Troy Nelson Guitar Aerobics (Book & Online Audio) (Book)

I returned to the guitar 7 years ago after a 30year lag. As a beginner, the book was for me too much at once and after several attempts to make it routine I put it on the book case with the intent to return to it "at some point". Recently I have and I was right to keep it as opposed to relegate to a charity shop. My thoughts for what they are worth... If you are truly just beginning, then hold fire for 6 months or more. Get your hands and fingers toughened up , with an element of independence and basic rhythm. It does favour an electric guitar but don't be put off. You can work through this book with an acoustic (I swap between) and get the benefit. Set aside 5-10minutes only for the exercise. Concentrate on understanding the pattern very slowly and concentrate on getting it to the beat. The goal, get that bit right. It will seem dull and lack musical interest but this is more about skill than wowing the crowd with speed. Set timer and stop. To cement the skill, find a favourite lick that uses the concept of the exercise (I sought out a few bars from Pink Floyd). You don't have to but I found it more interesting to then spend 10 minutes putting the skill into a context of something I knew and therefore more likely to play it when just noodling around. If you try to get perfection at high bpm, you will stay there for a while or get frustrated. Move on and don't dwell; the exercises increase in complexity therefore tackling something harder each week is the progress you need. I was tempted to go back a few weeks and see if I was faster. I wasn't but was able to pick up the tempo by about 30% within 10minutes. I decided that was interesting but then just proves I am progressing in ability by following the program. As mentioned I returned to this recently so have been playing for many years. I started at the beginning but did two exercises a day as some I could master quickly. I did struggle on some (stuff I had avoided in the past). If you are an intermediate then the choice is yours. The author suggests entry points and I was tempted but decided that accelerating through the stuff I could do was better that ignoring it as I did have to work out some bad habits. My conclusion, this is a good structured routine that is varied, relevant to pretty much anything you may want to play, will give you a great sense of rhythm / technique and does not need you to spend hours a day. I give 5 stars only but I don't think it is truly for a start out beginner. As with an aerobics class (I have done one or two), you need to get the steps right in your mind apply to the rhythm before you can go crazy.

A specific technique for each day of the week gradually differing exercise over 52 weeks. However you go at your own pace. All exercises are written in tablature with a very brief explanation. Comes with backing tracks to help keep tempo Would recommend to people who've got to grips with the basics of guitar teachings.

I have just completed this 'course' and yes I stuck to the 52 weeks part, it took me the full 1 year of 52 weeks of practice but I digressed from the 1 exercise a day bit! Why? Well, early on I found out that however much practice you do on a given day it is in the repetitive nature of things that you really make noticeable progress (well, in my case that is how things tend to pan out). So what I did was practice all 7 exercises per day - depending on the complexity of the exercise that would be anything from a few minutes to several minutes of practice per exercise and roughly 30-60 minutes a day. What I found was that by practicing a given exercise for 7 days I got better at it than just spending 10 or 15 minutes on it and moving onto the next exercise the following day. In all fairness to the recommended routine, I just don't see how you gain anything much in the long term by spending one session on something, however easy it is. Right now I a have returned to the book after completing it and am going through it again - on the whole I am able to pretty much 'hit' every exercise at full tempo to a 'decent' standard and complete a weeks worth of exercises in 20 minutes or so - I do this to not only inform myself of how my playing has improved but also to fine tune certain skills that I am still developing. As far as the book is concerned, yes, it can be somewhat challenging and I think you might be better off with a year of guitar playing (or so) under your belt first, if only to lessen the frustration will will inevitably have when you come across some of the slightly more challenging exercises - and they will 'hit' you early on. If your a complete beginner do yourself a favour and get some practice in first, by all means buy it and see for yourself, try a few exercises and you will probably agree that it is something for the not too distant future. The exercises are pretty varied covering arpeggios, chord progressions, scales, riffs to name a few - they are all relatively short being mostly 4 bars. If I had any complaints it would be that 1) I wish chord charts were shown above the tab's and 2) A little more explanation of what is going on would have been helpful - the 'format' of 2 pages of tabs per week obviously restricted space, so it is what it is! If you are enjoying this book and want more I also recommend 2 other books from Troy Nelson which are also presented via a 52 week practice schedule: Fretboard Freedom: A 52-Week, One-Lick-Per-Day Method & Rhythm Guitar 365 Daily Exercises Developing Improving Gtr: Daily Exercises for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Rhythm - both books touch on similar ground to 'Aerobics' with the first being a somewhat 'easier' step into short riffs and scales and the latter concentrating more on chord and rhythm work and being somewhat more challenging, without a doubt this latter title is definitely not going to be 'fun' for anyone who has not got some solid foundational practice in place.

I got this book as a recommendation from my guitar teacher, and I can say it was a great purchase. It takes you through the most common electric guitar techniques in a progressive way. Exercises will increase in difficulty from week to week, but the difference is that a specific week will build upon what was done the previous week in such a way that it will challenge you just a tiny bit more. You'll definitely get better at playing the electric guitar without experiencing any frustration or discomfort.

This is a great book to build up hand dexterity and strength. The exercises are well presented both in musical notation and tablature. The audio examples are downloaded via web address from the book. These can be downloaded without signing up to anything and play well.

Title says it all. Wanna make your fingers make magic? You just found your personal trainer. This is indeed a good book for training your fingers using various ways and techniques. Sometimes we get stuck doing the same exercises over and over again or we just practice a certain aspect of our finger movement and we give up on the guitar after seeing minor improvement. With this book you will be able to get a comprehensive exercise repertoire that will save you from a lot of hassle. All you need to do is practice. The exercises are already there for you. You may find it frustrating at first to try to memorize and understand an exercise before you apply it (at least i did) but the book compensates for that by having the exercises of each day follow the same pattern and evolve bit by bit. The audio that is provided with the book (both the ones on how the exercise should sound and the ones for the rhythm on various tempos) really helps as well.

Been playing such months and wanted something regular to do each day and the book provides this. Managed to do the first couple of weeks exercises but could never reach the tempo suggested. Will go back to it on a year or two when I am a better player. Think the exercises are really for someone who can play quite well and wants a good finger workout

The review of this book must be seen in the context of the experience of its user. I have been playing electric guitar for 2 years now, about 1 hour per day, almost every day of the week. I made considerable progress but I wished I had a path to follow to improve gradually, being well aware that one needs practice practice practice at this stage and fun must be second priority. I started with this book from week 1 and found immediately that some of the exercises were actually fun. Each week, there is one exercise covering the following styles: alternate picking, arpeggios, sweep picking, string skipping, legato, string bending, and rhythm guitar. I enjoyed especially string bending and alternate picking that lend themselves to distortion/ effects. I took me more than a week to feel I could master the exercises of week 1 and go to the next one. This did not bother me, it means that the book will be on use for more than the 52 weeks it covers! Week 2 exercises build on week 1, so I found it easier to make progress - and still fun. In summary, I highly recommend this book. The CD is excellent too.