Guitar Noise » Nick Torres

Easy Roll Guitar Method by George Pittaway

Nick Torres — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:09:50 +0000

You should know two things about me:

I’m a sucker for a great bargain.
I don’t play flashy, fast stuff.

Well, you can pretty much scratch number two off the list.

I was scrolling through the forum pages on guitarnoise, when I came across a post from Al (“allman1979″), asking about George Pittaway’s “Easy Roll Guitar Method.” I was told the trailers on the website were humorous, and lo and behold, they were. And $15? Really? For a DVD by the guitarist from 4 out of 5 doctors, the nationally touring and signed to a label George Pittaway? Puh-lease…see number one above. I plunked down my cash and anxiously awaited the arrival of the DVD.

So what is this Easy Roll method? Well, it’s based on hybrid picking with what George calls “engines”. These three, count ‘em three, simple patterns will allow you to play with speed all over the neck. You can use a flatpick and fingers, thumbpick and fingers or just fingers. George is right! It is easy to get the rolls going. Heck, some of the patterns play with only one finger of your left hand. In fact, the first pattern George shows uses only one finger, and only one fret. As George says on his website, if you can drum your fingers on the table, you can do this. There is a lot more content than just that on the DVD though, it will take a while for you to get through it all. It’s an incredible value.

You can learn a lot of stuff from the internet or reading a guitar book, but you miss out on the little snippets of expertise you’d get from sitting around with an experienced player or teacher. George manages to get this information through to you in this DVD.

When you get your DVD, don’t be intimidated by the beginning section. It’s a showcase of what you can do. It takes several minutes before you get into the actual instruction section. George teaches in an easy to understand, light and humorous way that makes watching the DVD enjoyable as you learn.

If there is any drawback to Easy Roll it is this, there is so much information packed into the DVD that you will spend a tremendous amount of time rewinding to go over what you just saw. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

George also includes more video, FAQ and additional information on his website. You can take a look at the word by word content, (and more) of the DVD in George’s DVD Companion freely available on his website under the “Get DVD” tab.

This DVD is an incredible bargain at $15. Go take and look at the videos on his site and buy it. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in hybrid picking and opening up their soloing. This DVD is for the advanced beginner and beyond.

Website: www.ezrollguitar.com

The Rosetta Stone of Guitar

Nick Torres — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:42:13 +0000

Wow! Eureka! I understand!

It isn’t often that I get so excited about a guitar book/DVD. This review of The Rosetta Stone of Guitar by Fred Pool took me longer to write than any other review ever. It took me hours to craft just a few paragraphs. Why? I got so lost in practicing what I just read that I forget that I was reviewing it. Suddenly the fretboard was deciphered. It all made sense. It was like someone had given me, well, uhh, a Rosetta Stone of Guitar. Have you ever wondered why all those fretboard patterns are there? Have you wondered why the shapes you are supposed to memorize make sense? Have you ever wanted to just be able to land anywhere on the fretboard and play? Don’t you wish someone could translate the thing for you? How about a really easy set of patterns to use? Well look no further, The Rosetta Stone of Guitar is here. After reading this book and watching the DVD, the way the fretboard is laid out became so, so…obvious, almost simple. I see it. Why didn’t I think of this myself?

Now look, you aren’t just going to have a quiet read by the fireside and suddenly be a guitar virtuoso. You still are going to have to practice. And I’ll tell you the truth, I had to read some sections twice before I understood the simplicity. It was almost like my brain refused to see it because it was that simple. But stick with it, take your time, read the sections a couple of times and put your fingers on the fretboard to practice. You will be amazed at how much you’ve learned in such a short time.

I wish I had this book and DVD years ago. Yes there are other books out there with scale patterns, and yes you can use this book to solo up and down the neck almost immediately. Keep in mind though, The Rosetta Stone of Guitar isn’t about learning to solo, it’s about learning to see. Once you can see the fretboard you’ll never be lost again.

The DVD is very professionally put together, easy to navigate and full of information. You can print the book out directly from the DVD. I recommend you do this up front.

The Rosetta Stone of Guitar is on my must have list. All of my students are getting a copy.

For a limited time, guitarnoise readers can get a 25% discount on this wonderful DVD and printable book. Hey…that’s $10 off, enough to buy two Triple Venti White Mochas, (with whip), to keep you up all night while you fiendishly work your way through the examples.

Click here to get the special discount price.

You’ll need the following login information to get the special pricing:

username: guitarnoise
password: approved

You can thank me later. No really, go buy this now.

The Guitar Lesson Companion by Susan Palmer

Nick Torres — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:40:33 +0000

On the surface Susan Palmer’s The Guitar Lesson Companion seems to be a throwback to the Method books of old. You know the ones, “this is the sixth string, this note is E, it’s played like this, here is what it looks like on the musical staff.” And as a reward you learn to play “She’ll be coming round the mountain” Ah, but to dismiss this gem of a book as that beginning guitarist’s nightmare would be foolish. This book is more of a hybrid of lesson companion, instruction manual and method book.

This book is presented as a method book to guide teachers and students on a logical path through the learning process. The Guitar Lesson Companion isn’t really a book for beginners to use on their own; the material needs to be supplemented with direction and exercises from a teacher. But what if you don’t have a teacher? Well the book does come with a CD with tracks to supplement your learning experience, but here’s an extraordinary value for you, Susan has put together a companion website for the book with video lessons that match the book. Videos are no substitute for a teacher, but these videos with Susan, who has been teaching guitar in Seattle, Washington for 10 years, are a close second. If you are looking for a method book to teach yourself to read and understand music, look no further.

Be aware that the book is written in standard notation and if you have no intent of learning standard notation you won’t find much use for the book.

Who is it for?

Teachers who want a thorough method book for their students.
Students who want to learn standard notation
Students who want their current teacher to take a more methodical approach to their lessons

Who isn’t it for?

Tab readers who are happy with tab

What’s in the book?

Standard Notation
Major Scale Theory
Reading studies
Chord Changing exercises/Barre Chords/Jazzy Barre Chords/ Chord Formulas
CAGED

You can check out the video lessons and buy the book from www.leadcatpress.com

It’s a well thought out book, easy to use with the CD and an excellent value with the videos.

PlaneTalk by Kirk Lorange

Nick Torres — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:35:39 +0000

How to Play Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped-D Tunings by Kirk Lorange

You may know Kirk as a regular on these forums and a frequent contributor of wonderful video lessons to this and other sites. Kirk also has several of his own sites/forums and is also author of the amazing PlaneTalk book.

