Rating: 
Summary: the best!!
Review: i've been playing for 30 years and i've learned tons in the few short weeks i've had this. i use it as my number one teaching tool for my students. the neat thing about it is that it applies to all types of playing.i've even combined alot of hybrid pick and finger techniques to the ideas the author uses to really supercharge some of the exercises. i think the best thing about it, is that you really have to be patient and LEARN everything at a SLOW pace and gradually build your speed. that is the key to being a monster player. also, if you can't use your pinky, you better get ready to learn how to. if i had only one instructional tool to use, this would be it.
Rating:
Summary: This book is sweet!
Review: If I had to describe this book in one word, I would say it is INSANE! I just started playing guitar a couple months ago and this book has improved my skills drastically! This isin't for a person who expects to master Stetina's techniques in a few weeks,but I have already noticed a change in my playing ability and I have only had the book for 3 days! You might also want to try Stetina's Metal Guitar, Volume 1, because some of teh techniques used get really hard really fast. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to make their skills faster and better!
Rating:
Summary: Essential Guitar Book
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: If you want to pursue a complex and difficult method to improve your speed, try this. But the best way to speed is to start anything (including soloing) on the guitar by going slowly to let your fingers gain muscle memory. Eventually, you'll get as fast as you need to go in a lot less time and in a fashion that is a heck of lot more fun. I'd suggest going for good tone and feeling (isn't music about expression?) first, then watch speed naturally follow.
Rating:
Summary: A great pick!
Review: In my years of playing the guitar and learning I think a few decisions have brought big changes. Picking this book was one of them. Troy has put in a lot of exercises that don't necessarily go with much of the learning we do with scales. It makes a lot of sense to get working on the exercises from this book once you have familiarized with scales and are looking for techniques and improvement of agility. I am extremely excited about how things will be with my playing when I am done with this book. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: excellent workbook
Review: Inspirational music manual, full of useful examples and building blocks for personal, creative soloing. The last part of the book dealt with ear development if you can believe that. I was impressed with the structure of sweep arpeggios and tips for developing faster yet cleaner picking technique. You don't have to be a headbanging metalist to get into the book, although nearly all the examples are fast and flashy. The technique he teaches is applicable to other styles as well. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: out of this world
Review: I`ve always been searching for speed exersice for lead guitar & i dont think i have ever seen better than this book , you cant imagine what these exersices can do with your fingers speed. excellent for beginners to advanced lead guitar players believe me you dont know what your missing
Rating:
Summary: Novice to Virtuoso, youll learn something from this book
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: For Intermediate To Advanced Guitar Players ONLY
Review: Speed Mechanics consists of 3 parts: Mechanics (44 pages), Rhythm (12 pages), and Creativity (13 pages). My ratings for each section is Mechanics - 5 stars, Rhythm - 4 stars, Creativity - 2 stars. Mechanics: This section has a lot of exercises that will help you master the technique being covered. Subjects covered include Trills, Finger Indepenence, String bending, Alternate picking, Cross-string Picking, Dynamics, Cyclic patterns, Sequence Patterns, Sweep Picking, and MUCH more. Almost every aspect of Lead guitar is covered here. There are about 3-12 exercises per subject. Rhythm: This section will help you 'feel' the beat or meter instead of thinking it. This is necessary because when you are playing a technically demanding piece, you have to focus more on the motions your hands are making and less on the rhythm aspect. Creativity: This is where the book fails. It does give a few good insights about how to create a lead 'style'. But, most of the section is wasted on Intervals. The Intervals part might have been good, but the diagrams and examples are poor and confusing. Although the rest of the book has been straightforward and logical, some of this is just plain confusing and pointless. Pros: The exercises are laid out in logical order so that you will feel improvement as you 'complete' EACH exercise. There is TONS of info packed inside the mere 80 pages of this book. As long as you want to keep improving, there's no way you could ever 'finish' this book. (The speed exercises could always be played faster, etc.) The book also teaches you how to create your own exercises to suit you own personal needs. Cons: This isn't your book if you want to learn how to compose solos or learn about theory. I barely got this book 3 to 4 days ago. I was expecting a bunch of speed exercises in the book and lightning fast runs played on the CD. This is definitely NOT what I got. The book actually teaches you Synchronization of Both Hands, Finger Independence, Practicing In Bursts, Isolating Mistakes, but also has a thorough section dedicated to Speed Exercises. If you're not sure whether this book is too difficult for you, click on the 'Look Inside' option to preview a few pages of this book. You should come across Exercises #1-5. If you can play #1-5 with the metronome set to about 100 bpm with each note played as a quarter note (one note for each beat), then you might want to consider buying this book if you really want to shred DON'T buy this book if you're NOT planning on practicing the exercises with a metronome. The book will almost be worthless without a metronome. Hmmmmmm. I hope this review wasn't too long. I only wanted to write this because the other reviews kinda gave me the wrong idea about this book. Hope this was helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: The book really rocks. If you're an intermediate guitarest who has learned most of what you can regarding theory and rhythm guitar, and either don't have the time for lessons or feel they aren't helping you (as i did), check out this book. I've never seen a more useful guitar book... this book truly teaches you mechanics for playing lead guitar and doing it faster. Troy Stetina is a gifted guitarest, teacher, and writer, and it shows in this book.
| 
