An Open Letter to Guitar Tricks

What? Only white men can ignore colour and gender? You serious? Any idea what colour or gender I am? You are right about one thing....it ain't rocket science..... request away like rest of us and keep your fingers crossed they teach the song that YOU want. Because if more people request a song you don't like as much......well it must be racist or sexist. Stuff like this undermines legitimate cases. Tapping out....this too bizarre now. I was hoping gt may chime in but I'm now thinking why would they bother. Pick your gats up, keep playing and try remembering that music is a universal language.

People request what they're aware of, and if songs by women and people of color aren't visible on the platform, it further marginalizes and makes people less likely to think of those songs, and thus marginalizes artists who aren't white males.

This from the original post is why I can't follow what the point is. Seems to be a contradiction. This is a teaching site that takes requests so what is visible on the platform is what people are aware of and want. Does it mean gt should take away requests in favour of teaching.....im not even sure now.....who would decide?

Oops sorry... meant to tap out.?

Originally Posted by: deanbadam

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

.... if it doesn't suit what your ears prefer then vote with your wallet and try YouTube or another guitar site. Not sure if there are any that are political and musical but couldn't hurt to shop around.

Tinpan - a site that predomantly hosts and provides tutorials for songs played by men and/or white men is political. The only people who can ignore color and gender are white men. Like others have said, there was never a suggestion to take the choices away from the likely older men and their crusty ways, just to provide more considered diversity.

Diversifying offerings - both song lessons and tutors appeals to a wider audience. This isn't rocket science and is what a lot of companies are realising.

This isn't PC, but if nothing else its good business sense as most of the stale, male and pale (of which I'm one) are going to die off in time and if that's the only market the site has managed to appeal to then the writing is on the wall.

OK. Time for a rant. It`s not my intent to offend anyone but if I do.......oh well.

I`m so damned sick and tired of this. I thought by now our society would have evolved to the point that race would be completely irrelevant.If you would`ve asked me 40 years ago where our society would stand on race in 2021, I would`ve said that it wouldn`t matter any more than the color of someone`s hair or their eyes. Boy was I wrong. We`re OBSESSED with race 24/7 now . I swear we were doing far better in race relations back in the 70`s 80`s and 90`s when I was a young man. We`ve gone backward.

I enjoy the music I enjoy .Like Tinpan has said earlier, I let the music move me. I don`t give a damn what color, ethnicity, nationality etc. the artist happens to be. Why does that even matter ? If you don`t like what GT offers, then either try to work with them or GO ELSEWHERE. Vote with your feet if that`s what you want to do. I`ve got news foy y`all. There will always be racism out there. Thankfully they`re a small minority, Ignore them. If you noticed the news lately, there`s an entire industry out there working to keep racism going and using it as a weapon to keep us divided. Politicians and race baiters like Al Sharpton make a living at this. If racism disappears then they`re out of a job. Has anyone notied how many of these supposed racial incidents have been fabricated ? Jesse Smollet anyone ?? Bubba Watson`s fake noose anyone ?

I`m done with this crap. I`ve got better things to do. Maybe if we can get back to what brought us here in the first place ( love of guitar) we`d all be better off.

Carry on.

Hmmm. Is the cancel culture a-calling on GT or are we supposed to shut our mouths and roll over? Dean, for your description of yourself as being stale, pale and male, please add frail and privileged because it describes you. Not all of us whites men fit your persona, you probably need to get away from your TV more. [br]i was drawn to this site because it was recommended by a fellow guitar player. I was drawn fast and furiously to songs like Joe Walsh's Walk Away, not because he's a liberal white recovering addict, but because I loved the guitar growl. I was also drawn to Living Colors, Cult of Personality. Not because they're black liberals, but because it friggin' rocks all over. When GT did a lesson on Melissa Ethridge's, Am I The Only One, the furthest thing from my mind was she is a woman and I later discovered she is gay. So what? That chick can rock and groove like few can, let alone women. [br]My point is, if it moves me musically, I'm in. If you wanna whine that I shouldn't have a voice, kiss off. I'm a 'Nam vet and a roof contractor and have NO patience for anyone who hasn't lived a full life telling who I am and how my opinion and views don't matter. Vote for your favorite song if that is the protocol, and if more women rocked like Melissa, I'd be there. And by the way, there are a lot of sorry sounding things I don't care for, white or black, and I don't listen to them, it's life as we once knew it in America. Tinpan, I'd like more Hendrix and Neil Young too, and don't tap out, brother, I hear you.

