Troy! Mike here from The Art of Guitar. I know I've told you before but your book really taught me a lot back when I was getting into shredding. Thanks for everything man.
Your video beginning Rock Rhythm Guitar was the first instructional material I purchased on VHS from the music instructional manual section of a local guitar shop back in 1999 when I first started playing.
@@TroyStetinaMusic I remember buying the book from guitar center and it's still on my bookshelf somewhere. However my style quickly developed into a pentatonic blues-based classic rock type player. And I actually play with my elongated thumb nail rather than a pick. So I never really went into Steve Vai or Yngwie type territory as a player even though I like that stuff as a fan.
@@Ronno4691 it was a really good introductory video. His book Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar was excellent especially if you want to shred, and my personal favorite was Fretboard Mastery.
@@bozeeke I'm currently eyeing copies of both of these books since reading all of the positive comments about Speed Mechanics et al in the replies here. You've just convinced me to get them now :-)
I like many of the comments below also have your book but the cool thing you have done Troy is to respond to every comment that's been posted. You're a gentleman. Far out man.
I used all of your books for my students while teaching at a store and going to college. When I started teaching at the university where I received my degree, you encouraged me to go forward with starting a Rock Ensemble for our school. At the end of the day, you have a true teacher's heart. Thank you for helping me teach hundreds of students you've never met; They are all your grand-students.
Hello from Ireland, Troy! I worked in London back then and I bought your book round about 1990/91 in "Andy's Guitar shop" (now called Hanks, I believe?) in Denmark Street Constantly rewinding the tape was a pain in the arse mind you Ha ha! (CDs weren't quite the standard yet, another few years away) but I still delve into your tome from time to time (I have the MP3s now )... brilliant work and a great memory of days gone by.
I was born 1987 and i started playing acoustic guitar very late so my first contact with guitar was when i was 21 years old. That was summer 2008. Two years later i bought electric guitar and i really didn't know how to approach it. Then i found out about your book and things got really serious. Mr. Troy, your book is the best guitar pedagogy i know to date. I call it "The Holy Grail for Guitar." If it wasn't for your book i would probably lose a lot of money on guitar teachers and a serious lot of time as well. I am self-taught and thanks to you and your book I am right now composing a material for my first instrumental album that I intent to finish this year. You're a great teacher and I thank you with all my heart! Hope to meet you one day...
This and Fretboard Mastery were two of my go-tos in my hayday. I have some of my own students working out of Speed Mechanics at the moment, and they’re getting a lot more dexterity happening.
@@TroyStetinaMusic 20 years ago, you corresponded with a Syrian kid through email and you were gracious enough to reply his email! He will never forget you (and still looks up to you :)
I can't thank you enough for writing this book, which I diligently worked my way through as a teen in the early 2000s. Not only did it kick my chops into relatively good shape, but on the very first page of part 3 you taught about so many pop metal bands with great guitarists that quite simply weren't spoken about in those days: White Lion, Dokken, Ratt, even Queensrÿche! I've learnt so much from the guitarists of those bands and more ever since.
Wow! This was just posted a few days ago? What an amazing coincidence. I just happened to search for this. I bought that book in probably 92. Troy, your book and CD were my constant practice companions for many, many years. If you happen to read this, thank you so very much! That book just changed so much for my playing which I had been searching, but could not find elsewhere at the time. Thank you, again.
Thanks MK! Glad to hear you liked and benefitted from it. BTW, I'm working on SM2 and a new series that goes even further... stay tuned to my channel for details😊
I started this book 3 months ago, and thanks to you Troy, there's s big impact on my playing! I love your books so much so that when I finish it, usually re-learn it again a year after.
awesome, Troy! this book is the Bible of shred guitar! that and the Heavy Metal Lead Guitar volumes 1 and 2 (I'm using the 'old', original title on purpose here, since I bought these back in the late 80ies when they came with that title and had a cassette tape) have been very important in my journey on the guitar! I still use these books today! I can't thank you enough for making these!
Thanks for this video. I bought 'Speed Mechanics' in the 90s. But later I bought 'Speed & Thrash metal guitar methode', which I used much more. I hope you will also make a video about 'Speed & Thrash'.🤘
Books about guitar were very rare and/or expensive for the average high schooler back then. I remember saving up lunch money and finally purchase a bootleg version (photocopied and re-recorded tape) of Speed Mechanics. Troy is one of my unsung guitar heroes when I was growing up. Fun times!
