Guitar Noise » David Hodge

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 110 – March 15, 2010

David Hodge — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:40:58 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #110 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
Event Horizon
Emails? We Get Emails!
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the March 15 issue of Guitar Noise News. This issue has to be a bit short and my apologies in advance for that. For whatever reason every deadline in the universe seems to be today, so I’m trying to finish up everything at the same time which means, of course, that nothing is getting completed.

Actually, quite a lot is getting done. As you read last time, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” is now out in bookstores and online booksellers everywhere. And we’re celebrating the release by giving away fifteen copies of it between now and the end of May – five copies each month.

To enter this contest, you need to send me an email with the following information:

your name
your email address
your mailing address (and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are)
the title of your favorite article at Guitar Noise
the name of your favorite rock guitarist

Please send only one email per person to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and put “CIG ROCK GUITAR” in the subject line.

Winners will be announced here and on the Forum pages on April 1, May 1 and June 1. The best of luck to you all!

And we’re not simply content to just have one contest – even as I’m putting on the finishing touches of the all new “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar,” which will be out this fall (figure late October or November), we’re having a giveaway for this book, too, even though it’s not totally written yet!

We’re calling it “Complete Idiot’s Rock in the Free World,” and here’s how it works:

If you do buy a copy of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” take a picture of yourself with it someplace. You don’t have to have the Eiffel Tower or Mount Rushmore in the background, but be creative. Paul and I will select two photos a month, starting in August and running through all of 2011 and will send an autographed copy of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” to those whose pictures we select.

So please send your photos to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and be sure to include an email address where you can be reached, as well as a mailing address. And please put “Picture Book” in the subject line of the email. We’re looking forward to seeing where in the world the books end up! Best of luck to you on both contests!

Topic of the Month

With Saint Patrick’s Day two days away, we’re already getting into the mood by having our Guitar Noise topic of the month be “Celtic Music.” When you visit the home page, you’ll find a link to the Guitar Noise articles and lessons on Celtic music, including some great song lessons from Doug Sparling as well as an interesting Celtic arrangement of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song! Plus we’re due for a few new song lessons featuring some traditional tunes from the Emerald Isle in the upcoming weeks.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Even Gordon Sumner’s mother and kids call him “Sting” so I guess we will, too! Especially since he’s the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of March, 2010! You can the bio about this Rock Hall of Fame and Songwriter’s Hall of Fame artist over at the Guitar Noise Artist Profiles page.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for March 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 26)

Staying in one place is a sure sign of stagnation, both in life and making music. We’ve stayed in one place, fret V, as we worked through exercises for C phrygian. Now it’s time to move to different frets, starting with this three-note distillation of C phrygian, played in a run that spans most of the fretboard’s possible positions.

|-----------------|----12--------------|----------|
|---------------8-|-11----11-8---------|----------|
|-------------9---|------------9-------|----------|
|---------5-8-----|--------------8-5---|----------|
|-------7---------|------------------7-|----------|
|-0-3-6-----------|--------------------|-6-3-0----|

Thanks for reading.

In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can find it at and you can also read his past contributions to Guitar Noise here. And you can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.

Event Horizon

Just as it’s important to support each other when it comes to CDs, it’s also important (probably more so) to support live music. Sometimes it’s about being there. Literally. As musicians, it’s always good to support each other simply by being at a gig if it’s at all possible.

One thing we at Guitar Noise would really like to do is to help promote your shows, whether it’s in a stadium or at a ten-seat coffee house. Not only is it a great way to help support each other, it’s also a terrific way to meet more musicians!

So please feel free to write me if you’ve got some gigs coming up. Remember that Guitar Noise News is sent out on the first and fifteenth of each month. Usually I will have it ready to be sent out a few days ahead of time, so plan accordingly. For instance, if you’ve got something coming up in the last two weeks of January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2010, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

If you’re in the Cincinnati area, do your best to try to catch Joe Hempel, who’ll be playing his first show ever (in support of his first CD, no less!). He’ll be at the Borders Book Store at 5873 Deerfield Boulevard in Mason Ohio (phone – (513) 770-0440) on Saturday March 27th at 8 PM. If you can, stop by and say hello from me!

And if you can’t make the show, do check out his CD, which you can pick up on CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hempel)

Emails? We Get Emails!

Although sometimes, they can be about all sorts of thing -

Hi David

Where’s Charley? When’s he coming back to do a newsletter?

Charley has been taking it easy most of the winter but I’m sure he might be persuaded to step in and write up an issue or two of Guitar Noise News. I think he was only kidding when he mentioned putting together a Facebook page called “If Charley gets 10,000 fans, he’ll take over writing Guitar Noise News forever…”

Random Thoughts

Much as I hate to do so, I’ve really got to put together some other stuff for the time being. But it’s all done this week except the recording and that’s getting done next week. It will be nice to sit back and relax a bit.

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 109 – March 1, 2010

David Hodge — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:20:03 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #109 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the first day of March. Here in western Massachusetts, the new month is certainly coming in like a lion. We’ve had quite a bit of snow this past week and we’re running out of places to put it all!

Besides the weather, the big news around here is the arrival of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” in bookstores and online booksellers tomorrow, March 2. And an event like this certainly deserves a bit of hype from the Guitar Noise News, so we’ve got the first of two giveaways for you. For this book. There’s another giveaway deal, too, for a different book that you can read about at the end of the newsletter. Right now, though, let’s work with the one book…

To celebrate the arrival of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” in stores, we’re also giving away fifteen copies of it between now and the end of May – five copies each month. To enter this contest, you need to send me an email with the following information:

your name
your email address
your mailing address (and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are)
the title of your favorite article at Guitar Noise
the name of your favorite rock guitarist

Please send only one email per person to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and put ”CIG ROCK GUITAR” in the subject line.

Winners will be announced here and on the Forum pages on April 1, May 1 and June 1. The best of luck to you all!

Topic of the Month

Begorrah, and if it isn’t March already! Where does the time fly? Since Saint Patrick’s Day will soon be upon us, it kind of made sense to start celebrating early by having “Celtic Music” be our Guitar Noise topic for the month. When you visit the home page, you’ll find a link to the Guitar Noise articles and lessons on Celtic music, including some great song lessons from Doug Sparling as well as an interesting Celtic arrangement of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song! Plus we’re due for a few new song lessons featuring some traditional tunes from the Emerald Isle in the upcoming weeks.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

New Lessons and Articles

Avoiding Avoidance
by Gerald Klickstein

Numerous guitarists underachieve because they shirk regular practice. Gerald Klickstein describes how musicians can counter avoidance and keep their creativity rolling.

Improve Your Guitar Teaching
by Tom Hess

Sometimes the desire to fix every problem a student may have all at once may cause even more problems. Tom Hess describes how to break down a bad habit so that both teacher and student can tackle it in easy, manageable steps.

Solving Timing and Rhythm Problems – Part 1
by Nick Minnion

Whether you are a guitar teacher or a self-taught guitar player you are likely to come across problems related to playing in time and interpreting rhythm. In this series of articles TeachGuitar.com’s Nick Minnion looks at where these problems spring from and what can be done to address them.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for March 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 25)

Welcome back to our group exploration of the modes, the C phrygian mode in particular. Today we’ll work through another substitute for C phrygian. This sub, Bbm7b5, doesn’t fit squarely into the same major key that C phrygian does (Ab major), but does fit in within Db melodic minor. C phrygian isn’t in Db melodic minor, but some of its best-sounding notes–Db, E, G# and Bb–are.

Here’s a run using our sub:

|-----------------|---8-6-9-6-8-----|-----------------|----------|
|---------------5-|-9-----------9-5-|-----------------|----------|
|---------5---6---|-----------------|-6---5-----------|----------|
|-------6---8-----|-----------------|---8---6---------|----------|
|---4-7-----------|-----------------|---------7-4-----|----------|
|-6---------------|-----------------|-------------6-8-|-4-6-8----|

Thanks for reading.

In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can find it at and you can also read his past contributions to Guitar Noise here. And you can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.

Event Horizon

One thing we at Guitar Noise would really like to do is to help promote your shows, whether it’s in a stadium or at a ten-seat coffee house. Not only is it a great way to help support each other, it’s also a terrific way to meet more musicians!

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

Up on my blog, I’ve recently posted a review of “Fingerstyle Collections,” a thirteen song CD by Guitar Noise Forum member Joe Hempel. The astounding thing about this CD is the fact that Joe has only been playing guitar for a little over two years and has taken to it quite wonderfully. The music, all single guitar instrumental arrangements performed on either the classical or the acoustic guitar, is done with an elegant sense of simplicity and grace. In case you don’t get it, I highly recommend this CD, which you can pick up on CD Baby.

My reason for bringing this up is that Joe is also going to be gigging in support of his CD. And, it being the first gig he’s ever done, I figure that if you’re in the Cincinnati region, you might want to drop by and give a fellow Guitar Noise community member your support. Joe will be at the Borders Book Store at 5873 Deerfield Boulevard in Mason Ohio (phone – (513) 770-0440) on Saturday March 27th at 8 PM. If you can, stop by and say hello from me!

Random Thoughts

Even though “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” comes out tomorrow, my head (and much of my life, truth be told) is focused on finishing up the totally brand new “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” which, should all go according to plan, will be off my desk by the end of March and in bookstores this coming October or November. And not to knock either the Bass book or the Rock Guitar book, but I think this latest one is my best work to date. And I’m thrilled that I’ve (hopefully) managed to talk our own Nick Torres into pitching in with vocals on the play-along CD that will accompany this next book. It’s not everyday one gets to provide musical backup for such a great singer (and all around cool guy).

But since October and November is such a ways off, Paul and I wanted to come up with a way to help everyone pass the time between now and then and we’ve hit upon a very cool contest. We’re calling it “Complete Idiot’s Rock in the Free World,” mostly because I’m lousy at names! Here’s how it works.

So please send your photos to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and be sure to include an email address where you can be reached, as well as a mailing address. We’re looking forward to seeing where in the world the books end up! Best of luck to you!

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Rock Guitar Book Giveaway

David Hodge — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:54:20 +0000

To celebrate the arrival of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar in stores starting Tuesday, March 2, we’re also giving away fifteen copies of it between now and the end of May – five copies each month. To enter this contest, you need to send me an email with the following information:

your name
your email address
your mailing address (and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are)
the title of your favorite article at Guitar Noise
the name of your favorite rock guitarist

Please send only one email per person to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and put “CIG ROCK GUITAR” in the subject line.

Winners will be announced here and also on the News page of the Forums and in the Guitar Noise News on April 1, May 1 and June 1.

The best of luck to you all!

Peace

Sting

David Hodge — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:21:22 +0000

Growing up near Newcastle upon Tyne in England, young Gordon Sumner would help out his father who made early morning deliveries as a milkman. Gordon’s “best friend” at the time was an old Spanish guitar with only five strings, left to the family when his uncle moved to Canada. Growing up, he worked in construction and transportation and could sometimes be found sneaking into nightclubs to catch shows by Jimi Hendrix or Cream. Eventually he studied for and got a job as a schoolteacher. But whenever he wasn’t working or studying or teaching, he’s play whenever and wherever he could, usually with local jazz groups.

Another Gordon, Gordon Solomon, bandleader of the Phoenix Jazzmen once commented that young Mr. Sumner’s black and yellow striped sweater made him look like a wasp and one of the ensuing nicknames, “Sting,” stuck.

Sting moved to London in early 1977 where he, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers formed The Police. During the next seven years the band would have five extremely successful albums and six Grammy awards. The Police would also evolve their sound from its early punk roots to a complex synthesis of rock, reggae and pop that appealed to just about everyone.

An invitation to play at Amnesty International’s big benefit, The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, in September 1981, his first live solo performance, led to Sting’s getting more involved with political causes and social work. These influences would turn up in his songwriting as well, as evidenced in the last two Police albums, Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity.

After Synchronicity, the band mates decided to focus on solo projects and 1985 saw the release of Sting’s first solo CD, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, which included some big names in jazz, such as saxophonist Branford Marsalis and bassist Darryl Jones, who would later become Bill Wyman’s replacement in the Rolling Stones. The forming of the band, as well as its first concert was documented in Michael Apted’s film Bring on the Night.

Sting’s subsequent albums through the next fifteen years, Nothing Like the Sun, The Soul Cages, Ten Summoner’s Tales (which had the hit Fields of Gold), Mercury Falling and Brand New Day have all been nothing short of memorable. He spent much of 2007 and 2008 touring with the reunited Police and released a new solo album, If on a Winter’s Night late 2009.

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 108 – February 15, 2010

David Hodge — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:20:21 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #108 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
Emails? We Get Emails!
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello! And a very Happy Year of the Tiger to you all!

In case you didn’t know, yesterday (February 14, 2010) marked the start of the Chinese New Year. Hopefully you remembered to wear red in order to scare the Nien away.

Or maybe you wore red because yesterday was also Valentine’s Day. Please tell me you didn’t forget that! The Nien might indeed be fearsome and ferocious, what with its propensity to devour anything in sight, be it crops, livestock or the odd villager or two, but the Nien is nothing compared to a loved one who thinks you’ve forgotten Valentine’s Day!

Ah, well, that was all yesterday. Today we welcome you to the February 15, 2010 edition of Guitar Noise News, your twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

I’d like to thank everyone that’s written to me with book recommendations so far. In case you’ve not seen the Home Page in a while, Paul’s been very busy behind the scenes, tweaking this and that and one of the cool things you can find on both the Home Page and the “What’s New” page is a new “recommended by our readers” bookwheel, featuring guitar and music tuition books written by some of Guitar Noise’s wonderful contributors, such as Jamie Andreas and Tom Serb. You’ll also see some new books, such as “The Musician’s Way” by Gerald Klickstein and some books, like “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” that will be available on March 2.

As I mentioned last time out, Paul and I hope to work together to update this new feature fairly regularly, adding books that we think Guitar Noise readers will want to have in their personal libraries, such as John Ganapes’ terrific “Blues You Can Use” tutorials. So if you have recommendations, do send them along to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and Paul and I will see about adding them to the Guitar Noise book wheel.

Topic of the Month

“Strumming for Beginners” is our Guitar Noise topic for the month of February. When you visit the home page, you’ll find a link to the Guitar Noise articles that deal with the topic of strumming, including a new one that you’ll read about in a moment.

We’ve got new articles on strumming since last month (one, which is really about strumming although you may think it cleverly disguised as “thinking” piece, you’ll see in our “New Lessons” section and another, about timing, that should be online this coming week) and we also have more than two dozen Guitar Noise Podcasts devoted to this topic. If you’ve never had the chance to check these out, it’s a perfect time to do so! You’ll find all the Guitar Noise Podcasts available to download straight to your computer right here.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Stevie Ray Vaughan is our February 2010 “Guitar Noise Featured Artist.” You can read Paul’s bio about this great guitarist at the Guitar Noise Artist Profiles page.

New Lessons and Articles

Auto Correct In Guitar Practice
by Jamie Andreas

Is it better to practice a piece slowly at first or quickly? Teachers and players usually recommend slowly, but there are instances where fast might work. Jamie explores why both methods work, but more importantly details how to recognize and determine when one method is better than the other.

Pentamodal Idea
by Paul Tauteroff

The pentatonic scale is, without doubt, one of the guitarist’s chief tools. Modes, on the other hand, can be confusing. Paul Tauteroff shows how guitar players who are already familiar with the pentatonic scale can learn and utilize the modes in their lead guitar playing.

The Ears Have It
by David Hodge

As the tutorial resources you have at your beck and call get more and more sophisticated, it gets harder to remember that learning guitar is all about playing guitar. That means if you want to be able to play your instrument, you have to go through all the “grunt work” – that means practicing. And for many players the biggest aspect they need to work on is not using their eyes.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for February 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 24)

Thanks for tuning into another chapter of the Saga of the Modes. We’ve been working through C Phrygian of late, and will continue in that vein as we look at substitute arpeggios for C Phrygian.

A sweet sounding arp sub for C is the G minor 7b5, which you’ll find in the same (major) scale as C phrygian: Ab major. G min 7b5 subs well for C phrygian for a number of reasons: one, it shares 3 notes in common with C phrygian: G, Bb and Db. The one note that differs, F instead of E, sounds great because it’s a suspension note that voice leads nicely to the E in C phrygian.

Let’s do a run with Gm7b5

|-----------------|-4---6--------|
|---------------6-|---8---6-5----|
|-------------6---|--------------|
|-------6-5-8-----|--------------|
|---4-8-----------|--------------|
|-6---------------|--------------|

|-6---4-----------|--------------|
|---8---6---------|--------------|
|---------6-------|--------------|
|-----------8-5-6-|--------------|
|-----------------|-8-4---8-7----|
|-----------------|-----6--------|

We may yet continue with phrygian in the next issue: there are yet more subs for this dramatic sound.

Thanks for reading.

In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can also read his past contributions to Guitar Noise here. And you can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.

Emails? We Get Emails!

This note was originally sent to our “General Questions” box at Guitar Noise, and Paul passed it along to me. I also used it as a relatively recent blog post (in case it looks a little familiar!) but it’s a topic that we get a lot of questions about, so it makes sense to bring it to the attention of our newsletter readers as well:

If you would please answer my questions about guitar teaching since you’re the expert.

1) Is it frustrating?
2) Do you need a degree from college?
3) If not, would it draw more customers to have a degree?
4) Would a degree help you get better?
5) What do you say the basic level of skill would be to become a teacher?

Thank you for reading my questions. I consider this a possible career.

Thanks for writing! I’m hardly what I would call an “expert,” but I have been teaching full time for close to ten years now, so I guess I could be called “experienced.” I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

1) Is it frustrating?

It’s tempting to say “not at all,” but every job has its share of frustration. A teacher cannot go home with the student and do his practicing for him or her. The teacher can guide and advise and coach, but ultimately it’s a team effort. One wants his or her students to enjoy music and to have as few frustrations as possible and as long as both student and teacher can be open and communicate freely with each other, the minor frustrations that are just simply a part of any natural learning process can be easily dealt with.

On the other hand, if you yourself look at playing or any aspect of music as a competition, then you are setting yourself up for a lot of frustration. If you are expecting your guitar students to all become Steve Vai or Eric Clapton, you’ve set yourself an impossible task. If you are trying to give them a gift that they can have the rest of their lives, the gift of playing the music that makes them happy, you’ll discover that each of your students has to learn at his or her own pace.

2) Do you need a degree from college?

No, unless you plan to teach “for credit” courses at a school (at any educational level).

3) If not, would it draw more customers to have a degree?

That depends on your customers. Many students (or their parents) simply look for whom they consider the best possible teacher. Sometimes people mistakenly equate “best player” with “best teacher.” Sometimes they think “best educated” means “best teacher.” Neither are true, and neither need be necessary, but being a good player and having a degree can help draw customers. Having a reputation of being a good teacher will draw more.

4) Would a degree help you get better?

That depends, too. Getting a degree for playing the guitar doesn’t prepare you in the least for teaching unless you take courses on teaching. And getting some basic business courses would also help anyone with a goal of making a living at being a teacher.

5) What do you say the basic level of skill would be to become a teacher?

People discuss this all the time. Obviously, you need to have a good command of the basics of playing. You also need to know enough music theory that you can competently discuss the “whys” of music instead of simply telling your students to “just do this.”

If I had to quantify further, I’d say the most important thing you would need as a teacher is the ability to be honest (both with yourself and with your students) about what you know and about what you can teach them. You need to be able to direct them to other sources (teachers, books, tutorials) when they have absorbed all that you are capable of giving them.

In addition to all this, I’d like to add that if you’re truly interested in a career teaching music (whether guitar or any instrument), that you check out two books:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Teaching Music on Your Own, written by Karen Berger and due out in stores March 2, answers your questions and many more in detail. She not only deals with teacher qualifications, but also the day to day aspects of teaching that you might not even think about (how to set up your studio, getting business, contracts, even making time for yourself in your schedule) until after you set up shop. Karen is a great writer and piano teacher and she also is my partner, so yes, I’m a bit biased in my assessment!

The Musician’s Way is by Gerald Klickstein, another excellent teacher and educator with over thirty years experience, and does an exceptional job of dealing with practicing, performing and creativity from the point of view of both the student and the teacher. I can’t recommend either of these books enough.

Hope this helps and good luck to you!

Peace

Event Horizon

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

I’ve had the privilege of playing with Sam Weiser, an amazing young violinist (he’s still in high school), at a few FODfest shows the past two years and he is quite a talented and exciting performer. He’s just finished his first CD, “Sam I Am” (available at Amazon, CD Baby and probably also your own music store) and has a short tour this month to promote it. He’s a winner of the Daniel Pearl Memory Violin and he’s donating the profits from his new CD to the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

Sam’s got two more shows this month, one tonight and one next Sunday:

February 15th 7:30pm – Saint Mark Presbyterian Church – Rockville, MD
February 21st 7:30pm – The Rutledge – Nashville, TN

If you can, try to get to a show. You’ll have a great time, hear some great music and help support a great cause.

Random Thoughts

In my group classes for guitar at the Berkshire Community College, I have a running joke, which I call “Rule 28.” Rule 28 states, very simply, “guitarists are lazy.” It’s meant to be funny sometimes, such as explaining that we call the metal wires in the neck “frets” and we also call the spaces between the frets “frets,” the joke being that guitarists couldn’t even come up with a second name.

But it’s also meant to put into the student’s brain that, quite often, the less one has to do in terms of moving fingers around on the fretboard, the better. As many of you know, this is especially true when thinking about changing chords or when playing little fills when strumming. More times than not you don’t want to move your hand too far from the chords when switching off to a riff. Getting the idea of minimal movement and minimal effort can certainly help beginners, who usually start any change of chords by totally lifting all their fingers from the fretboard and placing them in another zip code before bringing them back to the next chord.

Unfortunately, it’s also a bit of a warning. Guitarists can be incredibly lazy, or at the very least misguided or misdirected, when it comes to learning. We rely on charts and diagrams instead of memorizing chords. Then we memorize chords without understanding that knowing how the chords are created can teach us how to make any chord without ever needing a chart again. Many guitarists get shown the basics but not so many manage to use their own brains to put two and two together in order to make leaps in their learning of both their instrument and music in general.

Anyone who’s read any of the lessons here at Guitar Noise knows that we want every guitarist to be a thinking guitarist. Rather than giving you a regular dose of “just do this,” we want you to be able to take what you learn with any given lesson and to understand that you can apply it to just about anything in your playing. Simply put, we want you to be an active learner, someone who participates in your guitar education instead of being a mere spectator.

Any teacher knows that he or she is merely a part in the big, mysterious process of learning. If the student isn’t participating, ultimately no learning takes place. So to all of you who have sent me thank you notes over the past ten-plus years, let me also give you my thanks. We do this together.

And that’s how music is supposed to be made.

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

The Ears Have It

David Hodge — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:38:57 +0000

That may seem like a strange thing to say, but there are many places along one’s journey of learning the guitar where one eyes can actually make learning more difficult. Actually, it’s not really the eyes as much as it is the perceived (and pre-conceived) need to see.

“But,” you say, “what about if you’re a visual learner?” That is something that teachers hear over and over again these days. And while is it true that some people do learn quicker through a visual medium (and it’s exceedingly strange how reading, which is totally visual, seems to have fallen through the cracks and is no longer considered a “visual medium”), most people brains are, fortunately, quite adaptable and can switch gears quicker than one realizes. More on this later as it’s very important.

More to the point, though, is that music is not a visual medium, now matter what kind of spin you try to put on it. Music is heard or even felt as vibrations, but unless you go to concerts carrying a lot of sophisticated scientific equipment with you, you don’t see it. You can see all the peripherals of the show – the set, the lights, the costumes, the seemingly endless visual effects – but that is not the music. It’s the show and it’s important to remember that the two are separate.

When you play your guitar you also do not see the music. You see yourself playing the instrument. And, despite what I initially said, very important to beginners. Playing the guitar requires a bit of coordination. You need to correctly fret a note, which means that you have to be fretting the correct string in a “sweet spot.” You also have to pick the right string, too! Imagine doing that without looking!

But as one learns the guitar, this need to look at what the hands are doing can have some adverse effects. First off, in order to see your fingers on the frets, you have to tilt the neck of the guitar at an angle toward you. This creates two problems: First, with your guitar at that much of an angle, you’ve placed it in such a way that you cannot get the tips of your fingers in an optimal position to fret the notes. The angle dictates that the fingers are more flattened than “on point,” which increases the likelihood that you’re going to blunt some of the adjacent strings even if you do manage to fret the note you want.

Having the guitar tilted so that you can see the neck also places your wrist in a very awkward place. Ideally, you want your wrist to be relatively straight when you’re playing. There’s no way you can get it close to straight when tipping the neck to favor your eyes.

As a beginner, you have a fine line to walk here. Initially you are going to have to see what you’re doing. But you want to develop confidence in your fingers as soon as possible so that you don’t have to rely on your eyes to know they are sitting on the right place on the fretboard. This is why so many teachers first walk students through the many variations of the “one finger one fret” exercises when starting out. It helps to build that confidence and also makes you realize that you don’t have to see where your fingers go all the time.

Just as important, these simple exercises work to start developing your ear as well as your sense of touch. With very little concentrated practice, it’s amazing how quickly one can both hear and feel when a note is wrong. And this becomes more important as you get more serious about your playing.

So if you’re just starting out, make it a habit to try to set your guitar straight, parallel to your upper body, just as soon as you can. Read any of Jamie Andreas’ articles and you’ll understand the importance of proper posture and position. Look at your fingers first and then set your guitar right and try to go by feel. Some people practice sitting in front of a mirror to help with being able to see. That’s okay, too, but again the point is to try to play without looking. After all, if you perform live you’re not going to be playing in front of a mirror! Yes, playing without looking will certainly be difficult at first, make no mistake about it.

But in the long run it will also make your learning easier. Whenever you run into a chord that you’re having difficulty fingering, merely setting yourself in good position, getting the fingers where they can optimally fret the strings can usually make a huge difference in playing a chord well. Not to mention cleanly!

Changing chords is another area where our eyes can slow us down. Not that they mean to do so, but when one watches ones fingers change chords the natural tendency is to slow things down and to have each finger work individually in order to better follow it with the eyes. It’s almost as if the fingers and eyes have a contract between them to make the signal to the brain better – “…first remove index finger and stretch it to the first fret and put in place, then remove ring finger…”

Ultimately, you want your fingers to work together as a unit to change chords (see Tom Hess’ excellent article Teaching Chords to Beginning Guitar Students for some tips on doing so) and not relying on your eyes to supervise your chord changes will make you quicker and also more confident about your abilities. Not to belabor the point again, but you are far more likely to develop both your ear and your sense of touch more quickly once you push yourself to the point of not watching your every move.

And developing both your ear and your confidence in your fingers are two important by-products of getting past using your eyes. Read any interview by any guitarist whose ability and skills you admire. When he or she talks about learning it’s inevitably about how he or she would listen to his or her own idols and then try to play what was heard. The interviews rarely delve into just how much work that involved, it’s almost as if the interviewer has no idea how much time was spent getting things wrong! That’s important to think about, because ear training takes work, and if you never set aside time to practice using your ears, you won’t get a sense of phrasing or rhythm that are essential to being a great lead guitarist.

