When I’m really interested in some activity I get magazines. I know the web is full of information but it’s just not very comfy to curl up in bed with a website. Anymore most print magazines have a website too so there’s no need to choose.

Lessons tend to focus on a very narrow part of the guitar experience; notes, fingering, repertoire and maybe some theory. Believe me, there’s much more to it than that. You can broaden your eager student’s interest and deepen their knowledge and appreciation of the vast world of music by introducing them to guitar magazines. These are not just “fanzines”. Topics include history, music theory, equipment maintenance and performance as well as interviews with artists, tips and tricks and sheet music for popular songs. Here are four magazines that I enjoy:

• Guitar Player (GuitarPlayer.com), the granddaddy of them all recently celebrated 40 years of publishing. It covers all styles of guitar and features columns on various topics, gear reviews and feature articles about great players. GP only rarely includes entire songs.
• Acoustic Guitar (AcousticGuitar.com) is a great magazine featuring many articles on topics of interest to all guitarists. The sheet music included won’t be too interesting to some as it tends to be acoustic standards in the folk and bluegrass genres. The occasional pop, jazz or blues tune keeps things moving.
• Guitar Edge (GuitarEdgeMag.com) is the new kid on the block. It is mostly sheet music w/tablature in rock, blues and jazz styles. The articles are short and sometimes less than satisfying.
• Guitar World (GuitarWorld.com) has been around for 25 years. It’s an okay all around magazine with 5-6 songs per issue, mostly in fairly hard rock genres. My problems with it are that it’s all TAB, no standard notation and a fair amount of unsuitable (and unnecessary) language.

Sometimes you might find one or two of these at your local market or drugstore. You can find them all at The Daily Planet newsstand at Crossroads or any Barnes & Noble location. Pick up a copy and see how it goes over. If they like it, subscriptions are quite reasonable.

My solo album, "Second Hand Smoke", was released last November. Many of you bought it and for that I am grateful. Those current and former students who haven’t yet can still get the CD at the student price of $8. You can now get single songs from iTunes. So load up those iPods and hit the road.

You can now get it also at amiestreet.com and, for a limited time, get a $5.00 gift certificate.