Troy Stetina

Troy Stetina (born November 16, 1963) is an American guitarist and music educator with more than forty rock and metal instructional methods to his credit, and total sales currently over 1 million units. He was the director of Rock Guitar Studies at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and writer for Guitar One magazine, and now teaches independently.

Background and early years
Stetina grew up in Indiana, the youngest in a family of Olympic cyclists, including his brothers Wayne, Dale and Joel, and won several national medals as a teenager. According to the Rushville Republican, issue July 9, 1973, at the Indiana Bicycle Road Racing championships, Troy won the two miler race for boys aged 8 & 11. Brother Dale was a winner in the 50 mile race for boys 15 & 17. Also Brother Wayne, aged 19 at the time won the 85 mile men's race.

Stetina's mother, an accomplished opera singer, supported his interest in music, and at age 12 she bought him a $60 beginner guitar and little practice amp.

Following formative stints in Private Wave and Wraith, Stetina started giving private guitar lessons part-time at a local music store and found he had a knack for teaching. When a chance meeting with Hal Leonard author/editor Will Schmid occurred at the store, an opportunity to write a heavy-metal instructional method materialized. His first effort was never published due to copyright issues. His second attempt resulted in the highly successful Heavy Metal Rhythm Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) in 1986, and Heavy Metal Lead Guitar in 1987.

The same year the first book was released, Stetina joined the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, in Milwaukee. Although he eventually became Director of the Rock Guitar department, he left in the early 1990s to finally pursue a career as a recording artist.

According to The Journal Times, Stetina is a founding member of the Milwaukee hard rock / alternative band Oversoulss. Teaming up with prog metal drummer Eddie Shapanske, Stetina and Shapanske spent a year working with and auditioning vocalists before teaming up with David Rangel who was previously with the Minneapolis-based band, Mersey Side. They then added bassist Dan Evans. Stetina was also a member of the Milwaukee based progressive metal band Dimension X, replacing the previous guitarist.

According to the Guitar Instructor website, he is internationally recognized and his book Speed Mechanics, has sold more than 100,000 copies. Stetina was an article contributor for the Guitar One magazine in the 2000s. Via the Urban Milwaukee news site, the Wilson Center for the arts refers to him as an "internationally renowned guitarist and clinician".

Stetina is also a Christian. In an interview with Guitariste Metal, he never thought he'd embrace something like Christianity, but certain things in life made him look deeper. From what he said, he didn't subscribe to all of the doctrine in a traditional sense.

1990s
Along with guitarists Dominic Miller and Tony Zemaitis, Stetina was featured in the March 1993 issue of Guitarist magazine.

Collaborating with Charlie Busher, Stetina had the book and CD combination, Speed and Thrash Metal Drum Method released in 1993. It was reviewed in Issue 166 of the Modern Drummer magazine. It received a positive review, beginning with, "It's about time! In the wake of countless rock chart books that assume too much, along comes an instructional book/ CD package that assumes nothing". It catered for those who didn't read music and went from the basics upward. Even though the reviewer said an aspect of it was a bit cursory and misleading, the package was "so valuable" and those who couldn't read music, rockers and non-rockers and those experienced players who play by ear could benefit.

Two videos hosted by Stetina were Beginning Lead Guitar and Beginning Rock Rhythm Guitar were marketed through the Hal Leonard Corp., and were released around 1994, 1995.

2000s
Stetina was interviewed by Bobby Tanzilo for the online magazine, OnMilwaukee in 2005. In the interview he talked about his musical background and the new band Oversoulss that he had put together and who had recorded their debut album and were getting ready to tour with the band Alter Bridge.

Stetina's band, Oversoulss, were set to appear at the Brat Stop in Kenosha in May 2015. At the time the line up comprised Stetina on guitar, David Rangel on vocals, Eddie Shapanske on drums, and Dan Evans on bass.

One of Stetina's articles Return of the Shred, Come Together Two Essential Hybrid Scales appeared in the Volume 9, No 2 February 2006 issue of Guitar One magazine. It was about combining scales and having a wider range.

In 2007, the band he was guitarist in Generation X released their album Impilcations of a Genetic Disease.

2010s
The Conservatorium van Amsterdam reported on November 3, 2010, Troy Stetina and Mark Tremonti were hosting a guitar clinic on the 7th of that month.

