Yearly Archives: 2009

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #101 of Guitar Noise News! Though he was traveling to Chicago this past week, David still managed to clear three new lessons for publication. Check them out along with all the latest site news.

Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977 with his brother David. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler continued to record and produce albums as a solo artist under his own name. Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date.

First time contributor Dmitry details the work and thought process involved on taking one’s guitar along a trip, using his latest vacation as an example of how well things can work out!

Creating chord melody arrangements can be addictive! And you can start out as easy or as complicated as you’d like. Brandon Carrasco takes us step by step through his first time out, turning this timeless lullaby into a wonderful single guitar piece.

Here is Hank’s second Guitar Noise lesson, an accompaniment to “What a Wonderful World” as performed by Louis Armstrong. He draws on some of the ideas used in his first arrangement, “Smile”, and provides some nice movement in the bass line. Since this is an accompaniment arrangement designed to support vocals, most of the chord voicings will incorporate the melody note on the upper strings.

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #100 of Guitar Noise News! This week we have a very special announcement about another guitar book by David Hodge. FODfest 2009 is also underway and we have more information on this year’s performances.

George Pittaway’s “Easy Roll Guitar Method” DVD is an incredible bargain at $15. It is highly recommend for anyone interested in hybrid picking and opening up their soloing. This is an ideal DVD for the advanced beginner and beyond.

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #99 of Guitar Noise News! We have a new lesson on guitar technique from Tom Hess, plus a new topic for the month and a profile of guitar legend Eric Clapton.

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #98 of Guitar Noise News! We have three new lessons to share, plus an update from Alan Green about his new teaching gig.

Here is my very first arrangement, a finger style chord melody of the beautiful Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile.” Walking through the process step by step, you’ll see how an initial “busy” arrangement consisting mainly of eighth notes and arpeggios was pared down to make it easier to play and to allow room for some nice movement in the bass line.

If you have read Nick Minnion’s article “Could You Teach Guitar?” and finished with a resounding “Yes!” then the next question is “How?” This article hopes to answer that question with a detailed look at how to teach the all-important first lesson.

Tom “Noteboat” Serb is celebrating the first year of his music school, the Midwest Music Academy. One year ago today we ran a short interview with Tom and this would certainly be a great time to post it once again.

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #97 of Guitar Noise News! Our topic of the month for September is all about teaching. This month we also put a spotlight on the Beatles, as well as on all the various Beatles song lessons available here at Guitar Noise.

All of us at Guitar Noise want to congratulate Alan as he starts off teaching guitar and music pretty close to full time! Get to know one of our Guitar Noise Moderators a little better – you might see him on television one day!

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to turn a song into a single guitar arrangement and the first part of the answer is that you have to learn the song! In this lesson we break down this White Stripes’ song into its component parts – bass, rhythm and lead (learning them on the electric guitar) – so that we can later create a single acoustic guitar arrangement of this song.

This time out, Jamie guides you through the bridge section of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, providing detailed step-by-step instruction on how to move effortlessly from one fingering position to the next.

In the final installment of her video lessons on the Guitar Noise arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” guitar teacher extraordinaire Jamie Andreas takes you step by step through the bridge section of the song with very clear and detailed instruction. I learned quite a bit from Jamie’s videos and I hope you do, too!

Back in August 2003, I was still in Chicago but I got my first look at where I would end up moving to the coming New Year’s Day. Looking back now, I’m tempted to say that some of the unsettledness had a subliminal effect in my choosing Cat’s Steven’s “Wild World” as a new Easy Songs for Beginners lesson.

Welcome to the August 15 issue of Guitar Noise News. Our big news this time out is the announcement of the 2009 FODfest tour. We also mark the passing of Les Paul, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 94.

Setting the “Wayback Machine” for 2006 led me to Josh Urban’s first piece for Guitar Noise and since ear training and listening is a huge part of learning to solo, it seemed to make sense to use it as a feature. Plus, any lesson from Doug Sparling, be it new or old, is certainly worth a read!