Guitar For The Practicing Musician

Here's the next episode of Brewster's Millions of Rants with 'Guitar For The Practicing Musician.'
If you're a certain age or have stumbled upon this classic guitar magazine from the past, then you'll know exactly what this episode is all about. Guitar For The Practicing Musician (along with Guitar Player and Guitar World) filled my early years of playing guitar with transcriptions of great songs, solid lessons, various interviews, great photos, wall-worthy posters, and so much more.

This "rant" centers around GFTPM magazine and captures a little of its legacy while hitting various key points - such as mentioning the legendary editor-in-chief John Stix, who discovered/signed Blues Saraceno, Randy Coven, and many other musicians/groups through the short-lived Guitar Recordings record label. In many ways, Stix helped discover Blues Saraceno and put his music on the map in the late 1980s, while Saraceno flourished and has become a very successful studio musician and composer since those days.

Aside from the nostalgia trip down memory lane with the magazine in this video, this episode features a batch of hand-picked lesson material/instruction pulled directly from this historic magazine - including ideas from Steve Morse, Joe Satriani, George Lynch, and more!

Give this episode a view, leave some comments and feedback, and please subscribe to Late Night Lessons - THANK YOU!

[johnstix]

Dave, you are very kind with your words. If you have any holes in your GPFM collection let me know and I will fill them for you.. It's obvious you take great joy in both playing and teaching. I'm am honored to have provided you a bit of fuel along your way. Be goode JS

[SuperEgo]

There has to be someone out there with a pdf of every issue. I lived for this magazine.

[michaelwade]

My first issue, January 1985, Dave and Adrian on the cover and I finally learned how to play The Trooper! Remember ordering all the back issues and then every issue from then on. Andy Aledor's colum on the modes in a 1986 issue with Randy on the cover finally unlocked the secret... I owe so much to that magazine!

[scottboutin]

As a kid, I lived in a very isolated area. No one to play with, no teachers, and especially NO INTERNET, NO YOU TUBE. Nothing. 13yrs old, picked up my older brothers P.O.S. acoustic and I started to teach myself. It was HARD. Seemed forever to get over those hurdles to get to the next level. Then, 1 day, stopped in the tiny music shop 20 miles down the road. Look up, there it was. GUITAR FTPM! Ozzy's w/Jake e lee on the cover! Bam! I was off and running. 35 plus yrs of awsome! Went places I never dreamed of, met so many people. Opened shows for so many big names I cant say here. Had a wonderful life full of excitement. And I love playing still to this day. The guitar gave me back 10, 000 times everything I put into it. 50yrs old and still rockin! And it never would have happened without that magazine. Wow, thanks for the memories, this episode was so emotional 4 me. I'm going down to my studio right now and pulling out my boxes filled with GUITAR issues, I kept them all these yrs and still go back and work with the lessons inside. PRICELESS! Thank u!

[toddkiggins]

Parents couldn't afford lessons for me. I solely relied on those magazines to learn guitar and develop my ear. So many good articles and the tabs were amazing! Just a great learning tool. A few years back I took the tabs and some of the lessons put them in page savers and organize them into binders.

[jspartacus]

Andy Aledort. Master transcriber. His knowledge of theory and styles is unmatched, he is easily more knowledgeable than Satriani and Vai put together. Loved his articles.

[TheVintage]

Guitar for the Practicing Musician was absolutely the best guitar magazine ever!!!

[uncleremus]

Legendary magazine & one of the reasons I wasn’t an honor student in high school. My head was constantly buried in that magazine through out my high school yrs! U da man 🍺’ski.🤘

[bghammock]

I still have all of mine and refer to them often 😁

[fab.silva]

“When I die, sprinkle my ashes over the 80s” - DLR

GFTPM + EVH = me still playing guitar @ age 50

[ecorbeille]

Quit my guitar lessons from the Mel Bay book teacher when I discovered this magazine.

[nylesforsyth]

Thank you I still have a bunch of the magazines I still love them

[stratjacket]

Love GFTPM, I have about 4 medium sized boxes full of them as well as books. I still break them out sometimes to learn (or re-learn) some tunes and I'll spend time just browsing and reading like I used to. Brings back that same feeling. Best mag ever, wish it were still around, I'd subscribe.

[durkar]

Hey David, GFTPM was my gateway to all the rock music I loved in the 80's and the transcriptions were incredible, big shout out to Andy Aledort!!! As you said the tabs were spot on and you just knew that it was going to be accurate. Very happy memories and definitely made me a better guitarist. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[brucerobenalt]

You’ve brought back so many memories in this video! I ate up GFTPM, Guitar Player, and Guitar World every month as a guitar-crazed teen in the 80s. Wonderful stuff.

[monsterkxf]

Awesome!!
Everything you said in your intro = Ditto!!
I used to spend most of my money as a teenager buying up all the guitar related mags. I still have most of them put away in boxes. Guitar for the practicing musician quickly became my favorite.

[jboughtin]

Your motivation, self discipline and work ethic are an inspiration David. I wish had that going on when I was young.

[chnzn]

Those damn covers are pure nostalgia fuel. I think I had everyone of them. lololol

[ocd]

Everytime I watch your vids it brings back great memories

[cttwa]

GFPM was by far the best guitar mag out there. The best transcriptions, best lessons, best special guest residency lessons, articles, interviews. It had everything. I was so upset when it stopped. My first issue April 88, Lynch on the cover for Unchain the Night. Believe same issue had Frenzy in it. Had subscription for the next 7 years or so.