Speaking of rhythm, how many guitarists do you know who describe beats in terms of “ups and downs?” And how many do you know who count out the beats? Generally speaking, which ones have you found to have a better sense of rhythm? Chances are likely it’s those who count. When you count out rhythms you internalize them. You feel them. You cannot feel “up and down,” you can only copy a motion you’re seeing. It may be that watching someone gets you started, but until you develop the ability to internalize a rhythm you’re always going to need someone to get you started.

Please understand, none of this is to say that I don’t think using your eyes isn’t important or that being a “visual learner” means you’ve no chance of becoming a musician. All that I’m trying to teach you is to not let a convenient label keep you from making real progress on the instrument you love making music that means the world to you.

Our brains are incredibly wonderful and yet intensely dangerous things. They are wonderful in that we ultimately learn about the world using all our senses. And we truly need to use all our brain whenever possible. Most of us can smell something burning long before we see it, just to use an everyday example.

The brain is dangerous when we talk ourselves into a handicap that we don’t necessarily have. Saying “I am a visual learner” or “I need to see my fingers to play” takes all the pressure off, so I don’t have to worry or work harder when I stumble. More importantly, if I say it enough my brain will believe it and I’ll never be able to prove it otherwise, even if I manage to get good in spite of myself. If I say instead, “I prefer to learn visually but this is a musical instrument so I’m going to have to work on being able to use my fingers and my ears as well as my eyes, maybe even instead of my eyes” then I am letting my brain know that I need its help to coordinate all my abilities so that I can make music.

Way too many guitarists end up giving up playing because they don’t use all the abilities their brains have access to. It doesn’t take a genius to see that.

Speaking of seeing, here’s a final thought – as you get more serious about playing and start performing either solo or as part of a group, or even if you simply just jam with some friends, you’re going to need your eyes both to communicate and to catch communications with your band mates and audience. You’ll totally miss out on that if you have to constantly keep watch on your hands.

Until our next Guitar Column…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 107 – February 1, 2010

David Hodge — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:30:48 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #107 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello! And welcome to the February 1, 2010 edition of Guitar Noise News, your twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

Paul’s been very busy behind the scenes, making improvements to the website and also putting in some cool new features. If you visit the “What’s New” page you’ll find the new “recommended by our readers” bookwheel, featuring guitar and music tuition books written by some of Guitar Noise’s wonderful contributors, such as Jamie Andreas and Tom Serb. You’ll also see some new books, such as “The Musician’s Way” by Gerald Klickstein and some books, like “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” that will be available on March 2.

I’m very excited about this new feature and I will be working with Paul to update it regularly with books that we think Guitar Noise readers will want to have in their personal libraries, such as John Ganapes’ terrific “Blues You Can Use” tutorials.

If you have recommendations, do send them along to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and Paul and I will see about adding them to the Guitar Noise book wheel.

You also may have noticed, at the top of some of our Guitar Noise Song lessons (such as this one: Seven Nation Army) a little icon labeled “Online Tab Player.” Clicking on that icon will send you to Songsterr.com, where you can hear the tab played out as written. It’s a nice addition to the lessons, especially if you want to hear the original music as well as the arrangements we create here at Guitar Noise. Check it out the next time you visit a song lesson.

Finally, I’d like to get in an early wish for a “Happy Chinese New Year” to you all! The Year of the Tiger starts February 14, which is not only Valentines’ Day, but also the day before our next newsletter. And a lot of things can happen between now and then, so please take note of both holidays and make them special for the special people in your lives.

Speaking of a lot of things happening, let’s check out all the other new stuff going on at Guitar Noise since we last chatted.

Topic of the Month

We’re beginning a new month, so we need both a new “topic of the month” as well as a new “Guitar Noise Featured Artist.” We’re revisiting “Strumming” as our topic for the month of February. When you visit the home page, you’ll find a link to the Guitar Noise articles that deal with the topic of strumming, including a new one that you’ll read about in a moment.

While we don’t have as many articles on strumming as we do on other topics, we do have more than two dozen Guitar Noise Podcasts devoted to this topic. If you’ve never had the chance to check these out, it’s a perfect time to do so! You’ll find all the Guitar Noise Podcasts available to download straight to your computer right here: http://www.guitarnoise.com/podcasts/

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Stevie Ray Vaughan is our February 2010 “Guitar Noise Featured Artist.” You can read Paul’s bio about this great guitarist at the Guitar Noise Artist Profiles page.

New Lessons and Articles

How To Practice For Maximum Guitar Speed
by Tom Hess

How many times have you done something absolutely fast in practice only to flub it in a “real” situation, like playing with your band or just jamming with your friends? Tom outlines and explains seven simple steps to help you work on developing your speed on the fretboard straight away and also to be able to keep that speed you perfect in practice when you perform.

Respecting Others While You Practice
by Mark Mills

Practicing the electric guitar can be problematic in the best of situations, and downright hard when you have to worry about your volume levels. Mark Mills returns to the pages of Guitar Noise with a very cool solution that lets you practice at a more than reasonable volume while not disturbing either your family or your neighbors.

Getting Past “Up And Down” – Part 2:
Turning Notes into Strokes
by David Hodge

If you know how to read notation, specifically the rhythm values of notation, you never have to worry about figuring out strumming patterns because everything is spelled out for you. In this lesson, we’ll use the main guitar parts from Jack Johnson’s song “Taylor” to demonstrate how easy strumming can be.

Coming Attractions

We are constantly working on new lessons of all sorts here at Guitar Noise. Just to keep you updated as to what’s coming along in the pipeline, the following lessons are still on track for being posted up online in the next few months, although not necessarily in the order in which I’ve written them!

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

Plus we’re looking forward to having more of our “Chord Melody Song Arrangements,” which will deal with pop and rock songs, like Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” or old standards like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and maybe even a surf tune, such as the Ventures’ classic “Walk Don’t Run.”

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for February 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 23)

Welcome back to more modal musings–thoughts on C Phrygian, in particular. As you know, C Phrygian is the sound that makes us think we’re going to F minor. And we also know that C Phrygian is taken from the Ab major scale. With that in mind, let’s use another arpeggio from Ab to create a substitute, or musical synonym, for C Phrygian. The arpeggio we’ll use is Eb7. Compare the notes in Eb7 with C7:

Eb7: Eb, G, Bb, Db
C7: E, G, Bb, C and Db, for an extension note.

You can see the C7 and Eb7 are close. Now let’s hear it. Try out this ascending run:

|-----------------|-6-9-6-8-(8)----|
|---------------8-|----------------|
|---------6-9-8---|----------------|
|-----5-8---------|----------------|
|---7-------------|----------------|
|-8---------------|----------------|

And this descending run.

|-9-6-------------|--------------|
|-----8-5---------|--------------|
|---------5-6-----|--------------|
|-------------8-5-|--------------|
|-----------------|-6-8-4--------|
|-----------------|-------6-8----|

These are just two ideas out of many possible ones. Experiment and come up with your own.

Thanks for reading.

Event Horizon

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

In fact, I just got an email as I was finishing off this edition of Guitar Noise News from a band in Scotland called General. They’ve got a gig on Thursday, February 11 as SoundHaus in Glasgow. You can get more info on this gig, and also give the band a listen at their MySpace page, which can be found here.

General has a UK summer tour coming up, and thinking ahead to summer now seems like a good idea!

I’d also like to pass along dates for Sam Weiser’s “Sam I Am” CD release tour. I’ve had the privilege of playing with this amazing young violinist (he’s still in high school) at a few FODfest shows the past two years and he is quite a talented and exciting performer. He’s just finished his first CD (available at Amazon, CD Baby and probably also your own music store) and has a short tour this month to promote it. He’s a winner of the Daniel Pearl Memory Violin and he’s donating the profits from his new CD to the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

You’ll find him playing at these venues and dates in February:
February 10th 7:00pm – Fairfield Theatre Company – Fairfield, CT
February 12th 7:00pm – Unity Church of God – Somerville, MA
February 13th 3:00pm – Rockwood Music Hall – New York City, NY
February 15th 7:30pm – Saint Mark Presbyterian Church – Rockville, MD
February 21st 7:30pm – The Rutledge – Nashville, TN
If you’re in the area, try to get to a show. You’ll have a great time, hear some great music and help support a great cause.

Random Thoughts

As I mentioned in our last newsletter, I’ve been thinking that it’s long past time that we’ve had a Guitar Noise Seminar of some sort. So I’m thinking that it might be good to start scheduling maybe one or two for this spring, say possibly early May or early June.

Since a lot of our readers have been asking about it, I thought a good topic for this year’s seminars might be “playing with others in small groups.” That title definitely needs work! Anyway, the idea would be to have the people attending the seminar learn about how to arrange pieces for two guitars. We would take specific songs (brought by the participants) and explore how best to work up a second guitar part that would best befit the second player’s skills and abilities.

This would be held at my home in western Massachusetts (about two-and-a-half hours from New York City and two-and-a-half hours from Boston) and probably be on a Saturday, starting around nine-thirty in the morning and lasting until four-thirty and I will be providing lunch for all. If it’s possible (and if the participants are interested), I can try to arrange for a public performance at a local venue for that evening. I’m also still working out the cost, but I’m hoping to have it be around $125 for the day, and that would include lunch and beverages.

If this appeals to you, drop me an email and let me know. I’d prefer to keep the groups small, between five to eight people. If there is enough interest and we can work out when people would like to come, then it’s possible to hold them on several weekends so that we can accommodate as many folks as possible. And if there is enough interest we could also see about having them in the late summer and throughout the fall months.

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Getting Past ‘Up and Down’ – Part 2: “Turning Notes into Strokes”

David Hodge — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:10:55 +0000

Ages ago, in “Part 1″ of Getting Past “Up and Down, you learned about sock puppets and the importance of keeping the “sock puppet saying no” motion going to ensure steady strumming. Doing so gives you an automatic metronome that helps you maintain a smooth and steady beat.

This becomes very important when you encounter more complicated rhythms, as you’ll soon see. But I’d like to take a moment to clue you in to something that will also help you immensely when it comes to playing rhythm – written music notation. Notes written in musical notation do double duty. They tell you which note to play and they also tell you how long any given note should last in terms of beats.

Tablature is certainly helpful, but usually only to a point. For example, take a moment and play this for me:

You certainly can handle the notes themselves, but notes are only one part of music. Rhythm is another and it can be very important. How important? Well, suppose I tell you that the example you just played is the first line of the Christmas carol Joy to the World? Did you play it like that the first time? Or did you play it simply, giving each note a single beat? Quite a difference, no?

Since we’re truly only concerned with strumming (for now, anyway), you only have to concern yourself with reading the rhythm aspects of notation. We’ve a number of lessons here at Guitar Noise about this, like Timing is Everything. You might want to take a few moments to look that one over, particularly since it gets into counting and that’s right at the heart of what we’re discussing.

When you count out the beats of the song, you usually do so in terms of quarter notes. We did this in “Example 1″ in Part 1, where you strummed down each quarter note like this:

I’d like to take a moment now to introduce some of you to rhythm notation. Rhythm notation uses just the rhythm part of notation. Instead of writing all the notes of a chord out in notation, a simple slash is stuck at the end of a stem, like this:

These are four quarter notes of the G chord, just as you saw in “Example 2″ a few moments ago. It doesn’t matter in the slightest where on the staff, on whichever line or space, the slash appears. All you’re concerned with is that they are quarter notes. Many music books use rhythm notation without staffs, placing strumming notation above a lyric line.

We’ll use rhythm notation for our next few examples. I’m not going to bother putting a chord in the following examples so you should feel free to use whatever chord you’d like.

Getting back to our quick review of “Part 1,” you also read and saw how when you strum in quarter notes, you’re actually strumming in eighth notes when you take the upstrokes into account:

So far, so good. Now how about if you want to play some more complicated rhythms, maybe something in the style of Jack Johnson, perhaps? He’s actually a great choice because most (if not all) of his music is available in books, which means you don’t have to guess how he strums things, it’s all written down for you!

You may be wondering how that is possible. After all, no one probably went and marked every downstroke or upstroke on the notation. And you’d be perfectly right about that. But if you take a moment and apply your brain, using the information you got in “Part 1,” you’d make some important discoveries.

Suppose you want to play a rhythm where the fastest notes are sixteenth notes? First, you have to think about strumming in eighth notes. Why? Because sixteenth notes are half the value of eighth notes, just like eighth notes are half the value of quarter notes. So if you were to strum a measure of eighth notes with all downstrokes, like this:

That means you’d be strumming in sixteenth notes when you take the upstrokes into account, like this:

Of course, more likely than not, you’re not going to be overly challenged by a rhythm that is either straight eighth notes or straight sixteenth notes. The fun comes when things get a little uneven, such as in strumming something like Jack Johnson’s song, Taylor. Here’s the riff that gets played pretty much throughout the song:

This looks kind of formidable unless you are able to see it and say, “Hey, that’s all sixteenth notes! Some of them have ties, but they are all sixteenth notes and I can do that!” First, chart all the notes out and ignore the ties. Since the two measures of this riff have the same rhythm, I’m going to just use the first one in the next two examples:

Now, when a note is tied, that means you just play the first of the tied notes and not the second. That means that we miss whatever strum happens to fall on the second of the tied notes, like this:

Instead of the rhythm and the strumming being a total mystery, you’ve got it down perfectly. Let’s try the whole riff:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

That wasn’t hard at all, was it? Not to figure out, anyway! Executing the strumming correctly will take a bit of practice, but nothing you aren’t capable of.

In the chorus sections of Taylor, a second acoustic guitar part comes in playing some open position chords while the first guitar is playing the riff we just worked out. Here is how the strumming of the second guitar looks in notation (rhythm notation this time):

By the way, I’m going to use a regular open position G instead of the “G5″ if that’s okay with you. I just like the sound of it better. Following the same process we just used for the first guitar part, we notice that there is a combination of eighth notes and sixteenth notes here. First, we want to just write out the count, and here’s something very interesting about that – It seems that many notation software programs, particularly those used in guitar books, usually separate out the groups of sixteenth notes or eight notes or dotted eighth and dotted sixteenth notes and what have you, in clusters of single beats. This makes writing out the count a lot easier, as you can see:

Finally, just add in our upstrokes and downstrokes according to where they fall in the count and you’re good to go:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

You’ve gotten quite a bit to digest here, so we’ll save going into even more complicated rhythms for next time.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 106 – January 15, 2010

David Hodge — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:36:02 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #106 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
Emails? We Get Emails!
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello! I hope that New Year 2010 is starting out well for all of you!

Since it’s the middle of the month, I guess that means it’s time for the latest edition of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

As more of the (seemingly endless) book deadlines are passing, I’m thinking that it’s long past time that we’ve had a Guitar Noise Seminar of some sort. So I’m thinking that it might be good to start scheduling maybe one or two for this spring, say possibly early May or early June.

Topic of the Month

As mentioned in our last newsletter, we’re starting out the New Year with a bit of a flashback – the Guitar Noise “topic of the month” for January 2010 is “Singing in the New Year” and that makes a lot of sense as so many people pick up the guitar in order to play and sing songs with others.

So if you go to the home page, you’ll find a link to many, many Guitar Noise articles, all dealing with the topic of singing and playing at the same time, not to mention just singing in general. And, as with most of our topics, there are articles from a number of folks who’ve contributed to our website over the past years. You should definitely find a few good tips to help you get your voice in shape.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

And Slash, who was known once upon a time as Saul Hudson, is our first “Guitar Noise Featured Artist” for 2010. Paul’s written a terrific bio about Slash (even though he totally omits all the special chords that are named after him) that you can find on our artist profiles page.

New Lessons And Articles

Guitar Plateaus – What To Do When You’re Stuck
by Jamie Andreas

If you’re traveling along the paths of learning guitar, you will eventually find yourself at a plateau in your learning. Longtime Guitar Noise Contributor, Jamie Andreas of Guitar Principles, explains why simply changing the way you look at being on a plateau, looking at it with the eye of a Guitar Master, can help you move forward in a short time.

Hello In There
Songs for Intermediates #29
by David Hodge

Here is a beautiful song from songwriter extraodinaire John Prine. This is another arrangement that most beginners can handle, plus we get into some discussion about choosing keys and chord voicings when creating arrangements. And you also get to hear how easy it is to turn this into a simple two-guitar arrangement.

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for January 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 22)

Welcome back to our virtual coursework in the C phrygian sound, in our ongoing exploration of the musical modes. We’re “speaking” C phrygian with arpeggios this time, as we did last time. But, last time we used the C7+5 arp, and this time up it’s the C7b9.

Let’s play the music before we read about the music.

|-9---------------|-----------------|-------------6-9-|-8--
|---6-8-5---------|-----------------|---------5-8-----|----
|---------5-6-----|-----------------|-----6-5---------|----
|-------------8-5-|-----------------|-5-8-------------|----
|-----------------|-7---4-----4---7-|-----------------|----
|-----------------|---8---6-6---8---|-----------------|----

C7b9 has one extra note beyond the usual C, E, G, Bb configuration: Db. That note makes the C7 sound phrygian. In other words, it makes you think we’re going to F minor. How does this work?

The note Db is the sixth note in F harmonic minor, which is a super common minor scale your ears pick right up on. The C, E, G and Bb notes of C7 say “we’re going to F.” And the Db, which is not in the F major scale but in the F harmonic minor, says “Ah: F minor, not F major.”

We may look at substitutes for the C7 arpeggio in the next issue.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Dear David,

I have decided to test out just how true your words of welcome are regarding inquiries. Perhaps to your chagrin. Nonetheless, I am a beginning guitarist and though guitarnoise.com and, more particularly, your instructional articles on beginner songs and the like have helped me immensely, the Internet isn’t always available to me. And you know, sometimes the computer just starts to hurt my eyes after a while.

So I was in the market for a book (or other literature) that would provide me with easy/intermediate guitar tabs, as well as some sort of basic instruction or tips for successfully learning the song. Any recommendations? If this information is covered somewhere on guitarnoise.com, I apologize — I haven’t gotten a chance to fully peruse all the website has to offer just yet.

Much appreciated,

Thank you for writing. And my thanks as well for your kind words concerning my lessons at Guitar Noise. I’m glad that they are being of help to you.

I don’t spend a lot of time on the Internet simply because my teaching and writing schedules don’t give me all that much free time. So I have not made an extensive look around at all the thousands (and tens of thousands) of guitar sites there are out there. And not to brag, but in the little that I have looked, I have yet to find any other books (or websites) that provide the same depth and level of instructional material as we do at Guitar Noise. Part of that is because the publishing industry (both book and music) make doing so fairly prohibitive with their copyright practices. A small book of, say, six to ten detailed lessons tends to cost them more to produce than just printing up the tablature and saying “here it is! Now just play it!”

Be that as it may, Paul Hackett (the gentleman who created Guitar Noise) and I are looking into how we at Guitar Noise might possibly be able to produce and publish our own series of lesson books. Unfortunately, my own teaching and writing schedule have sidelined this project for a while (I am currently writing / recording two titles for Alpha / Penguin Books – “The Complete Idiot’s Guitar to Playing Rock Guitar” and the entirely new “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar”) so we may not be able to get to it until this summer. But we will keep everyone updated either through our free newsletter (Guitar Noise News) or on the “News” section of the Forum pages.

In the absence of books and materials that are as detailed, I can recommend many of Mark Hanson’s books, such “Paul Simon Transcribed.” In addition to the tablature / transcriptions, he does give a page or so of instructions that help with each particular song. If you were to use that and to use some Guitar Noise lessons for more detail (even though they aren’t the same songs they all use similar techniques) you should do fairly well with them.

And feel free to write anytime. As I mentioned, I may not always be able to reply this quickly (or in this much detail), but I do try to.

My best wishes to you, your family and friends for a wonderful 2010.

Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Event Horizon

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

Random Thoughts

Last Saturday, I took a needed break from things and visited a new dining establishment in Great Barrington, Massachusetts called the Gypsy Joynt, on Route 7. Terrific food and a great open mic hosted by Jordan Weller. He and his family have recently relocated from North Carolina and opened the place up. Jordan is a great guitarist and songwriter and I’m expecting I’ll be hearing a lot about him now on our local music scene here in the Berkshires.

He and his family obviously are very much into both good music and good food and it’s terrific that another local place is providing a showcase for local music. It’s always a risk for anyone running a business to try to promote other aspects of life, and even though restaurants and music would seem to go together like, well, restaurants and music, simply having local musicians come in and play doesn’t necessarily pay the rent.

You’ve no doubt read similar sentiments from me but it bears repeating, and the first part of a new year seems an apt time to do so. If you’re a musician who wants there to be places to perform, you should do what you can to patronize these businesses. If you’re playing at an open mic, you obviously should buy something while you’re there. At the very least you should add to the tip jar of the wait staff. That’s only polite.

Likewise if you’re playing at a restaurant, you should also do your best to keep your space of impact to a minimum. Don’t make it hard for other customers to move about and remember that they are to enjoy themselves as well. The more you can draw your audience into a performance, the more likely they are to enjoy the show and (hopefully) to come again and bring others. That’s common sense.

Because we all spend so much time with our computers, it’s easy to forget about the little nuances of human contact that truly mean a lot. So do try to get out and support your local music scene, regardless of how small or how extensive it may be. You never know when you might be listening to someone who will one day be performing on the national or even International scene.

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Hello In There – John Prine – Songs for Intermediates #29

David Hodge — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:17:08 +0000

There are days when I could use the services of the Sorting Hat. This song lesson, a look at John Prine’s Hello In There, from his eponymous 1971 debut album, could easily be place in the Easy Songs for Beginners section. It’s not really all that hard, once you get the picking pattern into your fingers. And, as always, the picking pattern is simply a guideline. You could come up with all sorts of ways of playing it, even simply strumming instead of picking when you know the chord progression.

But just because this is an “easy intermediate” song, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something (or more than a few somethings) about it. And that’s the whole point of all these lessons here at Guitar Noise, right?

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Even though I’d heard this song for ages, I didn’t ever play it until the day a friend brought it along to one of the jam sessions we’d have in Chicago. His chord chart showed the song in the key of C, which I assumed was the key that the original recording was in. The first verse, and the chorus, looked like this:

Being a jam session, we obviously had a number of guitarists, so I quickly worked out two “up the neck” transpositions in order to be able to play in a different position and add a bit more to the song. The first was in G (which meant playing with a capo on the fifth fret) and the second was in A (capo on the third fret).

The next time I had the chance to play this was years later, as Hello In There turned up in one of Nick Torres’ songsheet collections. Owing to time, I’m not even sure we gave it a cursory going-over.

But when someone asked for a lesson dealing with a John Prine song, this is the one that came to mind first. And it’s kind of interesting because when I took a look at some recent videos of Prine playing the song, I noticed that he currently (or at least less than two years ago) is playing and singing the song in the key of A. He uses a capo on the second fret and plays open position chords in the key of G.

Now, if I were relying solely on information from the Internet without applying a bit of my brain to it, I might be lost because the majority of the tab / cheat sheets available on the Internet still put the song in C. C certainly may have been the key of the original recording (I don’t have a copy to verify that, sorry), but as people age their vocal range can change and that’s probably why John Prine currently plays it in A.

The point is that even when you know the chords of a song, you may have learned them in a key that’s very hard for you to sing in. And even using a capo may become problematic. For instance, my vocal range is not at all like John Prine’s (and that’s certainly an understatement!). I’m very comfortable singing this song in Eb or even E. That would mean putting a capo on the eighth or ninth fret if I wanted to use the same G based chords that Prine uses. Playing that high up the neck changes the character of the song quite a bit, so I have to take that into account when figuring out how I want to do this as a solo piece.

For now, though, we’re going to first approach this song in the style that John Prine plays it in the various recent live performances you can see and hear on YouTube. That means that we’re going to be playing with G chords but use the capo on the second fret, which puts the song in the key of A. Just so that we understand that we’ve technically got three keys to take into account here, let’s transpose the chords from C to both A and G to make our lives easier (and if you’re in a muddle about how to transpose, take a look at our lesson on that very topic – A Basic Guide to Transposing):

Once we have our pallet of chords, we can take a look at the picking. Prine uses a slow and relatively sparse Travis fingerstyle pattern as a foundation. To begin with, you want to use the thumb to get the bass notes on the beats and then add the treble notes with the fingers. For the G chord, for instance, you’d be playing this:

You can also hit the open G string instead of the open D string in this pattern. In fact, you’ll hear on the various MP3 files that go with this lesson that I will constantly flip between using the D string and the G string, particularly on the fourth beat of any given measure. As we’ve discussed in many articles and song lessons here at Guitar Noise, as long as you have the chord in place with your fingers, it’s rarely going to sound wrong.

In other words, even though I’ve written out the bass part as alternating between the low G (third fret of the low E (sixth) string) and the open D string, you should feel free to use the open G string as an alternate bass note as well. If you worry about being totally mechanical about it, you can lose some of the organic nature of playing. So please remember to use the tablature as a template for your playing and not as some kind of sacred text, okay? And forgive my switching from one to the other in the MP3 files.

In terms of structure, Hello In There is essentially a “verse – chorus” sort of song. The verse, or half the verse depending on the arrangement, also serves as an introduction and can also be played for an interlude between the verses. Both verse and chorus are sixteen measures long and can be broken down into two distinct parts, each eight measures long. This is very helpful because, as you’ll see, the second half of the chorus is almost exactly like the second half of the verse. Half of the verse is also used as the outro, or coda, of the song.

The first half of the verse is a four measure progression (one of G, one of Am and two of D7) that repeats itself (making eight total measures). If you’re confident about having a basic picking pattern down, then it’s time to tackle the first half of the verse:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

The basic Travis picking pattern remains constant throughout the song, but there are little twists to it. For instance, each of the first three chords has a root note on a different string. The low G, as we’ve discussed, is on the low E (sixth) string while the A of the Am is the open A string and the D of the D7 is the open D string. This means you need to shift your thumb accordingly when picking out the bass notes.

The first of the two measures of D7 tosses in a slight embellishment by adding the note of the open high E (first) string. This is a fairly common ornament that guitar players use when playing almost any open position D chord. You can either pick the open string or perform a pull off with your ring finger, which is keeping the second fret of the high E string down for the initial D7 chord.

The last eight measures of the verse involve four chords (Gmaj7, C, G and D), each of which get two measures. When I listened to the video of John Prine performing this song, it seemed to me that he continued to use the open D string as his bass note when he changed to what the chord charts pretty much write as “Gmaj7″ (or Cmaj7 if you go with the key of C charts) and the absence of the G note made the chord sound more like a typical minor chord rather than the jazzy sort of feel of a major seventh chord.

Now if you take a moment to think about it, this makes perfect sense. The notes of Gmaj7 are G, B, D and F# (F# being the major seventh). If you drop out the G, you’ve got B, D and F#, which make up the Bm chord. So playing a “beginner’s Bm” (xx0432) works wonderfully here, and also allows you to mimic the take-the-finger-off-the-high-E-string ornamentation that you used with the D chord:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

And since we’re having some fun dropping notes to open up the D string, how about turning around and adding a note, say adding the G chord at the third fret of the high E string during the C chord? That’s what’s going on in the first measure of C.

For the measures of G, I move the treble part of the picking down to the B and G strings, just to do something different than what we played for the first G chord. There’s nothing too fancy about that. Occasionally, he will hammer on the open low E string to get the bass note (G at the third fret) and you will hear me do that on occasion as well. I marked it on the second measure of G in the notation / tablature so you could see it, but you should feel free to use it at your discretion. Or not use it at all, if you prefer.