Troy .. thanks for all the wonderful books, I owned them all in mid 90's, while I was a music major at Montgomery collage in Maryland, where the focus was mainly on classical music .. they were welcoming jazz as well but rock music was really out of the question, left with no other choice I was majoring in classical guitar at the time, and we were going through the standard course of study, theory, ear training and so on, we were also required to perform in front of audience which consisted of other students and professors and they all played their classical pieces on the piano, flute, and violin and I was very frustrated to see rock and metal music had no place there so I decided to play the Paganini caprice from your Speed Mechanics book which I had been practicing at home for some time and remember the day came .. I had my Marshall amp and distortion pedal set up the and I got up on that stage with my crimson colored Jackson flying V guitar and cranked that amp and played that piece the way I thought was cool but the snobbish reaction I got from that audience was not that encouraging, which was ooOOOooh no someone JUST committed a sin and played the "ELECTRIC GUITAR" but I was proud that I stuck up for something I believed in whether they liked it or not. anyways .. I wanted to share that memory and add that after getting my music degree in 2000 I got into music teaching business and taught many guitar enthusiast how to play the "ELECTRIC GUITAR" as well as other styles for the last 21 years .. so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for publishing your books, they definitely had a positive impact on my learning back in those days and I am glad to see your still hanging on strong and doing well.
That's story is Awesome!!! Totally reminds me of my days at the WI Conservatory... did those annual faculty performances and it was exactly the same kind of thing!!!🤣
I went through part of it years ago..with the cassette included. It helped and made a huge difference although I'm still not a great guitarist, just wanted to do my own songwriting demos. In fact I still have it.
This book with audio is the best out there. I picked it up at Back porch Guitars around 1994 when it first came out on CD. In a single summer it improved my abilities 150 fold. This was when bands like Fear Factory were coming around and the amazing technic of not only soloing but riffing was the new thing. Troy you are amazing and I am so very thankful for Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar.😎 If you would hummer me and let me know what you think of my orchestrations... "Illuminating Your Highness by Robert S Poe" as well as "Struggle for Grace" Leave a comment to let me know you hears it. If not that's ok as well. Thanks again. Big fan! R.S.P.
Hi Troy ! great video and insight into the creative process of how this book came to be, the original manuscript is Epic...you should frame the pages as a work of art , its going down in guitar history as part of influential and seminal literature !
Hi Troy! Thanks a lot for the amazing book. I really love it. The only thing that I wish you had added to the book was some sort of a target tempo for each exercise. I know I can practice and aim for any speed. But for example, for hammer-ons and pull-offs exercises, like number 1 to 5, suppose I play the exercises at 120 bpm. Should I move to the next exercise or I still need to keep practicing to increase my speed? I would appreciate your advice.
Hey Troy. I have worked through all your books, thanks for all your great work. I remember reading on a forum or Facebook that you were going to release a book that would be much better than 'Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar'. Any news about that project? Thanks again and take care.
It's been close to finished for a couple years, but I've been spending my time building a teaching platform on Patreon instead, as publishing doesn't pay enough to cover the time invested. So I may get back to it yet, if I can afford to.
@@TroyStetinaMusic Thanks for your message, Troy. I hope you will be able to release the book one day, I'm sure it's outstanding material. Best wishes, and God Bless!
This was like bible to me early nineties. Before this I went thru heavy metal lead guitar books so I was beyond happy to get this early nineties. I sent Troy a letter thanking himback then and was stunned when he sent me a letter thanking me for kind words. And this was to Finland! This was essential book when I was growing up. Thank you again.