This is a great DVD for beginner slide players, or for those who are trying to move from the more common open tuning to Dropped D or standard. Although standard tuning requires a slightly different approach to slide, the advantage for us non-sliders is you don’t need to relearn the positions and what you already know about the fretboard.

After explaining some of the basics, such as the different types of slides, action and muting, Kirk goes through what he calls “String Sets” or where you can find portions of chords on which strings. While he’s showing you this he uses a fantastic three-way split screen method that displays slide placement, the left hand and the right hand all at the same time.

Playing a couple of Kirk’s own tunes, you can see how all of the information you’ve gone through can be put to use in a practical manner. The example tunes are played both full and half speed so you can catch what Kirk is doing.

In addition to all of this, Kirk makes tab for all of the lessons and examples online at www.bottleneckguitar.com.

Kirk’s lessons are phenomenal. His easy going manner and camera persona make these DVDs just like having a personal lesson, albeit one you can pause and rewind at will. The video itself is very high quality as is the sound.

You couldn’t possibly get all of the information contained in this DVD in three months worth of lessons. How much would you have to pay an instructor for that?

To sum up “How to play Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped-D Tunings” has great production, great content, a great teacher, and amazing value.

Kirk Lorange : PlainTalk – The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction DVD

Just in case you are reading this review without seeing any of my other reviews of Kirk’s teaching products, let me start by saying I’m a big fan of Kirk’s stuff. He’s easy going, teaches to you directly and has high standards for his productions. Just to show you how far he’ll go to teach he plays the guitar on his knees at a right angle to normal just to get the right angle for demonstration.

The DVD covers much of the material offered in PlaneTalk, Kirk’s terrific tutorial book, but not all. It’s a visual and audible presentation of the information, which is great for us visual learners. Seeing and hearing what Kirk teaches in PlaneTalk is a powerful reinforcement to the concepts learned from that book.

The DVD begins with the mess of chromatic notes that is the guitar fingerboard and sifts all the notes out into three easily identifiable patterns. These patterns are not only so much simpler than what one learns from the CAGED system, they are much more practical as well. One of the problems with CAGED is that people tend to stick to the pattern or two they’ve memorized and stay within those boxes. Kirk’s PlainTalk system doesn’t have that limitation. You can play wherever you want to play. Because you have such easy patterns/landmarks to keep track of, you can always get back to where you should be quickly if you ever should get off course.

I love the book PlaneTalk and highly recommend it, but combined with PlainTalk the DVD, it’s a truly powerful learning tool.

During the month of March you can get The PlaneTalk Package – Book, DVD, slide rule plus the Chord Tone Blues CD for $70 plus shipping and handling.

$70? You ask. Is it worth it?

Look, let’s forget about Chord Tone Blues for a moment and just say you get the book and DVD. That’s $35 each. Well that’s how much I pay for a forty-five minute lesson. Let me break out the handy dandy calculator and, yes, that’s the equivalent of two lessons then, isn’t it? It’s an easy decision. The incredible volume of information you get, plus an easy to use system for seeing the fretboard, plus Kirk’s examples and the ability to stop, rewind and replay the lesson, plus…oh never mind. Just get the package, it’s an astounding value.

By the way, just in case you were wondering, I don’t get a cut of the sales. It’s just my honest opinion about a powerful learning tool. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to open up the entire fretboard for soloing, this is a must have.

PlaneTalk by Kirk Lorange

When I die, assuming I might, I want to make sure that one thing does not happen. No not the obvious, that I find out Heaven is a polka only zone. No, I want to make sure that my guitars do not show wear on only the first five frets.

Why? Because I do not want to be known as just a first position player. And as I am sure that it will be impossible to fit all of my guitars into my coffin, someone would be able to find out by looking at the wear on the fretboard of one the guitars that doesn’t make it in. How embarrassing would that be?

I want to be known as the guy who could solo all the way up the neck, who could play inversions in many different positions, the guy who was not limited by his lack of fret board knowledge.

Well, as luck would have it, I no longer have this worry for I’ve found an answer in PlaneTalk by Kirk Lorange.

You may have heard about Kirk’s secret to opening up the fretboard. You may have seen posts asking what it is and the keepers of the secret denying your request for knowledge. Well let me tell you, it is a secret that is beautiful in it’s simplicity.

What does this book do?

It gives you an amazingly simple secret to mentally mapping the fretboard. How simple? It makes CAGED look like brain surgery.

It teaches you basic theory by using diagrams, pictures and a free fretboard slide rule.

It teaches in an amazingly simple fashion.

“Really?” You ask.

What if I told you that most of the book is written as a comic book?

It is a well-written book, and the pictures, contrary to Kirk’s disclaimer are excellent.

As an added bonus there are no exercises and no theory to memorize.

In order to get the most out of this book, I suggest you read it three times. Once breeze through. Second time through, try to grasp the concepts concretely. Third time, try to take what you are learning and work it out on the fretboard. Do this and you’ll be amazed at your sudden understanding. And it’s really easy too. I mean how hard is it to read a comic three times?

If you are beyond the absolute beginner stage, and by that I mean past memorizing the open chords and able to play the basic barre chords, and you want to completely open up the fretboard, not to mention your mind, this book is a must have in your guitar library.

Go buy it. You’ll thank me.

You can get the book here:

http://www.thatllteachyou.com/

Tell him Nick sent you.

Oh and by the way, if you happen to be at the funeral, make sure my Collings and my Breedlove make it into the coffin, would you? Thanks.

Eric Mantel – The Unstruck Melody

Nick Torres — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:23:03 +0000

I’ve got to tell you that on first listen you are struck by what an amazing guitarist Eric Mantel is. There is no doubt that he is master of many genres. Listening to him play is a pure pleasure. If you want to hear a tutorial of how to play everything from subtle to shred, and play them well, go buy this CD. I enjoyed every minute of listening to him play.

But what is the beauty for the guitarist is the beast for me as a CD listener. You just never know where you are about to go. The first track is a harbinger of things to come. You hear somebody scanning up the radio dial hitting different stations with different styles. But is it a concept album? Well, no, it’s the anti-concept album concept album. Don’t get me wrong, the tracks are all done well but they don’t really link together. I think it’s disconcerting to go from Pop to Rock to Blues to Jazz to whatever and back again. I can’t get into a listening groove. Maybe I’m just old but I liked listening to how an album flowed. Now if you are an Ipod random shuffle type of listener this shouldn’t bug you at all. All the songs are great. But what do you know, you young whippersnapper?

Anyway don’t read too much into my love for the lost art of concept albums, it’s a great CD by a great guitarist.

Check him out at:

www.ericmantel.com

Am I too old to make it?