Another thing I picked up from listening to Prine’s video is that he uses F# (found at the second fret of the low E string) as the bass note for D chord, making it D/F# if you prefer. And if you take a look at him playing you’ll see that he wraps his thumb over the top of the neck of the guitar to get this note. He also does a hammer-on with the open G string to get the A note at the second fret. This is shown at the very beginning of the second measure of D in the notation / tablature of this last example.

A quick note here to point out that I should have stopped after the two measures of D/F# and not gone on to play the G chord at the end of that last MP3 example. Lost my place, I’m afraid! Hope you’ll forgive me.

Putting both parts of the verse together (and it is the verse and not the “full chorus,” as I mistakenly announce on the following MP3 example) will sound like this:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

That F# in the D/F# is something you can decide not to play. It won’t be all that different if you use a regular D chord instead. You will have to change your picking accordingly, though. But the real purpose of the F# is in how it leads your ear around and tricks you when the chorus comes up. Before the chorus, you’ll hear this F# in the bass three times – once in the Introduction, where it leads you to G; at the end of the first half of the verse, where it again leads you to G; and finally at the end of the verse. And your ear is, naturally, expecting to go to G again.

But instead he lowers the F# to F and plays an F chord. And the first eight measures of the chorus simply switch between F and G:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

You can play this F as a full barre if you’d like. Prine plays it as another “wrap-around” chord, using his thumb for the F at the first fret of the low E, his index at the first fret of the B string, middle finger on the second fret of the G, pinky on the third fret of the D and ring finger on the third fret of the A string. He doesn’t worry about the high E string because he’s not picking it on either the F or the G chord.

You could, if you wanted to, simply slide this “wrap-around F” chord (13321x) up two frets to get the following G. It will sound essentially the same.

The second half of the chorus is, as mentioned earlier, pretty much a copy of the second half of the verse, but with an additional four measures of G tacked on to the end:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Now let’s put both half of the chorus together:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

And that’s pretty much the whole song. Here’s a chord sheet to help you see your way through:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

As I mentioned earlier, choosing a key to play a song, or choosing a capo placement for that matter (since it’s just a way of playing in a different key in a different place for different chord voicings on the neck) in is an essential part of how the song is going to sound. You’ve just heard the two main parts of the song, the verse and the chorus, played in A but using “key of G” chords and having the capo on the second fret. Here is another version, this time using open position chords in the key of A. With your permission, I’m not going to tab out the guitar part. There’s no sense to since it’s basically the same exact picking pattern we’ve been using all along. You will need the chords, though:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

As I mentioned, these are basic, simple open position chords. Bm7 serves as an easy substitute for a barre chord-style Bm and allows me to use the bass note (B at the second fret of the A string). I do use some hammer-ons, such as hammering from the open B string to the second fret while playing the regular A chord, and also throw in the D note at the third fret of the B string on the E7 on occasion.

In this key, it would have been easier for me to use Amaj7 (x02120) instead of C#m, but I chose instead to use an easy voicing of C#m7, x46600, with my index finger playing the fourth fret of the A string, my ring finger on the sixth fret of the D and my pinky on the sixth fret of the G string. That allows me to slide the fingers, keeping the shape, up one fret and playing D 6/9 (x57700), which sounds very cool. An even easier substitution would be Dadd9 (xx0770) and I play that at least once in the verse.

Finally, I make use of the open, ringing B and high E strings by playing an Aadd9 (x07600) for the final chord. That may seem tricky, but actually it’s another easy chord change because the Aadd9 is essentially the same shape as the open E chord that precedes it. You simply slide the shape up to the sixth and seventh frets and remove your finger from the A string. Voila!

You can hear that even though this version is in the same key as the first one we did, it has its own feel to it. Is one arrangement better than the other? No, they are simply different, that’s all. Instead of thinking of which one is “right,” why not listen to them both played together:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

This is an excellent example of how two guitars playing exactly the same fingerpicking pattern can still produce depth and harmony simply by using different chord voicings. And the voicings don’t have to be all that far away from each other on the neck.

One of the things I’d like to start exploring with some of the lessons here at Guitar Noise is how to put together multiple guitar arrangements. Hopefully, this will give you a taste for what you might hear. At the very least, you’ve learned a terrific song by a great songwriter. Roger Waters stated in a 2008 interview that John Prine wrote “just extra-ordinarily eloquent music – and he lives on that plane with Neil Young and Lennon.”

As always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 105 – January 1, 2010

David Hodge — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:54:51 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #105 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
Soon-To-Be New Lessons and Articles
Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
Event Horizon
Reviews
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the first day of 2010! And here to help you get started on this wonderful New Year is the latest edition of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com in case you’ve forgotten!)

I’m actually writing this newsletter up on Christmas Day, so I’d like to take a moment to wish everyone a “Happy Christmas,” although it will be a belated one by the time you read this. My wishes to you all for a very Happy New Year, though, should be precisely on time!

Topic of the Month

We’re starting out the New Year with a bit of a flashback – the Guitar Noise “topic of the month” for January 2010 is “Singing in the New Year” and that makes a lot of sense as so many people pick up the guitar in order to play and sing songs with others.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

We also have a new “Guitar Noise Featured Artist” to kick in 2010, someone who needs no introduction to those who love rock music and the electric guitar – Saul Hudson! Hmmm, maybe he does need an introduction! How about if we call him by his stage name – Slash!

Check out the great bio Paul’s written on this iconic guitarist. You’ll find it on our artist profiles page.

New Lessons and Articles

In case you’ve not been to the home page in the past few weeks, you may have missed two Christmas song lessons that we posted up online right before Christmas: ”Away in a Manger” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas“.

I was hoping to also manage a lesson on “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” but things just didn’t pan out in terms of timing. My apologies for that, but it’ll be ready and waiting for you in about eleven months!

In the meantime, we do have two new pieces that should be up online by the time you receive this newsletter, and they are:

How To Prepare For Gigs And Make Your Live Shows Better
by Tom Hess

Creating memorable live performances can help you get more gigs and can bring more people to those gigs. Here are some great tips from Tom Hess on how to rehearse for all the aspects of performing live.

Banana Pancakes
Easy Songs for Beginners # 42
by David Hodge

This is kind of a “two in one” lesson with a look at rhythms and string muting as well as some work on simple barre chords and the importance of good positioning when it comes to playing riffs, even very simple ones like those used in this song! And I’ve also included a “barre chord free” arrangement for those whose barre chords still need practice.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 21)

Welcome back to our exploration of modes and our continued look at the C phrygian mode in particular. Today we’re going to communicate the C phrygian sound with an arpeggio. Without further ado, here’s C7(#5) around position V.

|-8-6-------------|-----------------|---6-8-------|------|
|-----9-5---------|---------------5-|-9-----------|-6----|
|---------5-------|-------------5---|----------5--|-5----|
|-----------8-6---|---------6-8-----|-------------|-6----|
|---------------7-|-------7---------|-------------|-8----|
|-----------------|-8-6-8-----------|-------------|------|

Let’s have a bit of theory with that. What are the notes in C7(#5)? What makes it C phrygian? Plain C7 has C, E, G, and Bb. Sharp the five and you’ll have G# instead of G. What makes this chord so dark is that G#.

What’s dark about G#? Well, think about the fact that G# is the enharmonic equivalent of Ab. Then remember that Ab is the minor third of the key center that C7 is pointing to, F minor. The Ab telegraphs the F minor feeling before we actually get to F minor.

We’ll look at another darkly sweet C phrygian arpeggio next time out.

Thanks for reading.

Event Horizon

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

Not So Random Thoughts

Back in the long, long ago when I considered myself a wise person (much in the way that all teenagers know that they alone in the universe know the answers to everything), I somewhere picked up a habit that ended up being a bit of a New Year’s tradition – the week between Christmas and New Year’s I would try to write down my thoughts about just about everything that had happened that past year. It could be world events but more often than not it was all about me, my friends at school, my worries and meanderings about life and love and the future. You know, the typical stuff that usually fills journals or songs of songwriters who haven’t learned the valuable skill of getting out of oneself.

Anyway, on New Year’s Eve, I’d usually have to drive my mom to work for the night shift (she didn’t drive and she worked eleven to seven) and I’d get home around eleven-twenty or so and start a fire in the fireplace. Then around eleven-thirty or so I’d read all the stuff I wrote and then at the stroke of midnight, I’d throw it into the fire and watch the old year literally go up in smoke in the first moments of the new year. Sentimental and very clichéd. I know, but I was (and still can be) very sentimental and certainly clichéd.

And as symbolic as this might have tried to be, I think it’s much more interesting to watch what bits of the past people carry around with them in their everyday life. We all do, to an extent. Some folks can go a bit overboard and actually try to live in the past while being here in the present, comparing any and everything to their own lives long ago and not even all that long ago. One of my young students made my day by longing for the “good old days” when he was seven (all of eighteen months ago!).

As you go into the New Year of 2010, try to make a point of living occasionally in the here and now. Go see a new band. Learn a new song (whether new to you or an old song you’ve not learned before) or come up with a totally new arrangement of something you’ve been doing the same way for ages.

In this digital era, it’s easy to confuse reading something on the computer with actual first-hand experience and knowledge. Actually, it’s been that way a long, long, time as anyone who works in either advertising or politics can readily tell you! Get out and participate. Play at an open mic. Start up a band so you’ll be ready to play at summer picnics! Start writing those songs you’ve been meaning to write since the “good old day!”

I hope this newsletter finds you safe, in good health, and full of good hope and cheer with these first days of a New Year, and a new decade, to boot!

And until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson – Easy Songs for Beginners #42

David Hodge — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:05:03 +0000

We’ll be talking a lot about rhythms in the various lessons and articles coming to Guitar Noise in 2010 and one thing you’re going to read over and over again is that rhythm is aural. Whether it’s the fact that we do everything on computers nowadays or that we feel something is positively ancient because there is no video attached to it, it’s vital to remember that music is audio. And as much as you want to think of various aspects of music in visual terms, you have to develop your ears and even occasionally forget your eyes entirely if you truly want to get better at playing guitar and at making music.

When it comes to learning music, the most important thing that you can use your eyes for is reading. But that’s just the first step of many. Being able to read tablature or music notation (and, ideally, you want to be good at reading both) won’t help you if you don’t apply your brain to your reading.

Hopefully, this lesson on Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes will help you understand the importance of both these points. Plus, it will give you some more work with easy forms of barre chords (something we all need, beginners or not). Don’t worry, though – you’ll also have the choice of playing this song (almost) entirely without barre chords, if you so choose.

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Structure and Rhythm

Breaking down Banana Pancakes in terms of musical structure doesn’t take long. The song is in the key of G, it’s in 4 / 4 timing (at a tempo between 112 and 120 beats per minute, if I’m not mistaken) and there is a short introduction that uses (as you’ll soon see) a very simple riff and flits between two chords – Am7 and G7 twice before very briefly using D7 as a “turnaround” chord to get us to the first verse. The verses are made up of a four-chord progression (G7, D7, Am7, and C7) where each chord gets two beats. This progression is played four times and then we have a chorus that is conveniently the same musical structure of the introduction.

Verse and chorus then are repeated, although the second chorus is twice as long as the first one. This extended part of the chorus doesn’t contain the riffs of the first one (or the introduction). Then we have a bridge that has two measures each of Am7, D, Am7, D, and Bm7 followed by single measures of Em, C, G, and D7 and then a measure-and-a- half of G before another two-beat turn around on D7 to take us back to the last verse and chorus. The final chorus, like the second chorus, is twice the length of the first chorus.

As good as all this information is, the first thing you truly need to know about this song is that it is played in swing eighths. Swing rhythm is something that is close to impossible for most people to pick up visually. Why? Because if you are watching the “down and up” strokes of a guitarist, the strumming looks identical to strumming regular eighth notes. Unless you’re listening (and, preferably, counting), you may not catch it.

Even written sheet music doesn’t always tell you that something is in swing rhythm. Usually it will be written out just as regular eighth notes. Here is a simplified version of the opening riff of Banana Pancakes written out for you (I’ve taken out the frills – don’t worry, you’ll get the “real” thing in a moment!) and played in both regular (or “straight”) eighth notes and then again in swing. I’m also counting along so that you can hear the difference:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Straight eighths divide a beat evenly. You count them “one and two and three and four and…” In swing eighths, the beat is divided evenly into three parts (a triplet), but you play just the first and the last note of that triplet. In other words, you would count out “one and a two and a three and a four and a” but only play the numbers and the “a”s, not the “and”s.

If you want to get a good primer to swing rhythms, listen to Guitar Noise Podcast # 13. All of the music notation for this lesson will be written like “regular” eighth notes but you want to think of them in terms of swing eighths. One of the reasons that sheet music is written this way is to make the life of whoever’s writing the notation a little easier! Scribbling out all those triplets is a royal pain!

Introduction, Basic Barres and Reading Finger Position Clues

Barre chords are a signature part of Jack Johnson’s sound. You won’t produce the jazz-styled chord voicings and chunky rhythmic sounds he gets without them. And the barre chords involved in Banana Pancakes are, for the most part, very easy. This is one reason why it’s a great song to use for barre chord practice.

The Introduction / Chorus section of Banana Pancakes introduces the Am7 and G7 chords you will run into throughout the song. Both of these chords are what we’d call “E shaped” barre chords. The Am7 is an Em7 (020000) moved up to the fifth and seventh frets (575555) and the G7 is an E7 (020100) moved up to the third, fourth and fifth frets (353433). For both chords, you want to barre the appropriate fret with your index finger, then use your ring finger to get the note on the A string and your middle finger to get the note on the G string. If you’re careful about how you strum, you can get away with not fingering the A string at all. Just miss it when you strum either chord. This is especially easy to do on the upstrokes and, conveniently enough, you’ll be playing these chords mostly on the upstrokes. Here’s the Introduction, except for the very last measure:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

If you’re going to go with the barre chords, then it’s important to let the fingering of the barre chord help you determine how to go about fingering the riff. Since the first riff ends with the Am7 barre chord, you want to make the first slide (usually done from the fifth fret, even though it’s not indicated) with the ring finger. Sliding the ring finger up to the seventh fret puts you in great position to use your index finger for the notes at the fifth fret and also lets you use the index finger for the slide from the fifth fret to the third fret later in the measure. Using your index finger for the slide that begins the second measure ensures you are in a good position to make the Am7 barre chord. You hit the A note (fifth fret of the low E (sixth) string on the first beat and strum down on the second beat with your fingers not quite in place, just off the strings enough to mute them, and then set the chord in place and strum it on the following upstroke.

And just how did I decide on where to put the upstrokes and downstrokes? Well, from listening to Banana Pancakes and from counting out the rhythm while listening to it, I realized that all the strumming was done in either quarter notes (one per beat) or eighth notes (two per beat, done with “swing” as we’ve already discussed). And when dealing with measures of eighth notes, the easiest way to play them is using a downstroke on the beat and an upstroke for the eighth note that falls between the beat, like this:

Again, I can’t stress enough how rhythm is best learned through listening and feel. The temptation is to make it out to be a lot harder than it really is. Read through our lessons on basic strumming, like Getting Past Up and Down and others that you will find on our “Strumming for Beginners” section that you can access through the “Hot Lessons” page. And be on the lookout for a new strumming lesson that will feature a bit of the Jack Johnson song, Taylor. This should be up online before the end of January 2010.

Meanwhile, this particular fingering pattern for the first riff in the “Introduction / Chorus” section, as well as the rhythm pattern itself, repeats for the next riff and the following G7 chord. The third riff, which is followed by another Am7 chord, is a slight variation of the first two, using more notes on the A string, but your fingers should still be in position to get the notes at the fifth fret with your index finger and the notes at the seventh fret with your ring finger. The last riff and the following G7 chord are clones of the second pass through the Introduction.

The last measure of the Introduction involves a chord change from G7 to D7 and also gives a great demonstration of how easy, yet complicated, a simple eighth note strumming pattern can sound:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

There are two aspects of this to work on. The first is the fingering and the changing between the chords. This D7 chord is based on the open position C7 shape (x32310), in fact it’s just a C7 chord moved two frets up the neck. We’ve seen it most recently in the Holiday Song Lesson on Away in a Manger. It’s a cool chord because if you hit the open high E (first) string by accident, you’ve got a D9 chord, which usually will work as a substitute, particularly in blues-y and jazz type songs.

More important, moving between the G (or G7) barre chord we’ve been using and this D7 chord is actually something that you’ll run into a lot. Why? Well, in the key of G, G is the “I” or the root chord. D, or D7 in this case, is the “V” chord, and the I – V or V- I chord progressions are some of the most common ones found in songs of all types.

And (almost as if someone planned it that way) making this switch isn’t all that hard, although it will take some concentrated practice to get it smooth. What makes it relatively easy is that your fingers, when in the G or G7 barre chord position, are either where you want them to be for the D7 or close enough that you don’t have to move all that far. Your ring finger, sitting on the fifth fret of the A string, doesn’t move at all. The index finger goes from laying flat on the third fret to standing up in place on the third fret of the B string. Meanwhile your middle finger shifts from the fourth fret of the G string to the fourth fret of the D string. Simply add your pinky to the fifth fret of the G string and you’re there!

Take some time just switching between these two chord shapes. Start slowly at first, making certain that your fingers are ending up exactly where you want them to be. Then work on moving your fingers together as a unit. For some great tips on practicing chord changes, check out Tom Hess’ recent article on this very topic – Teaching Chords.

The second aspect, getting the rhythm right, will also require practice, persistence and patience on your part. The measure starts out with a rest, but you want to make certain you make the downward motion of the strum during that rest (the whole “sock puppet” thing again) so that you’re in place for the upstroke. You’ll hear me counting this all out very slowly on the MP3, so hopefully that will help you to get the timing into your head.

Verses, More Rhythms and Open Chord Substitutions

Believe it or not, you’ve pretty much got the song down at this point. The verses, as detailed earlier, a simple two measure progression that repeats four times:

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There are some fun (and slightly sneaky!) things going on here. First, the rhythm is the same one in “Example 3″ from the “Sock Puppet” lesson mentioned earlier. You hit the root note of the chord on the first and third beats (the quarter notes) and then strum down and up for the eighth notes that occur during the second and fourth beats. Remember that it’s still in swing rhythm and you’ll be fine!

The upstroke on the chord (on the second half of both the second and fourth beats) is a muted catch of the strings. This is very cool because that’s where you want to be making the chord change anyway, so the string muting actually helps you to cover up getting your fingers set! Told you it was a bit sneaky!

As promised, you can also do this part, not to mention the whole song, almost entirely without barre chords. I say “almost” because I do think you might like the “easy partial barre” voicing of Am7, which it to barre only the four high strings at the fifth fret. You can use the open A string for your root note, since it is, after all, A.

In the MP3 file for the last example, you can hear me playing it both ways. I play a regular G instead of the G7 but I like the voicing of D7 we’ve been using so I’ve kept that. And I also like the Am7 so I use the “easy partial barre” I just described and follow up with a regular open position C7. You can certainly use a regular open position Am7 (x02010) if you’d like. And, as you can hear, there’s not enough difference between the open position chords and the barre chords worth worrying about. Not to mention that if you’re trying to sing the lyrics and play the song at the same time you may find the open chords a little easier.

But the barre chords are not all that hard, either. You’ve already been practicing the G7 to

D7 shift, so you should be okay with that one. If you make use of the “easy partial barre” form of Am7 and use your ring finger to barre the strings at the fifth fret, then you never have to shift your index finger from the third fret for the entire chord progression since the C7 barre uses the open position A7 shape with a barre at the third fret. You probably never thought barre chords could be so much fun!

Choruses, Extended Choruses, Bridge and Bonus Riff

The final C7 of the verse goes to Am7 instead of G, signaling the start of the chorus. The first chorus is pretty much like the Introduction but without the first riff (because we begin at the Am7) and a slightly different rhythm:

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Here the rhythm is still all eighth notes (and by this point I don’t have to say “swing,” do I?) and the root note is still played on the first and third beat, but the chords themselves are on the offbeat, so they are played with upstrokes while the string muting takes place on the second and fourth beats. Keep your upstrokes short and don’t forget to keep your strumming in motion during the muting and you’ll find this isn’t at all difficult. It’s when you start thinking about it, when you try to visualize it, that the rhythm tends to falter. Try it with your eyes closed – that often helps!

The last measure of the first chorus is exactly like the last measure of the Introduction, but with a G note in the bass (played at the third fret of the low E (sixth) string) instead of an eighth rest. And yes, you can use open position chords just as well here, as you can in the Introduction.

This latest rhythm, with the chords on the offbeat (upstrokes) is also used to extend the second (and third) chorus, and the bridge as well. The extended choruses are just two extra sets of chord changes – two measures of Am7, two measures of G7, two more measures of Am7 and two of G (355433 for a full barre).

The bridge starts out by switching between Am7 and an A-shaped barre of the D chord (x5777x), played with a bit of an alternating bass line:

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A-shaped barre chords, especially straight major ones (no 7’s, 9’s, etc.,) can be a real pain. Many people tend to cheat on them a little – barring the first set of strings across the first five strings with the index finger and barring the second set (two frets higher) across the first four strings with the ring finger. The thing to remember when playing these this way is to not strum the high E (first) string.

Things get more interesting starting at the fifth line of the bridge with the Bm7 chord. This is an open position Am7 chord that’s been moved up two frets and barred across the second fret with the index finger. Your middle finger gets the third fret of the B string and your ring finger sits at the fourth fret of the D string.

You then slide this entire shape up the neck so that your index finger barres the seventh fret (your middle finger with be on the eighth fret of the B string and your ring finger on the ninth fret of the D string) and add your pinky to the ninth fret of the G string. This is the Em chord that starts the sixth line of the bridge. To get the Em/D# (and for more on slash chords, check out the Easy Songs for Beginners’ Lesson on Eleanor Rigby), keep your middle, ring and pinky fingers in place and slide the index down a fret so it sits at the sixth fret of the A string. You then reform another A major-shaped barre chord at the third and fifth frets to make C (x3555x).

This is a good place to mention that open position chords work very well on the bridge section of Banana Pancakes. Because Jack Johnson doesn’t strike his high E string for the D, Em and C chords, his chord voicings are very similar to the open position chords you know and love. So if you have decided to play totally without barre chords or would simply just like a bit of a respite from them, feel free to use these substitutes:

You’ve probably already noticed that the bridge ends with the exact same G to D7 turnaround that you’ve encountered twice already in this song.

Okay, one last thing: In the original recording, Johnson occasionally plays a very short riff (lick, flourish, whatever you’d like to call it) in place of the C7 chord during the verses. He uses it in place of the fourth C7 in the first verse, doesn’t use it at all in the second and then uses it in place of the second C7 in the last verse. It goes like this:

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This is one of those instances where your brain can help you out a lot. Even though the riff takes the place of the C7 chord, it is still based on the Am barre chord, so don’t lose your fingering! Slide your ring finger from the fifth fret of the A string to the seventh fret, then pick both the D and G strings, where your index finger is still barring the fifth fret. Then hammer onto the seventh fret of the D string with your ring finger and pull it off again to sound the note at the fifth fret. As long as you keep your index finger on the fifth fret (after the initial slide on the A string), you should be fine.

You can almost do this verbatim with open position chords, but instead of sliding on the A string, you need to hammer onto the second fret of the D string after initially striking it as an open string.

And there you have all the parts! Here’s the layout for you and you’ll have to forgive my not giving you the usual final MP3 file. I’m pretty sure that after all the explaining, not to mention all the MP3 examples, you can handle this without problems.

I hope that you have enjoyed this song lesson and I also hope that you find it a great way to get going on refining your playing of barre chords, not to mention working on some simple rhythm skills.

As always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Away in a Manger

David Hodge — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:07:37 +0000

Coming up with single guitar chord melody arrangements (or close to chord melody, I suppose you could call it, too, since sometimes you don’t play full chords) can be a lot of fun, if for no other reason than sometimes you end up with something totally different than what you first set out to do.

Case in point – this lesson on the old Christmas carol Away in a Manger started out as a very simple lesson on melody movement, but, well, you’ll see!

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Away in a Manger is a beguiling, simple yet beautiful melody built on a descending major scale line, but starting on the fifth note of the scale. In the key of G, it would be like this:

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When I was working this out, I was indeed playing in G. This led me to thinking, what if I raised the melody up an octave so that I could play it mostly (almost entirely, in fact) on the high E (first) string and then use the open B, G and D strings as a drone, kind of making the guitar more into a dulcimer. That turned out like this:

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I liked this a lot, especially since it opened up some many possibilities for concentrating on the single notes of the melody. One could, for instance, use a single finger and slide from note to note. Or you could place your index finger on the B note at the seventh fret of the high E (first) string and set up the C note (eighth fret) with the middle finger and the opening D at the tenth fret with the pinky and then using pull-offs to sound the first three notes of the melody. Being able to focus on the tone of each note of the melody, how playing it even with different fingers creates a different tone, can keep me occupied for hours!

As much as I enjoyed being able to play around with the melody, I found myself missing having a low G note in the bass. But the thought of trying to have one finger on the G note at third fret of the low E (sixth) string while simultaneously playing the D note at the tenth fret of the high E (first) string, well, let’s just say that I didn’t think it being a good idea and leave it at that.

But there are all sorts of ways of getting around these kinds of challenges if you have an open mind. Since I wanted to have a low G note for my bass, why not tune my low E up to G just for this song and give myself nothing but open strings for my bass accompaniment, like this:

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Now, you might wonder why I didn’t tune my A string down to G instead, and you certainly can do that. But I was worried about the fact that, Away in a Manger being in the key of G, the song would primarily contain G, C and D chords and tuning the A down to G would make the C chord problematic, whereas changing the low E string wouldn’t change the C chord at all.

Away in a Manger, like many songs, has four lines and the melody line of the first and third lines are the same. Let’s tackle that first line with our newly tuned guitars:

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You’ll notice that I changed the accompaniment in the third measure, using the C note at the third fret of the A string as the first bass note but not changing the other two notes. Technically, this creates a Cadd9 chord instead of a regular C, but I liked the way it sounded, slightly dissonant but in an interesting way. After trying out using regular C and this one, I ended up liking the open D string much more.

Although I didn’t realize it at time, keeping the A string tuned to A made the first full measure of the second line much easier to deal with:

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This is simply a C7 chord (x32310) slid up two frets, creating a D9 chord (x54530) and the use of the F# (fourth fret of the D string) and C (fifth fret of the G string), mixing with the ringing tones of the D (third fret of the B string) and E (open high E (sixth) string) in the melody, makes this sound much more interesting than if I’d used a regular D with just the open high E string (xx0230).

The “regular” open position D chord does have its place, though, as it’s the perfect choice for the second measure. Some people might find this measure easier to play by making a partial barre at the second fret, covering the three high strings with the index finger. Doing so should allow you to play the initial D note (third fret of the B string) of the melody with the middle finger and the A note (fifth fret of the high E (first) string) with the pinky.

Using a partial barre also puts you in a position to simply stand up your index finger onto the second fret of the D string for the Cadd9 chord (x32030) in the following measure. The middle finger would get the C note in the bass (third fret of the A string) and the ring finger would play the D note at the third fret of the B string. You would then slide that finger up to the eighth fret to get the G note of the melody and hang onto it so that it could ring out while you play the B note (seventh fret of the high E) to end this phrase.

Since the melody of the third line is an exact copy of the first line, I thought it might be nice to do something different this time around. Adding a bit of additional harmony is always nice:

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These are basic double stops, and shouldn’t give you too much trouble provided you remember to keep the G note of the melody (eighth fret of the B string) the same while changing the harmony note from F (tenth fret of the G string) to E (ninth fret of the G string). And you don’t have to release the B note (fourth fret of the G string) in favor of the open G string if you prefer not to. This was something I thought was nice.

