Whenever somebody on a guitar forum asks which book they should buy for improving speed or lead guitar techniques there are a couple of books that always come up, Troy Stetina’s Fretboard Mastery and Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar. Now “Speed Mechanics”, as you can probably tell from the design, has been around a long time. It has a copyright dating back to 1990 and is considered the “Shredder’s Bible”. I thought I would check out what all the fuss is about as I seemed to miss this book when I was learning. I will give you a quick overview of both books as there is far too much material in each book to cover in one post. Then after I have absorbed some of the information and applied the practices to my own playing I will publish another post in the future to outline how I have benefit from the books.

Speed Mechanics For Lead Guitar
Speed Mechanics is divided into 3 parts: Mechanical ability, Rhythmic ability and Creativity. Mechanical ability is the where the real guts of this book lie Troy not only teaches you strength building exercises but teaches you how to practice efficiently something which is often overlooked, I know I was far too impatient when I started learning and this hindered my progression. This section then moves on to building speed through cyclic and sequenced patterns using alternate picking before moving on to sweep picking and arpeggios. There is also a full transcription of Troy’s version of “Flight of the bumblebee” by Rimsky Korsakov to practice all the alternate picking techniques you have learned.

Rhythmic ability has some basic information on time signatures, offbeats using triplets and plenty of rhythmic sequences which all build to learning a Paganini Caprice at the end of the section.

Creativity talks about intervals and their connection between certain sounds and how they are represented on the fretboard. It then has some interval recognition training in order to help you create solos that you hear in your head without having to rely on old patterns.

There is a lot to get through but I am currently trying to re-learn with a completely revamped picking technique so I know this book is going to help me get my picking up to scratch, as I said before I will post at a later date as to how much improvement I see.

Fretboard Mastery
Fretboard Mastery was released last year and is the long awaited sequel to Speed Mechanics. This is Troy’s full system for learning the fretboard inside out and there is enough material in this book to write a complete university syllabus! When I was studying for my music degree back I felt that a lot of the information lacked relevance to me personally and therefore became harder to comprehend and absorb. What this book looks to have achieved is to take all the interval ear training and theory and apply to it the guitar in a way that is interesting and comprehendible. There is way too much in the book for me to talk about in this post but it starts with Foundation for Music which covers basic music theory, how scales and arpeggios are constructed and how they are related to triads. It then moves on to how scales/modes are positioned on the fretboard, more advanced music theory, chord structures and chord progression ear training. Troy then moves on to expanding your fretboard knowledge showing how scale and arpeggio positions overlap and exercises to help you memorise the box positions.

This book is not only a complete guitar method it is also a complete guitar reference, something that you can keep coming back to in order to further your musical knowledge and sharpen your skills. If I was to start teaching someone guitar today these would be the 2 books that I could use as a complete method, from theory to shredding. One of the most important things to realise as a guitarist is that you never stop learning, Fretboard Mastery is a tool that can help your musical progression whether you’re into rock, jazz, anything! There is something in this book to help everyone.

You can buy both of these books online at Music44.com which I find is the cheapest site for instructional books and DVD’s, links are below:
Speed Mechanics
Fretboard Mastery

Don’t forget you can also get one on one video instruction from Troy Stetina at GuitarInstuctor.com.