Nick Torres — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:00:50 +0000

To answer your question, if you are twenty-six you have plenty of opportunity to make it. Then again you will always have opportunity to make it.

However, you will need to better define “make it”.

There are many questions you need to ask yourself.

Do you just want to play as your sole means of financial security?

Would you consider teaching? Maybe a part time job too?

The answers to those little questions make a big difference.

Are you willing to treat playing as a job?

It won’t be a hobby anymore. You will need to formalize what you do. You need to put aside certain hours every day for writing music, real practice, band practice, PR, calling people, arranging gigs, collecting past due money, negotiating contracts, writing checks for posters, buttons, shirts, arranging travel, booking hotel rooms, etc.

Are you ready to play when you don’t want to? Don’t feel well? Are tired? Burnt out?

It’s not glamorous. Is that what you mean by make it?

But wait there is more.

Are you talking about the music or the money? If you play great music that is loved by many, but can’t support yourself solely on the proceeds is that success or failure?

See the problem is defining the question. You’ll see this quandary often in business and science and ethics classes and well, everywhere. If you don’t know the question, you won’t know how to get to the answer. A business wants to grow and be profitable. Is acceptable growth 2% or 20%? Is $10,000 of profit the goal or $1,000,000? Is making it living in a small apartment and driving a used car or do you want a big house and a new car? See what I mean?

So let me help you define the question. Don’t call it making it.

Personally I’d call it four things.

What do I love to do?
What am I willing to do to do the thing I love to do?
Where is the balance?
Will I learn to recognize and appreciate what I have when I have it?

Once you know the answers to those four go and do some homework. Get a book from the library on managing a band so you can see what goes on. Talk to people in the business. Do some soul searching.

Then again, maybe you shouldn’t ask me because I have already made it.

I teach and work and play out. Sometimes I play in front of a hundred or so people. That’s a big crowd for me. Sometimes I play in front of ten, a small crowd. I enjoy both equally. I play around campfires, with strangers, with beginners and experts. I play for kids in school and the occasional church service. I met a homeless guy playing on a street corner near where I work. I asked if he minded if I join in. Whenever I find someone to share music with I know I’ve made it.

I enjoy teaching guitar. When I get a student past a hurdle or they master a new song, I know I’ve made it.

I also enjoy my work. My co-workers want to know where I’m playing and they show up and support me. When people show up like that you get all warm and fuzzy and you know you’ve made it.

I have a bunch of the most wonderful and amazing friends. You know I’ve only met them a dozen times, but I think of them as some of my oldest and dearest friends. I play guitar with them a couple of times every year, wherever they are come hell or high water. Playing with these friends is more important to me than playing in front of a stadium full of people. Yep, once again I made it.

I’m a perpetual beginner guitarist. I always will be no matter my level of technical proficiency. Whenever I learn something new I know I’ve made it.

Just about anywhere in the world I could email someone and tell them I’m bringing my guitar and I’d not only have a friend to jam with, but probably a place to stay too. Uh-huh, I made it.

I’ve had a song written about me. I’ve got a musical nickname. I’ve got my picture hanging in a basement in Chicago. I’ve made it baby.

You’ve probably guessed that for me the most important question is the fourth one. Once you’ve got that one you really have made it.

And finally, just in case I got you down, remember this quote (by Dr. Wayne Dyer) from a past newsletter:

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 12 – December 15, 2005

Nick Torres — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:53:20 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #12 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

News and Announcements
New Articles and Lessons
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Notes From Nick
Buried Treasure Of The Internet
Forum Findings
Event Horizon
Reviews
Off Site Sightings and Works In Progress
Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, and I’m certainly not reveling in the misery of others but:

Harmony Central lost almost all of their user’s post counts. Some people with 10,000 posts now have 70.

The unofficial Larrivee forum owner forgot to renew the domain name and the site is currently unreachable.

The official Larrivee home page server was stolen, and they had to recreate things post haste. Currently their email is pretty limited.

I wish the best to the owners, moderators and sysops on these sites. Believe me, we know how you feel.

On to the newsletter…

New Articles And Lessons

Infant Holy Infant Lowly
by Doug Sparling

Doug Sparling graces our pages once again with this beautifully arranged Polish carol, also known as “W Zlobie Lezy” (“Lying in the Manger”). It’s in standard tuning and it’s a delight for the holidays!

Standard Notation (Part 2)
by Tom Serb

In the second installment of Tom’s series on reading notation, you’ll learn about ledger lines, repeat signs and other musical “traffic signals,” as well as delve into accidentals and key signatures. Plus you get an arrangement of “Jingle Bells” to get you going for the holidays!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

We started learning about modes last time. Let’s pick up the trail again, and explore some fundamental questions about modes.

First, we noticed how playing a scale a certain way can be just like expressing the same feeling of a chord. We played the C major scale starting from note A and ending on A, and got the feeling of an Am7 chord.

But how do use modes? When do we use them? And how do we practice them?

You can use modes when you don’t have a playalong partner like a bassist or recording, and you need to hear a certain chord. You’re tired of playing the same old chords, so you do what horn players do: they play arpeggios or play modes.

Here’s an example:

First, the chords:

|-----------|-1----1----|-1----1----|-----------|
|-1----1----|-3----3----|-0----0----|-1----1----|
|-0----0----|-2----2----|-0----0----|-0----0----|
|-2----2----|-0----0----|-----------|-2----2----|
|-3----3----|-----------|-----------|-3----3----|
|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|

Now, the modes to achieve the same basic feeling as the chords. These are all eighth notes, but bars 2 and 4 have eighth note rests on the last eighth note.

 E E E E E E E E   E E E E   E E E E
|-----------------|--------------------|
|-----------------|-3------------------|
|-----------2-4-5-|---4-5--------------|
|-----2-3-5-------|-------5---3-2------|
|-3-5-------------|----------------5---|
|-----------------|--------------------|

 E E E E E E E E   E E E E  E E  E E
|-------------1-5-|-3--------------------|
|---------3-5-----|---5------------------|
|---2-4-5---------|-----5-4--------------|
|-5---------------|----------5-----------|
|-----------------|------------5--3------|
|-----------------|----------------------|

To hear more clearly how these modes work, play the chord associated with each measure, both before and after you play the measure. Example, play the C major chord before and after bar 1.

Thanks for reading.

For those of you who might like to know more about Darrin, let me direct you to his website, Maximum Musician and also to his page here at Guitar Noise.

Once again, let me thank Mr. Koltow for his continued presence on the Internet. Darrin helped inspire many to contribute their knowledge online and I know that many of the readers of Guitar Noise appreciate his efforts.