The final line has a few slightly complicated challenges to it involving a few partial barres:

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Begin the first measure here with your index finger barring the first four strings at the fifth fret. This, along with the open A string in the bass, gives you an Am7 chord for your harmony. Your pinky should be able to reach the C note of the melody (eighth fret of the high E) without difficulty and you can use either your ring finger or your middle finger to get the B note (seventh fret) that follows.

You remove the barre in the second measure but replace it, this time using your middle finger to barre, in the third measure. That frees your index finger for the F# note at the fourth fret of the D string. This chord, x04555, is D9/A by the way. Use your ring finger or pinky to get the F# note at the seventh fret of the B string and then slide that finger up a single fret to play the final G of the melody line.

Okay, let’s put this all together, shall we?

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I hope you’ve enjoyed working out this Christmas carol with me. Even though it’s fairly simple, I think we’ve managed to come up with an arrangement with some flair of its own.

As always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

David Hodge — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:08:30 +0000

One of the (pardon the pun) cool things about working up arrangements for Christmas songs is that it’s incredibly rare for someone to write in and say “Your version isn’t the way that it is on the original recording.” It’s kind of funny that no one, not even the folks that are of the “one-has-to-play-each-note-exactly-as-written-and-also-play-it-using-the-exact-same-gear-and-amplifier-settings” crowd, worries about taking liberties with arrangements when it comes to Christmas carols.

And that’s just as well, too, for there are certainly more than enough versions of just about every single holiday song known to civilization. Today, I’d like to offer up a “fingerstyle / chord melody” take on I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a song from the 1940’s that’s been sung by almost everyone, it seems. Hopefully our Guitar Noise arrangement will become part of your holiday song repertoire.

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Before we start in, though, I have to digress slightly concerning two things. First, I’ve been playing this song for ages, but when I first started to work up an arrangement of it, I had no sheet music as a guide. Instead, I relied on memories of the various versions I’d heard. As a result, there are all sorts of ‘freedoms” taken, particularly with the time signatures in this arrangement. But I’m hoping that will make it an even more interesting lesson.

The second thing is that I incorporate the “verse” of the song, and you may not even be aware that it exists. We know many pop songs from the middle of the 1900s simply from their choruses, which actually seem to be whole songs. But quite often, these songs had a single verse that served more as what we’d think of today as an introduction. Then everyone would join in on singing the chorus. And, more often than not these days, it’s only the chorus that most of us know.

Our arrangement of I’ll Be Home is in the key of A. And though the song is written in 4/4 timing, we’re going to be approaching it in a different manner. In 4/4 timing, the two lines of the verse goes like this:

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Back when I was putting this all together, the phrase of lyric gave me a strong impression of 3 / 4 timing. More like this:

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Because I’d gotten this rhythm into my head all those many years ago, I pretty much think of the whole song in terms of threes and triplets instead of fours, as you’ll see when we get to the chorus.

For now, though, let’s take a look at those first two lines again, done up in a “fingerstyle chord melody” way:

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First things first – I’ve moved the melody up an octave to place it totally on the first two strings of guitar. This means that you’ll have a bit of work ahead, changing chords at various places on the fretboard. But even this early in the verse, we’ll be running into two important chord shapes that will recur throughout the song. The initial Dmaj7 chord is made by placing the index finger at the ninth fret of the high E (first) string, and then forming a diagonal line with your middle finger on the tenth fret of the B string and your ring finger on the eleventh fret of the G string. The open D string serves as our bass note.

We then switch to full-barre Em7 chord shapes for the next three measures. Using this fingering of barring across all the strings with the index finger and then adding the ring finger to the A string two frets up, we create C#m7 (barre at ninth fret, ring finger on the eleventh fret of the A string), Bm7 (barre at seventh fret, ring finger on the ninth fret of the A string), and F#m7 (barre at second fret, ring finger on the fourth fret of the A string) and our free fingers to get the other melody notes. Your index finger will easily reach the tenth fret of the B string when playing the C#m and your pinky should have no problems with either the tenth fret of the B when playing Bm7 or the fourth fret of the high E (first) string when playing the F#m7.

The “diagonal line shape” of the Dmaj7 chord shows up again in first measure of the second line for the Bm7/D chord, although you may not immediately recognize it. Before you worry about playing the notes shown in the tablature, set your fingers for a typical “beginner’s Bm” chord – index finger on the second fret of the high E (first) string, middle finger on the third fret of the B string, and ring finger on the fourth fret of the G string. Once you’ve gotten those fingers in place, then put your pinky on the fifth fret of the high E (first) string to get the A note of the melody line. Once you’ve played it, you simply remove the pinky and all your other fingers are in place for the last chord of that measure.

Being able to read chord shapes as tablature is not something that many guitarists pick up easily and we’ll be spending a bit of time throughout 2010 working through this subject. Hopefully, though, this shows you why it’s an important skill to develop.

Recognizing chord shapes can often make changing from chord to chord easier as well. For instance, just looking at the chord charts and tablature for switching from this “beginner’s Bm” to the following E7 may seem daunting, all it really involves is moving two fingers. Your middle and ring finger are already where they should be, so you shift the index finger to the second fret of the D string and then drop your pinky onto the fourth fret of the high E (first) string.

If you want to add a bit more bass, you can also flatten out your index finger across the second fret of both the D and A strings, giving you the fingering of 022434, which allows you to play the chord across all six strings. You want to be careful with this, though as you need the note of the open high E (first) string as part of the melody line. You can achieve this by tilting the index finger into the middle of the fretboard, clearing the first string completely, or you could always reach the same note at the fifth fret of the B string with you pinky.

The second half of the verse starts out the same but then finishes with a group of interesting chords, not to mention a brief change of time signatures:

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Something both cool but somewhat frustrating and unnerving about is that any one specific combination of notes can turn out to be a part of many, many possible chords. If I were to give you the notes C, E and G, as an example, you could say that they are a C major chord, but they could also be part of Am7 (A, C, E and G), Fmaj9 (F, A, C, E and G) or many other chords. Most jazz players use only three or four strings in order to create chords, so there are all sorts of ways to identify them.

Since Bm, or Bm7 if you will, is the focal harmonic point of the first measure in the second line here, I’ve named each of these chords as extensions of Bm or B. Shifting from chord to chord may seem difficult at first, but using your index finger as an anchor on the lowest fret and shifting it up the neck (from the second fret to the fourth and then to the seventh) will help you make smooth transitions. Having your index finger on the seventh fret for the B13 also puts you in perfect position for the E9.

This part of the verse can be done very freely in terms of timing. You can make it incredibly melodramatic if you’d like, especially if doing so helps you buy time between the chord changes!

Part of the charm of this arrangement, of most chord melody style arrangements for that matter, are getting ringing strings and overtones wherever possible. That’s why you’ll find many times I’ll opt for a chord voicing involving open strings when I can.

With the “verse” out of the way, we can concentrate on the “chorus” part of I’ll Be Home for Christmas, which is the part you’re probably really interested in, anyway. Like the verse, the original chorus is written in 4 /4 timing. But while there is a strong pulse on each beat, and again this is to my ears and may not work for you, there is also a distinct feel for triplets in the accompaniment. It’s got the same kind of feel as The House of the Rising Sun. So I’ve worked out the chorus in 6 / 8 timing to accommodate this feel. If nothing else, it keeps me from writing out a lot of triplet notation!

I could have just as easily written this out in 12 / 8, the way many blues songs are written out, but I simply found 6 / 8 more convenient. And, as you’ll see and hear, it does make coming up with an easy, yet interesting accompaniment a breeze.

Essentially, the chorus can be broken down into four parts, each of which goes with a line of lyric:

I’ll be home for Christmas you can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me where the lovelight gleams
I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams

To make matters even easier, the first and third lines are, essentially identical in terms of melody and chords. So we’ve only three parts to learn! Here’s the first:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

The first measure involves what some people call the “classical guitarist’s A chord,” although folks like Pete Townsend use it a lot. Essentially, it’s a partial barring of the second fret, covering the four high strings with the index finger, and then adding the pinky to the fifth fret of the high E (first) string to get the A note of the melody. You then slide the pinky down to the fourth fret at the end of the measure.

For the most part, I tried to make the accompaniment be a simple “down and up” arpeggio, again much like the lesson on The House of the Rising Sun. There will be places where this will have to be changed, but if you can get used to starting with your bass note and (including that bass note) play three strings down and then three strings back up, you should be fine.

An Adim7 sets the stage for the second measure. Slide your index finger, still barring the first four strings, up to the fourth fret and add your middle finger to the fifth fret of the G string while dropping your pinky onto the seventh fret of the high E (first) string. Use your ring finger to fret the A note at the fifth fret of the high E later in the measure.

The E note of the open first string is the melody note for the word “Christmas,” so I use most of the barre chord version of the Bm chord but leave that first string open. This is actually fairly easy to do if you don’t think of it as a barre chord, but rather as an Am chord slid up two frets. Plus, then your fingers are in shape for the E chord that comes next.

If case one of the subtle subtexts of the many lessons here at Guitar Noise may be eluding you, let me make it clear: you don’t have to let chord names freak you out. There is very little about music that you can’t figure out, provided that you keep your head and don’t panic. For instance, you may look at the chord in the next measure, C#m7(b5) and have a heart attack. But there’s no reason for it. C#m is C#, E and G#. Adding the “7″ means adding the note, B, to the chord. “b5″ indicates that you lower the fifth of the chord, G# in this instance, a half-step, turning it into G. So the notes of “C#7(b5) are C#, E, G and B. That’s three open strings plus a C# thrown in somewhere. No reason whatsoever to panic that I can see.

You could make this more interesting, not to mention slightly harder to finger by going with a fingering of X42000, but since you’re fingerpicking arpeggios, make it easier on yourself by skipping the D string entirely.

Likewise, the following chord, F#7(b9) may seem unwieldy, but all you’ve got to do is to barre across the second fret again with your index finger and then add your middle finger to the third fret of the G string and your ring finger, just for a moment, to the third fret of the high E (first) string. Then you only need stand the index finger up at the second fret of the A string to put you in perfect position for the Bm7 of the last two measures.

Let’s move along to the second line of the chorus:

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Things start our relatively easy, with three simple open positions before moving up the neck for the F#m7 in the fourth measure. But even this isn’t that hard if you stop to think and prepare for a moment. The chord immediately before it, Amaj7, shares the same shape and fingering on the B, G and D strings, so if you set yourself up to play that Amaj7 without your index finger (pinky on the second fret of the B string, middle finger on the first fret of the G string and ring finger on the second fret of the D string), then you only need slide the whole shape up to the sixth and seventh frets and drop your index finger down on the fifth fret of the high E string to complete the chord.

And if you plan out your arpeggios, you don’t have to play the whole B7 barre chord, either. For all intents and purposes, you can get away with leaving the A string clear (other than the index finger needed to barre the seventh fret, of course!) and just use your middle finger on the eighth fret of the G string. Plus your ring finger for the melody note at the ninth fret of the B string when it comes along. The last two measures of this section are a repeat of the third and fourth measures of the first line.

After repeating the first line again, you’ve only one more to go:

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This brings us back to the two basic chord shapes we covered in the “verse” section. The Bm7 (based on the Em7 shape but barred at the seven fret) we remember as the third chord of the song. The “diagonal line” chord is played across the fifth, sixth and seventh frets of the high E (first), B and G strings, respectively, to create Dm. Adding the pinky to the seventh fret of the high E (first) string will give you the melody note.

Then comes our old friend C#m7(b5) and since that’s nowhere near as scary now, why not try stretching our hand a bit and using the x42000 fingering for it? Follow that up with a full F#7 (index finger barred across the second fret, middle finger on the third fret of the G and ring finger on the fourth fret of the A), another Bm7 and another diagonal Dm and you’re just about finished. We’ll close with a nice open string version of Amaj9, fingering the sixth fret of both the D and G strings.

If you want to have an ending with a little more pizzazz, try replacing the final two measures with a reprise of the first four measures of the “verse” section, only try it in 6 /8 timing to give it a little more interest. I’ve not tabbed this out, but I play it in our final version. And just in case you were wondering, I’m playing all the MP3 examples for this lesson on a classical guitar.

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

As always, I hope that you had fun with this arrangement of I’ll Be Home for Christmas. It’s one of my favorite seasonal songs and I hope you enjoy it as well. It may take you a little longer to get confident about playing it, but I’m sure you’ll manage it with just a little bit of practice, patience and perseverance.

And, again as always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 104 – December 17, 2009

David Hodge — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:29:01 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #104 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
Soon-To-Be New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Event Horizon
Soon-To-Be Reviews
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

The year is truly winding down if this is the December 15 (possibly December 16) (or even December 17) edition of Guitar Noise News. It’s way to early to start in with the old joke “see you next year,” but I’m sure that someone has already said that by this time, no?

It truly seems like yesterday that 2009 was just starting, bright and full of promise. And now we are just about two weeks away from kicking off 2010. But lots of things have happened in the past year, even though we might have to think a minute or two about it.

One event that some of us at Guitar Noise have been eagerly awaiting is the release of Steinar Gregertsen’s new CD, “Standing Next to a Mountain.” Many of you may know Steinar’s great slide guitar and lap steel guitar playing from the Forum pages and this CD is his tribute to Jimi Hendrix. I absolutely loved his last CD “Southern Moon, Northern Lights” (reviewed here), so I’ve ordered my copy, as well as one for my brother Tom (a huge Hendrix fan), and I’ll be sure to post a review as soon as I give it a listen.

For those of you interested in getting your own copies, just hop over to Steinar’s website. You’ll also be able to purchase it from CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com) in the very near future.

And word has it that Arjen Schipper’s opus, “Inside Outside” is being shipped as we speak! This has been in the works for quite some time, now (see the thread) and I’m sure it’s going to be getting a lot of play here at home.

There’ll be a lot of music played over the holidays and it’s thrilling to know that much of it will be music created by the Guitar Noise community.

Topic of the Month

In case you haven’t guessed by now, the Guitar Noise “topic of the month” for December is “Holiday Songs for Guitar.” As with most of our topics, we have holiday song lessons for guitarists at many levels of playing ability, from beginners just getting started to intermediate students. So go to the home page and take a look at all the holiday song lessons. These songs are not only fun to play but will also bring joy to those who get to listen to you play.

And, as you’ll read in a moment, there are two or three new holiday song arrangements coming your way within days.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

When we decided to make Jimi Hendrix the “Guitar Noise Featured Artist” for December, we hadn’t planned on Steinar’s CD coming out at the same time. It’s great to have things work out sometimes!

As with our other Guitar Noise Featured Artists, Paul’s written a wonderful tribute to this man whom many consider to be an important influence to anyone who plays electric guitar. You’ll find it on our artist profiles page.

Soon-To-Be New Lessons and Articles

Things have gotten a lot crazier here at home than I’d hoped the first two weeks of December, so I’m more than a bit behind in getting the planned lessons to Paul. However, there are three holiday song lessons (“Away in a Manger,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas”) just about finished and, hoping that there are no unforeseen bugaboos lurking in the shadows this coming weekend, they should be up online for you in the very, very near future. Keep an eye on the home page for them. Paul usually also posts the new arrivals on both Facebook and Twitter so you might happen to get the news there.

My apologies for the delays and my thanks for your patience.

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

Plus more on the “Turning Scales into Solos” and “Beyond Up and Down” series, not to mention our new “Music Meccas” series, as well as more of our “Chord Melody Song Arrangements,” which will deal with pop and rock songs, like Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” or old standards like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and maybe even a surf tune, such as the Ventures’ classic “Walk Don’t Run.”

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 20)

Welcome back to our exploration of modes–the C phrygian mode in particular, played around the fifth fret. We’re going to do a chromatic walk with only C phyrgian and related chords. Why? Being able to play a chord for any given melody note, though it’s overkill, builds serious skill as a musician. You’re bringing theory, ear work, and technical skill all into play.

Let’s dive right in and play this chromatic walk with C phrygian and related chords.

|-8--7--6--5--|-------------|-------------|-----------|
|-5--6--6--5--|-9--8--7--6--|-5-----------|-----------|
|-6--7--6--7--|-7--5--7--7--|-5--8--7--6--|-5--4------|
|-8--5--5--8--|-6--8--8--6--|-8--6--6--6--|-8--5--8---|
|-------------|-8--7--7--8--|-7--7--8--8--|-7--8--7---|
|-------------|-6-----------|----6-----9--|-------8---|

The big question of “where are these chords coming from?” comes up. The broad answer is this: the chords come from an answer to the question: “what sounds do the same thing that C phrygian does–namely, propel us toward the F minor key center?” You can start to answer that question for each note in the chromatic scale by listing all chords in the different F minor scales: F aeolian, F harmonic minor, F dorian and F melodic minor.

For details on answering this question, Google or use a reliable music reference that explains the subject “harmonizing scales.”

Thanks for reading.

Event Horizon

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

Paul McKenna, one of the many talented performers from the Forest Park FODfest show last October, will be doing his annual holiday gig at Duffy’s Tavern, located at 7513 Madison Street, Forest Park, IL (708) 366-3887, this Saturday, December 19. I believe the show starts around 8 PM‎ and it should be a blast. I know I’d be there if I were in town.

Soon-To-Be Reviews

In 2010, we’ll be trying to get back into writing and publishing more reviews at Guitar Noise. Trouble is that we usually get so many things (CDs, books, tutorials, DVDs, picks, capos and just about anything you might imagine) that we usually end up quite backlogged with reviews. Hopefully we’ll find some middle ground that works. If you have something to be reviewed, or (better still) if you’d like to be an occasional Guitar Noise reviewer, please drop me a line at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “review” or “reviewer” in the subject line.

I’d like to thank all of you who have sent in emails already – you should be hearing back from me before this month is out. And, should all go well, I’m looking forward to working with you all to bring something special to the Guitar Noise community.

Random Thoughts

When I was last in Chicago, two of my friends gave me DVDs of a concert their kids had taken part in back in September. Their son and daughter play cello and violin, respectively, and I had heard all summer that they (and all their fellow orchestra mates) were very excited about the then-upcoming shows.

And with very good reason, too, I might add! These concerts were part of Mark Wood’s “Orchestra Rocks!” tour. Some of you may recognize Mark as one of the original members of the Trans Siberian Orchestra. These days he is touring the country with a musical education program called “Electrify Your Strings,” visiting schools across the continent (in the last two weeks he’s been at two middle schools in Marietta, Georgia as well as the Elmira Secondary School in Elmira, Ontario, Canada) and performing concerts with the school’s orchestras.

As you might imagine, these concerts are a bit different from your typical orchestra offerings. The discs I saw included full orchestra arrangements of “Sunshine of Your Love,” “We Will Rock You,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Carry On My Wayward Son,” and even “Enter Sandman!” And it looked like everyone was having a wonderful time playing.

Guitarists like to think that rock music is theirs alone, but I strongly suspect that anyone who listened to Mark soloing on his electric violin, without the benefit of watching him play, would probably think that he was wailing on a guitar. You should keep an eye out for any off his shows should they happen to come to your town. I think you’ll find yourself having a great time.

And speaking of a great time, both Paul and I would like to wish all members of the Guitar Noise community a wonderful holiday season – for you, your family and friends. And we’d also like to pass along our best wishes for a very Happy New Year.

Finally, do take care of yourselves as the final days of 2009 wind down. Drive safely if you’re out on New Year’s Eve.

And until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 103 – December 1, 2009

David Hodge — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:00:58 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #103 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Emails? We Get Emails!
Reviews
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

The calendar says it’s December 1 and it’s snowing out my window – not all that much or that hard, but snow nonetheless – so I’m thinking it must be time for the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

There’s really not all that much in the way of “news.” Paul did a recent upgrade on the Forum page and, aside from one minor glitch, things seem to have gone so well as to be almost unnoticed.

Our Facebook Fan count continues to climb upward. Seems like yesterday we just got our one thousandth fan and now we’re getting close to thirteen hundred. If you’ve not yet visited the Guitar Noise Facebook page, please come by. It’s a great way to keep up on all the latest goings-on.

Topic of the Month

Since the holidays are once again upon us, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to guess that the Guitar Noise “topic of the month” for December is “Holiday Songs for Guitar.” In many ways, this is a bit of an extension of last month’s topic (chord melody) because many of the holiday song lessons on our pages are single-guitar chord melody arrangements.

As with most of our topics, we have holiday song lessons for guitarists at many levels of playing ability, from beginners just getting started to intermediate students. So go to the home page and take a look at all the holiday song lessons. These songs are not only fun to play but will also bring joy to those who get to listen to you play.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

The first of December also means a new face for our featured artist for the month. Jimi Hendrix gets the nod for December. Paul’s written a wonderful tribute to this man whom many consider to be an important influence to anyone who plays electric guitar. You’ll find it on our artist profiles page.

New Lessons and Articles

There’s going to be another slight delay with the upcoming lesson on “Away in a Manger.” No recording problems, simply time issues, so it may not be up online by the time you get the newsletter.

So just take a look at the home page every now and then and you should find it up online for your reading pleasure very, very soon. No later than sometime Wednesday or Thursday. My apologies again for the delay and my thanks, always, for your patience.

Teaching Chords to Beginning Guitar Students
by Tom Hess

In his latest article, Tom explores some of the problems that beginners tend to have making and changing guitar chords. Whether you’re a guitar teacher or just someone starting out on the guitar, you’ll find some very valuable tips here on how to go about practicing chord changes.

Away In A Manger
by David Hodge

We kick off the 2009 holiday song lessons with a simple (and easy!) arrangement of this popular Christmas carol. The object here is to work on your overall tone by letting your fingers bring out the melody in a variety of ways. And we’re using a “slightly alternate” tuning to help let the accompanying notes ring out whenever possible.

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 19)

In the last issue we started exploring the C phyrgian sound around the fifth fret. We’re using chords right now to convey C phyrgian. In case you missed it, here are our C phrygian chords to harmonize the minor scale:

|-8--6--------|-------------|---------|
|-5--6--9--8--|-6--5--------|---------|
|-6--6--7--5--|-7--5--8--6--|-5-------|
|-8--5--6--8--|-6--8--6--6--|-8--8----|
|-------8--7--|-8--7--7--8--|-7--7----|
|-------6-----|-------6--9--|----8----|

Here’s the thing about the minor scale: There’s more than one, and the above exercise exploits that fact (but not fully). The F minor scale can have a natural or flat E, and a natural or flat D. You’ll tweak those two degrees depending on a number of factors, but the essential thing is that you tweak them so they fit the musical situation you’re in. We may explore minor scale degrees six and seven another time. For now, realize that the chords we’re playing in our C phrygian exercise mix and match the Db and D, and the Eb and E notes.

Now, let’s identify each of the chords in the exercise and explain the reasoning behind it.

The first chord is a C7b9, so you’re getting a Db with the usual C, E, G and Bb. The F harmonic minor scale has a Db, and is used a lot in Western popular music. The whole effect of this chord is to say, “we’re going into a minor key center.”

Chord two has all the notes of chord 1, but with an F instead of E. Is C7 without an E okay? Sure — as long as you have enough diatonic harmony to provide tension, and the chord is not the destination key center (F minor). The Bb on top definitely prevents your ear from thinking you’ve arrived at an F minor tonic chord.

The other approach to looking at this chord is simply to call it what it really is: G minor 7 b5, which sounds great coming before C7, but also in place of C7.

Chord three is a Bb7, which is from F melodic minor. A Db major will sound good here, too. Chord four is a plain C7. Bar 2, chord 1 is the guts of Mr. Bb7 again. A Gmin 7b5, played with x-6-6-5-x-6, will sound good here also. (That notation moves from string 1 to 6). Notice how we’re just using the same chords again and again. You could play just C7, C7, C7 over and over, but you’d get bored quickly with that.

Bar 2, chord 2 is an interesting one and you can see it a couple of different ways. Here’s the logic behind it: Our mode, C7 phrygian, comes from the Ab major scale, which has a Bb minor 7 in it. You can play a Bb minor 7 and sound acceptable here, or you can tweak it by flatting its fifth, which will totally transcend “acceptable” and throw you into “ooh: creepy!” But, it’s not too far out, not too creepy.

Bar 2, chord 4 puts us back in C phrygian proper: it’s a Db major. Bar 3 chord 1 is a plain C7, as is chord 2.

To wrap this up and pull it together, don’t freak if you don’t get all this stuff. There’s not a ton of theory behind it, just a couple of basic points: C phrygian is the same as Ab major. F minor is where we’re going. There are two main F minor scales we’re using here–F harmonic and F melodic minor. We could have used a third, F dorian. We’re adding variety by playing chords inside those scales, rather than all C7 chords.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hi Dave,

I just came upon your analysis of “Sailing to Philadelphia” (the latest song for intermediates lesson) when searching for useable chords (which I wasn’t able to find), and had a quick read through.

I also had to reach for the guitar to check some things out. Your paper with the additional mp3s is brilliant! I could never hope to find a better resource on that song on the entire net, that’s for sure.

I have seen it before; failing to detect something like alternative tunings (as an example) is often fatal for the chances to successfully decode a guitar piece, and as you seem to be hinting at, there’s normally so much going on under the surface in memorable pieces, it takes in the neighborhood of a pro to unravel at least the most significant pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.

Again, your analysis/tutorial is top-notch!

Hello

Thank you for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning my Guitar Noise lesson on “Sailing to Philadelphia.” These lessons are a lot of fun for me to write because I’m doing a lot of learning, too! As you say, sometimes it’s a lot like a puzzle and I enjoy using both my ears and my brain to work out arrangements.

I’m not much of a “pro” at this, but I do like the challenges.

Thank you again for taking the time to write. Both Paul (Paul Hackett who created and owns and runs Guitar Noise) and I always appreciate it when someone writes to say thanks.

I look forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Reviews

We’re trying to get back into writing and publishing more reviews at Guitar Noise. Trouble is that we usually get so many things (CDs, books, tutorials, DVDs, picks, capos and just about anything you might imagine) that we usually end up quite backlogged with reviews. Hopefully we’ll find some middle ground that works. If you have something to be reviewed, or (better still) if you’d like to be an occasional Guitar Noise reviewer, please drop me a line at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “review” or “reviewer” in the subject line.

Random Thoughts

I had the honor of sharing a stage with Nick Torres (not to mention Dan Lasley, Greg Nease and others) this past weekend and, as always, it was a lot of fun. Without even realizing it, these day-after-Thanksgiving get-togethers have become a bit of a tradition. I think this is the fifth or sixth year in a row now and they’ve been a wonderful way to extend the Thanksgiving holiday a bit before heading back into the workaday routine of things.

Plus, a chance to make music with friends is always something to be thankful for.

I hope that no matter how hectic your December turns out to be, you get the chance to make and share music with your family and friends. It’s not only a great way to bring the year to a close but it’s also one of the best ways to start out the coming new year.

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Sailing to Philadelphia – Mark Knopfler – Songs for Intermediates #28

David Hodge — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:59:57 +0000

Good songs, like any works of art, are multi-dimensional. They have layers that don’t reveal themselves on a first listen. It’s only after repeated exposure that you even begin to glimpse a hint of the various parts and start to hear how they all work together. This is one reason why coming up with single guitar arrangements for songs is both frustrating and also immensely satisfying.