This post is quickly becoming a post of hate and division and personal. We all have different circumstances and backgrounds, strengths/weaknesses. The common thread we share is the guitar. And because of this common bond we can help each other, and work together, regardless of background, beliefs etc...

I take it a lot of this is stemming from the removal of some songs in the library.

Here's how I look at it. I joined GT to learn how to play the guitar. That's how they market themselves and the business they are in. The fact that they have a song library never really weighed in to the equation. I looked at it as a bonus. When you break down the monthly cost of an annual membership it is by far the best value out there for learning how to play an instrument. Of course, learning songs is what makes it fun, but before you learn songs you need to have an adequate bundle of tools in your guitar toolbox at your disposal in order to do so. GT has provided me such tools that I can go on the Internet and find the songs I want to play if it's not on their listings.

With regards to the current songs in their library, I gotta say I honestly don't see a lack of diversity. If you click on "Sort and Filter" there are many categories populated by men and women of both colors. With the exception of Country and Classical. That however has nothing to do with GT. There just weren't many black and female artists who were showcased back then. Also guitar really didn't become a forefront instrument until around the 60's, 70's, and 80's due to performers like Hendrix, Vaughn, Van Halen etc. I'm willing to bet the dominant membership on this site is white men in their forties, fifties, and sixties whose prime musical influences was music from that time period and that's why most of the music requested and represented in the library make up that demographic. I'm not saying this is right. It's just is what it is. People want to play the music and artists that they are familiar with, be it the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, or Johnny Cash.

If anything, I'd like to see more current mainstream music put in the database, but again that gets back to licensing issues which I'm not even gonna pretend to understand and that discussion has been beaten to death.

Faith I do admire your passion and support your right to state your opinion, but I agree with Moosehockey and Tinpans viewpoints. This is a guitar teaching site. Learn the tools and techniques and then you should be able to play whatever you want or in your case play your own creations, which you've done quite well at.

Incidentally, I'm currently learning two songs right now. Sheryl Crows "First cut is the deepest" and Jewel's " Foolish Games". Both female artist, songwriters, and singers and the lessons are taught by two female instructors. Lisa and Caren. In choosing to learn these songs none of that ever occured to me. I just like the songs and the artists who performed them. Like Tinpan said we listen with our ears.

One other note with regards to diversity. I mentioned country earlier. Thats a genre I now mostly listen to. TJ Osbourne of the Brothers Osbourne country rock band recently just came out as Gay. Could that ever happen say back in Chet Atkins day?

There would have been an uproar. I mean twenty years ago the Dixie Chicks were banned from that industry just for speaking out against the war. Diversity is coming, just never at the pace society wants it. I like what Lynn said. You just can't force this stuff.

Ok I've said my peace, time to learn some more tools to put in my toolbox.

Peace out everyone.

Moe

Appreciating I added to it, its unproductive for us all to go down the rabbit hole of personal vitrol that online diffrences of opinion seem to create. The usual outcome of a conversation going in this direction is people sitting somewhere fuming and the thread getting closed.

I guess I really just want to say that I endorse the request of the OP and think that the recent loss of material/lessons is an opportunity to address this as the catalogue is restored/added to.

This isnt cancel culture, it takes away nothing from the current preferences that are being catered to, it just expands what's offered.

All good folks. Sorry if my rant was a bit over the top. We can have differences of opinion and still maintain a good cohesive community and respect one another.

Peace All.

Good on ya moose. YOU said it better than I could. It would be cancel culture for sure if gt freaked out about this rubbish and decided to respond to a couple of tastes rather than requests. Then they'd go down due to lack of subscribers. Guitars people....guitars.

I am sure that others would name many more. I vote for a Women Ax Slingers Department. Women are the majority of the skilled song writters in the last buch of years. A serious effort to have more songs by women, would be a good start on making GT better reflect the musical landscape.

I think you should be having a go at the copywrite companies there the ones that censure what we can and cant listen to.

