Date: January 6, 1999 |
| Reviewer: Scott Walker, |
| I began playing the guitar in 1969. My preference was hard rock, and at 45 years old, it still is. I have looked at (and purchased) many hundreds of dollars worth of instructional books, audio tapes, CD's and videos. This is the finest heavy metal instructional book and CD I have found yet. Mr. Stetina takes a wonderfully comprehensive approach to presenting some of the hottest techniques I have yet to see. I would be happy to pay twice the price for this information. It would be worth every penny. |
YOU NEED THIS BOOK!
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| Review Date: November 28, 2002 |
| Reviewer: Christopher Clemons, Ogden, UT United States |
| After dog-paddling around for 3 months in the sea of so-so small town guitarists, I finally decided to get up and do something about it. After practicing out of it every day, this book increased my techinque exponentially. It's been a year now, and I still play this book every practice session I have. It goes over every facet of playing speedy guitar, seperating the hands first, then putting them together. The good news is, after you've got Hammett down in the first "mechanical" section, you can work on becoming the next Hetfield with the "rhythmical" section, and you'll already have the right hand speed to play songs like Battery and Damage Inc.!I honestly can't say enough good things about it, it's a breadcrumb trail through the forest of half-players who think they're good because they can play "Smells Like Teen Spirit". A great pick and a must have for current dog-paddlers with the desire to become great. |
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November 8th, 2009 | 
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