Sailing to Philadelphia, from the 2000 album of the same name by Mark Knopler, could be a poster child for this philosophy. At a casual first listen, it’s a wonderful fingerstyle acoustic guitar song punctuated with some typically tasteful (and tasty) electric guitar fills and solos that Knopfler makes sound so easy. But, as you’ll see and hear, even the relatively straightforward sounding acoustic guitar part is an adventure in itself!

So let’s get started, shall we?

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

If you’ve never heard this song before, you should go look it up on YouTube and give it a listen. It’s a narrative between two people, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, surveyors from England who mapped out the Pennsylvania / Maryland border in the 1700’s. The original recording is done as a duet between Mark Knopfler (singing Dixon’s part) and James Taylor (who gets Mason’s lines).

Structurally speaking, Sailing to Philadelphia is a fairly standard song format. There’s a very short introduction of eight measures and then there’s a verse. Or two verses, if you prefer to think of it that way, since each vocalist gets an identical amount of time and space. Then there’s a chorus and a short solo over a repeat of the introduction chord progression. Then a second verse (or two verses) and chorus, although this second chorus is slightly elongated, and then the song fades out over an extended guitar solo played over repeated cycling of the introduction chord progression.

On the original recording, this song is in the key of A. And you’ll find this verified in that most of the Internet tabs you’ll find for it are like this one:

Some have taken the liberty of working it up in the key of G, putting a capo on the second fret in order to bring the chords back up to the original key of A:

And these chords whether in A or G work fine. But listening to the acoustic guitar you can hear that something is not quite spot on. There are additional notes added to these chords, slightly embellishing them. Listening carefully, I could hear that the highest strings never changed notes, creating a ringing and mesmerizing repeated use of B and C# (the B note played at the fourth fret of the G string because the B string was fretted at the second fret to produce C#) while the high E string rang open. So the actual notes and the chords, using the first four measures of the introduction as an example, were more like this:

At this point in the process, I was in a bit of a dilemma – thrilled at figuring out this much so far but more than a bit apprehensive that I’d run into a song I wasn’t going to be able to play. Using these chords in these fingerings was going to be awkward if not downright painful.

So I thought about using a capo and playing in G, but that created other issues:

Because the ringing notes in the G became A, B and D, it was impossible to get them all on adjoining strings in order to get that hypnotic effect the original recording had. Or at least it seemed impossible until I started to think about it some more. After all, someone else had done it on the original recording!

Getting ringing A and B notes in combination weren’t a problem. Getting B and D or A and D in combination also was simply a matter of playing at the right place. But getting all three notes required more than thought, it required retuning! By tuning my high E string down a full step to D (making the tuning, from low to high EADGBD), I could get all three notes ringing across the three high strings, just as I did in the key of A but without the contortionist chords. So the first four measures of the introduction could be played like this:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Definitely sounds like the original, no? But we’re still not totally out of the woods yet, as there are fingering issues that will have to be dealt with because of the new tuning, and I haven’t even mentioned the surprises coming up in the time signature (!), but I think we’re ready to go!

The Introduction

Truth be told, I could sit and play the first four bars of the introduction forever; it’s that captivating. There’s also a good reason to spend a lot of time on it right now – first, to work out how best to change between chords and second, to get comfortable with the finger picking pattern. It goes without saying that there are a lot of different ways to approach both of these and you may find solutions that work better for you than whatever I might suggest. So, bearing that in mind, here are some suggestions. First, concerning the actual picking, you might want to try the typical classical approach, using your thumb (labeled “T”) for the three low strings, your index finger (“i”) for the G string, your middle finger (“m”) for the B string and your ring finger (“a”) for the high E string, like this:

Again, I can’t stress enough that there are all sorts of ways of doing this. The most important thing is for you to be comfortable enough with whatever fingers you’re using so that you can get your picking as close to being on autopilot as possible. Other aspects of this song are going to be tricky enough and you want to have something you can easily use as a fallback point.

Concerning the fretboard fingering, and after more than (quite) a few runs through these chords, I decided to finger the Em11 with my index finger on the second fret of the G string and my middle finger on the second fret of the D string. Doing so (and I’m more than happy to admit this) feels more than a little awkward at first, but it also allows you to keep that finger in place throughout each chord change in the introduction. Speaking of which, here it is:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

In all the Internet transcriptions or chord charts I saw on Sailing to Philadelphia, only three different chords are used in the introduction. But I kept hearing a fourth chord being used for the seventh measure, immediately before the E (or D if you’re using a capo) in the eighth. Using a Dadd9 seems to fit the bill. Also, you can finger it like a regular open position D chord in this tuning, which seems comforting somehow. Once there, adding the pinky to the fourth fret will get you the straight D chord.

I also want to note here that these two measures are the only place in the whole arrangement of the song that I’m still a little unhappy with. Repeated listening to the original recording convinces me that someone is playing what would be a low D note (actually E taking the capo into account) but there’s just no way of doing it without using “double Drop D” tuning, but then I have to have longer fingers than I do to make the other chords. But that’s okay.

Picking this section took a little getting used to as well. Essentially I switched to using only three fingers (thumb, index and middle) and then switched up a string halfway through the measure, like this:

Again, you may very well come up with other solutions for this section. Have fun and try out different ideas.

The Verse (or verses) and The Timing Quirks

The important thing, up to this point, is to have a basic picking pattern that you can fall back on. You don’t have to, and really, you shouldn’t feel compelled to play it exactly the same throughout the song. If you catch the high E string instead of the B string, for example, who’s going to know you didn’t mean to do that? All picking patterns should serve as a starting point and nothing more. In upcoming MP3 examples, you will hear me miss strings and catch others than what is written out in the tablature. That’s what makes playing organic.

And it becomes essential in Sailing to Philadelphia because the verses of the song go through multiple changes in time signature. I’ve written out the first half of the first verse with just the lyrics, chords and time signature changes for you:

You see that the verse starts with three full measures of Em11 and then switches to a measure of Gadd9 in 2 / 4 time signature. If you want to, think of it as a “half measure” of Gadd9. You certainly can pick it as such:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

After this measure of 2 / 4 in Measure 4, you go into four pairs of measures that alternate between 4 / 4 and 3 / 4 time signatures. Measure 5 (C and Cmaj7 for two beats each) and Measure 6 (D6 for two beats and G for a single beat) are repeated twice:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

The trickiest part of this is fingering the D6 chord at the start of Measure 6, but preparing for it in Measure 5 can make things easier. In Measure 5, you start with a C chord and then remove your index finger to make Cmaj7. You then slide your ring and middle fingers up two frets and place your index finger at the second fret of the G string to get the D6.

Some people will have trouble with this stretch, and there are other ways of trying to make this chord. First, and this requires a little bit of “re-thinking things,” you can make the initial C chord without the middle finger, using your pinky for the third fret of the A string and your ring finger for the second fret of the D string. This does take more thought than you might think because you’re just not used to making a C chord in this fashion. If you can get past that, then you should find sliding the pinky and ring finger up two frets and dropping the index finger onto the second fret of the G string won’t be as big a stretch to deal with.

Another option is to simply leave the G string open. This creates a D13 chord and will sound perfectly fine. And you can also use either the Dadd9 or the D that you learned in the Introduction as a viable substitute.

As mentioned earlier, and as I mention in the MP3 sound file, the main concern here is getting the changes in timing right, not on nailing every note in the picking pattern. Don’t hesitate to count out loud to help you get comfortable with the shifts in time signature.

The final change in time signature, another 4 / 4 to 3 / 4 shift in Measures 11 and 12 is much easier in terms of the chord change and is followed by the same Dadd9 to D that you learned in the last two measures of the Introduction:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Pardon the pun, but do take your time with this section. As discussed earlier, once you have the picking pattern in your fingers, it’s just a matter of changing it up according to both the chord changes and the time signatures involved. Here is a full run through the verse chords and timing:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Remember, too, that this is technically half a verse. You want to run through the whole thing twice – once for Dixon and once for Mason, or vice versa.

The Chorus

All your work on getting comfortable with the finger picking pays off in the chorus as the pattern holds constant throughout. In the first four measures, you have a chord change every two beats, but the majority of the changes involve fingerings that you should have no trouble with:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Using a different voicing of Bm7 (x20204) in the fifth measure bring out the melody line and brings some variety to your chord choices, but you can certainly stick with the first voicing (x20200) from the fourth measure if you find it easier to play.

The final C to D change, technically Cmaj7 to D13, uses the same slide of the fingers along the A and D strings from the 4 /4 to 3 / 4 measures of the verse. The second time the chorus is played, this ending is extended:

If you keep your ring finger set on the A string while playing this, you should find using your middle finger for the D string on the Cmaj7 and D13 chords and then changing to your index finger for the fifth fret of the D string on the Em7 chord relatively easy to do.

All right, then! Let’s put it all together, shall we?

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

This lesson on Sailing to Philadelphia is a little more involved than many of our Guitar Noise song lessons, but I hope that you make the time to try it out. It is a beautiful song and, once you have the picking and time signature changes down, will be a bit of music you will never grow tired of. And there are all sorts of experimenting and exploring you can do on your own to make it even more enjoyable!

And, as always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 102 – November 16, 2009

David Hodge — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:20:20 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #102 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Emails? We Get Emails!
Reviews
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the middle of November!

I’d like to open this latest issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com) with a last note about FODfest 2009, namely that it’s not too early to be thinking about FODfest 2010! The 2009 tour had more than forty shows over thirty days and that takes a lot of planning and commitment. If you went (or performed) this year and had a great time and would like to do it again, or if you missed out on things this year and want to try to get to or play at a show next year (or to help find new places and venues to play at), this is the time to be thinking about it. You can drop the FODfest staff a note at their website (www.fodfest.org) and chat with Todd and all the FODfest organizers. They’d love to hear from you.

And for those of you who’d like to see (and hear) what you missed out on, you can find videos of the final show by clicking here.

When you do, it will tell you that you need to be connected to Facebook in order for the videos to run. Click “connect with Facebook” in the popup box and you’re good to go. Down on the lower right hand side of the page will be an area labeled “more from limerockcodger” with short snippets of the live video feed from FODfest. They are in reverse chronological order. The first one, “DMLWeb live cam 11/01/09 01:13PM” is on page 19. As of now when I’m writing this, that is. You might have to go a page or two further.

The cutting of the show is slightly problematic. You’ll be in the middle of a song and the vid will end and the next one start up not quite on time. Kind of like a video version of the old eight track players. But it will give you a pretty good idea of what it was like.

Also, currently on page 20, is a video of entire October 3 show at the Mahaiwe Theatre.

If nothing else, I hope that watching some of this video will bring a smile to your face. The idea of FODfest is to use music as a tool for promoting understanding and harmony among all people, certainly a goal we all tend to think about this time of year!

Topic of the Month

“Chord Melody” is the “topic of the month” here at Guitar Noise for November. As with most of our topics, Guitar Noise has lessons at almost all levels, from beginners just getting started to intermediate and advanced students who want to try out creating their own chord melodies. So go to the home page and take a look at all the lessons. It will hopefully get you psyched to try out this style of playing.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

And our featured artist for the month of November is Mark Knopfler, a master of tasteful playing and phrasing both in his early days of leading Dire Straits and in his equally prolific solo career. Click on over to our artist profiles page for a bio on the incomparable Mr. Knopfler as well as links to other articles of interest at Guitar Noise.

New Lessons and Articles

Just to let you know that I ran into some problems with the MP3 files for the upcoming lesson on “Sailing to Philadelphia” that meant doing some revision and re-recording. I’m hoping to have the lesson ready for Paul on Sunday (the same day most of you will get this newsletter), but we may not have it up online by the time you get the newsletter.

So just take a look at the home page every now and then and you should find it up online for your reading pleasure very, very soon, if it’s not there already. My apologies for the delay and my thanks for your patience.

Practicing Performance
by Gerald Klickstein

Many guitarists consider practice and performance to be being distinct activities. Gerald Klickstein, author of the new book The Musician’s Way, shows how they can be combined into an inclusive creative process.

How to Make A Great Guitar Solo
by Tom Hess

Quite often, guitarists solo as if they are paid by the note, totally ignoring phrasing and melody, two key aspects of soloing. Tom Hess gives us a terrific lesson on phrasing, complete with video!

Sailing to Philadelphia
Songs for Intermediates
by David Hodge

Sometimes a simple sounding fingerstyle acoustic guitar part takes a bit of thought and tinkering to create. David looks at how to go beyond the chords offered up on a typical Internet tab sheet in order to get more of the flavor of the original recording of this great Mark Knopler song.

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for November 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 19)

We’re continuing our mode exploration in this issue. The last issue wrapped up the C7 sound. Let’s dig into the C Phyrgian sound this time. I’m sorry we didn’t get to C Phyrgian before Halloween, which is the best time of year for this sound. That’s okay: by next Halloween, your C Phrygian will be super spooky after a year of practicing it.

Here’s a run down of what we’ll cover:

On position V:
- diatonic chords
- chromatic chords
- basic arpeggios and scales
- substitute arpeggios and scales
- possibly, licks
compass work (length of the fretboard)
- arpeggios with 3, 4 and 5 notes
- chords, diatonic and chromatic

Working through that list will give you a solid foundation for your solo playing and all your playing. Let’s get to some music: C Phrygian chords

|-8--6--------|-------------|---------|
|-5--6--9--8--|-6--5--------|---------|
|-6--6--7--5--|-7--5--8--6--|-5-------|
|-8--5--6--8--|-6--8--6--6--|-8--8----|
|-------8--7--|-8--7--7--8--|-7--7----|
|-------6-----|-------6--9--|----8----|

I’ll explain these choices in the next issue. For now, just dig the spooky C Phrygian.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hello!

I always have a problem trying to learn to play a new, simple song as I am a beginner. What I have a problem with is most of the songs have the chords posted, but there is not a suggestion at all for what might be a strum pattern that would work. Any suggestions?

Hi!

Thanks for writing. As a beginner, there are all sorts of things to worry about, but one total trap you want to avoid is that of “strum patterns.” Strumming is all about rhythm and you can give any song literally any number of strum patterns you’d like. Trouble is that most beginners don’t want to count out rhythms, preferring to think in terms of “up and down” and that’s a big mistake.

If you check our “Easy Songs for Beginners” lessons at Guitar Noise, you will find that the majority of them give you ideas for strumming the chords for the songs in question. And if you take the time to listen to our Guitar Noise Podcasts (and all of this is free, by the way), you might (hopefully) learn enough about strumming so that you can create your own strumming patterns.

I know this probably isn’t the answer you’d like, but I hope it helps nonetheless. Please feel free to write again if you want more details.

Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Reviews

In the meantime, I’d like to do is apologize again for missing out on the latest new review, which Guitar Noise Forum Chief (or “UberMod” if you will) Nick Torres wrote for us at the end of October. Nick has tested out the “Easy Roll Guitar Method” by George Pittaway, and written a very fair (and fascinating) review of it, which you can find here.

Not only does Nick give this DVD a thumbs up, but so do a number of Guitar Noise Forum members who have also tested it out. I’m planning on buying a copy to give myself for Christmas!

Event Horizon

Supporting Guitar Noise and the Guitar Noise community is not always about money or time. Sometimes it’s about being there. Literally. As musicians, it’s always good to support each other simply by being at a gig if it’s at all possible.

One thing we’d really like to do is to help promote your shows, whether it’s in a stadium or at a ten-seat coffee house. Not only is it a great way to help support each other, it’s also a terrific way to meet more musicians!

So please feel free to write me if you’ve got some gigs coming up. Remember that Guitar Noise News is sent out on the first and fifteenth of each month. Usually I will have it ready to be sent out a few days ahead of time, so plan accordingly. For instance, if you’ve got something coming up in the last two weeks of January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show booked for August, 2010, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

If you’re somewhere in the middle of New Jersey and find yourself needing a break on Thanksgiving weekend, come on over to Grover’s Mill Coffee Saturday night, November 28. I’ll be playing music with some friends starting around 7:30. This is a great little coffee house in West Windsor, New Jersey, fairly close to Princeton and practically right off of Exit 8 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Check out their news page for the exact address and phone.

Random Thoughts

It’s been especially nice to play out these two months as I’ve not been doing practically any performing at all most of 2009, owing to both teaching and writing schedules. Constant performing has never been a personal goal, but performing, playing for the entertainment and enjoyment of others, is a big part of my life.

Jerry Klickstein’s piece of practicing performances (as well as his new book, “The Musician’s Way,” which we’ll be reviewing here at Guitar Noise in the very near future) has been a great reminder to me of how all the little nuances of performing need to get as much attention as playing and general technique.

Sometimes things aren’t all that cut and dried. For instance, since the two FODfest shows I played at were totally unrehearsed, basically a “song leader” would step up to the front of the stage and start in on a song, often an original song that no one else on stage had heard before, and not every performer was kind enough to announce the key or the chord changes! So how does one prepare for that?

Knowing the performance format was a big help. Most of the participants were “singer / songwriter” types, so my personal practice consisted of putting a number of CDs by similar-styled artists on random rotation on our CD player. I even went as far to borrow CDs from friends of artists I’d never heard before. Then I’d hit the play button and pretend it was the actual show, doing my best to find the key and figure out a lot of the progression as the song went on. I learned that some songs I could easily pick up and play along with very quickly. More importantly, I learned that sitting out a song was occasionally the best choice to make!

Practicing for FODfest in this manner certainly did make me more comfortable playing backup on instruments like the dobro and ukulele. And being able to provide some backing ukulele on Bryan Gruley’s cover of Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” at the FODfest show in Oak Park will certainly be one of my personal musical highlights of this past year!

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 101 – November 1, 2009

David Hodge — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:49:26 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #101 of Guitar Noise News!

IN THIS ISSUE:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Emails? We Get Eamils!
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and a happy first of November to all of you! And here to help you get through the idea that yet another year is almost gone by is your latest copy of the Guitar Noise News. Small consolation, I know, but it’s the best we can do!

First thing I’d like to do is apologize for missing out on a new review in our last newsletter. Guitar Noise Forum Chief (or “UberMod” if you will) Nick Torres has tested out and written a review of the “Easy Roll Guitar Method” by George Pittaway, which you can find here.

This tutorial DVD walks you through three simple patterns designed to help you develop more speed in your playing, all over the neck. Not only does Nick give it a great review, but so do a number of Guitar Noise Forum members who have also tested it out. And after seeing Nick play a couple of weeks back, I’m planning on buying a copy myself!

Second item of news is that today is the final show of FODfest 2009. After performing forty shows since October 1, the tour finale takes place at Infinity Hall and Bistro in Norfolk, Connecticut at 4:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time) today. A live broadcast feed of this last performance will be offered over the “FODblog” so if you can’t make the show (totally understandable given that most of you don’t live anywhere near close by!) you can still give it a listen.

And if you can make it, please do. I’ll be there as well as Greg (“gnease” on the Guitar Noise Forums) and many, many other performers. It promises to be a great time in a wonderful musical venue.

November also marks the time when people start thinking in earnest about the upcoming holiday season. In these hard economic times, people are trying to save money where they can and it’s charities and non-profit groups that tend to get left out. So if you’re thinking about what to get someone who you care about and you’re stuck for an idea, making a present of a donation in that person’s name is an excellent gift for all.

Or you can also find very cool gifts through charities. I recently got an email from the PR Kellerman Foundation, which I’ve mentioned before in previous newsletters. This is a charity set up in 2002 in memory of Peter Kellerman, who died in the World Trade Center attack. Music was his passion in life and the PR Kellerman Foundation honors his memory by giving providing free music lessons to needy children in Berkshire County (where the Kellermans lived). Since it’s founding, they have helped more than fifty students receive free music lessons throughout the past seven years.

For the holidays, they are giving handcrafted sterling silver necklaces (shaped like guitar picks) out for donations of $60. You can get two with a donation of $100. The necklaces are etched with the tree of life on one side and the letters PRK on the other. You can choose between a black or brown suede cord for the necklace. The cord can be doubled so that the necklace becomes a bracelet if you prefer. All proceeds for this gift go directly to funding free music lessons for needy students.

If you’re interested, or just want to see one of the picks, go directly to the PR Kellerman website for more details.

There are, of course, all sorts of things that you can do when it comes to making the holidays bright for your family and friends. But remember that you can also brighten up the lives of many others in the world at the same time.

Topic of the Month

Since we’ve posted a number of chord melody lessons of late, it seemed like a good idea to make “Chord Melody” a “topic of the month.” As with most of our topics, Guitar Noise has lessons at almost all levels, from beginners just getting started to intermediate and advanced students who want to try out creating their own chord melodies. So go to the home page and take a look at all the lessons. It will hopefully get you psyched to try out this style of playing.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

When teaching students about the importance of phrasing and economy of movement, or about the power and beauty of musical understatement, it’s impossible to not talk about Mark Knopfler, whether in his days of leading Dire Straits or in his equally prolific solo career. Click on over to our artist profiles page for a bio on the incomparable Mr. Knopfler, who is our “Guitar Noise Featured Artist” for the month of November, as well as links to other articles of interest at Guitar Noise.

New Lessons and Articles

What A Wonderful World
by Hank Stupi

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.

Hush Little Baby
by Brandon Carrasco

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.

Going On Vacation
by Dmitry Kiryukhin

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!

Coming Attractions

With traveling to Chicago this past week, I’m a bit amazed that I did get three new pieces to Paul for new lessons! Plus, before going I managed to write the music and notation / tablature files for my own lesson on “Sailing to Philadelphia,” which will certainly be apropos considering our Guitar Noise Featured Artist choice. While I won’t have the text ready by the time you read this, it should be up online by Thursday.

Needless to say, we are constantly working on new lessons of all sorts here at Guitar Noise. Just to keep you updated as to what’s coming along in the pipeline, the following lessons are still on track for being posted up online in the next few months, although not necessarily in the order in which I’ve written them!

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for November 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 18)

The last time out we played a lick that conveyed the C7 sound, as a kind of endpiece on our extended exploration of C7. Let’s break down that lick some, with the purpose of learning how to make more licks.

First, the lick once again:

|-8-6-----6-------|--------------|
|-----8-5---8-5-6-|-8-5----------|
|-----------------|-----7---5----|
|-----------------|-------8------|
|-----------------|--------------|
|-----------------|--------------|

A key thing to notice is the duration of the lick: it’s only four half notes total, or eight quarter notes, or two bars. If you’re new to lick-writing and thinking it’s a hard thing, take heart in the fact that you only need to write for two bars.

Another key thing, which might seem obvious: the lick is built off the C7 arpeggio. You can hear a C7 when you play this lick. It doesn’t sound like other arpeggios in the key of F major, which C7 is part of. You don’t hear an F major, or D minor or other chords. When you write a lick, you want to hear the right harmony happening, meaning, the harmony or mode you choose to write the lick in.

How do we know this is a C7 lick? Look at the notes hit on the strong beat, and the start and end notes: C, E, G, Bb. Very C7 ish.

Delayed Gratification

One of the great pleasures we get from good music, and probably lots of other artforms, too, is from not getting what we want or expect, the moment we want or expect it. In our example lick, the thing we want to hear, or one of the things we want to hear, is the C note, because that’s the root, the home base of the C7 chord and arpeggio. The lick started from this home base, took a little meander away from home, and just when thought it might reach home again, it squeezes a note or two in that’s not C — delayed gratification.

Don’t think of this lesson as being a list of rules to write your own licks by. It’s just a sample, a model, one guy’s approach to creating a short melody. But if you play it and transpose and _think_ about it, and dig it a little bit, you’ll get a feel for your own approach to writing licks.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hi David:

I am forty-three years old and started playing guitar about eighteen months ago. I have always loved acoustic guitar music, even at the expense of being cool in high school. I started when my then ten-year-old started taking lessons. I would “help out” with her practicing and then I would practice her assignments myself. She has stopped but I kept going. I bought an Alvarez six-string and then last summer bought a twelve. I switch back and forth a lot.

I wanted to thank you for your articles and the practical and reassuring advice and suggestions within them. I think the most important piece of advice I picked up, and one that I found echoed by one of my favorites, Jerry Garcia, is not to worry so much about “sounding like the record.”

You mention this repeatedly in your articles and it seems to me Jerry said something analogous when discussing the Grateful Dead’s “non-decision” to allowing recording of their shows. He said that once the music leaves his instrument, it isn’t his anymore. When the song is played again, it is a new song. This is not a direct quote. I read that some time ago and recalled it after reading your articles. Anyway, this has given me much more confidence in playing. I find ways to play a song I like and in the manner in which I can play it. It makes the whole thing a lot less intimidating.

I have a question, if you have the time, having to do with probably my favorite musician, Neil Young. “Four Strong Winds” is the first song I learned how to play straight through. I use what I have seen called a folk strumming pattern and it sounds really nice, especially on the twelve. What I can’t figure out are the notes he plays at the end of the verse and chorus (is arpeggio the right word?). If you happen to know what I’m talking about and have the time, please let me know.

Thank you again for all you time and effort.

Thank you for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning my work at Guitar Noise. It’s always good to hear that these lessons and articles are being of help to someone and I also truly appreciate it when someone takes time out of his or her busy days to write. I’m also glad to hear you play a twelve string. The world needs more players like you!

To answer your Neil Young question, in “Four Strong Winds” the guitar is actually strumming a melody line on top of the chords. You need to start with G, but played with all four fingers (320033). For the first note, you strum the chord only down to the B string (32003x), then on the upstroke, you hit the open E string (and it’s okay if you catch other strings as well) and then you reset your fingers into a G7 (3×0031) chord. Finally you add the ring finger back on the third fret of the high E string to get the G note (320033 again) and then go back down the way you came up. So the notes of the melody are D (third fret / B string), E (open high E string), F (first fret / high E), G (third fret / high E), F, E and the D again, which takes you into the C chord.

I hope I explained that well enough. Maybe I should make this the next Guitar Noise Podcast song. Hopefully those will be starting up again next month.

Please feel free to write again if you need further explanations. Thank you once more for the email and I look forward to hearing how things are going with you.

Peace

Random Thoughts

Last Wednesday night, I had the honor of being part of the FODfest show at the Village Players Performing Arts Center in Oak Park, Illinois. And, before I forget, my thanks to all who came and saw the concert. It was a very exciting performance! And if you’re interested in photos of the show, go to FODfest’s Facebook page.

Currently the Oak Park show is the first five pages of photographs. That’s bound to change as they get around to adding photos from the last four performances.

Highlights were numerous. Getting to share the stage with the likes of songwriter Michael Smith (who many might know from Steve Goodman’s cover of his song “The Dutchman”) and legendary harmonica player Corky Siegel was nothing less than thrilling. But to be able to share the stage with my friends (and a former student) was even more of rewarding. And making new friends just added icing to the cake.

So I’d like to give a formal thank you to Todd Mack, who founded FODfest and who spends most of the year working behind the scenes to make it all go as smoothly as possible, as well as to his entire crew, Will, Lynette, Jordan, Andy and Kerrie who have given up so much time and energy (and sleep!) to make FODfest a reality. And to Paul McKenna, who arranged for us to have the show at the Village Players Performing Arts Center. And to Kathy, Anne, Michelle, Ellen, Jane, JoAnne, Sonia, K.C., Bryan and Scott who created some very beautiful and moving music. Can’t wait to play with you all again!

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Mark Knopfler

David Hodge — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:28:42 +0000

A great guitarist knows that a single, soulful note can say volumes, that both speed and silence are merely tools to be used to make a song its best. He or she understands that technique and emotion go hand in hand to create style and that the song has to come before the performer. Understatement is often a musician’s best friend – always leave the listeners wanting more.