When Michael Jackson owned the copywrite to beatles songs there was hardly any beatles played on British radio so we had a generation that said "never heard of them".

Originally Posted by: faith83

An Open Letter to Guitar Tricks

I enjoy Guitar Tricks and find it has a lot of value. But it's hard not to notice that GT overwhelmingly features songs by white men in your song selection.

[br]I'm posting this to request that Guitar Tricks make a commitment to equal representation and diversity by including equal numbers of songs by women and by people of color in your catalog. Given that new songs being added keep being 100% male and almost 100% white, I don't see any effort being made at all to rectify this problem.

[br]Please stop this nonesense! This is a site to learn guitar and good music, this has nothing to do with race, skin color or sexual orientation. Please GT, do not get sucked into this woke nonesense. I mean whats next? There needs to be a certain amount of pieces from black transsexuals? Once you give them an inch they want it all.

[br]This is only about music... race, skin color or sexual orientation is personal preference. Live the live you want and how you want, but keep that woke race baiting BS for yourself.

[br]I really love GT and plan to stay here much longer, but if this site gives in to this insanity i will need to look somewhere else.

Though setting aside predetermined quotas of instruction for every possible human varriation is clearly insanity. However having more ballanced representation of artists is not an outlandish aspiration. Refusing to see the logic in having a broad base of material is not in every bodies best interest. I can see why there should be broader representation of humanity on the song list... I don't see how that can be construed in any other way.

Like I asked everybody before...how many students, now on GT would be here if every song was written in the "Stand by Your Man" gender?!! I suspect there would be very few. They would never stand such an outrage if enacted against them. Yet isn't that closed mind-set, exactly the mirror image of the "Woke outrage" they rant about. When it really comes down to... good for goose and gander simplicity.

Really depressing how deep this shit runs.

Originally Posted by: stewart.dennis78 race, skin color or sexual orientation is personal preference.

huh?

hehe. And away they go again. Close your eyes, open your ears and let's see if you can tell who wrote what. Pretty simple really. Ears aren't racist, people are and song requests (which is where this thread really started) are simply requested and the more requests made for anything, the more chance they'll teach it. So get requesting (only woman and dark skins if that's all you want) and see what happens. Song requests is a great feature, so get on with it and stop trying to preach some kind of conspiracy about what others request. I personally like all sorts of music, but wouldn't requst rap for instance here...becasue it's supposed to be about GUITARS.

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

Close your eyes, open your ears and let's see if you can tell who wrote what.

If that's true (my assumption is that you're saying that you can't tell who wrote what) then it would be the definition of whatever-ism (e.g., sexism) if the music by one of those group is under-represented vis-a-vis the other, right. I have no idea what if anything is under-represented on the site or not, I'm just taking what I believe your point to be to it's logical conclusion.

On the other hand, it would be very interesting to know if there IS a gender- or race-related sensibility that shows up in guitar music. My guess is that there ARE subtle differences, if nothing else then in the lyrics of the songs. Perhaps also in genre. For instance, are the proportions of men and women in metal vs folk the same or different?

I don't think you got my point. I'm not very articulate though. Just saying why are we talking about race or sex when the website is called 'guitartricks'. Music is all the same...some we like, some we don't but it's not about race or gender...just what sounds good to ya. I don't think most of the guitar gods got hung up on such things, so why are us guitar minnows?

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

I don't think you got my point. I'm not very articulate though. Just saying why are we talking about race or sex when the website is called 'guitartricks'. Music is all the same...some we like, some we don't but it's not about race or gender...just what sounds good to ya. I don't think most of the guitar gods got hung up on such things, so why are us guitar minnows?

Haha. Yeah, I hear you.

As for me, I'll just say that I'm not bothered if someone's song requests (which it seems like everybody thinks GT should take into account when deciding what song lessons to include) reflects a certain group kinship that they may feel with the performer/writer, etc. I for one would like to hear more songs written by older bald hairy guys who are "technically" obese...even though that's a lot of BS because no one who looks at me thinks I'm obese. I mean, who comes up with these criteria.....but I digress.

Sounds like you should request some later Peter Green songs. Already quite a few BB King...

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

Sounds like you should request some later Peter Green songs. Already quite a few BB King...

Yes, I'm in good company!