An interesting read....

The reviews of it that I've seen are all pretty good. There's an excerpt from the book in the June 2006 Guitar Player magazine too...

Noteboat - never seen that magazine in England, would you reccomend it? Is it worth taking out a subcription? Is that the one you and DH write for?

:D :D :D

Vic

It's one of the two biggest US guitar magazines (the other is Guitar World). While GW goes largely for the rock/shred market, with an occasional feature on other styles, GP covers the gamut - blues, jazz, bluegrass, classical, slide, everything. IMO it's the best all-around US mag... each one has a lesson section divided into beginner/intermediate/advanced sections, and one 'master class' in each issue.

June's pretty typical. The cover feature is an interview with Zakk Wylde, accompanied by a lesson exploring some of his riffs. There are other features on Emerick's book, an interview with Doc and Dallas Coyle of God Forbid, an interview with Iggy Pop, an interview with John Lowery of John 5, a feature on Clapton's Cream era riffs, and lots of reviews and news - like a one-page obit for Ali Farka Toure.

The lessons this month are:

Master Class - blues techniques from Duke Robillard
Beginner - Speed picking from Rusty Cooley
Beginner - Bo Diddley's rhythm techniques
Intermediate - Parallel comping ofjazz lines from Pino Marrone
Intermediate - breaking out of the pentatonic box pattern in playing riffs (this one is a "reader's challenge" where teachers can submit lessons)
Advanced - Jazz blues lines from Larry Carlton (the second part of this from him, talking about what he learned in lessons from Joe Pass)

Mostly they go for lessons from the big names (as does GW - but they're big selling point is transcriptions rather than lessons; it's rare to see a whole song transcribed in GP). David and I write for PlayGuitar! magazine, which is geared towards beginners - and I think David also writes for Acoustic Guitar magazine. They're smaller niche market publications here.

A little OT but has anyone read Guitar Man by Will Hodgkinson
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747577455/qid=1146857129/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-3307286-5266048

Might be quite near to what some of us older new guitarists are going through?
Hope to get a copy for my birthday

The book sounds interesting. Seems as if it would make a good companion to Peter Brown's The Love You Make.

Guitar Player has really done a good job of rejuvenating itself over the past few years. Something I've been wondering for some time now: Are the British mag Guitar and Guitar Player associated in any way? They often seem to share some very similar articles, though with some editorial adjustments. Anyone know?

FWIW, John 5 is John Lowery's alias, not his group.

I don't think they're related. Guitar (I think it's actually titled Guitar & Bass, but the bass part is really small type) is from IPC Group, a British publisher, and Guitar Player is part of Music Player Network, a California publishing company.

You are correct, Tom. It changed from Guitar to Guitar and Bass sometime within the last year or so. It could be one buys and edits articles from the other.