Born in Glasgow in August 1949, Mark Knopfler and his family moved to Newcastle when Mark was seven. He and his younger brother David were both musically inclined and Mark found inspiration in listening to artists as diverse as Django Reinhardt, Scotty Moore, Chet Atkins and Jimi Hendrix. His first guitar was a Hofner “super solid” with twin pickups and he played in many bands that came and went during his schooldays. Though left-handed, he played his instrument as a right-handed player.

Unlike many of his peers, Mark stayed in school, studying journalism at Harlow Technical College (which led to a junior reporter job for the Yorkshire Evening Post) and eventually securing a degree in English from the University of Leeds. But music called to him all the while and he left his reporting job and worked as a part-time lecturer at Loughton College while performing with various pub bands in the area. In the mid-seventies, he moved to London, teaming up with younger brother David and John Illsley (David’s apartment mate) to form the band that would become Dire Straits.

The demos for Dire Straits first, self-titled album were recorded in three sessions in the fall of 1977 and the album itself was released the following year. The band consisted of Mark on lead guitar and vocals, brother David on rhythm guitar, John Illsley on bass and Pick Withers on drums. The album gathered little interest at first until the song “Sultans of Swing” was released as a single. The moody tune about a jazz band in London became a big hit in Holland and then the rest of Europe and then across the Atlantic, hitting the top ten of both the England and American charts and promoting sales of the album. Their follow-up, “Communique,” hit number one in France’s album charts while “Dire Straits” was at number three.

With each successive album, Mark took on more and more of the creative guidance and drive for the group. Their third and fourth albums, “Making Movies” and “Love over Gold,” were musically rich and layered and the songs, such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Telegraph Road” both highly personal and poignantly detached. And his guitar work effortlessly mirrored the mood and personality of each song while still having its own unique voice.

In the late months of 1982, drummer Pick Withers was replaced by Rockpile’s Terry Williams and the band released a four-song EP early the following year that spawned the hit single “Twisting by the Pool.” Mark also worked with film director Bill Forsyth, creating soundtracks for his movies “Local Hero” (the soundtrack album being a huge hit) and “Comfort and Joy.”

It was around this time, too, that CD technology was just coming into its own. Mark found the CD format very appealing as it allowed him to create longer albums, which in turn led to more complex music and extended arrangements and soloing. Dire Straits’ first CD album release, “Brothers in Arms” in 1985, was the first CD to sell a million copies. Following a very long and extremely successful tour, the band took a long break. Although they made a few special appearances, such as headlining Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988, they would not release another album until 1991’s “On Every Street.” The album and subsequent tour were certainly not as well received as their predecessors and Dire Straits disbanded in 1995.

Mark lost no time getting back into the studio as a solo artist, releasing “Golden Heart” in March 1996, “Sailing to Philadelphia” in 2000, “The Ragpicker’s Dream” in 2002 and “Shangri-La” in 2004. The tour for “Shangri-La” included concerts in India and the Middle East, where tens of thousands of fans attended sold-out shows.

He also continued to work in films, making soundtracks for “The Princess Bride” (1987) and “Wag the Dog” (1997). And he explored his country music influences, teaming up with childhood idol Chet Atkins for the album “Neck and Neck,” which also featured the song “Tears,” written by another idol, Django Reinhardt along with Stephane Grappelli.

In 2006, Mark and Emmylou Harris released “All the Roadrunning,” an album of duets which hit the top ten in virtually all of Europe and led to a highly successful, albeit significantly scaled-down world tour and accompanying video/DVD.

Most recently, Mark’s latest solo albums “Kill to Get Crimson” (2007) and “Get Lucky,” released just this last September 2009, continue to show him in fine form, both as a guitarist and a songwriter. He plans to spend 2010 being on tour.

Mark Knopfler Guitar Lessons

Sailing to Philadelphia

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 100 – October 19, 2009

David Hodge — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:33:21 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #100 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
One Last Bit of News

Greetings, News and Announcements

So I woke up today and got more than several hours into planning lessons and writing and editing and then clicked onto the Internet to find that, and this was a total surprise to me, it was October 15. Oops! And then all sorts of things started happening and now here it is, Sunday, October 18 and I’m hoping that everyone will get this sometime on Monday. I’m also hoping that I am not the only one who got caught up in the every day bits of life! But you never know… So please accept my apologies for this newsletter coming much later than planned.

Speaking of Monday, here’s a timely announcement: the Guitar Noise website is going to be offline for a couple of hours on Monday evening, that’s Monday, October 19. Starting around 7pm PST our server is going to be moved to a new location. The whole thing should take about two hours.

We’ll still be around on Twitter and Facebook if you need a fix, but you could also get in some practice time as well!

If you happen to be in the far-off reaches of Taiwan, or in the more local far-off regions of the American Midwest ((Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio), you’ve still got a chance to catch FODfest this month. If you’re not familiar with this event, let me give you a description, straight from Todd Mack, who founded FODfest:

In 2002, the world came to know Daniel Pearl as the Wall St. Journal reporter who was abducted and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan. What happened to him was unconscionable. To film his murder and use the video as a means to propagate the hatred that motivated it…there is no word for that. In response to this heinous act, Todd Mack, a close friend of Pearl’s, started FODfest (Friends of Danny festival) as a way to honor his friend with a legacy that reflects the ideals by which he lived rather than the tragic way in which he died.

In addition to being a journalist, Daniel Pearl was a talented musician who believed in the power of music to bring people together regardless of the differences between them. A classically trained violinist and avid fiddler & mandolin player, music was Danny’s way of connecting with people and learning about the local culture as he traveled the world. In a unique performance experience that is part jam session, part song swap, part concert, FODfest is a living celebration of this ideal. Some of the musicians performing were friends of Danny’s, while others didn’t know him at all. Most are meeting for the first time on stage. They all share Danny’s belief in music as a Universal language.

MISSION
FODfest, Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and strengthen community through the universal language of music by producing publicly accessible live music events and multi-media projects.

HISTORY
In just five years, FODfest has grown considerably from its humble beginnings as an informal backyard jam to a full-fledged national tour. To date, FODfest has toured to 20 cities with more than 350 musicians from across the country and across the globe participating. FODfest ‘09 will include a 31 day national tour this October as a featured event of Daniel Pearl World Music Days, which is organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation. All of the concerts are free and open to the public, with the exception of the two shows at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival (October 8 and 9 in Pittsboro, NC).

As mentioned, this year’s shows are going international! Here are the scheduled dates and venues for the remainder of the tour:

Oct 14 – 22 FODfest will be in Taiwan with an appearance at the Taichung Jazz Festival on Saturday October 17
Oct 24 7:00 PM Blue Moon Coffeehouse – Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington, IL
Oct 25 7:00 PM Legion Arts Cedar Rapids, IA
Oct 26 8:00 PM High Noon Saloon Madison WI
Oct 27 7:00 PM Café Carpe Fort Atkinson WI
Oct 28 7:00 PM Village Players Performing Arts Center Oak Park, IL
Oct 29 7:00 PM Kent Stage Kent, OH
Nov 1 4:00 PM Infinity Music Hall & Bistro Norfolk, CT

More information, including who you can expect to see performing, can be found at the tour page of the FODfest website.

I’ve got my ticket to Chicago, so I will be playing at the October 28 show in Oak Park, IL, along with Guitar Noise member Kathy Reichert. And I am also honoured to have an invitation to play at the final show in Norfolk, CT. Greg Nease, another Guitar Noise Forum member will be playing that show as well.

These concerts are free and open to the public. And they are all about the power of sharing music with the world. If you can, try to see a show near you. And if I’m there, do come by and say hello.

Topic of the Month

This month we’re putting the spotlight on learning to play blues guitar. Beginners may want to start with the easy songs for beginners lessons that will swiftly bring you up to speed on the 12 bar blues, the shuffle and playing lead. We also have many blues lessons from other GN contributors, such as Paul Andrews, Alan Green, Darrin Koltow and others. Just go to our blues page to get yourself started.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Since it’s almost impossible to think about the blues and not think about Eric Clapton, old Slowhand is the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of October. Click on over to our artist profiles page for Paul’s bio on this legendary guitarist as well as links to other articles of interest at Guitar Noise.

Coming Attractions

As I write this, I have three articles that I am waiting to get the author’s okay’s on before we publish them as well as putting the finishing touches on two of my own. So you should have some fun stuff to read this week! Look for two new authors – one with a wonderful chord-melody arrangement of the lullaby “Hush Little Baby” and another with a great article on taking your guitar with you on vacation. Plus, Hank Stupi returns with an accompaniment arrangement of “What a Wonderful World.”

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Both Sides Now, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Circle Game, I Want You Back

EXPLORING MUSIC WITH DARRIN KOLTOW

Tip for October 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 17)

We’ve covered a lot of ground in exploring the C mixolydian (AKA C7) sound, but we’re not quite done with C7 yet. After you’ve communicated the C7 sound through scales, arpeggios, chords, and substitute arpeggios and scales, you can “say” C7 through licks. This is where your creativity, combined with your fluency in C7 arpeggios, scales, and substitutions, comes into play.

Before we dive into writing C7 licks, let me just offer a few bits of my understanding of the topic. A lick is a short melody, and writing melodies is a huge topic. But, if you take the time to study it, the satisfaction you get will far outweigh any frustration.

There are tons of approaches to writing melodies and licks, and exploring them would take us away from our exploration of modes, which we’re not quite ready to do yet. But let me lay out a lick here to give us some music to doodle with. And, in the next issue, we’ll distill a structure from the lick, one that you can use in writing your own licks.

|-8-6-----6-------|--------------|
|-----8-5---8-5-6-|-8-5----------|
|-----------------|-----7---5----|
|-----------------|-------8------|
|-----------------|--------------|
|-----------------|--------------|

Thanks for reading.

One Last Bit of News

I’ve been debating when, or even if to post this and I guess now is as good a time as any. I’ve been offered another book contract. Alpha Books, the folks who publish the “Complete Idiot’s” series were planning on publishing a third edition of their highly successful “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Guitar” next year. But instead of doing so, they’ve asked me to write a totally new book for them, tentatively titled “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” and scheduled to hit bookstores next October or November.

My editor and I have been going back and forth over the book for quite a while now and I think we’ve the makings of an excellent book designed to take beginners through all the basic first steps of guitar and beyond. Stay tuned for more details!

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 99 – October 1, 2009

David Hodge — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:46:45 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #99 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Greetings and welcome to a new month! Today is October 1, 2009, and this is your latest issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

It seems that at least one Guitar Noise member managed to make it to see Tom Hess at his clinic in Cincinnati last week. And it sounds like it was an informative presentation. Hopefully Tom will have some more clinics later in the year, or one can always hope to attend one next September.

Today also marks the start of FODfest. If you’re not familiar with this event, let me give you a description, straight from Todd Mack, who founded FODfest:

In 2002, the world came to know Daniel Pearl as the Wall St. Journal reporter who was abducted and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan. What happened to him was unconscionable. To film his murder and use the video as a means to propagate the hatred that motivated it…there is no word for that. In response to this heinous act, Todd Mack, a close friend of Pearl’s, started FODfest (Friends of Danny festival) as a way to honor his friend with a legacy that reflects the ideals by which he lived rather than the tragic way in which he died.

In addition to being a journalist, Daniel Pearl was a talented musician who believed in the power of music to bring people together regardless of the differences between them. A classically trained violinist and avid fiddler & mandolin player, music was Danny’s way of connecting with people and learning about the local culture as he traveled the world. In a unique performance experience that is part jam session, part song swap, part concert, FODfest is a living celebration of this ideal. Some of the musicians performing were friends of Danny’s, while others didn’t know him at all. Most are meeting for the first time on stage. They all share Danny’s belief in music as a universal language.

MISSION
FODfest, Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and strengthen community through the universal language of music by producing publicly accessible live music events and multi-media projects.

HISTORY
In just five years, FODfest has grown considerably from its humble beginnings as an informal backyard jam to a full-fledged national tour. To date, FODfest has toured to 20 cities with more than 350 musicians from across the country and across the globe participating. FODfest ‘09 will include a 31 day national tour this October as a featured event of Daniel Pearl World Music Days, which is organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation. All of the concerts are free and open to the public, with the exception of the two shows at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival (October 8 and 9 in Pittsboro, NC).

Having played in FODfest the last three years, I can attest to what a magical time it is. This year the shows are going around the country and also will be in Taiwan for the better part of a week! Here are the scheduled dates and venues:

Oct 1 7:00 PM Narrows Center for the Arts Fall River, MA
Oct 2 12:00 PM TBA Boston, MA Playing on the streets of Boston/Cambridge
Oct 2 7:00 PM Frontier Cafe Brunswick, ME
Oct 3 7:00 PM Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Great Barrington, MA
Oct 4 4:30 PM City Winery New York, NY
Oct 5 7:00 PM TBA Washington, D.C.
Oct 6 7:00 PM Beit Tikvah Baltimore, MD
Oct 8 12:00 PM Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival Pittsboro, NC Set times TBA.
Come visit us at the FODfest booth. *Cost: $35 – $95
Oct 9 12:00 PM Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival Pittsboro, NC Set times TBA.
Come visit us at the FODfest booth. *Cost: $35 – $95
Oct 10 3:00 PM Candler Park Fall Festival Atlanta, GA Danny Pearl’s Birthday!
Oct 10 7:30 PM Lake Claire Community Land Trust Atlanta, GA Danny Pearl’s Birthday Party!
Oct 14 – 22 FODfest will be in Taiwan with an appearance at the Taichung Jazz Festival on Saturday October 17
Oct 24 7:00 PM Blue Moon Coffeehouse – Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington, IL
Oct 25 7:00 PM Legion Arts Cedar Rapids, IA
Oct 26 8:00 PM High Noon Saloon Madison WI
Oct 27 7:00 PM Café Carpe Fort Atkinson WI
Oct 28 7:00 PM Village Players Performing Arts Center Oak Park, IL
Oct 29 7:00 PM Kent Stage Kent, OH
Nov 1 4:00 PM Infinity Music Hall & Bistro Norfolk, CT

More information, including who you can expect to see performing, can be found at the FODfest website (http://fodfest.org).

These concerts are free and open to the public. And they are all about the power of sharing music with the world. If you can, try to see a show near you. And if I’m there, do come by and say hello.

Topic of the Month

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I have absolutely no idea what our Topic of the Month is for October! So I’m going to be just as surprised as you are when I check out the home page later today!

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

I do know, though, that the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of October is Eric Clapton. Click on over to our artist profiles page for Paul’s bio on this legendary guitarist as well as links to other articles of interest at Guitar Noise.

New Lessons and Articles

How To Improve Your Guitar Technique (Part 2)
by Tom Hess

Tom Hess examines string noise and demonstrates some excellent muting techniques that can benefit advanced players as well as beginners.

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Sailing to Philadelphia, Both Sides Now, I Want You Back

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for October 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 16)

We’re continuing our study of modes by exploring the C mixolydian, or C dominant seven sound. Last week we played the most common C mixolydian scale. This time out, we’ll manage to communicate the same basic C mixolydian sound using a scale that’s not purely C mixolydian. The reason for doing this is the same reason used any time we stray from the status quo in music: to spice things up.

As foreign sounding as some of the following scales might seem to be, keep in mind they all have a solid connection with the C mixolydian scale. Specifically, that means they all share certain notes that are essential to or evocative of C mixolydian.

First, the G melodic minor scale. It has only 1 note different from pure C Mixolydian:

|-8-6-5-----------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------5-6-|-8-|
|-------8-7-5-----|-----------------|-----------------|-------5-7-8-----|---|
|-------------7-5-|-----------------|-----------------|---5-7-----------|---|
|-----------------|-8-7-5-----------|-------------5-7-|-8---------------|---|
|-----------------|-------9-7-5-----|-------5-7-9-----|-----------------|---|
|-----------------|-------------8-6-|-5-6-8-----------|-----------------|---|

This next one’s a little more “out.” It’s from the Bb melodic minor scale. You’ll hear the C7 sound clearer with this if you play a C7 arpeggio before and after the run.

|-8-6-5-----------|-----------------|
|-------8-6-------|-----------------|
|-----------8-6-5-|-----------------|
|-----------------|-8-7-5-----------|
|-----------------|-------8-6-4-----|
|-----------------|-------------8-6-|

|-----------------|-------------5-6-|-8----|
|-----------------|---------6-8-----|------|
|-----------------|---5-6-8---------|------|
|-------------5-7-|-8---------------|------|
|-------4-6-8-----|-----------------|------|
|-5-6-8-----------|-----------------|------|

The next scale run uses a diminished scale, whose notes lay outside any major scale or common minor scale. Listen carefully for the C, E, G and Bb in between the other notes.

|-8-6-5-----------|-----------------|
|-------8-7-5-----|-----------------|
|-------------8-6-|-5---------------|
|-----------------|---8-7-5---------|
|-----------------|---------9-7-6-4-|
|-----------------|-----------------|

|-----------------|-----------------|-----5-6-8----|
|-----------------|---------------5-|-7-8----------|
|-----------------|---------5-6-8---|--------------|
|-----------------|---5-7-8---------|--------------|
|-----------4-6-7-|-9---------------|--------------|
|-8-6-5-6-8-------|-----------------|--------------|

As for fingering, leave your hand totally in position when playing the diminished scale run. You’ll stretch with pinky and finger 1 to hit notes on string 5.

Thanks for reading.

In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.

Event Horizon

So please feel free to write me if you’ve got some gigs coming up. Remember that Guitar Noise News is sent out on the first and fifteenth of each month. Usually I will have it ready to be sent out a few days ahead of time, so plan accordingly. For instance, if you’ve got something coming up in the last two weeks of June (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in October, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming summer (or winter) shows!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

If you’re in Cincinnati, you can catch visiting Chicago guitarist tomorrow night, Friday, October 2nd at The Redmoor at 8:30pm. That’s at 3187 Linwood Avenue. Phil will be doing a solo acoustic set, opening for Julie Neumark and Dave Carducci who will then follow Phil back to Chi-town to open for him and the full band Saturday Night, October 3rd at 9pm at Quenchers
2401 N. Western in Chicago. Phil and the band will hit around 10pm.

Also in the Chicago area, my friend (and fellow left handed guitarist) Tony Nuccio will be playing in downtown Evanston, Illinois (my old stomping grounds!). He and Melanie Spector are at Bill’s Blues and More, located at 1029 Davis Street next Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 PM. This should be a fun and entertaining show!

Random Thoughts

This was recently posted on the Guitar Noise Forums and, well, I thought it was incredibly cool. Obviously it also should be posted in the “Event Horizon” section above, but I can do that in our next newsletter:

Hello everyone,

I don’t post much at all anymore, and even have stopped lurking as much as I used to as well, but I still consider GN very formative to me from my first foray’s into guitar around five years ago. In that time, I’ve messed around, laid the guitars down, picked them up months later. I was very wishy-washy. I had a musical background. I played tuba from Jr High all that way into college. But for some reason guitar just wasn’t engaging me.

Then, last December it happened. I was helping out running the sound at church and our worship leader asked if I played any instruments. Well, I told him I could strum some chords on acoustic but that was about it. “Want to try bass next Sunday?” he says to me. I said sure, get me one to borrow. I got a borrowed six string Ibanez bass on Thursday of that week! Three days to learn four songs on an instrument I’ve never played before!

It was like butter. Moth to flame. Stink to p…you get the idea. It was like I was meant to play the bass guitar. I think all those years on tuba, hearing and playing bass lines constantly, tied in with the past four years of learning my way around a guitar fretboard a little came together perfectly. I played that Sunday and did pretty darn good! There were some mistakes, but the majority of people had no idea. Plus, it’s the kind of crowd that’s very forgiving! That’s kind of built in playing in front of a church congregation. Since then, I’ve played just about every Sunday church.

This spring, I really got the itch to join a band so I hit up craigslist. After several false starts, I found a band with good people not looking to “make it”. Just play some classic rock for fun, gig a couple times a month and make some pocket money.

Finally, to the origin of coming and writing this post. My first paying gig has been scheduled! October 16th we will be taking the stage a little bar in Bay Minette, AL. I want to thank GN for all I’ve learned and all the encouragement I’ve received while being here. And if anyone is in southern Alabama on the 16th, I hope to see ya there!

Thanks again,

Louis

Much thanks for the heads up, Louis. And if we’ve any Guitar Noise folks down towards Bay Minette, I hope they make a point of seeing you later this month. There’s obviously a lot of cool music going on this month. I hope each of you manages to get out and hear some or even make some!

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 98 – September 15, 2009

David Hodge — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:58:17 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #98 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Depending on where you live, fall or spring is right around the corner! And even though there’s still a week left before we welcome the change of seasons, we here at Guitar Noise wish all our readers a wonderful fall or spring. And what better way to start than with the September 15, 2009 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com)?

By the time you get this, I also suspect that the Guitar Noise Facebook page will have registered its one thousandth fan. We’re sitting at nine hundred ninety-eight as I write this, so I’m thinking that’s a safe bet. It’s been very cool to browse through the fan base and to see how many different people of all ages and from all over the world have been joining in. Just looking through the very latest set of people who’ve signed in, I see fans in New York, London, Quebec City, Dallas, Galway, Israel, Australia and Saudi Arabia. It’s good to see you and our thanks for joining our international guitar community.

In case you missed it last time, Tom Hess (a wonderful guitarist, teacher and a regular contributing writer to Guitar Noise and Music Careers) is out on the road wih his free guitar clinics. They are taking place all over the Eastern and “Near West” US through the rest of September. If you happen to be in (or in driving distance of) Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York or Pennsylvania, then you definitely want to check out the schedule:

September 15, 2009 Guitar Center – Grand Rapids, Michigan, 6 pm
September 16, 2009 Guitar Center – Toledo, Ohio, 6 pm
September 17, 2009 Guitar Center – Cleveland, Ohio, 7 pm
September 18, 2009 House of Guitars – Rochester, New York, 7 pm
September 19, 2009 McNeil Music – Vestal, New York, 6:30 pm
September 20, 2009 To be announced
September 21, 2009 To be announced
September 22, 2009 To be announced
September 23, 2009 Guitar Center – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 6 pm
September 24, 2009 Guitar Center – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 7 pm
September 25, 2009 Sam Ash Music – Columbus, Ohio, 6 pm
September 26, 2009 Guitar Center – Cincinnati, Ohio, 7 pm
September 27, 2009 Guitar Center – Indianapolis, Indiana, 3 pm

If this year’s clinics are as good as last year (and you can get Tom “Noteboat” Serb’s take on last year’s clinic here, you’re bound to learn a lot and also have a good time.

In addition to Tom, Guitar Noise contributor Mike Philippov will be there, as well as Zack Uidl, Nick Layton, Randy Johnson and Paul Kleff.

For details and FREE guitar lesson videos from the previous clinic tour, check it out.

Early word on the Forums pages is that a number of Guitar Noise readers are hoping to make the Cincinnati clinic. If you do get there, please tell Tom “hello” from me.

Topic of the Month

Our Topic of the Month of September is “Teaching.” On the Guitar Noise Home page you’ll find links to the many articles here at Guitar Noise that discuss teaching and the various things that go along with it. And you should also be sure to look up the articles, both here and on our sister website, www.musiccareers.net, written by some great teachers who are also GN contributors, such as Darrin Koltow, Tom Hess, Tom Serb, Alan Green, Nick Torres and many more.

And feel free to post an email to me if there’s a particular topic you’d like to see given “Topic of the Month” status at some point in the future.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

And the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for this month is the Beatles. Click on over to our artist profiles page for a bit of light reading on the Fab Four as well as links to the numerous Beatles’ song lessons that you can find on the Easy Songs for Beginners page as well as the Songs for Intermediates page.

New Lessons and Articles

Smile (A Charlie Chaplin Song)
by Hank Stupi

Here is a finger style chord melody arrangement of the beautiful Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile.” Long-time Guitar Noise reader and first-time contributor Hank Stupi takes you through the process step by step, so 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.

Guitar Teaching: Lesson One
by Paul Andrews

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.

How To Advance Your Lead Guitar Solos
by Mike Philippov

Mike Philippov details five important steps to making memorable and interesting guitar solos. These are not only easy to follow, they also make a lot of sense!

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Sailing to Philadelphia, Both Sides Now, I Want You Back

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for September 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 15)

We covered C Mixolydian, aka C7, arpeggios in the last issue. To keep in line with our study of this mode, a look at scales that communicate that sound is in order.

Here’s the fundamental C7 sound in scale form.

|-8-5-6-5---------|-----------------|
|---------8-6-5---|-----------------|
|---------------7-|-5---------------|
|-----------------|---7-8-7-5-------|
|-----------------|-----------8-7-5-|
|-----------------|-----------------|

|-----------------|-----------------|---5-6-8-8----|
|-----------------|-------------5-6-|-8------------|
|-----------------|-------7-5-7-----|--------------|
|-----------------|-5-7-8-----------|--------------|
|-------5---5-7-8-|-----------------|--------------|
|-8-5-6---8-------|-----------------|--------------|

It’s important to end with the note C to really convince your ear that it’s hearing C Mixolydian / C7. Also, playing a C7 chord or arpeggio before and after you play this scale, will drive home the C7 sound.

It’s the coolest thing the first time you can play just the Mixo scale by itself — or hear someone else playing it — and say “Hey, that’s a C7.”

The next time out we’ll look at other scales that convey C7.

Thanks for reading.

In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can also read his past contributions to Guitar Noise here.And you can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.

Random Thoughts

I received an email from Alan Green last week and it sounds like his first week of teaching went very well. If you missed our last interview, you may have not read that Alan has taken on teaching guitar for the Essex School Music Services in England. You can read more, both about Alan and his teaching adventures in the Guitar Noise Interview.

Alan’s schedule is certainly filling in! His latest report puts him with forty-nine students from six different schools and more on the way! All of us at Guitar Noise wish him continued success and happiness with his teaching and playing.

And happiness is a big part of why we play, no? I read a wonderful post recently on the News page of the Guitar Noise forum, from GN Forum member “specialof” and I’d like to share it with you:

Hey guys, just a quick update that might encourage someone to keep at it.

I have the opportunity to play (solo) every Sunday in our worship service as I do all the music. Daily practice has made a huge difference with my guitar playing as I am constantly preparing for the next Sunday, and now I am also willing to sing solo along with my playing. This has been a big step, as I am a naturally shy person although most wouldn’t notice it. The first time I sang solo a few months ago I was shaking in my boots, although it went very well. Since then, I have continued to sing solo several times and it gets easier each time, and also sounds better.

I mention this, as music rubs off on others. My wife just loves to hear me practice daily (and attend the different music festivals we go to) and I could tell she wanted to learn an instrument. So, about four or five months ago I started teaching her the mandolin (even though I had never really played the mandolin before – but it just seems natural for a guitar player and easy for me to play immediately).

So, yesterday she played in the service with me for the first time and we did a duet of that old 1868 song “In The Sweet By and By”. I sang and did my guitar stuff, and she played the Mandolin… and did a terrific job. The applause was great, and a big encouragement to her. Understand we are in our 50’s (but think we in still in our 20’s), and she had never played an instrument before but was able to do this within a few months is terrific.

Last week, I recorded us during practice on my Handy H2 recorder doing this song in my little home studio, and she just couldn’t believe herself and kept asking me “Is that me playing the Mandolin?” and of course it was as she was the only one in the room with the mandolin. After hearing herself, she couldn’t wait to play in the service.

