There are so many schools of thought when it comes to guitar technique. I believe there are benefits to studying with different guitarists with high technical proficiency.
Even if I don’t play in the same style, it’s useful to see how they practice & look at the instrument. Sometimes the smallest piece of information can be life changing.
With guitar virtuoso Michael Angelo Batio, we are blessed with a lof of instructional materials that he has released over the years.
In today’s review, I look at Speed Kills 1 which is a revision of the original Speed Kills from 1991. This instructional video pack includes a 57-minute video, 17 exercises, PDF files and Guitar Pro files. The production is high quality. Everything from the audio & video is clear. This is all professionally done by Doug Marks’s Metal Method Productions, Inc.
The videos gives you alternate picking, economy picking (both scalar & sweep picking phrases), legato, hybrid picking and even some tapping exercises.
In between the demonstration & explanation for each exercise, you also get a few segments where Michael Angelo Batio talks about pick angle, economy of motion, tremolo picking & finding the technique that works for you.
With the economy picking – you need to look at the screen to see where the consecutive picking movements in the same direction occur. This is not a problem though since the video is well recorded and everything is well produced.
In conclusion, this video is a good guide to different exercises that can help develop your chops. Within the 17 exercises that you get in this video, there’s plenty to chew on. While this is not a “guitar course”, it certainly is a good rock guitar technique video for anyone looking to improve your overall picking speed and technique.
Pros: Effective focused exercises that work to help improve your overall rock guitar based picking technique and some other related techniques including hybrid picking, legato playing and tapping.
Cons: Since this is a pre-Troy Grady period instructional video, there is not much discussion of the actual picking mechanics and movement. Picking directions are explained (up or down) but other elements such as string hopping, inside picking, outside picking are not addressed in this video.
TLDR: If you need specific instruction on basic picking movements, this would not be the best place to start. However, if you already understand picking basics & you want just picking exercises that work, this video is amazing.
You can get the video separately here: https://store.metalmethod.com/p/speed-kills-1/
… or video the Speed Kills Bundle here.
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[Submissions for Review Consideration]
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