Kick-starting your playing

[atilla]

What books, Web site or DVDs have you guys used to give your technique or composing skills a boost?

I've always liked Troy Stetina's "Speed Mechanics of Lead Guitar" and I just picked up a John Petrucci book that has some terrific warm-ups. I also use www.guitarknowledgenet.com for scale and chord references.

[jazzman]

Re: Kick-starting your playing

I've been a guitar intstructor for 15 years or so. I studied music in college so the theory helped a lot. Much of it I knew the "sound" of but learned what it was and how it worked. So, any decent book on music theory would be good. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be specific to rock music. If you don't already, you should learn to read music at least enough to be able to find the notes on the guitar from using the sheet music. Even if it takes 5 minutes to find a note, that can be enough to help you understand the books.

The stuff that got me into the speed and keeping my picking clean was mostly learning Yngwie in high school, Paul Gilbert later on, and Dream Theater to name a few. I used to take some of the harder, faster licks and play them slow for warmup. Arpeggios always seemed to be an effective way to loosen up my fingers.

[shredmonster]

Re: Kick-starting your playing

Go back a few pages in this forum. Check out my post Shredmonster Favorite Links.

[atilla]

Re: Kick-starting your playing

[ QUOTE ]
Go back a few pages in this forum. Check out my post Shredmonster Favorite Links.

[/ QUOTE ]

Will do. Many thanks, Shredmonster.

[David Dineen]

Re: Kick-starting your playing

check out "How to Write Songs on Guitar" by Rikky Rooksby. its a very comprehensive book that reviews all the chord progressions that "work", gives instruction about what goes with odd chords, and how to "reharmonize" etc.

[Emthrax]

Re: Kick-starting your playing

The Stetina series is awesome, so is the Rikky Rooksby book-I refer to that one a lot too.
Another book I use extensively is "Rhythm Guitar The Complete Guide" by Bruce Buckingham and Eric Pascal. It was put out by the Musicians Institute. It is an absolute gold mine of knowledge. [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

Em