Buried Treasure Of The Internet

Here are a few random lesson sites culled from my favorites list.

A bit of theory:

http://www.jazclass.aust.com/scales/scamaj.htm#01

Cool Celtic tab site:

Forum Findings

Here is the topic for this week’s Sunday Songwriters:

From Bob:

This week has tended to revolve around numbers. I’ve been dealing with quotes, profit margins, sales figures and all the usual kind of business malarkey that I usually try to avoid. Numbers are going toour inspiration this week’s assignment. I’d like you to write a song in your preferred style which uses numbers.

Some examples of what I mean, to avoid confusion,

If I had a million dollars – Barenaked Ladies
One – U2
Car 67 – Driver 67 (I think)
99 Red Balloons – Nena

You’ll get the idea

Good writing

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 July (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth.

If you’ve already got a show in January, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

Reviews

Reviews go up almost all the time here at Guitar Noise. But we also know that what we post is, pardon the cliché, the very tip of the iceberg. If you’d like to pass along a review of an album, concert, DVD (tutorial, concert or otherwise), book or even a guitar or guitar/music product, feel free to drop me a line and try to put “proposed review” in the subject.

For those of you who are always thinking about “giving back to the community,” this is certainly a fine way to do so.

King Crimson – 21st Century Guide To King Crimson Volume 2
Review by: Jimmy Caterine

21st Century Guide To King Crimson – Volume 2 is an amazingly brilliant, flawless compilation of the last 25 years of this avant-garde wall of sound, featuring extraordinary musicians with uncanny artistic ability, known as King Crimson.

Niacin : Organik
Review by: Pete Crane

Organik is the latest release from the virtuoso jazz-rock trio NIACIN, featuring the legendary bassist Billy Sheehan, with John Novello on keyboards and Dennis Chambers on drums.

Indukti : S.U.S.A.R.
Review by: Pete Crane

Indukti is like taking a trip around the world. It’s a rich wealth of sounds and textures flying at you from every direction. Nice and heavy with plenty of crunch. But it has so much more to offer than just that.

Random Thoughts

Well, here I am at the end of the newsletter again.

This week I played at my office party. What a cool experience. I came in second in the “Idol” style competition and won myself $500 and anywhere in the USA round trip airfare for two.

David helped me with my arrangement of “I’ll be around” and it was a great success.

From what I hear David is pounding away at his book, but soon to be back here writing newsletters. There may be one more letter’s worth of suffering with me, but he’ll be back soon.

Words of wisdom: If you are carting stuff back and forth and think your guitar will balance on the cart you have to wheel across some brick sidewalk and a curb….don’t do it. Slow down. Make the extra trip and carry it. It didn’t happen to me but to some guy playing in the same hotel and it almost made me physically ill. Silly thing to say isn’t that. Hmm, I guess it could’ve made me mentally ill. Glad I clarified it for you.

At the party as I was up at the mic getting ready to play in my mojo hat and sunglasses when I realized I was almost completely blind. I paused a moment and said to the audience in my ultra cool mojo voice: “I can’t see a damn thing”, which cracked everyone in the audience up. Anyway, It’s better to look good than to see good.

And finally, and I’m quoting myself here, two things for you to think about:

I was stuck on an elevator this past week for a couple of minutes. I turned to the guy standing across the elevator and said:

“It’s just God’s way of telling us to stop and smell the elevator.”

Get it? Stop and smell the roses? But we were on an elevator. Oh, never mind.

I think the guy was really happy when the elevator started moving again.

And…

In talking about the internet and the ready access to almost unlimited information of questionable worth:

“The ability to cut and paste has usurped the desire to stop and think.”

So take the time to enjoy yourself as we rush headlong into the New Year. And where ever you are, stop and sniff. Enjoy.

Peace and play well.

Nick

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 11 – December 01, 2005

Nick Torres — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 12:39:46 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #11 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

News and Announcements
New Articles and Lessons
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Buried Treasure Of The Internet
Forum Findings
Event Horizon
Reviews
Off Site Sightings and Works In Progress
Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

Unbelievable, another year over already.

I know I have another newsletter to go, but I wanted to try something a bit different. We had so many disasters and unpleasant things happening this past year it seems like it’s almost a good year to forget. But you know in the Ying and Yang of things a lot of good things happened this past year too.

So here is your assignment, (should you decide to accept it); email me what you think were the best parts of last year as it pertains to you musically.

Did you reach any milestones? Play out for the first time? Get some new gear? Meet new people? Learn a song you only dreamed you’d ever play?

Do you want to pay tribute to a musician who passed last year? Send it to me.

How about best post or funniest post on the forum? What was your favorite article?

Surprise me.

Send your emails to me at nick@guitarnoise.com and I’ll publish the best next week in the newsletter.

New Articles And Lessons

The Huron Carol
By Doug Sparling

This lovely fingerstyle Christmas carol comes to us from Canada, where it’s still sung in churches at holiday time. Doug gives us a little history on The Huron Carol and then walks us through this terrific arrangement, done in open G minor tuning.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Exploring Chords

Without harmony, there is no music.

The more you understand harmony and chords, the better your playing will sound. Understanding chords makes learning tunes, melodies, improvising and licks much easier. How do we get this understanding? Exploring, playing and tinkering with chords. Just reading about chords won’t do it. Plus, how much fun is reading compared to playing?

Here are some practical facts about chords. Search on MaximumMusician.com, other web sites, in music instruction books — not just those for guitar — and your guitar teacher to learn more about each of these.

The V7-I progression
This is one of the strongest and most common chord progressions. Play G7 to C and you’ll hear how musical it is. Learning just this one simple progression in several keys and with different patterns on the fretboard launches you toward a mastery of music.

The “sweet note”
The “sweet note” of a chord is its third. It makes a chord basically happy (major) or sad (minor). Changing just one chord’s sweet note can affect the whole mood of a tune. Master your mood by studying all notes of the chord, especially the third. You can start by strumming your favorite tune, and singing the third of each chord, instead of the song’s usual melody.

The forbidden interval
The tritone interval sounds so unstable, it was banned from being played in the Middle Ages. In the G7 chord, the tritone is formed by the notes B and F. Study this vital part of the music you enjoy and play.

Strongest interval
What do Amazing Grace and the beginning of the theme to Star Wars have in common? The interval of a fourth. The strongest chord progressions, including the V-I, also use it. When you understand and use it, your playing grows stronger. Examples: notes G to C, F to F and A to D. If you know the Cycle of Fourths, you know all movements by a perfect fourth.

