Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 (Troy Stetina)

This is a great book if you wish to become competent at playing the electric guitar. I have tried and failed with several other books and the main reason for this I think, other than my lack of competence, is that these other books try to be all things to all men. These books treat electric, acoustic and classic guitar in the same way as if they are the same thing. Clearly they are not. Most beginner guitar books dutifully guide you through playing the main open chords. After a few weeks practice (probably less for most people), you can knock out a bad rendition of 'Wild Thing' using the three most common open chords. Not very helpful. Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 gets straight in by showing you how to tune your guitar and then how to set-up your amp for different styles. Then it goes into power chords. Most books I have come across either deny the existence of power chords or make it so mysterious they you will not learn to play them. Within a short time you will be learning 6th and 5th string power chords. All very well explained. It takes no time at all before you are playing tunes that sound quite authentic. Instead of getting bored, I was going over it all several times to improve my technique. I am sure that if you buy this book and conscientiously practice all the lessons you will become a competent electric guitar player. It is a beginners book, but most essential techniques are there. Slides, hammer ons, open chords are all there as well as an introduction to improvisation. Even lead guitar might not be that far away. I have seen some descriptions of this book as coming with a CD. In my case I had a download key. Not a big deal but do not be disappointed if you were after a CD. Highly recommended.

I'd highly recommend this booked to anyone who is a complete beginner or anyone who wants to get a good foundation in playing rock and metal. A lot of the techniques thought apply to other styles of playing, it's just that the tutorials are in the style of hard rock. At the end of each of the 6 chapters there are example songs and also backing tracks. The online audio examples on the Hal Leonard website are great and can be downloaded but also played using their online player which has the added feature of changing the tempo of a track but not alter the speed (or you can just download a mobile app which will do this). The author recommends playing to a metronome or drum machine and also record your self playing. I cannot stress enough how beneficial this is to both keep time and also get feedback on how you sound and where you can improve. If you have already been playing for a while you may find yourself progressing through this quickly. I'm already at the end of chapter 5 and have got the second book which looks like it has loads of stuff in there.

Ive been playing for over 15 years, and am totally self taught, i would consider my self an intermediate guitarist. I wanted to improve my Lead, so i bought the Lead Vol1, and started working through that. I was improving drastically, but i was finding i needed to mix up my practicing not wanting to get bored of doing the same thing all the time. So i decided to purchase the rhythm vol1. Now i have been playing rhythm for all this time (so worried i would do book in a night), the first few songs/chapters i flew through (just learning power chords, changing strings etc) but my theory was poor and the book sort of re-taught me well. It has great patterns to learn and im perfecting every one. Now my timing and technique has a much improved, so im glad im working though both vol1 of troys books. I would recommend practicing both books as the same time So it mixes up what your playing and they complement each other very well. Troys books are gold dust to me, i have a lot to thank to the guy :)

This book is truly for beginners. The songs are easy (and rock!), the techniques are explained very clearly, and there are various techniques on display that are easy to execute but sound effective and awesome. If you're someone who had been playing for some time, you might find this book too easy, and might want to go straight for Volume 2 (still, you might want to check it out for the awesome songs to play!). That said, even though this book is excellent, i'm subtracting one star for a few reasons. First of all, there are some typos and mistakes along the way. This isn't the first edition, so you'd think those typos would've been corrected long time ago. Use your ears, don't just blindly follow the tab. There are some things that aren't explained before they're introduced. The biggest example of this is pick scrapes - they're introduced in one of the songs with no prior introduction. The technique of pick scraping is not trivial to execute for a newbie, so you'd think Stetina would've at least included examples of different pick scrapes and how to do them properly.