Last night when we got home, she wanted to start working on our next song together… which we did.

Just thought someone might be encouraged by this.

The joy of playing music with others is incredible and I’d like to invite all of you once again to share your own stories. Just send them my way (dhodgeguitar@aol.com) and we’ll put them in the upcoming newsletters.

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Flashback #8 – Midwest Music Academy

David Hodge — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:18:41 +0000

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:

Tom, as most of you already know, hails from the far southwestern suburbs of Chicago. To get things started, we begin with a few basic questions and then move onto the “real interview:”

GN: Occupation?

TS: I define myself as a musician. Since I’m not a “star”, that means I have to do a whole lot of things to pay the mortgage, but they’re all music related: I’m a guitarist, guitar teacher, composer, arranger, I do transcriptions, I buy and sell gear, I write lessons for magazines, I own a music school, etc. I guess I’m a musical entrepreneur by default.

GN: Playing music since?

TS: I honestly don’t remember. I’ve always been drawn to music, and remember playing instruments (or at least playing “at” playing instruments) since I was 4. Since I don’t remember anything before that, I guess I’ve always been doing it.

GN: Playing guitar since?

TS: Since the early 1970s. It’s hard to fix an exact date… partly because those were the 1970s! I’ve been performing as a guitarist since 1976, and teaching professionally since 1978.

GN: If possible, can you remember what first brought you to Guitar Noise and why you continue to hang around?

TS: I stumbled across Guitar Noise while surfing for guitar websites. I’ve stayed because it’s a friendly place to hang out!

GN: Can you give us a brief history of your musical life?

TS: Wow! No way I can be brief about that without missing a lot…

I’m the oldest child, and my parents weren’t very musical. But even though I didn’t have any musical role models, I was always drawn to music. My mother tells me as an infant I’d wiggle around to the music whenever she played a Louis Armstrong record.

I was always messing around with musical things. On Sundays we’d go to my grandparent’s house for dinner, and my grandmother had a piano. I remember a book she had called “Songs Children Love to Play”, which had a diagram of the keyboard on the inside cover, with dotted lines showing the notes on the staff. I’d flip back and forth between that and pieces in the book, and basically taught myself how to read music – I was probably 6 or 7 then.

My first real music lessons were on drums – I bought myself a drum set with money I’d saved from my paper route. I played percussion all the way through high school and college, performing in the HS marching and concert bands, and in the college jazz band. I don’t really keep it up today, but every once in a while I’ll play tympani with a local community orchestra.

I messed around with every instrument I could get my hands on. My first guitar was one my mother bought for my father… he never learned to play, and gave it to my sister… who never learned to play, so I swiped it and learned. I still have that guitar, too – a 1962 Harmony!

In college I had some awesome teachers. My favorite was Dr. Hans Gross, my theory teacher – he really got me into the structural beauty of music, and had a way of presenting music history that was just fascinating. Anyway, at that point I decided music was it for me, career-wise. While I was still in school I got a job teaching percussion at Morse Avenue Music in Chicago, and quickly became their only guitar teacher as well – because even though I considered the guitar my “second” instrument at that point, it turned out I was a lot better at it than the guy they had teaching. In less than a year I had a full load of guitar students, and I stopped teaching
percussion.

In the late 70s I did only performing and teaching. But the disco era killed off the venues; I went from performing six nights a week to just one or two - so I started doing other things: film scoring, record production, owning a music store, etc. From then to now, I’ve done whatever I’ve had to that kept me in music – the most recent stuff is in the “occupation” question above! I try to keep learning, too. I recently spent about five years studying classical piano with Joe Cech. I’m in awe of him – he taught me more about score reading and musical interpretation than I’d learned from anyone, ever.

GN: Of course, the big news is the opening of your music school, the Midwest Music Academy in Plainfield, Illinois. How did you come about making this decision and what have been the highs and lows about getting things together for opening this fall?

TS: I realized pretty early on that you can’t make it in the music business until you approach it as a business! Some years ago I took a hard look at the business strategy I was using as a guitar teacher, and I decided to diversify geographically. In my experience it’s pretty easy to go from 10 to 20 students, but really hard to go from 50 to 60 – so I decided I’d try teaching from three locations, and see what happened. Initially I chose Woodridge (where I live), Naperville about 15 miles to the NW, and Western
Springs about the same distance to the East. Western Springs didn’t pan out as well as I’d hoped, so about three years ago I tried going South to Plainfield.

My Plainfield roster grew rapidly. I ended up dropping Woodridge to spend more time there, and had a solid waiting list – so I started to look at the demographic projections, and they looked really strong for growth. I did a lot of soul searching, and spent a lot of time talking things over with my family and friends, and decided this is probably the place for me to be.

First I tried buying a place… and I came really close to making a deal on one. But when the seller backed out, I decided I’d better just start my own. The highs and lows have been pretty incredible. The lowest spots have been realizing just how much money it’s taking to do it right – and the red tape! For example, Plainfield is in the process of re-numbering their streets… and every government agency I’ve talked to seems to have a different idea of what my address should be! (I’ve actually gotten FIVE different opinions!)

The high spot is definitely the reaction of the students and parents. I think everybody who’s walked through the door has told me how nice the place looks, how nice the gear is, how much they like the way I’m doing things, even how nice the place smells!

GN: After all the years you’ve spent as a teacher, what are some of the biggest challenges of your new position? And what have you looked for in choosing teachers to work at your school?

TS: I think the biggest challenge for me is moving from teaching directly to teaching through others. Because I’ve spent so much time in the teacher’s chair, I know what’s important to the teachers, and I’m trying to provide everything they need to excel. But I’ve also got more years teaching than almost any of my staff – and I know what works.

But right there is the crux of it – I know what works for me in communicating with students, but I’m not the other teachers. They have things that work for them. So the real puzzle is figuring out what I should coach, and what I shouldn’t. I want things to be consistently excellent for our students, but it’s not “best practice” just because I do it. Ideally I’ll be learning as much from them as they learn from me, and we’ll be the best in the business because of it.

So that’s driving how I’m choosing teachers. When I grew up, the corner barbershop had two barbers. My father told me to always pick the barber with the worst haircut. Why? “Because they probably cut each other’s hair.” And that’s been in the back of my mind since I started recruiting: I don’t care how well they play; I don’t care how well they communicate with me; I want to hear their students play – that’ll tell me what kind of “haircut” they can give!

Just yesterday a teacher came up to me and told me he wasn’t sure about the vocal teacher I’ve got starting next week – he doesn’t think he’s a very good singer. I sort of agree – and I think the teacher making the comment (who’s a guitar teacher) is a better singer than the vocal teacher. But I’ve heard some of the vocal teacher’s long-time students sing, and I know he’s top-notch.

GN: Many Guitar Noise readers regard you as the “guru of music theory.” And your first book, Music Theory for Guitarists, certainly bears that out. Any plans for more writing in the near future?

TS: I’ve got a few writing projects in the works right now, but for the last several months my writing has been on hold – starting the school has taken too much time! But I hope to get back to it sometime next year. There’s a sequel on harmony in the works, a second edition of the theory book, and a couple of projects to be revealed later!

GN: You’ve certainly worn a lot of musical hats. And you’ve certainly gotten this question hundreds of times, but I have to ask anyway! What advice do you have for someone wanting to make a life’s career in music? Not necessarily as an “A List” performer, but simply to have a life doing something one loves?

TS: A month ago I had breakfast with a pretty successful songwriter. He told me that his musical success really started once he realized everybody was a commodity – you can replace a guitar player (or songwriter, or anybody else) with one or two phone calls if you need to.

Once you face up to that fact, you realize that the music business – or any business, really – is about building and maintaining relationships. So if you want to succeed, you don’t have to be the “best” – sure you have to be ”good enough”, and you have to get your foot in the door for your first opportunity, but after that… you have to be the one they’re not looking to replace.

That means paying attention to the little details, the non-musical stuff. It’s important: show up on time. Do what you say you’ll do. Be friendly. Smile. Remember people’s names. Don’t argue. Be confident – but don’t be a prima donna. Follow up – but don’t be a pest. Treat everybody with respect. It really boils down to the golden rule.

None of it is hard to do, but for some reason many musicians don’t do them, or don’t do them enough of the time. But I’ve found that if you do them as much as you possibly can, and meet as many people as you possibly can, success will find you.

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 97 – September 1, 2009

David Hodge — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:29:59 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #97 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
This Day (or Approximately) In (GN) History
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello to all and welcome to the September 1, 2009 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com). I hope that this newsletter finds everyone well and in good spirits.

For a change, there’s a lot of news to tell you. Right off the bat, I got an email from Tom Hess with the schedule for his free guitar clinics that will be taking place all over the Eastern and “Near West” US in September. If you happen to be in (or in driving distance of) Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York or Pennsylvania, then you definitely want to check this out:

September 14, 2009 Guitar Center – Algonquin, Illinois, 7 pm
September 15, 2009 Guitar Center – Grand Rapids, Michigan, 6 pm
September 16, 2009 Guitar Center – Toledo, Ohio, 6 pm
September 17, 2009 Guitar Center – Cleveland, Ohio, 7 pm
September 18, 2009 House of Guitars – Rochester, New York, 7 pm
September 19, 2009 McNeil Music – Vestal, New York, 6:30 pm
September 20, 2009 To be announced
September 21, 2009 To be announced
September 22, 2009 To be announced
September 23, 2009 Guitar Center – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 6 pm
September 24, 2009 Guitar Center – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 7 pm
September 25, 2009 Sam Ash Music – Columbus, Ohio, 6 pm
September 26, 2009 Guitar Center – Cincinnati, Ohio, 7 pm
September 27, 2009 Guitar Center – Indianapolis, Indiana, 3 pm

Tom is a great guy, not to mention an excellent guitarist and teacher, and if this year’s clinics are as good as last year (and you can get Tom ”Noteboat” Serb’s take on last year’s clinic, you’re bound to learn a lot and also have a good time.

In addition to Tom, Guitar Noise contributor Mike Philippov will be there, as well as Zack Uidl, Nick Layton, Randy Johnson and Paul Kleff.

For details and FREE guitar lesson videos from the previous clinic tour, check out Tom Hess Music Corporation.

And be sure to tell Tom “hello” from me!

We at Guitar Noise would also like to congratulate the aforementioned Tom Serb on the first anniversary of the opening of his school, the Midwest Music Academy in Plainfield, Illinois. They’re closing in on having more than two hundred students and that’s very exciting news! Feel free to drop Tom a line of good wishes for the upcoming school year at this thread.

And speaking of teachers, Guitar Noise Moderator Alan Green is hitting the teaching circuit big time starting this month, working with the Essex Music Services in England. Check out our interview with Alan in the “New Articles and Lessons” section and be sure to send him an email of congratulations and encouragement as well.

Topic of the Month

And with all these announcements concerning guitar teachers, not to mention the new lessons we have about them (and from them), it only seems appropriate to make our Topic of the Month of September be about “Teaching. ” As always, on our Guitar Noise Home page you’ll find links to the many articles here at Guitar Noise that discuss teaching and the various things that go along with it. And you should also be sure to look up the articles, both here and on our sister website, www.musiccareers.net, written by some great teachers who are also GN contributors, such as Darrin Koltow, Tom Hess, Tom Serb, Alan Green, Nick Torres and many more.

And feel free to post an email to me if there’s a particular topic you’d like to see given “Topic of the Month” status at some point in the future.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Because it’s the first of the month we’ve got a new Guitar Noise Featured Artist. During the month of September, we’ll be putting a spotlight on the Beatles, as well as on all the various Beatles’ song lessons available here at Guitar Noise. Click on over to our artist profiles page for more reading and lesson links.

New Lessons and Articles

Alan Green Interview
by David Hodge

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!

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – Performance Notes For The Bridge
by Jamie Andreas

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!

Need Help Starting A Successful Career In Music?
by Tom Hess

Tom details four very important steps that anyone seriously thinking about starting a career in the music business as a performing artist truly needs to think about and develop. If you take Tom’s advice to heart, you’ll giving yourself a big step forward.

Seven Nation Army
Easy Songs for Beginners #41
by David Hodge

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.

Coming Attractions

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Banana Pancakes, Peace Train, Just Like Heaven, Yellow

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There, Fire and Rain, Sailing to Philadelphia, Both Sides Now, I Want You Back

Plus more on the “Turning Scales into Solos” and “Beyond Up and Down” series, not to mention our new “Music Meccas” series, as well as more of our ”Chord Melody Song Arrangements,” which will deal with pop and rock songs, like Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” or old standards like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and maybe even a surf tune, such as the Ventures’ classic “Walk Don’t Run.”

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for August 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 14)

We continue our exploration of modes in this issue. Specifically, let’s move into C7 arpeggios as a natural follow-up to our study of C7 chords. As we did last week, we’ll work with position V, give or a take a fret.

Here’s our initial C7 garden-variety arpeggio:

|-8-6-------------|-----------------|---6-8---------|
|-----8-5---------|---------------5-|-8-------------|
|---------5-------|-------------5---|---------------|
|-----------8-5---|---------5-8-----|---------------|
|---------------7-|-------7---------|---------------|
|-----------------|-8-6-8-----------|---------------|

To add just a bit more variety to this pattern, repeat it–but with the beat shifted to the notes that got the off beat on the first run. Maybe the full tab will better explain what I mean:

|-8-6-------------|-----------------|---6-8-8-6-------|
|-----8-5---------|---------------5-|-8---------8-5---|
|---------5-------|-------------5---|---------------5-|
|-----------8-5---|---------5-8-----|-----------------|
|---------------7-|-------7---------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-8-6-8-----------|-----------------|

|-----------------|---------6-8-8----|
|-----------------|-----5-8----------|
|-----------------|---5--------------|
|-8-5-----------5-|-8----------------|
|-----7-------7---|------------------|
|-------8-6-8-----|------------------|

Thanks for reading.

In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can also
read his past contributions to Guitar Noise here. And you can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.

This Day (or Approximately) In (Guitar Noise) History

As I mentioned earlier, 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:

Tom, as most of you already know, hails from the far southwestern suburbs of Chicago. To get things started, we begin with a few basic questions and then move onto the “real interview:”

GN: Occupation?

TS: I define myself as a musician. Since I’m not a “star”, that means I have to do a whole lot of things to pay the mortgage, but they’re all music related: I’m a guitarist, guitar teacher, composer, arranger, I do transcriptions, I buy and sell gear, I write lessons for magazines, I own a music school, etc. I guess I’m a musical entrepreneur by default.

GN: Playing music since?

TS: I honestly don’t remember. I’ve always been drawn to music, and remember playing instruments (or at least playing “at” playing instruments) since I was 4. Since I don’t remember anything before that, I guess I’ve always been doing it.

GN: Playing guitar since?

TS: Since the early 1970s. It’s hard to fix an exact date… partly because those were the 1970s! I’ve been performing as a guitarist since 1976, and teaching professionally since 1978.

GN: If possible, can you remember what first brought you to Guitar Noise and why you continue to hang around?

TS: I stumbled across Guitar Noise while surfing for guitar websites. I’ve stayed because it’s a friendly place to hang out!

GN: Can you give us a brief history of your musical life?

TS: Wow! No way I can be brief about that without missing a lot…

I’m the oldest child, and my parents weren’t very musical. But even though I didn’t have any musical role models, I was always drawn to music. My mother tells me as an infant I’d wiggle around to the music whenever she played a Louis Armstrong record.

I was always messing around with musical things. On Sundays we’d go to my grandparent’s house for dinner, and my grandmother had a piano. I remember a book she had called “Songs Children Love to Play”, which had a diagram of the keyboard on the inside cover, with dotted lines showing the notes on the staff. I’d flip back and forth between that and pieces in the book, and basically taught myself how to read music – I was probably 6 or 7 then.

My first real music lessons were on drums – I bought myself a drum set with money I’d saved from my paper route. I played percussion all the way through high school and college, performing in the HS marching and concert bands, and in the college jazz band. I don’t really keep it up today, but every once in a while I’ll play tympani with a local community orchestra. I messed around with every instrument I could get my hands on. My first guitar was one my mother bought for my father… he never learned to play, and gave it to my sister… who never learned to play, so I swiped it and learned. I still have that guitar, too – a 1962 Harmony!

In college I had some awesome teachers. My favorite was Dr. Hans Gross, my theory teacher – he really got me into the structural beauty of music, and had a way of presenting music history that was just fascinating. Anyway, at that point I decided music was it for me, career-wise. While I was still in school I got a job teaching percussion at Morse Avenue Music in Chicago, and quickly became their only guitar teacher as well – because even though I considered the guitar my “second” instrument at that point, it turned out I was a lot better at it than the guy they had teaching. In less than a year I had a full load of guitar students, and I stopped teaching
percussion.

In the late 70s I did only performing and teaching. But the disco era killed off the venues; I went from performing six nights a week to just one or two - so I started doing other things: film scoring, record production, owning a music store, etc. From then to now, I’ve done whatever I’ve had to that kept me in music – the most recent stuff is in the “occupation” question above! I try to keep learning, too. I recently spent about five years studying classical piano with Joe Cech. I’m in awe of him – he taught me more about score reading and musical interpretation than I’d learned from anyone, ever.

GN: Of course, the big news is the opening of your music school, the Midwest Music Academy in Plainfield, Illinois. How did you come about making this decision and what have been the highs and lows about getting things together for opening this fall?

TS: I realized pretty early on that you can’t make it in the music business until you approach it as a business! Some years ago I took a hard look at the business strategy I was using as a guitar teacher, and I decided to diversify geographically. In my experience it’s pretty easy to go from 10 to 20 students, but really hard to go from 50 to 60 – so I decided I’d try teaching from three locations, and see what happened. Initially I chose Woodridge (where I live), Naperville about 15 miles to the NW, and Western
Springs about the same distance to the East. Western Springs didn’t pan out as well as I’d hoped, so about three years ago I tried going South to Plainfield.

My Plainfield roster grew rapidly. I ended up dropping Woodridge to spend more time there, and had a solid waiting list – so I started to look at the demographic projections, and they looked really strong for growth. I did a lot of soul searching, and spent a lot of time talking things over with my family and friends, and decided this is probably the place for me to be.

First I tried buying a place… and I came really close to making a deal on one. But when the seller backed out, I decided I’d better just start my own. The highs and lows have been pretty incredible. The lowest spots have been realizing just how much money it’s taking to do it right – and the red tape! For example, Plainfield is in the process of re-numbering their streets… and every government agency I’ve talked to seems to have a different idea of what my address should be! (I’ve actually gotten FIVE different opinions!)

The high spot is definitely the reaction of the students and parents. I think everybody who’s walked through the door has told me how nice the place looks, how nice the gear is, how much they like the way I’m doing things, even how nice the place smells!

GN: After all the years you’ve spent as a teacher, what are some of the biggest challenges of your new position? And what have you looked for in choosing teachers to work at your school?

TS: I think the biggest challenge for me is moving from teaching directly to teaching through others. Because I’ve spent so much time in the teacher’s chair, I know what’s important to the teachers, and I’m trying to provide everything they need to excel. But I’ve also got more years teaching than almost any of my staff – and I know what works.

But right there is the crux of it – I know what works for me in communicating with students, but I’m not the other teachers. They have things that work for them. So the real puzzle is figuring out what I should coach, and what I shouldn’t. I want things to be consistently excellent for our students, but it’s not “best practice” just because I do it. Ideally I’ll be learning as much from them as they learn from me, and we’ll be the best in the business because of it.

So that’s driving how I’m choosing teachers. When I grew up, the corner barbershop had two barbers. My father told me to always pick the barber with the worst haircut. Why? “Because they probably cut each other’s hair.” And that’s been in the back of my mind since I started recruiting: I don’t care how well they play; I don’t care how well they communicate with me; I want to hear their students play – that’ll tell me what kind of “haircut” they can give!

Just yesterday a teacher came up to me and told me he wasn’t sure about the vocal teacher I’ve got starting next week – he doesn’t think he’s a very good singer. I sort of agree – and I think the teacher making the comment (who’s a guitar teacher) is a better singer than the vocal teacher. But I’ve heard some of the vocal teacher’s long-time students sing, and I know he’s top-notch.

GN: Many Guitar Noise readers regard you as the “guru of music theory.” And your first book, Music Theory for Guitarists, certainly bears that out. Any plans for more writing in the near future?

TS: I’ve got a few writing projects in the works right now, but for the last several months my writing has been on hold – starting the school has taken too much time! But I hope to get back to it sometime next year. There’s a sequel on harmony in the works, a second edition of the theory book, and a couple of projects to be revealed later!

GN: You’ve certainly worn a lot of musical hats. And you’ve certainly gotten this question hundreds of times, but I have to ask anyway! What advice do you have for someone wanting to make a life’s career in music? Not necessarily as an “A List” performer, but simply to have a life doing something one loves?

TS: A month ago I had breakfast with a pretty successful songwriter. He told me that his musical success really started once he realized everybody was a commodity – you can replace a guitar player (or songwriter, or anybody else) with one or two phone calls if you need to.

Once you face up to that fact, you realize that the music business – or any business, really – is about building and maintaining relationships. So if you want to succeed, you don’t have to be the “best” – sure you have to be ”good enough”, and you have to get your foot in the door for your first opportunity, but after that… you have to be the one they’re not looking to replace.

That means paying attention to the little details, the non-musical stuff. It’s important: show up on time. Do what you say you’ll do. Be friendly. Smile. Remember people’s names. Don’t argue. Be confident – but don’t be a prima donna. Follow up – but don’t be a pest. Treat everybody with respect. It really boils down to the golden rule.

None of it is hard to do, but for some reason many musicians don’t do them, or don’t do them enough of the time. But I’ve found that if you do them as much as you possibly can, and meet as many people as you possibly can, success will find you.

Random Thoughts

Not that this should come as any kind of surprise, but teaching, and teaching music, is always a topic of discussion at my home. There’s no end of subjects when it comes to thinking about how to bring knowledge of any kind, whether it’s about creating music or understanding mathematics or even instilling the idea that most things in life never have the wonderfully simplistic single answers that the much of the world would have us believe.

One of the biggest challenges, and I suspect also one of the biggest frustrations, is knowing that regardless of how good a teacher one might be, teaching itself is one small piece of the whole process of learning. Not everyone who goes to the same teacher learns the same things or even gets the same grades. That seems ridiculously obvious.

It’s also very obvious that everyone learns in different ways. But one thing that holds constant, at least as far as I can see, is that without some practical application of the learning, the process itself will be a slow one. Reading music, or even learning what notes make up a particular chord is a great example of this. A G chord consists of the notes G, B and D. People know the win-loss statistics of their favorite teams or any of the many PIN or passwords they use everyday, but something as simple as
remembering three notes requires more of a superhuman effort for some.

So a good part of teaching is not just giving knowledge, it’s giving, and more importantly, demonstrating and inspiring a student’s individual need for that knowledge. That’s not always easy.

If you’re having trouble with learning something in particular, go to your teacher and discuss ways to make that knowledge something you want to and need to learn. Without a student’s participation, there’s not all that much learning that can be done.

If you’re trying to learn something without a teacher, say through the Internet, then be certain to visit chat rooms and post questions. But also go one step further and look for answers yourself. Answers that you have to dig for will stay in your head longer than those you are simply given.

Until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

An Interview with Alan Green

David Hodge — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:12:10 +0000

The Guitar Noise community is made up of people from all over the world, more than one hundred and fifty countries at last count, who have come here to share their love of music and their love of guitar. Some are beginners who’ve just gotten their first instrument and are eagerly trying to digest as much knowledge as possible. Some are folks who “used to play” at one point in their lives and are now getting back to creating music for themselves. Some have been playing for ages and come to share their knowledge and experiences.

Not surprisingly, we have a good number of guitar teachers in the Guitar Noise community. Again, they also fall into many different varieties and bring many levels of experience to their students.

Some of you may remember that last year, August 18, 2008, saw Tom “Noteboat” Serb open the Midwest Music Academy in Plainfield, Illinois. Tom and his school had a wonderful first year, giving over a thousand lessons to close to two hundred students.

This fall, Guitar Noise Moderator, Alan Green, is also embarking on a huge undertaking, teaching for the Essex School Music Service in England. Those of you who have been a part of Guitar Noise for some time will recognize Alan from his participation in the Sunday Songwriters’ Group as well as his Guitar Noise articles and his musical adventures as part of the Cambridge Guitar Orchestra. What you may not know is that he’s been playing guitar since 1974, has a Distinction at Grade 8 in Classical Guitar and a Distinction at Grade 5 in Music Theory (Alan’s tip for the Theory exams – know how to write out an ascending and descending scale of G# melodic minor, properly annotated for sharps and naturals).

Alan lives in Finchingfield, which is (apparently) Essex’s most photographed village, a few miles from where Dick Turpin (the highwayman) was born, and where some of the witches executed after the famous “Matthew Hopkins, Witch-finder General” trials of the 1640s were buried sitting up so they could never claim to have been “laid to rest.” The place is mentioned in the Doomsday Book so there’s a lot of history there.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Alan twice, once for breakfast and some poking around guitar shops in New York City on glorious April morning and once as a house guest here in Massachusetts last September, where we managed to put together a small open mic / songwriter performance for him to take part in. He is every bit as personable and friendly in person as he is on the GN Forum pages.

To celebrate this new stage of Alan’s teaching career, I asked him if he might take part in a little Q & A for the Guitar Noise readers and so, let’s get right to it.

GN: How long have you been playing? When (and why) did you first pick up the instrument? Have you been playing since day one or have you had the occasionally sabbatical? Who are your musical inspirations as well as your guitar heroes?

ALAN: There was this shop near my school run by Reg Roylance, a local jazz musician who could play anything on any instrument; records at the front, guitars at the back and I saw this beginner’s guitar in the window. I knew I wanted to be a pop star (at that time everybody my age did) and suddenly there in front of me was an inexpensive way of starting out. So I asked for it as a birthday present. I could already read music, having had compulsory recorder lessons as a six-year old at primary school, and it was “just” a matter of learning where the notes were on the neck. That was harder than you’d think, especially when you’re dealing with a lousy action and fingers that were glowing like light bulbs; and recorders don’t play below middle C, so 6th and 5th string notes were unbelievably hard to learn to read and play from sight.

My first public performance was as a chef in my primary school’s Christmas play. I had to bring out the figgy pudding on a large plate when the choir sang “now bring us some figgy pudding and bring it out here.” Applause is instantly addictive. My first performance with a guitar in my hand was playing the bass to Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” at a local Church Choir concert, and my first note on a guitar in public was a big fat “G.” It should have been a big fat “F” so I played a “C” on the fourth beat and got back to the “F” for the start of the second bar. Later, I played for the group that covered the 9:30 Sunday service at a local Church when the organist had his Sunday off, then learned to play lead guitar and played some punk/ metal with a band called “Block A” in Romford in Essex for a couple of years. So, anyone who knows a guy called John Hooper from Gidea Park (our singer, married to Wendy, last known of in Pitsea, Essex) let him know I’ve lost his phone number and I’ve got some songs he might like to have a go at.

I didn’t play much whilst my sons were small, just enough to keep my hand in. Eventually, I found myself 38 and single; I didn’t think anybody would take me seriously if I said I was trying to put a rock band together, but I’d had some lessons in classical technique for a while in my twenties and decided to pick up my guitar seriously again and go down the Classical Guitar route. I got into Classical Guitar listening to “Junior Choice” presented by Ed Stewart on Radio 1 one Saturday morning when he played “Classical Gas” by Mason Williams; I just knew I had to learn to play it. I used it as an audition piece for the Essex Music Service earlier this year and a certain editor at a certain Guitar Website not far from here got to hear a pretty jet-lagged performance of it at an open mic night in Massachusetts last year.