Roman numerals
Roman numerals are used frequently in lessons on chords and harmony. Without understanding how they’re used, you won’t understand lessons that contain them. Here are the chords that Roman numerals represent in the key of C major:

Key centers
Key centers are the “home base” for a section of music. Each key center is a central tone that other tones are drawn to. The ii-V-I progression (Dm-G7-C, for example) fully creates a new key center. Once you grasp this idea, you learn new songs fast, because they are no longer collections of isolated chords, but a flowing network of key centers.

Chords from thirds
Most chords are built from notes in a certain way — in thirds, which give the chord a defined sound and clear feeling. By exploring this topic, your fingers will begin to automatically choose fewer wrong chords and more of the right ones.

Practicing in several keys
Practicing any lick, chord or other musical fragment in just one key enslaves your mind, fingers and ears to that key. Free yourself by practicing in other keys. On guitar, a good way to start this project is to learn the I-IV-V chords in the keys of C, F, G, A, E, and D.

Arpeggios
Melodies would not exist without arpeggios, which are the notes in a chord. Studying arpeggios is an easy way to sound musical.

Solos
Sweet solos are often built heavily on chord tones. Improve your solos by studying chord tones.

Connect arpeggio and chord patterns
Learning the fretboard is much easier when you see connections among patterns for arpeggios and chords. One approach to seeing these connections is to study basic Chord Melody playing. This means you’re playing the complete song, both chords and the melody.

Simplify chord names
Some chords look strange and difficult on paper. But learning a song from notation becomes easy when you realize that “C6/9″ is really just a C major chord. Also, when you see a Cm9, Cm11 or Cm6, you can replace the chord with a plain Cm7 or Cm. Learn how to simplify other chord names.

Much success in your further exploration of guitar chords.

For those of you who might like to know more about Darrin, let me direct you to his website, Maximum Musician and also to his page here at Guitar Noise.

Buried Treasure Of The Internet

All right, I’m going to cheat here and direct you to one page with a couple of marvelous things to listen to:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5032223

I want you to listen to two, Susan Tedeschi who has a new album out “Hope and Desire” and one that sounds like I wrote the title “Hearing Voices: My Guitar is better than Prozac.”

Susan Tedeschi has the most amazing voice I’ve heard in a long time. When you hear her play, (on her first album, not this one), you’ll be amazed too.

You can also listen to her here, http://www.susantedeschi.com/

It’s like listening to Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin blended together.

Forum Findings

Wow, year 4 of the Sunday Songwriters group. I really have to get back in there. I do keep threatening too. Well there is nothing to fear, Bob is gentle with newbies.

Here is the topic for this week:

Hi Everyone

This week saw the sad, but somewhat inevitable, passing of the footballing genius that was George Best. His exploits on and off the field were a source of inspiration and scandal in equal measure and it got me to thinking about heroes. Particularly about flawed geniuses and how they make us feel. So that’s what I want for this week’s assignment – I’d like you to wtrite a song about your hero (or one of them if like me you have too many to mention). I don’t want the song to be about their life I want it to be about their impact on your life, how they made you feel, how you tried to emulate them etc.

Good writing and as for George may he rest in peace.

Bob

Event Horizon

If you happen to be in or traveling through Costa Rica…

The Flash Doo-Right String Band will be playing at the Hotel Gilded Iguana in Playas de Nosara, Nosara Costa Rica every Tuesday starting next Tuesday. Guest guitar player Bill MacPherson of Native Vibe will be leading the charge. Bring your own guitar and sing when we’re on break!

If you’ve already got a show in January, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

Reviews

For those of you who are always thinking about “giving back to the community,” this is certainly a fine way to do so.

Monica Yonge: Rock On
Review by: Jimmy Caterine

If you like music like good down home rock and roll with a lot of slide guitar, an air about it reminiscent of the late 60’s early 70’s and a strong female voice. Monica Yonge’s Rock On is right up your alley.

The Mother Hips : Red Tandy (EP)
Review by: Jimmy Caterine

The Mother Hips apparently are in tune with the movement to recapture the 60’s. Their sound certainly resonates with the music of the decade. Red Tandy is an EP released at the request of their die-hard fans and it is the perfect appetizer for a full length LP due out sometime in 2006.

Jeffrey Osbourne : From The Soul
Review by: Jimmy Caterine

In the R&B world Jeffrey Osborne is a household name. In his 35 year career, this legendary singer/songwriter has produced hits with the 70’s R&B outfit L.T.D. and followed that with a successful solo career. On From The Soul, Osborne has recorded all of his favorite R&B numbers but there’s a twist. He has done them in the genre of smooth jazz, and it is a monster.

Random Thoughts

So how was your Thanksgiving?

Mine was good, thanks for asking.

Even better was the Black Friday Jam hosted by none other than our own gnease.

For me it’s about a two and a half hour drive, probably more if you aren’t driving a BMW 5 series with a radar detector after drinking a venti triple shot Mocha. But still that’s a long way to go for a jam isn’t it?

Well no.

I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The music is like, well like I said above “My guitar is better than Prozac”

It’s cheaper than therapy. Well unless you buy guitars like I do in which case its much more expensive. Also once you start the obsessive compulsive buying of guitars you really need therapy so you end up spending twice as much. Then you end up seeing a therapist who it turns out has a thing for guitar players and next thing you know you and your wife end up in court with a….a…

Uhhh, I digress.

But music soothes the soul. Zen guitar is meditative, and I don’t know for sure but I think it cures whatever ails you.

And it is so much more than that. You get to meet people who share your common interest. You get to meet people who love to teach, share, jam, make fools of themselves, zone out and sometimes play incredible music that is above their capability, and sometimes play music that just does not suck and who love life and the music they can make in it.

It is you guys that I am thankful for.

Peace and play well.

Nick

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 10 – November 15, 2005

Nick Torres — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 12:34:09 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #10 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

News and Announcements
New Articles and Lessons
November CD Giveaway
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Forum Findings
Event Horizon
Reviews
Off Site Sightings and Works In Progress
Completely Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

“Hey, Where did my post go?” It’s a common refrain for the past couple of days. It does appear we are having a few issues with.

Pick one:

Code
New features
Our server
Memory leaks
Disappearing posts

I just want to say hang in there. If a post is missing it isn’t because we deleted it. The problem should be resolved shortly. Paul and our Hosting provider are working on it diligently.

New Articles And Lessons

The Number System
by Jimmy Crabtree

First-time Guitar Noise contributor Jimmy Crabtree details the workings of the “Number System” (also known to some as “Nashville Numbers”). This is a good reference to get you acquainted with the basics of the number system, which is used a lot in studio work.

