Guitar Techniques Mag Disappointment

[Shep]

I've been buying Guitar Techniques magazine regularly for the past 4 years but have recently become disillusioned with the content and haven't bought one for a good few months.

I was wondering if anyone else has stopped buying it for the same reason? I'm personally sick of it being full of pentatonic blues licks every single issue, it's as if the whole mag's been dumbed down over the past 6 months. I know they have to cater for all abilities but I feel as if the content has become monotonous and not good value for money, especially since they put the price up to £5.25 per mag. It's the same reason why I stopped buying Total Guitar, it turned more into a general music magazine and the content was dumbed down beyond belief!

[Lyle]

I stopped buying it for exactly the same reason. It's just pap now really.

[Rick]

i got a total guitar recently and it was shite, can't get guitar techniques in cyprus, but to be fair shep, you and lyle are streets ahead of your average player and to be honest most good players, you need like guitar technique mastermind edition or something.

[Stew]

gave up about a year ago for same reason Shep!!

[Rob]

Like a lot of these mags I find they are padded out with shite and if i was to get something from them every few months I was lucky. Internet put an end to my magazine buying, I always purchased GT and Guitarist magazine, thought guitarist was the best all round. Internet gives you the choice to search out what you are interested in.

[GregDavies]

I totally agree, guitar techniques seems full of The Eagles and middle of the road kinda stuff.... Total guitar is just like Kerrang but more guitary!:facepalm:

[ZappaFan]

I gave up on the Guitar mags when I realised they were nothing more than glorified ad pages. When you see them giving an £80 far eastern guitar an 8/10 rating you know they have lost their editorial integrity. Not saying that all far eastern guitars are poor, there are some pretty good guitars available these days, but you just never ever see a bad review in the mags these days.

[Tony4552]

I used to get them all, and nowadays there just full of the samething the covered 3 issues before, I would rather save my fiver and use backers off the net, and when it comes to theory have you noticed apart from Shaun Baxters Jazz metal lessons yrs ago theyre all a load of bum

[Shep]

I used to get them all, and nowadays there just full of the samething the covered 3 issues before, I would rather save my fiver and use backers off the net, and when it comes to theory have you noticed apart from Shaun Baxters Jazz metal lessons yrs ago theyre all a load of bum

Thats the only reason I bought GT for, Shaun Baxter's lessons and Pete Callard's Jazz column.

[Rick]

tony4552 and jazz in the same sentence :facepalm: and he wasn't talking about hitting someone, i never thought i would see the day

[zeusse]

Your all correct with your statements this is a bad time for publishers in alot
different avenues....this big bohemeth called the web is wiping out the magazine subscriptions and store sales. We did see this coming didn't we? Thus the reason in the guitar world why people are turning to the guitar sites like this one and many others. How many times do I watch over a few short years as you younger guys(no offense I hope I'm old) just blossom into guitar guru's in such a short time.....this would not have happened as often prior to the internet guitar sites....thats why us older dudes struggle...really! Its been an ongoing learning curve for me for years with technology and already I watch you guys blaze a fire trail that I can only just watch burn out in the distance as I hash my usual fodder. My only issue is and its a biggy. How much better can some of you players get? Now that may seem like a low budget statement but its not. Let me explain my idiotic thought process and you can laugh as a washed up hack try's to be modern...hehe

When I see a kid that wants to play guitar or for that matter and adult, but we'll say lets use kid and my daughter as an example. She decides that, really the guitar is too cool and Dad really ain't the old stick in the mud she thought. Ok she said I want to learn....with my evil grin I say well of course you do sweetheart. She had a new acoustic guitar in her hands faster than you can play Stairway to Heaven. Are you gonna teach me Dad? she said underneath the pink and black bangs that cover her eyes. My answer was so simple and yet so eliquent.....NO! but later on I will. The look on her face was puzzling and my wife thought I had lost my mind again...so the reason is this. I watch too often as parents buy kids equipment and guitars and then pay money for lessons with teachers and really the kid hasn't even begun to understand the commitment level required to become the next Satriani or Vai or whatever....they need to understand this first and really you gotta have passion above anything else. Should everyone sound like Satch and Vai of course not but I'm really refering to the passion for playing guitar. Why spend loads of money just to find out your not really the right person for this instrument. Kids want to be popular and famous and since the 50's everyone wants to be Elvis..maybe just a more modern version now. The magazines show lovely diagrams of this and that and Wow I say look at the pretty pictures....last time I noticed my guitar makes sounds magazines don't. The internet will show kids the picture the riff and the sound and that instills passion faster than anything else....wow I watch Lyle play and think this would have been just killer to watch when I was 16, most dudes I knew struggled to play Whole Lotta Love. Watching guys like Lyle and Shep bring the goods are the whole reason to understand why the magazines are dying. I've said it before here on posts the guitarists of today have it made in the learning world......the mags are the old media and the net is the new....and improved.....ok back to my latte'

[Stew]

well said Eric!! The wealth of material on the internet compared to when we were that age is phenomenol and does make it that bit easy to get to the next stage in the learning curve. But as you said the committment has got be there and when you speak to lyle or Shep you realise they live and breath guitar adn only take 15min breaks for the odd curry (ain't that right Lyle lol).

Its a shame for those involved with magazines but surely they can just move on to the new technology adn leave magazines for pictures of Suri Cruise or the Beckhams in OK!! lol....who knows we can save trees in the process....

[Lyle]

only take 15min breaks for the odd curry (ain't that right Lyle lol).



:smile:

[bluesgeek]

but I like a magazine, I subscribe to 'Guitarist' and I read it in the bath - it wouldn't be clever of me to do that with the interweb ;)

[zeusse]

but I like a magazine, I subscribe to 'Guitarist' and I read it in the bath - it wouldn't be clever of me to do that with the interweb ;)there are other magazines for bath time:fruitsex:...lol

[bluesgeek]

there are other magazines for bath time:fruitsex:...lol

yeah there are other avenues for that too - again, taking the interwebz into the bath is not a good idea ;)

[Tony4552]

Eric hit the nail on the head, the old fart speaks sense to me

[Tony4552]

Years ago I got a Guitar World magazine and it had all the diatonics modes in it was a lesson by Steve Morse well this got me hooked, so I then got all the magazines at the time, Guitar World and Guitar School, Guitar and Guitarist, at the time that was it, and half the time they repeated eachother, so I joined the library and got books like Classical Violin that had the scales/chords in and learnt them, imagine how many years of this would of been shaven off if I could of just sat infront of a PC and learnt, and the great thing is I am still learning. Magazines now are just adverts and pretty pictures