Top 10 Reasons You Should Subscribe To “Guitar World” Magazine

 

Top 10 16 Reasons You Should Subscribe To "Guitar World" Magazine

1. Support the people who keep the passion alive for everything guitar - visit the website too, while you're at it.
2. Two year subscription is less than a price of case of beer
3. Exclusive guitar lessons and tips with the biggest names in axemanship
4. Transcriptions of popular and legendary tunes accurate to a T.
5. New sound gear and guitars reviews.
   
   
   
6. Cool and revealing interviews with guitar heroes of all styles and approaches
7. Would you recognize Peter Frampton if you ran into him on the street today? “Guitar World” readers would.
   Hint: He looks much different from “Frampton Comes Alive” days.
8. Interesting and curios facts about legendary albums and songs. Did you know that AC/DC's “Hell's Bells” was originally written in E, but Mutt Lange changed it to A during recording sessions for "Back in Black"? Yes, I learned that from the coolest guitar magazine on the planet.
9. Guitar posters – thank you guys for bringing them back.
10. Keeping the memory of immortal guitar genius of Jimi Hendrix alive for both old and new generations of axemen.  See Jimi on  all the covers throughout the years.
11. ...and the memory of Dimebag, Randy Rhoads, Kurt Cobain, Cliff Burton, George Harrison, Frank Zappa, Chuck Schuldiner,... and other fallen guitar heroes.
12. Super cool special editions of the "Guitar Legends" including The Beatles, The Blues, Neil Young, Jimi, Iron Maiden, Rush and many more.  Keep them coming, please.  
13. "100 of the World's Most Iconic Guitars" and "Five Greatest Rock Albums" editions  of "Guitar Legends".  "Girls and Guitars" is whole lotta beauty to see for any guitar guy.

14.  Speaking of girls - Buyer's Guides are useful things to have, and YES,                                              they do come with many photos of scantily clad ladies shot around all that 
       gear.
15. Guitar World's own instructional DVDs ranging from beginner guitar to blues,
       slide, rock, shred, and bass guitar.  Very groovy!
16.  THEE guitarist's website, and all the amazing pictures and videos there!

Rest in peace Hubert Sumlin.  
The work of your genius stays behind you set in stone... 

Guitar Practice Makes Pro

We all know the old stand-by of how “practice makes perfect”, and her sister: “It's 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration”. These two had been over-used, misused, rephrased, rehashed, and generally exposed to a lot of action and wear over the years. That had effectively turned them into clichés.

And yet, they still stand their ground in its grandiose truth of rewarding persistence and dedication of hard workers, as opposed to fleeting groove of “feeling it”. Inferior music aptitude will get further through work than “naturally born gifted” ever will on sheer talent.

Allow me to use this cliché one more time, and confirm that practice indeed makes perfect for anyone – it makes pro out of novice guitar player. It is obvious when it comes to technique for it requires mechanical skills, and those are acquired through exercises and repetition only.

The very structure of the practice will have everything to do with how fast we can gain more skills and musicianship. If the guitar practice is regularly re-occurring event filled with proper warm up, mix of technical drills, guitar theory, ear training, jammin' etc. then it is pretty good chance that regime like that can make anybody into serious instrumentalist and musician in less than, or about, one year. 

Any time is good time for practice

 

Think about numbers of the guitar practices we should take in a year (300+), and let's say that we learn a new guitar skill every week, one lesson in music theory in that same week, and gain knowledge in two other areas of the guitar savvy; that would mean that we learned and mastered at least 200 skills in a single year. Can you name 20 guitar skills right now? How about 50? It's a lot, isn't it?

 My favourite kind of students are semi-skilled strummers who are not overly passionate about playing. Once you expose them to strict practice schedule, they improve fast above their basic skill level by simply upgrading and building around humble beginner knowledge.

The progress can actually sneak up on guitarist with persistent practice schedule, and we can find ourselves on the level we only dreamed of before; when you start jammin' along with tunes that used to give you headache when you tried to figure them out. You can catch yourself thinking: “Holy how, I can easily play this!”. That moment is a payout for all the time and practice you put in, and indeed, we can conquer new tunes, new leads, licks and fills every day. That is how we know that we arrived as musicians and guitarists.

Certain guitarists I admired used to intimidate me with their grasp of guitar playing skills and music, and especially expert technical level they possessed. Playing their songs was a tall order for me: couldn't get that unusual chord that they used, or that exotic sounding lead, and I'd be stuck playing easy parts, never really getting to play along throughout the whole song. Fast songs were the greatest challenge for me.

Well, those days are over now... solid foundation gained through steady practice allowed me to jam along with just about anybody, and in any style or tempo. Sure I get stumped by some parts still, but they are not out of reach for me anymore: quite the opposite – they are just tasty challenges ready to be cracked if I really choose to pursue it.

And that is many, many miles ahead of where I was before I took the guitar practice seriously.

So, keep on picking and jammin', stay well and be practicing every day.

In hopes of finding you improved and more complete guitarist

I salute you

Cheers!

Your brother in arms (and fingers ;O)

ShreDD