Standard Notation (Part 2)
by Tom Serb

Top Secrets Of Common Sense – Part 1
by Tom Hess

No matter what level of musical skill you have, there are going to be many significant challenges ahead of you. Your attitude towards these challenges can be single greatest factor in determining how much you will achieve as a musician. Tom Hess looks at the importance of having an attitude of positive thinking.

November CD Giveaway

This month we are giving away two CDs to two lucky winners.

Enter to win a copy of soul/jazz man Jeffrey Osbourne’s latest album From the Soul. Contest ends 12/4/05!!

Enter to WIN a copy of french Chatuese Ilona Knopfler’s latest CD Live the Life. Contest ends 12/4/05.

Check out the Guitar Noise review for Ilona Knopfler’s newCD below.

Good luck to everyone!!!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Soloing over minor chords

We’ve been exploring the use of scales for soloing to learn which scales go with a particular chord. Please see archives of this newsletter on GuitarNoise.com for details.

Let’s look at minor chords now. What scale can we use to solo over an E minor 7 for example? Let’s rephrase and ask this: in what scales does E minor 7 appear? If we limit our choices to major and melodic minor scales, we get this:

C major: E minor 7 is the III chord
D major: E minor 7 is the II chord
G major: E minor 7 is the VI chord
D melodic minor: E minor is the II chord.

If you are just starting out soloing or learning about how scales and chords are connected, you might have had the idea that there was only one scale you could use for a particular chord, E minor 7 in this instance. But now you’re a bit more savvy, and maybe even relieved, to see that you have many choices for melodic improvisation. The point? Learning a bit of chord scale theory can enrich your playing.

Before we move on, do please try each of the aforementioned scales over E minor 7. You can have you mind filled with memorizations of possible scales to use for a given chord; but until you get “inside” the music and *do* it, you won’t truly be soloing.

A note about modes. Get out your guitar and play a C major scale — except start the scale on the E note instead of the C note. After you play the scale, play an E minor chord, preferably in the same area you played the scale.

The purpose of doing this is to get you to hear that you can imply a chord by playing the *modes* associated with that chord. How is that possible? We’ll cover that next time.

Thanks for reading.

For those of you who might like to know more about Darrin, let me direct you to his website, Maximum Musician and also to his page here at Guitar Noise.

Forum Findings

Well finding your post the next time you log on can be an adventure, but I wanted to alert you to some real quality stuff being posted in both SSG, hear here and Easy Song Database.

First off, it seems the SSG has become partial to creating MP3s of the work being submitted. Now don’t let this put you off if you don’t feel comfortable recording your own work, but it’s great to listen to hear the ideas of the lyricist.

By the way, go take a shot at composing some lyrics this week.

Speaking of recording, we’ve got some good posts going on how to record. Believe it or not Kristal and Audacity are the most often mentioned…AND they are both free.

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Once you’ve downloaded them, you should check out some of Smokin’ dog’s online jam tracks. Ken has got something for every level of user.

And finally, some of the best stuff I’ve seen posted as far as tab goes is appearing in the ESD forum. One of my favorites just appeared, Father and Son by Cat Stevens. Thanks Matt.

You can also find the Who, Coldplay, David Gray and more. Check it out.

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 December (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth.

If you’ve already got a show in January, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

Reviews

For those of you who are always thinking about “giving back to the community,” this is certainly a fine way to do so.

Ilona Knopfler: Live The Life
CD Review by: Jimmy Caterine

Ilona Knopfler describes her latest CD, Live The Life, as “a tribute to my unconditional love of music.” This album comes highly recommended to jazz lovers as well as those who may not listen to jazz but are looking to expand their musical horizons. After listening to Live The Life you will know that Ilona Knopfler is one with the music she sings.

Completely Random Thoughts

Guitar Noise was down today for a while and the forums are still just a bit wacky. I had to keep checking back though to make sure it was okay. Withdrawal is hell. It’s a tribute to all of you who read, click advertisements, download articles and contribute on the forums that the place is so darn addictive. So thank you all.

I played at a song or two for a gathering of children this past week. I was playing a song I knew and when I got to the flatpicking break in between verses I screwed up. I mean wrong notes, had to stop playing screwed up. So I just strummed a chord or two and started the next verse. I decided to play the break again and screwed it up again. I know this song cold. Still I couldn’t do it. Ah well back to the verse. Third time through I got it. Now I was embarrassed, but I remember something I learned way back. Don’t apologize or make excuses, take a bow and exit gracefully. Don’t put yourself down; leave that for others to do. So I didn’t. I held my internal self-criticism in.

You know I can’t tell you how many people said “thanks for playing” and “that was great” and “the kids loved it”. I thought I had just dragged my nails down the chalkboard and I’m pretty sure I did, but I didn’t make it worse by dwelling on it. Not a single person came up to me and said, “Man, what happened?” or “Dude you suck”.

So two things:

A. Cut yourself some slack, you aren’t supposed to be perfect.

B. Always try to be professional; playing ability is only part of the equation, presentation is another.

Believe in yourself.

Peace.

Nick

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 9 – November 01, 2005

Nick Torres — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 12:21:01 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #9 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

News and Announcements
A word or two from Paul
New Articles and Lessons
Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
Forum Findings
Event Horizon
Reviews
Off Site Sightings and Works In Progress
Completely Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

Last night was Halloween here in the USA. Picture this if you will:

Costumed people are standing ’round the door, goodie bags in hand.

Slowly it opens.

‘Trick or treat’ they all yell.

‘Oh, my, what have we here?’ says the little old lady.

‘I’m pretending to be a pirate.’ says the first one.

‘I’m pretending to be a werewolf.’ says the next.

‘I’m pretending to be a spaceman.’ says another.

‘AAAAAYYYYIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!’ the old lady screams. ‘What the heck are you?’

To which I reply ‘It’s me Nick. I’m pretending to be DAVID HODGE.’

Muahahahahaha….

Scary isn’t it?

On with the show…

A Word (Or Two) From Paul

Help Wanted: Reviewers Needed

We need 5-10 reliable people to do reviews.

Send us a sample of your writing, for instance a review of a recent CD purchase or book purchase. No more than 2-3 paragraphs.

What do you get?

You get access to a private forum. You get first shot at free promo CDs and other materials we receive for review.

To get started send a message to reviews@guitarnoise.com.

Guitar Noise Wiki

Do you think you can improve Guitar Noise? Now is your chance to prove it.

