Yearly Archives: 2008

In this this lesson we’ll learn a Drop D tuning arrangement of the perennial New Year’s Eve standard, Auld Lang Syne.

It’s the end of another year and time to take down the Christmas lights again. I want to welcome all the new readers who found us during the past year. We hope you’ll be with us for a long time to come and stay involved with guitar and music. The time you spend on the [...]

Here’s a very easy chord melody arrangement of the popular Christmas carol Joy to the World in double drop D tuning. Enjoy this familiar tune in a new way.

Greetings, Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #80 of Guitar Noise News! In This Issue: Greetings, News and Announcements New Lessons and Articles Coming Attractions Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow Podcast Postings Email? We Get Emails! Event Horizon Random Thoughts Greetings, News and Announcements Hello! And welcome to the last 2008 issue of Guitar Noise News, [...]

Knowing a single major scale opens the world of modal soloing to you, if you know how to read the signs. We’ll take a look at how to recognize when to use the Dorian scale, and also take a moment or two to compare and contrast it with the minor pentatonic scale.

This is a traditional French carol, arranged so we can review some of our recent lessons on bass lines and Travis style finger picking.

This lesson is a simple DADGAD arrangement of a very well-known, traditional French Christmas Carol titled Il Est Né, which translates to He Is Born.

Welcome back to the one-finger guitar chord primer. Last time, we used the one-finger foundation shape to play a simple chord progression. We’re going to do the same basic thing this time, except we’re going use the one-finger shape to make a new type of chord. I’ll give a brief explanation of the shape, which [...]

Guitar Noise newsletter for December 1, 2008 officially kicks off the holiday guitar lesson season with two new Christmas song lessons and more.

Here is another chord melody arrangement of a Christmas classic that most beginners should be able to get a handle on fairly quickly. As a bonus, it’s arranged so that you can play it either finger style or with a pick.

Not so much a lesson as a nice chord melody arrangement of this beautiful Christmas song, courtesy of Peter. Never too early to get started on your holiday material.

Nine Christmas songs done in an “easy jazz feel” – right down to the vocals straight from the 1940s to the wonderfully articulated piano lines.

Welcome back to the one finger chord guitar primer. Last time, we introduced the single, foundation shape you need to start playing chords on the guitar. Please refer to the Guitar Noise newsletter archives for that lesson. I’ll summarize the lesson here: press the first finger of your left hand onto strings 2, 3, and [...]

Amazon.com Widgets I want to introduce you to a red hot guitarist that I met a few months ago. His name is Will Landrum. He has a couple of guitar instrumental CDs out in the vein of Vai and Satriani. “Living Digits” is his latest release and I have to tell you it totally rocks! He has distribution [...]

Guitar Noise newsletter for November 17, 2008 with two new song lessons, a bunch of new reviews and our replies to some of your email.

We’re going to combine a very simple walking bass with some of our Travis picking (and “pinching”) and create a light, lilting arrangement of this Simon and Garfunkel song. Even beginners can tag along as we’ll be using chord shapes that involve only one or two fingers of the fretting hand!

Our latest podcast begins a look at the Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.” Not to worry – we’ve prepared a “cheat sheet” for you.

While there is certainly more than enough guitar technique on display here, there is also a very welcome sense of melody and song. This alone makes “The Ninth Ring” worth the listen.

Nine songs that blend influences as diverse as Inglesias and Madonna. This is a thoughtful, soulful CD with many standout tracks.

Welcome back to the One Finger chord method. We’re going to learn the one foundation chord shape that will get us making music as fast as possible. That one shape will make it easier to learn more complex shapes later on. To make this lesson as easy to read as it is to do, I [...]