Working with Mark Tremonti, helped create the Sound and the Story dvd, which was published by Fret12 Productions.

Stetina was interviewed by Mohsen Fayyazi for Metal Shock Finland which was published on June 25, 2015. Fayyazi has also interviewed people and musicians such as Markus Grosskopf, and Martin Popoff.

Stetina's interview with Mike Huberty of the long-standing Madison music magazine, Maximum Ink was published in September, 2012. He mentioned that he had reached a point in the 1990s where he had given up on bands. He also mentioned is association with Mark Tremonti and his band Second Soul and coming across the lead singer for his band, Scott Yanke.

According to La Scena Musicale, Stetina was booked along with Leo Kottke, Antoine Dufour, Ana Vidovic, and Jonathan Kreisberg to appear at the Wilson Center Guitar Competition & Festival which ran from August 13 to 15, 2015, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts.

Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar
Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar (ISBN 0-7935-0962-9) is a guitar tutorial book by Stetina first published in 1990. It is designed to teach lead guitar techniques, how to practice and encourage evolving creativity. It is split into three sections Mechanics, Rhythm and Creativity. It Includes a rock version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, "Caprice No. 10" by Niccolò Paganini and "Prelude in D" by JS Bach.

Associated bands

 * Private Wave
 * Wraith
 * Titan
 * Second Soul
 * Dimension X
 * Exottica

Guitar lessons: book, book/CD & DVD
Troy Stetina Series guitar lessons:
 * Metal Rhythm Guitar Volume 1
 * Metal Rhythm Guitar Volume 2
 * Speed & Thrash Guitar Method
 * Metal Lead Guitar Primer
 * Metal Lead Guitar Volume 1
 * Metal Lead Guitar Volume 2
 * Metal Guitar Tricks
 * Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar
 * Fretboard Mastery
 * Secrets to Writing Killer Metal Songs
 * Total Rock Guitar
 * The Ultimate Scale Book
 * The Ultimate Barre Chord Guide
 * Left-Handed Guitar
 * Beginning Rock Rhythm Guitar - DVD
 * Beginning Rock Rhythm Guitar - VHS
 * Beginning Rock Rhythm Guitar - book (English)
 * Beginning Rock Rhythm Guitar - book (Spanish)
 * Beginning Rock Lead Guitar - DVD
 * Beginning Rock Lead Guitar - VHS
 * Beginning Rock Lead Guitar - book (English)
 * Beginning Rock Lead Guitar - book (Spanish)
 * Troy Stetina's Guitar Lessons: Hard Rock
 * Troy Stetina's Guitar Lessons: Funk Rock
 * Acoustic Rock
 * The Very Best of Ozzy Osbourne (with Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee & Zakk Wylde)
 * Best of Foo Fighters
 * Best of Rage Against The Machine
 * Best of Black Sabbath
 * Best of Black Sabbath - DVD
 * Best of Aggro-Metal
 * Deep Purple Greatest Hits
 * Modern Rock - DVD
 * Hard Rock - DVD
 * The Best of Joe Satriani by Dale Turner (Troy Stetina recorded all of the music on the accompanying CD)
 * Dream Theater - Signature Licks
 * Speed Mechanics for Drums
 * Speed and thrash metal drum method (with Charlie Bushor)

Appearances

 * Mark Tremonti, The Sound And The Story, 2009.

Books & further reading

 * Modern Drummer, September 1993 - Page 106 Speed and Thrash Metal Drum Method by Troy Stetina and Charlie Busher - Review by Matt Peiken
 * OnMilwaukee, Apr 07, 2005 - Despite impressive resume, Stetina lacks name recognition at home By Bobby Tanzilo
 * Metal Shock Finland, October 13, 2011 - Interview with TROY STETINA: Music truly is the world’s best hope to cross borders, cross cultures and show humanity what we have in common. Interview by Mohsen Fayyazi
 * Maximum Ink Madison's music magazine, September 2012 - Second Soul AN INTERVIEW WITH TROY STETINA OF SECOND SOUL BY MIKE HUBERTY
 * Guitariste Metal, 3 Octobre 2014 - Troy Stetina interview
 * Troy Stetina Series