Together we are building a guitar wiki where you can edit and create articles. This Guitar Noise Wiki is a collection of articles and information on playing guitar. Users familiar with the website Wikipedia will have little trouble using it as it uses the same MediaWiki software.

You can feel free to write anything you think would be helpful for other users. If you see a section lacking content, feel free to add on to it. If you wish, you can also create a whole new section of useful information. As with the forums, you must register before doing anything to the wiki.

Don’t be afraid to edit pages on Guitar Noise Wiki – anyone can edit, and we encourage users to be bold! Find something that can be improved, either in content, grammar or formatting, then fix it.

Check out the Guitar Noise Wiki and get started fixing articles.

Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the October CD giveaway. The winners picked are: Tom Maxfeldt, Dennis Day and Lisa Cletcher. You will each be receiving a copy of Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon’s new CD Sixty Six Steps. We hope you enjoy it.

Keep an eye on the homepage for a new contest beginning in November.

2005 Donation Drive

Do you want to give something back to the Guitar Noise community? This year we’d like to try something different.

Throughout November and December we will be posting links to some worthwhile charitable institutions, like the Red Cross, for your consideration. Maybe it’s because we started the year with a tsunami, maybe it’s because of all the hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters, or maybe it’s because it’s impossible to live in this world without knowing that everything could disappear in a heartbeat – whatever reason works for you, pick one.

We urge all Guitar Noise visitors to donate generously to ongoing disaster relief efforts. “Generously,” of course, will be different for each individual. The point is to give what you can. Every donation, no matter how big or small, will be greatly appreciated. We are creating a list of some organizations that are accepting donations directly to aid those who have suffered from recent disasters. If we have missed any valuable links please let us know.

See the Guitar Noise support page for more.

New Articles And Lessons

Removing The Barriers To Musical Expression
by Jamie Andreas

It’s the age-old argument – style versus substance, or, in the case of the guitarist, technique versus emotion. While everyone admits that we truly need both, we’re quick to point out any number of technically gifted, yet ’soulless’ players. Yet it is not possible to express musical feeling without technique adequate to the task. Jamie Andreas takes a look at this seeming paradox and offers some much needed advice and encouragement.

More Tips And Riffs From The “Forty-Something Guy”
by Allan Abbott

Allan’s back and this time he’s got a lot of good advice to pass along on the subject of power chords and double stops. As in his first article, “Forty-Something Guy Learns Guitar From The Internet,” this piece includes a lot of links to other helpful articles as well as numerous musical examples.

The King Of Love My Shepherd Is
by Doug Sparling

Doug Sparling brings us another wonderful Celtic melody, arranged in DADGAD tuning for fingerstyle guitar. This is a beautiful little piece, which, since it’s not too technically demanding, can allow you to explore putting some feeling and emotion into your playing.

The Future Of Music Careers
by Peter Spellman

Peter Spellman is director of the career development center at Berklee College of Music, Boston and the author of The Self-Promoting Musician, The Musician’s Internet, and several other career-building books. In this first in a series of articles for Music Careers, he reflects on where things are at and where things may be going in the music industry.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

You know I’ve always missed Darrin’s newsletter. I can’t tell you all how much it pleases me to present it here.

We’re exploring the melodic minor scale for soloing over dominant 7 chords. Please see archives of this newsletter on Guitar Noise for details.

The last time we looked at playing the D melodic minor scale over a G7 chord. We saw how that D scale contains all the notes in a G7.

Now we’ll see that D melodic minor is not the only scale to contain a G7. Look at the C melodic minor scale:

C D Eb F G A B C

Just one note different from the C major scale. Once again, G7 is present: notes G, B, D, F. We’re going to use this C scale to solo over G7. Here’s a pattern:

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

Record yourself strumming the G7 chord onto a tape recorder and then play back the recording. Play around with the C melodic minor pattern just given.

Let’s cap this exploration of using the melodic minor scale for soloing over dominant 7 chords by adding one more point:

It’s possible to use two other melodic minor scales over the G7 chords, besides the D and C scales mentioned. Without getting into details here, you can try the F melodic minor scale and also the Ab melodic minor scale. Neither fully contains the G7 notes, but both may still sound good to you.

Thanks for reading. Next time: soloing over minor chords.

For those of you who might like to know more about Darrin, let me direct you to his website, Maximum Musician and also to his page here at Guitar Noise.

Forum Findings

This coming Sunday, November 6, marks the start of the fourth year of the Sunday Songwriter’s Group. I was a bit stunned by the math – it seems like yesterday that Ryan and Nick came to me with the idea of putting together a weekly songwriting workshop and here we are, some one thousand and fifty-six songwriting assignments later, starting in on a new year of work.

While the SSG was Ryan and Nick’s brainchild, much of the credit for its continued success goes to Bob, who has been chief moderator of the SSG for the past two years. This means coming up with all the weekly assignments as well as handling his other moderating chores. I think that everyone will agree he’s done a superb job.

I’m proud to say that Bob has told me that he intends to continue to manage the Sunday Songwriter’s Group for the upcoming year. So, in honor of both the SSG’s anniversary as well as in thanks to Bob for his great work, I’ve managed to coax him into giving a short interview for the November 1 issue of Guitar Noise News.

If you’ve never visited the SSG before, I highly recommend taking the trip. Who knows? You might get the songwriting bug yet!

SSG Year 4 Interview

Q: This may be old history, but people would probably like to know just how you got involved with the SSG in the first place. What brought you to it? What was your first “assignment?” How’d you end up moderating the place?

BOB: I got involved in SSG as I was exploring the wider GN site. I came across GN whilst searching for the TAB for Van Morrison’s Have I Told You Lately. At that time I was also writing a little poetry and some cringe-worthy songs. It was then I stumbled into the forums and found Ryan and Nick leading the SSG. I watched from the outside for a while until I was confident enough to take part. The forum seemed friendly but not overly sweet, in fact I remember the song I produced in my first assignment contained one verse Nick particularly disliked and he was honest enough to tell me. Far from discouraging me, it actually spurred me to do better and the next assignment I took part in was written from somebody else’s title. From then on I was hooked and started to try to take part more regularly. My own writing improved over this time, as did my playing.

I became a moderator when Nick asked for help as Ryan’s commitments outside of GN and Nick’s commitments inside of GN grew to the extent they have. Ventures such as GN and SSG only survive if people give as well as take, so I felt I needed to give some time to help out something I felt had rewarded me.

Q: How do you feel that the SSG has improved your own songwriting? Do you think that this can be true of anyone who posts his or her material at the SSG?

