Dear Guitar Techniques

Jetfire

Dear GT, 

Please stop with the blues stuff. Just stop. I get it why you do it but peddling the same style of music over and over is frankly pretty depressing. I have been a subscriber now for around a year and pretty much all the covers and main stories have been about the blues. So if you could give it a rest, that would be fab. Obviously, if you're devoid of ideas, how about these for a few suggestions: 

• Song Studies (ie, take 3 songs and break them down into the lowest factors and build them up. (Ie, the key/mode, focus on fills, gear used, sounds, ideas to expand on make things flashier/tastier/groovier

• Feature someone on the cover who doesnt play the blues and has actually released something recent (and dont try the Jo Bonamassa route, otherwise you'll over do him like you have done with Gary Moore) 
• Try doing something Jazz or rock as a feature (and not classic blues inspired rock, try the 80s/90s for a change) 
• Finger style acoustic songs for complete beginners (because, you know, not everyone can do the stuff you have in the magazine) 
• Go for broke, do a metal song for a change. Like, a Pantera track, or a Slipknot track. Yeah, you did Anthrax a while a go but one small feature out of 12 months isnt that great. 
• 8 Finger tapping? I cant even tap with one finger... How about a beginners guide to that instead? 
  

And yes, I do understand you have to sell to your strengths and yes, I do understand that blues is your cash cow.  Total Guitar covers the kiddy stuff (hence the endless rotation of Slash, Trivium etc on the cover). Dont worry, you wont turn into Guitar World who ONLY do metal songs and stuff if you dont it once. Try it, you may like it. 

While I've got your attention, that "HOW MUSIC WORKS" feature got me really excited (steady at the back) and interested but I think you blew it because you jammed far too much into it and watered it down to the point of nothing. How about doing something which actually inspires a 30-something year old with WIDE ranging tastes (and I dont just mean metal and a bit of blues, I mean proper wide ranging.. 

Yours

Me. 

Bogwhoppit

I have two friends who work for EMAP, both on different publications. They work on a cycle of topics which are regurgitated each year. The premise being, they hope the subscriber becomes an habitual buyer. A simple formula  that's applied to many other 'how to' magazines. The most well known being the monthly photographic publications - Amatuer porn -- er photographer etc.

Deijavoo

The very reason I stopped subscribing to GT back in 2000 was the relentless blues. In the 90s there was some amazing tech stuck from Mike Varney, Guthrie Govan, Shaun Baxter etc.... but even if that wasn't your thing then This Love: Pantera was transcribed next to "In the style of" Manic Street Preachers, Oasis etc....

It was an altogether much better magazine and from what I've just read I won't be renewing any time soon.

Jalapeno

AP has an article on Fill-In flash about every 3 months !

Deijavoo

A to Z of Riffs!

Does that still run?

First copy I ever bought was because it had A to Z, and this month it was N for Nirvana, and also featured Dream Theatre: Under A Glass Moon.

Still have that very copy.

Gizmo

I can see why its hard for any mag these days to get ppl to part with cash,pretty much everything you want to learn Techniques wise will be covered in a youtube vid - podcast or somewhere else online

I think the blues thing being there cash cow might also come down to age vs technology,most 50-60+ people i know are scared to death of computers and most of them who are players came up on blues or rock/blues based stuff,if they can't get there fill of guitar stuff online because there technophobic there going to hit the news stands,so for GT its a case of "see a need,fill a need"

I brought a load of GT mag from a car boot earlier in the year,most of them from 2008-2009 and pretty much everyone has a massive blues features they also have a few readers letters pretty much like the opening thread "saying enough with the blues already" ed's response is we'll try and cover more stuff not just blues....seems that sentiment didn't last long.

I think http://www.iguitarmag.com/ have pretty much got it down for my tastes but im a 80's-90's shred/fusion/prog kinda guy so the more tech the more guitar the better

ThePrettyDamned

I like it when they review pedals based on the price. Eg, expensive distortion is tasteful and smooth, even if it was just a ds 1. I remember when they reviewed the dano pedals (timmy clone) and said it was a bit rubbish sounding...

I agree though. So many blooze. I would love a regular feature on modern metal or rock. They very rarely dissect protest the hero, but I'd buy an issue just for that.

They did a pull me under feature a few years back that I still have... That was a nice change.

EricTheWeary

UK guitar mags tend to mine a very narrow vein. I get that Joe Bonamassa on the cover sells copies but I don't get that for regular readers there can't be stuff inside that is a bit less mainstream. I think this applies to techniques as well. Where is the funk, country ( maybe just), reggae, afro pop,flamenco, alt tunings,surf,slide ( that isn't how you do Elmore James a diddly diddly dee) and other stuff? Even the blues articles seem largely fixated on the 60's blues boom.
Of course there are exceptions but it seems UK guitar mags are happy to choke themselves to death on blues rock, indie rock and classic rock.

not_the_dj

EricTheWeary said:

surf

Still waiting for the revival [-O<

TTony

Jetfire said:

Dear GT, 

I think you've posted this on the wrong forum.

Try MusicRadar ...

digitalscream

It's just going with the target market - let's face it, for the last few years there's been this blues obsession amongst the guitarist community, whereby it's seen as the One True Genre, the only one with feels etc. It absolutely drives me nuts.

