Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Building Speed, The Art of Practicing, Unison Octave (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Take your playing to the stratosphere with the most advanced lead book by this proven heavy metal author. Speed Mechanics is the ultimate technique book for developing the kind of speed and precision in today's explosive playing styles. Learn the fastest ways to achieve speed and control, secrets to make your practice time really count, and how to open your ears and make your musical ideas more solid and tangible. Packed with over 200 vicious exercises including Troy's scorching version of 'Flight Of The Bumblebee.' Music and examples demonstrated on cassette or CD. 89-minute audio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (June 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793509629
• ISBN-13: 978-0793509621
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #102,144 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great practice exercises and methodology, February 8, 2005

By	Edward J. Goldman (Burlingame, ca United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard work, December 15, 2004

By	bm97 (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews

This book is about fundamentally improving your playing through hard work. This is not about "impress your friends in three days". It is not even about "impress your friends in 100 days". This book is about hard work and analyzing your lead playing.

For example this book provides more than ten different exercises for improving alternate picking while shifting strings. There are an even greater number of exercises devoted to things like
- Helping your little finger
- Using Hammer ons and pull offs to improve speed
- Playing sequences of notes in bursts
There are quite a few more concepts in the 196 exercises this book has.

A lot of the practice licks are in the Aeolian mode - which is great for metal players. I imagine you could just change the mode to suit the style you like, and still benefit from the exercises. However this will be a problem for people working on styles like the Blues.

Other disadvantages:
- I do wish troy stetina had included some licks from players like Steve Ray Vaughan or Mike Bloomfield to round out the vocabulary you gain through practice. Randy Rhoads seems to be Troy's favorite player.
- Part 3 of the book - which is the section really devoted to soloing versus practicing, could have used some more depth.
- This book absolutely skips over the importance of chords in playing lead.

You really have to spend hundreds or thousands of hours on practice to gain much from this book. Though beginner and beginner-intermediate players could benefit from this book, it may be an inefficient use of your time. This book should only be used to strengthen one aspect of your playing - and should not be used as you sole guitar practice book. That being said - this is definitely a great book by a teacher who really knows his stuff.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, not essential, March 1, 2006

By	G. Chang "cminor457" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First, Let me state that I'm primarily a Jazz musician but studied
classical guitar and composition for my bachelors. I respect all kinds of music, and metal guitarists can have great technique, so I thought I'd give this book a try to give my pick playing a shot in the arm. It is a very GOOD method for those willing to put in the time. Most of the musical samples are technical, not musical in nature so you really have to stick with it and understand it has a purpose beyond its sound. But I also found that most there aren't any "new" approaches to technique here- it just cleans up economy picking, sweep picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs.
So if you know how to practice those things on your own, have patience and can write out or create your own exercises, the book isn't necessary.
For convience, especially rock/metal lead players, it is a Great book. For guitarists in general trying to clean up technique, decide if you are motivated enough to do this stuff on your own. if you are, save your money. Troy, however, is a great guitar teacher, the book is clear and well written.