Inspirations, good question. I learned to play chords on my first electric guitar using songbooks of David Bowie and the Beatles. The first riff I learned to play was either “Ziggy Stardust” or “Jean Genie,” and the first song I played from start to end was probably “Hard Day’s Night.”

Guitar Heroes – I had a girlfriend who was into Queen and I picked up a couple of Queen songbooks. Brian May has to be the most technically excellent guitarist on this planet, and his multi-tracked work makes his guitar sound like nothing else on earth (check out “Good Company” on “Night At The Opera” for an object lesson in how to make a single guitar sound like a jazz quartet). Then one night I was sitting at home with my father, watching “The Old Grey Whistle Test.” The legend that is Bumbling Bob Harris introduced a band called Rush, from Canada. My father’s face dropped in that “Oh, my God” expression. Mine lit up in that “Wow, this is the meaning of life” expression, and Alex Lifeson has been my complete and utter absolute Guitar Hero ever since. I admire Slash greatly, and John Frusciante, too, and there are a lot of good guitarists around who haven’t quite made it into Hero status yet. On the Classical Guitar side, I like John Williams, David Russell and Craig Ogden, but there’s less difference between classical guitarists.

GN: How (and roughly when) did you first find out about Guitar Noise? What keeps you coming back (not to mention what made you say “yes to being a Moderator)?

ALAN: I was working in Germany. We didn’t have a lot to do and one afternoon I was surfing the Wholenote dot com website. They were in the midst of a massive flame war which had practically taken over their entire forum, and if anyone can tell me how America’s involvement in the two World Wars is relevant to playing the guitar I’ll give them a free lesson. Somewhere amongst the insults I found a post where someone was talking about a show they’d done and it had a link to an article on Guitar Noise. I noticed there was a forum page here and never went back to Wholenote.

Guitar Noise is a unique community, somewhere you can drop in and out whenever you want to talk about anything to do with playing guitar. I like the fact that there’s no chat room and anything off topic is stamped on by the moderators. If I want to talk politics or religion I’ll go somewhere else; if I want to indulge my guitar hobby I come to Guitar Noise. I do frequent other guitar forum pages too, for Classical and Flamenco Guitar, but nothing like as regularly as I do Guitar Noise. It was nice to be asked to be a Moderator, and I knew the existing team to be a decent bunch so I threw my hat in the ring.

Talking of hats – I have worn one of Nick’s hats.

GN: Congratulations on moving up big time with your teaching? How did all of this come about? How long have you been teaching? Why did you make the decision to get involved in teaching on such a bigger scale?

ALAN: Thank you. I started teaching in the UK in 2003, after I came home from Germany, and by the start of 2007 had built up a thriving little practice which brought me four students on a Saturday afternoon and the occasional midweek session. I have a little guy named Joseph to thank for starting me out on my Grades. We were sitting in his lounge one Saturday afternoon listening to his sister playing the piano. She’d just got her Grade 1 and Joseph asked me “Are there any Grades for this thing?” I nodded and made a mental note to order a few extra copies of the book so I could do the Grades myself otherwise he’d get the Step 1 (one of two pre-grade exams) and technically he’d be ahead of me.

Moving to the countryside destroyed my teaching practice as it wasn’t possible to do any marketing and still travel 90 minutes each way to work and back each day. Then the bank I was working for wrote off a bucketload of money (thirty four billion dollars, in fact – that’s nine zeros) in the first wave of the credit crunch and started cutting jobs. I survived the first six rounds of job cuts, training people to take routine work offshore to India (for a lot less money than I was paying people to do the same job in London) but eventually ……. well, when you get a call from your boss asking you to go to an unscheduled meeting in a meeting room in the building HR occupy you know what’s coming.

So, there I was, looking at being out of work at the worst time in my industry since 1929. I’d been made redundant ten years previously, and was determined not to be out of work so long this time so I took a good long look at everything I could do; amongst which was this guitar teaching thing, a little rusty perhaps but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. I figured I could probably make a break into the adult education service (you need a bachelor’s degree at the very least to teach in schools in the UK) teaching guitar. I looked up the adult education services in all the local counties to me (where we live is close to three other counties outside Essex) and e-mailed them all. I also started a degree course with the Open University in England, which specialises in remote learning, to beef up the qualifications. I got a reply from the Essex Adult Education people who said they didn’t have anything but put me in touch with the School Music Service. I sent them an application form.

Having registered with 40 recruitment firms in London over the weeks before my job finally finished in early April, I got a few calls about work after Easter and one call got me an interview. I started work with a Japanese bank the following week. After three weeks at the new job I got a letter from Essex Music Service inviting me to go along, audition and interview. I’d never failed an audition in my life so figured I’d be able to make a decent stab at it and chances like this don’t come up every day so I grabbed it with both hands and started rehearsing. I played “Capricho Arabe,” a 20th century classical guitar masterpiece by Francisco Tarrega, and “Classical Gas.” I’m used to long interviews, but I finally staggered out after being grilled for 90 minutes, fortunately having been told that I was on the teachers’ list for September 2009. Result. There was another candidate being interviewed after me to teach cello. I told her mine had lasted 90 minutes. Her face dropped, but I notice she’s on the same Induction Day as me in two weeks’ time.

GN: Are you excited by the challenge of teaching so many students? Will you be continuing with your private students as well?

ALAN: I’ve been put in touch with three schools, with kids all aged under 8 years old. Thirty-six students. The lessons will be 15 minutes each, so it’s only nine hours each week but it’s a start and I might still get some more schools when they go back the week after next and find they should have booked a guitar teacher.

I can’t wait. I find teaching absolute beginners most enjoyable whatever age they might be. If you deliver the lessons right you’re lining up a student who will stay with you for what might be years and develop onto a top class performer. If they decide that guitar’s not for them, at least they’ll have had the experience and got some skills in reading standard notation that they can transfer to piano or clarinet or tuba or something.

The postcard that I put in the local shop advertising me as a private teacher suddenly earned its keep – I got a call about some lessons and took on my first private student since we moved house. It felt good to get back to teaching old favourites like “Maggie May” and “Brown Eyed Girl” again, and I find private students buy lessons because they want to learn not because they think it might be easy and cool to be able to play a guitar, so they have more longevity as students. I don’t teach Classical Guitar unless asked to do so, but my students know I’m a classical guitarist because they sit in my study with all my certificates on the wall, alongside the Gold Disc we got Kathy’s son off e-Bay for his birthday the other year and is with us for safekeeping whilst he’s travelling the world. Nobody’s actually looked at it yet and said “Is that a Gold disc? Is it yours?”

GN: If someone was interested in having you as his or her guitar teacher, how should he/she go about it?

ALAN: I’m definitely very keen on expanding the number of private students I teach, they’re not impacted by school holidays and provide more opportunities to teach lead and rock guitar. Anyone wanting me as a teacher can PM me through the Guitar Noise website, phone me on my mobile (the number is on the Rollmop Music website (www.rollmopmusic.co.uk)), or they can e-mail me at alan@rollmopmusic.co.uk and we’ll talk days and times.

GN: In addition to teaching you’re also a performer, both solo and as a member of the Cambridge Guitar Orchestra. Are you planning on continuing to perform? Any concerts in the works that you’d like to mention?

ALAN: Absolutely. Performance is the life blood of what we do, and although I do know of guitarists who are happy to play at rehearsal but don’t like playing gigs much, I think they need their heads tested for thinking like that. Still it takes all sorts to make a world.

The Musical Director at Cambridge Guitar Orchestra is one Peter Rueffer, a member of the Pro Arte Trio and professional musician himself. He arranges all our music himself, including some works by Pat Metheny as well as Grieg and Stravinsky, and I’ve learned a lot from working with him. Ensemble playing is definitely one of those things where the sum is greater than the parts and if you looked at the parts I get to play with Cambridge, which is all single-line stuff, then listen to the final result you’d be amazed at how it sounds. It’s pretty good for your sight-reading abilities too.

Not only that, but also, I play for the Essex Guitar Orchestra under the Musical Directorship of Melvyn Willin, a hugely qualified chap with two PhDs. Melvyn has studied under David Russell (famous Classical Guitarist), argued with John Williams (very famous Classical Guitarist) and has perfect pitch (don’t you just hate some people). The Essex Guitar Orchestra are now in their 33rd year, and they’ve played in Australia, India and Hungary amongst other places, and done some TV work. Melvyn arranges all our stuff himself too, but he arranges pop songs as well as the highbrow classical stuff and there’s definitely a more anarchic feel to working with him as well as a huge learning experience. I get to play Guitar 1 on a lot of Melvyn’s arrangements, including 16th note rasgueados in Boccerini’s Introduction and Fandango (check this piece out on Youtube – there’s a good version there by a trio – and turn the volume up), and what the audience get to hear is incredible.

I did a bunch of lunchtime Classical Guitar concerts as a soloist at the pub in the village earlier this year, and I’ve had a chat with the landlady about getting my residency back. She’s keen to get it going again too, even more so when I told her I’d got some new material.

And, finally, I’m talking to the wedding venues and hotels round my way about providing music for weddings, parties and corporate events to expand my solo performance diary. Fingers crossed.

There are some concerts pencilled in for later in the year with the orchestras. I’ll announce details closer to the time (once they’re firmed up)

GN: Those who’ve been around Guitar Noise a while might also be aware that you’re quite a writer as well. You recently had a piece published back in May by Here Is The City and your contributions to the Sunday Songwriters’ Group have always been inspirational. Are you planning to keep up with your writing as you take on more and more students?

ALAN: I think it’s natural that if you enjoy listening to music, and the plethora of MTV-type channels on TV suggest that more and more of us do, sooner or later you’re going to think “Well, surely I could do that.” If you take a listen to what’s selling in the Pop charts, you might even think “Well, listening to that, it can’t be that difficult.” Everybody has something to say about most things, and just needs a way of getting it out there. From there, it’s only a small step to grabbing a pencil and paper and getting it written down. Most of us have bad experiences of poetry from school, but all of a sudden we’re thinking about rhyming patterns and how to fit what we want to say into a verse-length structure without running out of breath.

Any number of frustrated writers will sit there and say “Oh, I couldn’t possibly write anything that anybody else would like” and that’s simply not true. Luckily, we’re all different, which is why Slipknot appeal to one audience and Girls Aloud to another and why we have so many different musical styles on the planet – you’ve really got to go some to write something that nobody likes.

So, you’ve got some lyrics, a couple of verses and a chorus maybe – that makes you a poet. Put a guitar in your hands, learn a few basic chords, and that makes you an artist, which is probably where so many people run into a roadblock, back at the “Oh, I couldn’t possibly write anything that anybody else would like because it would be such a simple song and songs need to have a complicated structure” argument. I find most people who say that sort of thing have been told at some stage in their lives, by someone important to them, “That’s rubbish” about something that they’ve done, and it’s stuck.

I can’t sing for toffee, but that doesn’t stop me inflicting my songs on the neighbours and as soon as I get a rush of inspiration from one of Vic’s Sunday Songwriters’ themes or something in the newspapers I’ll be scribbling again.

The article on “Here Is The City” (which is an anarchic news site in London aimed at the Capital Markets/ Investment Banking community) was prompted by reading someone else writing about their experience of losing their job in the current downturn. I commented on the story, saying that I’d gone round the pub and played my guitar, and the editors asked me to write about it and published it. A few friends in Investment Banking recognised my writing style even though it was edited down by a few lines, which was nice. I don’t get to write like that very often; maybe I should blog more.

So, bring on inspiration; I definitely plan to continue writing songs and my students get the same advice.

GN: People are likely to ask how you’ve managed to keep music such an important part of your life. What advice would you give them?

ALAN: Music is the most powerful of all the arts, with the ability to lift or carry a mood and existing only in the time and space during which it is performed, which you don’t get from standing in the Louvre among all the tourists gazing at the Mona Lisa. I’m sure we’ve all been transported somewhere back in time in our minds by hearing a particular song on the radio, and all the important occasions in our lives involve some kind of song – weddings, christenings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, the chant summoning the faithful to prayer, your team winning at football, and even funerals are all distinguished by having musical content.

Unlike painting or sculpture, music is solely an aural experience (although liner notes try to add a visual aspect) and that makes everybody’s experience individual and subsequent experiences different to the first because the circumstances under which we listen again will have changed – minute differences in the timing, a fluffed note or lyric during a live performance for example, or the difference between sunshine and rain outside when playing a CD. A painting will always be the same painting, likewise a statue, but a musical performance will always be a different work of art every time it is performed or played; and I don’t want to miss that.

GN: Finally, any advice for the person wondering whether or not he or she should take up the guitar?

ALAN: What would I say? I’d say grab the opportunity with both hands and dedicate a good amount of time to it. If you decide later that it’s really not for you, then you will have learned a bunch of skills and disciplines that you can transfer to another musical instrument, or might even help you in your working or academic life. It’s really sad to think that we might have missed out on the natural successor to Jimi Hendrix or Andres Segovia because somebody thought about playing the guitar but thought they might not be any good.

The Beatles

David Hodge — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:19:55 +0000

It’s very easy to forget that we’re talking thirteen albums, more than half of which were recording in the span of four years. Or that Sgt. Pepper’s involved almost seven hundred hours of studio recording time. Or that everything was done on four-track recording equipment.

It’s easy to get into the personalities – to be a John person or a George or a Ringo or a Paul. Or to take the incredibly easy way out and dump everything on Yoko.

You can be an “early fan,” or you can prefer the late studio work. You can think the second side of Abbey Road is the pinnacle of recorded music or you can marvel at how the simple “B” side of another single, “Rain,” (1966, flip side of “Paperback Writer”) is probably one of the greatest songs ever written.

You can hear the influences, from Chuck Berry (whom they covered extensively in the early years) to Carl Perkins to Buddy Holly to, of course, Elvis, whom Lennon would cite as a huge influence. And you can hear all the bands and artists that they influenced in turn, from the Byrds to XTC to Oasis. You can listen to their peers and contemporaries, Dylan, Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and the Kinks, and hear how they all listened to each other and learned and made each other better performers, better songwriters, better studio artists.

The story, as stories go, is well known. John starts up a skiffle band, the Quarrymen, John meets Paul, Paul invites George, everyone is learning as they go and in 1960, now calling themselves the Beatles, they embark on the Hamburg circuit, playing at twenty-four hour strip clubs that used ‘round the clock live music to draw in passers-by.

For the next two years, the lads developed a big following, both in Hamburg and in their home base of Liverpool. In 1962 they signed with Brian Epstein who got them signed with EMI and put them together with producer George Martin, who in turn replaced drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr. By the end of that year they recorded “Please Please Me,” which reached Number 2 on the British charts.

1963 saw the group performing throughout England, saw their audiences becoming more and more fanatic (to the point where Parliament debated whether it was smart to risk so many police officers in crowd control duties), saw the hurried release of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in America, where the fever of Beatlemania continued in the same manner.

1964? Well, in the first week of April that year, the Beatles had twelve songs in the Billboard Top 100, including the top five spots. In 1965 the group held what may have been the first ever “stadium concert,” playing before 55,600 people in Shea Stadium in New York and using what we’d call “quaint” Vox guitar amplifiers. Whenever they weren’t touring, they were recording at a furious pace in the studio. Rubber Soul, released in early December for the Christmas holiday market, was recorded in four weeks’ time.

In 1966 the Beatles stopped touring, stopped playing live and concentrated instead on recording in the studio. They played their final concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, in August, the same month they released Revolver. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band followed in June, 1967.

Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose in August that same year.

Virtually all of 1968 was spent on what people call “The White Album” (officially released as The Beatles), released in November. Tensions and personality conflicts plagued the band as well as their studio personnel (Geoff Emerick, who engineered many Beatles’ sessions, walked off in July, claiming he could no longer work with them).

In 1969, they filmed and recorded Let It Be and recorded Abbey Road as well. The last time all four of them were together in the same studio was the session for “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” in August of that year. The last song recorded by the Beatles was Harrison’s “I Me Mine” on January 3, 1970.

Each of the Beatles enjoyed success as a solo artist. John Lennon died in December 1980. George Harrison passed away twenty-one years later. And writing that out, it seems like a mistake. Was it that long a time between? The dates don’t lie.

Today, some forty years after the Beatles’ disunion, people may listen to them, as avid fans as those were back in Liverpool and Hamburg. Some may not. But, at least for now, it’s close to impossible to hear any music that hasn’t been touched in some way by their influence.

Peace

Easy Songs for Beginners

You’ll learn the basics of Nowhere Man so quickly that I had to throw in a lot of fun and challenging stuff. Let’s put your chord melody training to good use and create an instrumental to include in this easy arrangement. Plus, pick up some new chords and a bit of theory while you’re at it!

With Eleanor Rigby we have a back to basics lesson, taking a simple, two-chord song and focusing on changing chords and strumming. You’ll also get a practical introduction to slash chords and, if you still need more to learn, there are a couple of fun and easy riffs for you to add.

Just when you thought we were done with walking bass lines, along comes another song where they play an important musical role! Learning The Beatles’ Help!, we’ll take a look at getting started on barre chords (and also look at making substitutions for them to cut us some slack!) and learn a cool little guitar riff.

Songs for Intermediates

Paul McCartney’s Blackbird is a good song for the solo guitarist to show off. It is also a excellent song to exercise and practice finger stretching.

Our version the Beatles classic Yesterday is based on the original and adds a few new things to make it more suitable for a solo guitar performance.

Here’s a wonderful arrangement of this beautiful and haunting song, Julia, from the pen of John Lennon. While we won’t be using the straight-from-the-record Travis picking style, we will more than make up for it by using many aspects of chord melody playing to make this both easier and challenging at the same time.

Other Lessons

John Lennon’s Imagine is usually thought of as a piano song. We’re going to do a thoughtful arrangement for the solo guitarist.

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) is a John Lennon song that can show us a few interesting things about using guitar chords. We’ll work on the strumming and put together a bassline for solo guitar.

Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes – Easy Songs for Beginners #41

David Hodge — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:30:38 +0000

Sometimes we just hear things and play them. Someone plays a chord or strums a rhythm and we just follow along. And someone who has just picked up the guitar will ask how you did that and you don’t really have an answer for them other than “I just do it.”

It should be easy to understand that, for a beginner (not to mention for a teacher), “I just do it” is more than mildly frustrating. How does one go about learning if one can’t get instruction?

The purpose of this lesson, a look at Seven Nation Army, from the White Stripes 2003 major label debut album, Elephant, is twofold – first we want to look at the interesting rhythmic pattern that serves as the song’s signature hook. We’re also going to take the song apart as we normally do in these lessons, but for the purpose of latter creating a single acoustic guitar arrangement of this song. That will be in an upcoming lesson. Today, we’re all electric!

So let’s get through this part and move on:

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Structurally, Seven Nation Army is about as simple as song come. There are three verses, four if you count the guitar solo between the second and third verse as verse. These verses are essentially made up of two parts, one that repeats itself over and over even though it may be played by just the bass guitar at some points and by a dense, multi-layered recording of guitars the next. This part also serves as the introduction, the outro and as a musical interlude between the verses. There is also a second two-measure pattern that “formally” ends each verse and also pops up during the solo and at the end of the interlude between the first and second verse.

It’s this first part that contains the interesting rhythm we want to look at and analyze. Here is the bass guitar part, a line of single notes, which I’ve written out for guitar:

The first two notes, the E notes located at the second fret of the D string, are harmless enough. The first is a dotted quarter note and lasts for a beat and a half in length, while the second is an eighth note and is a half beat in length. And this would probably be a great place to point out that while I’ve written out to play these notes at the second fret of the D string, you can also play them elsewhere on the neck of your guitar, such as the seventh fret of the A string or the twelfth fret of the low E (sixth) string, if you prefer.

I thought it would be good to have them all within easy fingering of one another.

The last three notes, at first glance, are quarter notes, which would be problematic in that we would be looking at a total of five beats in the first measure, a measure that is clearly marked in “4/4″ time so it should have only four beats in it. Looking closer, though, you should see a little bracket over these three quarter notes and a number “3″ imbedded in that bracket. This indicates that these three notes make up a quarter note triplet, which means that these three notes are supposed to be evenly spread out among these last two beats of the measure.

That may sound simple enough (although I’m certain to many of you it doesn’t sound simple in the least), but how do we go about making this happen? Counting out a triplet over two beats isn’t at all easy, even for seasoned players. So we’re going to “cheat” for a moment and make it simpler to count by pretending the song was written in 2/4 time, like this:

To do this, we’re cutting all the note values in half – half notes become quarter notes, quarter notes become eighth notes and eighth notes become sixteenth notes. A triplet over two beats will become a triplet over a single beat.

The purpose for doing this is to make it easier to count and to get the rhythm into your head. Most people count sixteenth notes like this: “One, ee, and, ah, two, ee, and, ah…” and triplets are counted “one and ah two and ah…” So we’re going to combine these two and make this measure of two beats go “One, ee, and, ah, two and ah.”

The most important part of this is to make the triplet a triplet, spreading the three notes evenly across the beat, and not turning it into a set of three sixteenth notes with a sixteenth note rest attached. If you’ve listened to the first third of Guitar Noise Podcast 3, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

You can help yourself here by tapping out the beats with your foot, slow and steady. When you are comfortable, pick a four syllable word and say it evenly across the beat. “Alligator” works nicely if you’re stuck for one! Say that for a few beats and then start saying a three syllable word (“elephant” might be appropriate, given the song in question), again making sure that the three syllables are evenly spaced in the beat.

When you’re good with the counting, you can put it all back together, first in 2/4 and then back in 4/4, as done in this example:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

You’ll notice that when going back to 4/4 timing, I draw out the triplet on the third beat when counting it aloud. It’s not at all easy to count out even beats while playing quarter note triplets, so I think you may find this method a little easier. And, since this rhythm figure is very much the heartbeat of Seven Nation Army, it goes without saying that you want to work it into your head and fingers so that you can play it effortlessly. Don’t skimp on the practice and, whatever way you choose to count out the beats and rhythms, don’t be shy about counting out loud. It can, and does, help quite a bit.

And once you’re good with this snippet of rhythm, the rest of the song is going to be a breeze! The second part, which we’ll conveniently call “Example 2,” is two measures of power chords (G5 and A5) played in straight eighth notes, like this:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

There are, of course, many ways to play this. On the original recording, there are at least two different guitars playing the part, one using two string power chords and one using two-string power chords for the G5 and then switching to the open position A chord (the A chord shown in the “Alternate” example here). In these examples, I’m using three-string power chords instead of two-string power chords simply because I like the fuller sound. After all, I’m using one guitar instead of overdubbing a second one. You should try out different variations of these chords and see which you like best.

The next section of Seven Nation Army is actually a repeat of the first section, only it’s fleshed out with full chords, using the single note bass line as the root notes for the chords. Again, on the original recording there are at least two different guitar parts. One guitar plays Root 5 position three-string power chords, like this (this example isn’t played in the MP3 files, by the way):

In case you don’t know what “Root 5 Power Chords” or simply what “Power Chords” are, you can address that by taking a quick look at two of our lessons here at Guitar Noise. The first, The Power of Three, shows you how the four basic types of chords (major, minor, augmented and diminished) are formed. The second, Building Additions (and Suspensions) goes on to detail the creation of other chords, with power chords being the first example in the lesson.

“Root 5″ power chords are simply power chords whose root note is played on the fifth (A) string. And you can see that all the power chords in this example have their root note on the A string.

There is another guitar playing full major chords on the D, G and B strings. This guitar is also being played with a slide. I decided not to use a slide for the MP3 in order to keep things simple:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Hopefully, one of the reasons for using the open position A chord in Example 2 becomes clear here. Your fingers are already in this shape and now you can just slide them up and down the neck of your guitar at will. If you’re careful about your strumming and can avoiding hitting the first (high E string), then you can use a single finger to barre across the second fret for the open position A and then be about your merry way for Example 3.

Another thing to point out here is that in the original recording, the slide guitar uses a single quarter note of the final B chord (which I have here as a half note) and follows that up with a quarter note of A (X0222X). Either way works fine.

When you’re comfortable moving around on Example 3, the only thing left to do is to be able to switch between the sections, from Example 1 to Example 2 to Example 3 and then back again from Example 3 to Example 2 to Example 1, as demonstrated in this MP3:

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

That’s essential the whole song, once you put it all together. Feeling very much at ease with this particular rhythm is going to be essential if you’re going to sing and play it at the same time, so be sure to practice it as much as you may have to. Then practice it even more!

Here’s a lay out of how the song goes:

As I mentioned, there is a guitar solo between the second and third verses. It’s done on slide, but can be easily done without it as well and still sound okay. Well, you might want to make a few alterations and we’ll discuss that in a moment.

The solo itself is fairly simple, using just single notes taken, for the most part, from the E minor pentatonic scale in the following positions:

I’ve taken the liberty of adding the two notes taken from outside of the Em pentatonic scale (C at the thirteenth fret of the B string and F# at the fourteenth fret of the high E (first) string) in parenthesis so that you can add them to your practice warm up of the scale.

The solo is played over four repetitions of “Example 3″ and ends by going back to “Example 2.” Since you’re up that high on the neck for the solo, you’ll probably find it easier to play the G5 in the same three-string manner that the slide guitar uses, that is laying your finger across the twelfth fret (X X 12 12 12 X) and playing just the D, G and B strings, as indicated. For the A5, just slide it up two frets (X X 14 14 14 X).

Okay, then, here’s the solo. You will note that there are three places in the first half (the first eight measures) where there’s a double stop on the seventh fret of the D and A strings. These notes are A and E, respectively, so you’re basically playing an inversion of A5 in the solo while the rhythm is playing an E chord. It will sound slightly dissonant. That’s what goes on in the original recording, most probably from using the slide.

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

Also, this is not exactly “note for note,” but it’s certainly close enough for anyone but the nittiest of nitpickers.

Anyway, I also hope that you had fun with this song. We’ll be coming back to it later this fall and examining how to turn it into a single acoustic guitar arrangement. That should prove fairly interesting, no?

As always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Next Video in Series from Jamie Andreas

David Hodge — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:47:01 +0000

Here is the third and final part of Jamie Andreas’ wonderful video lessons on the Guitar Noise arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” This time out, Jamie guides you through the bridge section of the song, providing detailed step-by-step instruction on how to move effortlessly from one fingering position to the next. By applying many of her Guitar Principles, taken directly from her teachings and her website (Guitar Principles), she helps make the playing of this arrangement quite a bit easier than just going at it alone.

We at Guitar Noise can’t thank Jamie enough for taking time out of her busy schedule to create these lessons for us. So please take a moment of your time to send her an email and say thanks, too!

Flashback # 7 – “Wild World”

David Hodge — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:36:51 +0000

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. Thinking back, it may actually have been my second or third look, but it’s hard to remember accurately. All I knew was that all sorts of things were going on and life was a bit of a roller coaster.

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, but I suppose that could just be me making a typical use of hindsight.

Whatever the reason, or lack of reason, it still makes a good lesson!

Wild World -Easy Songs for Beginners #23

We’re going to hit the ground running here. This may be the most involved beginners’ song that we’ve done yet but don’t let that deter you! While the focus of this lesson is on switching chords smoothly, you’ll also learn some cool flourishes and riffs and strumming patterns and even find a good practical use for that pesky C major scale!