Guitar Player Reviews

A Review of Charlie Wallace's Latest E-Book, 'Guitar-Burning Speed'

Author: B.K. Miller

Have you ever wondered what the "secret" is to playing guitar at blistering speeds?  What is it that the 'guitar gods' like Eddie Van Halen or Steve Vai know that you don't?  Well, if you follow the ideas laid out by Charlie Wallace in his latest e-book, Guitar Burning Speed, the answer will really surprise you.

The techniques that Charlie teaches in this book are intended to bolster your ability to fly across the fretboard. In fact, he claims that you'll see at least a 200% improvement in overall speed within 2 weeks if you follow the exercises faithfully for 20 minutes every day.

Sounds great, but is it true?

Well, after about a week of following his system, I started noticing definite improvements. My starting speed was around 120 bpm. By the end of the week, I was comfortably picking at 165 bpm.

A jump in speed of 45 bpm for one week may not seem like that big of a deal to some, but its a big deal for me, given that I've got short fingers to begin with. I'd always thought my only hope would be for someone to invent finger extensions ;-)

The reason Charlie's techniques work is because they focus on the most common weak spots.

For most guitarists, the problem areas come down to coordination between the right and left hands, the speed of the picking hand, and the strength of the 'pinkie' finger'.

Charlie addresses all of these problem areas and more through a series of focused exercises designed to build strength and speed in both hands.

For example, one of the earliest exercises focuses on finger dexterity. Dexterity, as far as guitar playing is concerned, means the ability to move one finger while keeping your other fingers still.

Although I might get in trouble for doing this, I'm going to reveal the dexterity exercise. Here's a screenshot from the book:

This is how all of the exercises are laid out. You get the tab, a picture and an audio example for reference.

He also includes some very helpful bonus material, such as: a desktop metronome, a quick tutorial book on the 'caged' scale system, and an extensive set of midi drum tracks for you to play over.

Now, to be fair, let's talk about some of the drawbacks I found in Guitar Burning Speed.

One thing I didn't like about this book is that its short on explanation. He shows you what to work on, but he doesn't tell you why or how a given exercise is going to improve your speed.

If the secret to speed really is all in strength, coordination and timing...well, that's fine...but I would've liked to see some "right way"/"wrong way" examples -- just something to show which mistakes slow you down, and how.

My two other gripes are minor, but worth mentioning. First, all of the audio examples are played at a slow rate. This is fine to follow along to except when it comes to the arpeggio riffs. On those, I really would prefer to hear some "full speed" samples.

Finally, the caged-scale system e-book he's thrown in is just a sample, not the full book. I understand he wants to sell that separately, but I was still disappointed not to get the whole picture.

Final verdict? I'll give Guitar Burning Speed 3.5 ***/ out of 5 Stars.

At $19.95, it won't put a big dent in your wallet, and I think its worth the investment. There's really no end to what we can learn as guitarists, and Guitar Burning Speed is a good addition to any player's library.

You can check it out below:

Guitar Burning Speed