Of all the books I have as a guitar teacher (about 200!) this is one I start rockers on once they have done a couple of weeks limbering up and getting there fingers to fret notes fairly cleanly. If you want to rock this should be your first book. You can get the basics and finger exercises off the net - after a week at that you're ready for this book. It leads on to book 2, or a book 1 Lead and then another Lead book 2, or you might want to take the song route rather than loads of exercises and go through the Total Guitar book by Troy. After a couple of months of Metal Rhythm you'll be ready for the John Ganapes book, 'Blues You Can Use' (most rock is based on the blues so it's not just what yer dad plays!) If you follow the Stetina series you'll end up like a junior version of Vai, Satriani, Johnson or Morse. If you want to be like Clapton or Moore, switch to the John Ganapes series one you've finished Metal Rhythm Book One.

Te molan AC/DC, los Zeppelin y Black Sabbat. Te decides a comprarte una eléctrica y a aprender a tocar como ellos. Pues este libro es un buen complemento para tus clases de guitarra. Aprendes a interpretar tablaturas, palm muting, slides, etc, siempre con ritmos y canciones que, aunque obviamente no son los originales, siempre te recuerdan a "no sé qué" canción de tus grupos favoritos. El único pero es que el supuesto CD incluído te lo descargas en formato mp3 de la web de Hal Leonard.

I started with Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar, also by Stetina. I should point out that I just picked that up because of the title and the fact that I aspire to be a "shredding" guitarist when I'm fully accomplished. I learned the hard way, as it were, that I am nowhere near ready for that book, and decided to start from the beginning. I followed the recommendation on Stetina's website, and decided to forego the Primer book for Lead, as I have way more than a year of experience in guitar, and picked up Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1 as well as Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1. My fiancee and I both use these books and are learning very quickly from them. She has only recently begun guitar, and I have been playing as an amateur/hobbyist for well over 10 years. Both of us are learning a lot from these books, and they are extremely well written. They are perfect for any guitarist inspired by the Rock/Grunge/Alternative/Metal genres. A complete flip flop from the Hal Leonard books, which feel as though they have not been updated since the 1870s, these books start right in with power chords for rhythm, and flashy tricks for the lead book, enabling the most beginner of a guitarist to feel like s(he) is doing something useful from the very first note. Stetina is a brilliant guitarist and an even more accomplished teacher, and he cuts out the "crap" you don't need to know from the beginning. Some conservationists will whine that he does not teach music notation, but, show of hands, how many guitarists out there started out as a virtuoso in another instrument and actually USE that ability to read "notes" with their guitar studies? About 10% outside session musicians. Stetina has a brilliant method of combining the rhythm of standard notation with the logical layout of tabs, and using that notation I have seen increase in my rhythm abilities and knowledge of music theory from the start. I highly recommend any book in the Stetina series for any guitarist with an eye for metal, and at any level of proficiency. I look forward to the second volumes of these books, and eventually Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar, with relish.

El libro está muy bien planeado para introducir al principiante a las bases de la ejecución de guitarra rítmica, todo a partir de ejercicios con los que en verdad se tocan ritmos interesantes del estilo del metal.

Très bonne méthode, progressive. Ce livre m'a été conseillé par mon prof de guitare. Il y a beaucoup d'exercice. Chaque chapitre traite d'un thème avec des exercices à la difficulté grandissante. A la fin du chapitre, il y a un morceau plus long permettant de mettre à profit l'ensemble des techniques vues précédemment. Le CD aide beaucoup. Le petit plus est que les morceaux sont proposés soit complet soit en version backing track pour jouer par dessus. Le bémol est que les exercices sont sur la même piste de CD pour chaque chapitre. C'est difficile de ne travailler qu'un seul exo car ils s'enchainent tous. Du coup je les ai redécoupé pour les lire sur mon PC.

Wonderful book from a great guitar teacher. Even if you can play more difficult songs than those in this method, you will have fun with the variety of styles provided and, most importantly, you will develop a very solid technique if you play with the songs, for the songs... I worked really hard on my right hand, palm muting, my sense of rhythm and band ensemble throughout the book. I haven't started volume two but I still play the six tracks on this volume one, being 2, 3 and 6 my favourites. I recommend this book to any guitar player, it will give you an idea of different styles and bands like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Poison, STP, etc...