Honestly, I love blues music, but I haven't heard anything from that genre which could remotely be termed "moving forward". In fact, I haven't heard anything by a blues artist lately that doesn't sound like stuff that's already been regurgitated five times over.

EricTheWeary

not_the_dj;70722" said:

EricTheWeary said:

surfStill waiting for the revival [-O<

hey - its happened in my house! The kids aren't that happy to go to school in shorts and Hawaiian shirts though.

PolarityMan

Jetfire said:

Dear GT, 

Please stop with the blues stuff. Just stop. I get it why you do it but peddling the same style of music over and over is frankly pretty depressing. I have been a subscriber now for around a year and pretty much all the covers and main stories have been about the blues. So if you could give it a rest, that would be fab. Obviously, if you're devoid of ideas, how about these for a few suggestions: 

• Song Studies (ie, take 3 songs and break them down into the lowest factors and build them up. (Ie, the key/mode, focus on fills, gear used, sounds, ideas to expand on make things flashier/tastier/groovier

• Feature someone on the cover who doesnt play the blues and has actually released something recent (and dont try the Jo Bonamassa route, otherwise you'll over do him like you have done with Gary Moore) 
• Try doing something Jazz or rock as a feature (and not classic blues inspired rock, try the 80s/90s for a change) 
• Finger style acoustic songs for complete beginners (because, you know, not everyone can do the stuff you have in the magazine) 
• Go for broke, do a metal song for a change. Like, a Pantera track, or a Slipknot track. Yeah, you did Anthrax a while a go but one small feature out of 12 months isnt that great. 
• 8 Finger tapping? I cant even tap with one finger... How about a beginners guide to that instead? 
  

And yes, I do understand you have to sell to your strengths and yes, I do understand that blues is your cash cow.  Total Guitar covers the kiddy stuff (hence the endless rotation of Slash, Trivium etc on the cover). Dont worry, you wont turn into Guitar World who ONLY do metal songs and stuff if you dont it once. Try it, you may like it. 

While I've got your attention, that "HOW MUSIC WORKS" feature got me really excited (steady at the back) and interested but I think you blew it because you jammed far too much into it and watered it down to the point of nothing. How about doing something which actually inspires a 30-something year old with WIDE ranging tastes (and I dont just mean metal and a bit of blues, I mean proper wide ranging.. 

Yours

Me. 

Dear Jetfire,

You appear to be addressing this post to a guitar magazine , perhaps you would have more luck looking up their email address on the internet and sending this same letter to them?

I agree with many of your points, especially as an avid metal fan but I'm afraid my influence at this publication is somewhere less than zero so I don't think I can be of any more help to you.

Love and Kisses,

PolarityMan

Jetfire

Dear PolarityMan (and all the others) 

I would consider this posting to be an open letter to anyone who reads it. Sadly, I cant be arsed to email them as from what I have seen, read etc, they wouldnt do jack shit about it anyway. I just fancied doing a post about it to see if others felt the same as me. 

Many thanks, 

Jetfire

stonevibe

Stop wasting money on magazines and go online / get a book or buy a few lessons from a decent tutor instead.

p90fool

not_the_dj;70722" said:

EricTheWeary said:

surfStill waiting for the revival [-O<

I went to a bike/car show called The Trip Out in September, almost all the bands were instrumental surf

Gizmo is right, magazines on any subject have to appeal to people who are afraid of the internet, ie, old people or convicted paedophiles, for whom bad blues-rock is the last refuge. Obvious really.

Catthan

I get them for the jazz column which are descent or when Guthrie writes smth. But I was put off when I saw a 2nd Joe Pass feature within 18 months or less. Iguitarmag is good though. I saw a vid of John Wheatcroft doing some Eric Johnson stuff and wrote to them asking for a feature on him since they already have the man to do it but they didn't reply..

thomasross20

There was a more recent thread on this but couldn't find it. 

I bought two issues about 5 months ago or so. 

But the last few... jesus, back to the same old "improve your blues"...

... since I'm now a member of jamplay I can hand on heart say that unless the mag steps up to do some really new interesting articles other than blues I'm ditching it as I've got a LOT to work on through jamplay. VERY disappointed to see the usual blues guff again and again.

mellowsun

If you want a different take, try Acoustic magazine. Their techniques section is pretty extensive, covering classical, bluegrass, folk, modern percussive fingerstyle, looping, etc.

There is a lot of good content on GT, but why they put 'Blues' on the front cover of every issue is a mystery to me.

DefaultM

I stopped my paper subscription and now just get the iPad version. It's only £2.49 a month so I don't mind too much, whereas I got sick of having loads of magazines taking up space all filled with the same stuff.
What did it for me was getting the hybrid picking special and it being EXACTLY the same lesson that I initially learned to hybrid pick from in the same magazine a few years ago.

thomasross20

I can't be doing with noline mags - jamplay is good as it's mostly vids but I can't stare at the screen too long. 

Yes, there's a lot of recycling in these mags. 

Acoustic magazine is good but no CD, right? I hate that - if there's a tab I want the CD!