I had the Speed & Thrash Metal Guitar Method book with a tape. I was just a kid under 12 in 1992, and that made a huge difference in my playing at the time. But what I really loved was the complete tracks that came in the tape, I think at the end of each lesson. I lost the tape. Where can i find audio of these tapes, either Speed & Thrash Metal Guitar Method or Speed Mechanics? :)
Yes, halleonard.com/library offers online access for purchased products with access codes. You can contact them at info@halleonard.com to find out more
Lead Guitar 1. Speed Mechanics is a supplement that I'd recommend you open up after you progress maybe halfway into Lead vol 1. Also BTW you might be interested in my new course coming out at end of October, which goes into MUCH greater detail. Total Picking Control: Expanded Speed Mechanics. Preorder signed copies by joining patreon.com/TroyStetina (free) and clicking through the posted link there.
why you didn't mention the importance of eliminating tension in your hands is a big mystery to me. It is cruzial information. If you tense up you'll never get fast and you risk injuries.
Yeah, that's true. Seemed to me at the time that for myself and the players I was teaching one on one, as we got faster, the motions stabilized and everything would began to relax. So it was a natural thing that happened and didn't seem necessary to point out as a goal... I mean you can't relax by telling yourself to relax, so much, but more by allowing yourself to play softly. I incorporated that into SMLG in the 'practicing with dynamics' section. I do tend to focus on this a bit more these days, though, and in particular, when I see a player iron-fisting it.
@@TroyStetinaMusic You don't want to "begin to relax" as you get faster, you want to play without tension at all times. I wasted a ton of practice time because I was not made aware of this and was tensing up a lot, so my progress was not at all what it should have been for a long time. If I had written SMFLG it would have been the number one advice on the list in the How to practice section and I'd have spent maybe a page explaining why its important and I'd have given people specific exercises so that players could eliminate tension. . Instead tension is this forbidden word in guitar instruction, you hear a few people mention it like Steve Vai and Rick Graham especially and that's about it. It's so unfortunate and bizarre. In the piano world it's mentioned all the time. I don't agree that you "can't relax by telling yourself to relax". I absolutely can. I still catch myself tensing up from time to time and then when I become aware of it, I deliberately relax and play whatever it is I'm playing better and with much greater ease.
Tension is a tricky subject IMO because playing requires a degree of tension... so it's really a matter of "how much is too much." Some people naturally have a lot more excess tension than others and for those who have this issue, yes it's of primary importance to address. (And I agree that should have been mentioned more in SMLG.) But generally I find that telling players to "relax"--although it does point them in the right direction which is good -- it doesn't work nearly as well as telling them to play softly, and better still, to train them to play using lesser depth of picking. Pick depth, IMO, is the primary problem of tension in the right hand, which in my experience, is the primary source of tension for most players as they attempt to increase speed. Most people don't play with excess tension UNTIL they attempt to play faster than they are comfortable. So it's a chicken and egg problem... yes, one needs to relax to play faster (an oversimplification, but overall, basically true) AND people also do "begin to relax" as they play faster... this is the "Top Down" approach that I address in SM2, my alternate picking videos on GuitarInstructor.com and on advanced videos on patreon.com/TroyStetina. The Top Down approach reduces tension because fast picking NECESSITATES a relaxed motion and creates stability of the pick. Anyway, everyone experiences the tension issue somewhat differently, so the important thing is to notice what your specific problem is, and how to fix it. If simply reminding yourself to relax alone solves the problem for you, that's great! That's a minority situation, however, in my experience. So while I agree with the general idea of your statement, I would add that it's much more complex issue and the nuances must be considered. Not ALL tension is the enemy IMO and one size doesn't really fit all; there are many different avenues to get to the party, and what works best for one person doesn't necessarily work best for others. Taking a look at myself, for example, I can't really relax excess tension by telling myself to relax. It happens naturally as a result of soft, careful playing that develops reliability, and NOT pushing tempo faster than is comfortable... allowing speed to come to me, rather than going after it. So THAT is the approach I put into SMLG... it was, after all, the insights of my own personal technique journey that was being shared. In any case, glad you have found what works for you! And again, the tension issue is a critical issue to address, and there are numerous ways to address it depending on exactly where and when the tension occurs for an individual player. Thanks for sharing that perspective... as you can see from my response, it got me to thinking about this issue more deeply, and that's always a good thing🤔
When I was starting to exercise as a beginner i had tension problem too and i would always go back and read page 8 of SMLG (The mechanics of practicing exercises) to remind myself to ease a bit!
@@TroyStetinaMusic The right hand picking motion from SMLG. Imagine someone trying to copy Marty Friedmans picking position :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jRfFaZWgaFM.html
