Tadpui
Well-known member
My nephew was doing one of those elementary school fund raisers where they sell magazine subscriptions. I was in a rare mood so I went ahead and ordered a couple of subscriptions. One of the magazines I chose was Guitar World (the other was Scientific American, since I'm getting bored with Discover magazine after about 5 years).
I haven't had a subscription to a guitar mag for about 15 years now. Back then it was Guitar For The Practicing Musician, which I think became Guitar Magazine. I was never into Guitar World for whatever reason.
So after all these years, I browsed through my first issue of a guitar mag in a decade and a half. It's funny how so much has changed yet so much has stayed the same. There's still dozens of pics of long-haired dudes with pained expressions on their faces, sweating and headbanging and what not. The faces have changed but its the same as the early 1990s. Lots of shredding-centric material that I don't care for so much. And TONS of interviews with guitarists that I've never even heard of. I've been out of the loop of shred-tastic guitarists ever since I lost interest in shredding after high school. But there are some good lessons tucked away in there, and some good gear reviews too.
As for the tabs, which is the real reason to read any guitar mag if you ask me, they're pretty passable. They seem to do a good job of keeping their tab selection diverse in each issue. This issue has a couple of songs by new bands who I've never heard of. One song in drop-C# tuning, and one by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They put a couple of AC/DC songs in there too, but I can't imagine that too many people actually need a tablature to figure out those songs. I think it was actually more difficult to try to follow along with the tab to Hell's Bells than to just feel it out.
But the big winner was that they put Mister Crowley from Ozzy in there. Now there's a song I loved to try to play back in high school. I sat with it for a bit last night but it's been too long since I've heard the album version of that song. I'll have to listen again and see if I can't get the tab down pat on that one. Learning some new songs will be a good change, since I've been playing pretty much the same songs to myself and the crickets in my basement for a decade now.
Anybody else subscribe to any of the guitar rags? Have the issues kept your attention, or have you started to lose interest in the majority of the content in each issue? I wonder if I'll just be tossing them aside without reading them by the end of my 1-year subscription.
I haven't had a subscription to a guitar mag for about 15 years now. Back then it was Guitar For The Practicing Musician, which I think became Guitar Magazine. I was never into Guitar World for whatever reason.
So after all these years, I browsed through my first issue of a guitar mag in a decade and a half. It's funny how so much has changed yet so much has stayed the same. There's still dozens of pics of long-haired dudes with pained expressions on their faces, sweating and headbanging and what not. The faces have changed but its the same as the early 1990s. Lots of shredding-centric material that I don't care for so much. And TONS of interviews with guitarists that I've never even heard of. I've been out of the loop of shred-tastic guitarists ever since I lost interest in shredding after high school. But there are some good lessons tucked away in there, and some good gear reviews too.
As for the tabs, which is the real reason to read any guitar mag if you ask me, they're pretty passable. They seem to do a good job of keeping their tab selection diverse in each issue. This issue has a couple of songs by new bands who I've never heard of. One song in drop-C# tuning, and one by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They put a couple of AC/DC songs in there too, but I can't imagine that too many people actually need a tablature to figure out those songs. I think it was actually more difficult to try to follow along with the tab to Hell's Bells than to just feel it out.
But the big winner was that they put Mister Crowley from Ozzy in there. Now there's a song I loved to try to play back in high school. I sat with it for a bit last night but it's been too long since I've heard the album version of that song. I'll have to listen again and see if I can't get the tab down pat on that one. Learning some new songs will be a good change, since I've been playing pretty much the same songs to myself and the crickets in my basement for a decade now.
Anybody else subscribe to any of the guitar rags? Have the issues kept your attention, or have you started to lose interest in the majority of the content in each issue? I wonder if I'll just be tossing them aside without reading them by the end of my 1-year subscription.
. They could just put her on every page and I'd be content with the amount of advertisements.