I got this book a few days ago, and im a bit confused on how i should progress onto new exercises. For example, should i take a set of exercises (lets say 5), keep practicing them until i can play at a certain speed (like 160 bpm) and then move on to another set of 5 and repeat this same process? Or is there another way i should practice this?
Considering Justin’s hollistic approach to practicing I would practice one exercise at a time under one of the 5 minutes blocks for technique. I presume that Troy’s exercises build up in difficulty, so would make sense to nail the first exercise before moving onto the next exercise.
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I’m not familiar with the Book, but have something similar (I suppose) for country guitar related stuff. I follow an approach as mentioned by James @Socio with one minor addition: whenever I had one of thoses exercises under my fingers for the given tempo, I spent like the first 1 min of the 5 min to consolidate this + warm up for the next exercise which I will work on for the rest of the block. I do so, until the next exercise is considered done. I found this quite helpful and observed, it takes me less time to get the next thing under my fingers. 
Good luck and lots of fun on the journey!
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I approach all of Troys books the same way: practice one exercise at a time, in 5 minute blocks (Justin’s practice tool is perfect for this), and at a speed I can successfully do the exercise without mistakes. I slowly raise the speed until I can play the exercise at speed with troys recording, the finally move on. Rinse and repeat. The first 5 minutes I usually go back and redo random exercises just to keep up with them before I move to my current exercises for the rest of practice.
As a side note, speed mechanics for lead guitar is a really advanced book. I think Troy recommends going through most of his guitar method before starting it. That includes metal rhythm guitar Volumes 1 & 2, and metal lead guitar primer and volume 1. (Metal lead volume 2 is where I think he says to pick up speed mechanics). So just something to look into if you haven’t checked those books out yet, they are awesome.
Another tip just in case you don’t know, Troy has a Patreon that has a ton of videos with tips and is relatively cheap. I’d check it out if you are interested in any of troys books.
Hope that helps.
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I see. So, should i stop speed mechanics and start going through his guitar methods through the beginning, then pick it back up after lead vol 2 or just keep going through speed mechanics?
If you are a complete beginner then yeah, I’d stop speed mechanics and go for the first book: Metal Rhythm guitar Volume 1. That book assumes 0 knowledge of guitar but can still be a bit tricky for an absolute beginner. I’d recommend going through Justin’s course at least up to power chords before diving into even that book.
Order of operations for just Troy’s method though is as follows:
- Metal Rhythm guitar Volume 1 & 2 - These books just teach rhythm guitar. Each chapter teaches a couple of concepts and gives you progressively more difficult exercises. Chapters culminate in a song that incorporates everything a chapter teaches you. There are 12 songs total, one for each chapter, 6 in each book.
Side Note: If you are interested in what the songs sound like, I’ve actually recorded and posted all 6 songs for Rhythm Vol. 1 and the first song for rhythm volume 2 right here in the forum: AlexisDuprey - Troy Stetina's Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol.1 - Songs 1-6 and Luck Day - Troy Stetina
- Metal Lead guitar Primer and Volumes1 & 2 - Troy sometimes recommends starting to learn lead with his primer book around the same time you start Rhythm volume 2. After finishing rhythm 2 and primer you’d do Lead 1 & 2. Similarly to Rhythm, each chapter gives you concepts that culminate into a solo. 12 solos total for volumes 1 & 2 split between the books. The solos in 2 get crazy fast. This then leads you to the more advanced books.
- More advanced supplements - This where Speed mechanics and his very large music theory book “Fretboard Mastery” come in. They are both really advanced books and go deep into speed and understanding the fretboard and what you can do with it.
Final piece of advice I have is that if you start Troy’s methods and have any issues understanding a concept, just search Justin’s lessons for the concept. I’ve found that if I don’t understand a concept from one teacher, just watching a video from the other explaining the same concept but from a different angle helps with getting the bigger picture.
Anyway, that’s a lot of information, lol. These methods take a long time, I posted the first song in Troy’s method July of last year and song 7 about a year later so take your time to really get the concepts right. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’m a big fan of both Troy and Justin.
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Thanks for all that info! Really helpful. How long do you think it would take for me to complete every single one of the books you mentioned? I usually get time to practice for about an hour or two every day.
Many years. Check out this random YouTuber doing “lightnings edge” this is solo #10 of the method if I remember correctly.
The level of skill one needs to play this is far beyond my level for sure and I’ve been playing for almost 2 years now (really not long at all).
That’s not to dissuade you from pursuing it. Just want to give you a clearer picture of the path ahead.
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