BOB: I take a more considered approach to writing now. SSG taught me to stay away from the obvious and the clichéd, something I’d found hard to do before. I think about what I want to say and try to make it meaningful. I’m nowhere near as prolific as some of our regular contributors, who still amaze me with what they can turn around week in week out. Personally, l find it incredibly difficult to marry music to lyrics which is the most frustrating aspect of my own songwriting journey.

Anyone who posts material onto the SSG is taking the first steps in becoming a better songwriter. By posting, people realize they’re going to get critiqued and probably have things pointed out to them they hadn’t considered before. We don’t rewrite their song for them but give a personal opinion of what works and what doesn’t. It gives that person something to think about when they look at the song again.

Q: Many people who start writing and posting assignments for the SSG take a little time to learn that posting critiques of other peoples’ material is also a great way to learn about writing. Do you have some words of encouragement along those lines?

BOB: Just jump right in with comments. Do try to make them constructive. Don’t just say ‘I don’t like it’ or ‘I really like it,’ try to explain why. People want to know where they’re falling down or where they’re making a strong impression.

Q: Not to put you on the spot, but what are some of your favourite SSG memories? Are there some SSG submissions (your own included) that you still find memorable?

BOB: Nick’s song written about the time of the sniper hiding in the boot of the car (in Washington I think) indiscriminately taking pot shots at people – I think it was called Take The Back Roads. That was a powerful piece of writing.

Ja’mir writes some lovely Celtic style songs and it’s always a pleasure to hear them.

Scratchmonkey wrote a fabulous piece about a hobo who played the bones, which really stood out.

The contributions we get each week never cease to make me feel humble as a songwriter because the quality is usually so high.

Personally, I have a song called The Preachers of which I am immensely proud.

Q: What assignments have you thought worked very well? Do you have any favourite assignments, ones you look forward to posting because you think you’re going to get some great responses?

BOB: Collaborative ones work well. They take some of the pressure away from individuals and let them build on someone else’s ideas. I’d like to do more of these and have some finished products that people can hear. But organizationally, they’ll need thinking about.

Anything that moves you out of your ‘comfort zone’ of writing is good. Just to stretch your mind and write in a different style adds depth to your song writing, which rewards you back.

Both of these approaches are particularly useful for band members.

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 November (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth.

If you’ve already got a show in December, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

Reviews

For those of you who are always thinking about ‘giving back to the community,’ this is certainly a fine way to do so.

Completely Random Thoughts

Well it’s November 1st. You know what that means. Christmas catalogues and merchandise and store displays. I used to be put off by this crass commercialism, but now I just use it as a reminder that I need to start practicing my Christmas tunes. So just in case you forgot, start breaking out those carols and start now.

I don’t follow football all that much, but last week the hometown team beat up on the visitors by 35 points. This week they lost by 36. Sometimes things go completely your way. Sometimes they don’t. Keep playing. Go with the flow. It evens out in the end.

It’s been a year of natural disasters, then last week three bombs go off in India. I don’t know about you, but I’m all death and destructioned out. Can someone tell me what the point is? Not just India, but anywhere. Sometimes I just want to hide in a mountaintop with the trusty guitar. I’d probably end up breaking a string.

I didn’t play guitar from Tuesday until Friday. You know what? It was a good thing. I feel refreshed. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t play, but when it seems like it isn’t fun try putting it away for a day.

My son got out of bed last night and came downstairs. Before I could tell him to turn around and go right back to bed, he told me he forgot something. ‘I love you, Daddy.’

It’s all going to be okay.

Peace.

Nick

Lazy Lefty Blues and Little Brother’s Lessons (Volume One)

Nick Torres — Sat, 14 May 2005 05:59:02 +0000

You may have seen Little Brother, (aka Doug Jones) posting links to his video lessons on the forums here at Guitar Noise. Well, Little Brother is also a mover and shaker over at the online site Acoustic Player Magazine and he maintains his own site with lessons, links and general info.

I have always wanted to venture into the world of Mississippi John Hurt and Fingerstyle Blues in general. So I was really excited when Doug sent me a copy of his Lazy Lefty Blues and Little Brother Lessons Volume One.

First, let me tell you about the production quality. You know that I’ve come down on some video lessons before because of the lack of quality. Well, Doug’s production shines. Everything from the title page and the menus, to the lighting, the split screens and the sound is professionally done.

The content is really well done also. Doug’s teaching style is a little bit different than many video lessons. You really get the feeling that you are just sitting down with him in the living room jamming and learning.

The Lazy Lefty lesson is based on Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Johnson’s style and the technique you learn will enable you to play just about any song in the genre.

Split screen shots of the fingering and picking are fantastic. Doug plays up to speed, slow and one note at a time. It’s like a great guitar player is sitting down and teaching you his chops with the patience of a saint. You don’t even need the tab.

The Lessons Volume One is the same genre, but based on the styles of multiple legends of the blues. You get Frank Edwards, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Charlie Patton styles a la Little Brother. Now these lessons, available on DVD, are a little more advanced. Doug doesn’t use the split screen here, but I don’t find this as a big drawback. Both hands are clearly covered together and one at a time.

I can’t say enough good things about these lessons. 5 stars, Excellent, a cinematic tour de force…well okay, maybe the last one was over the top. Look, I love a good value and believe me this is one.

You can get the entire Lazy Lefty Blues lesson online for $12.95. Heck that is less than the cost of a pack of Elixirs. You couldn’t even get a 15 minute lesson for that little money.

Still not convinced? Well you can see lesson one for free on the site.

I mean it. Go buy this. Click on the link above and you can see the preview and plonk down your hard earned cash to buy it.

You can get the DVD of the excellent Little Brother’s Lessons Volume One for only $14.95. Again, this is a must have resource for your Blues lesson library.

To buy the DVD, go to the Little Brother Blues website.

If you need me I’ll be out on the porch playing Lazy Lefty Blues.

ScaleSMART – Tutorial Software

Nick Torres — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 06:58:04 +0000

Now I’m not a person for IM abbreviations and emoticons, but I just got a copy of NSA Software’s ScaleSMART.

It’s the most amazing scale tool I’ve ever seen.

Why don’t we begin with what I look for in a software tool for guitar?

1. It has to have relevant and pertinent data.

ScaleSMART succeeds here on both counts.

2. The software has got to be easy to use.

I was an expert at using ScaleSMART about 1 minute after loading it. The interface is intuitive and laid out well.

3. The price has got to be right for starving artists and students.

Well it’s about the same price as a set of Elixirs, $14.95

But enough about me! How about if we just walk through an example and let the product speak for itself?

It’s really simple to use.

1. Pick a key. Why don’t we go with G#? You can start anywhere on the scale of course.

2. Now you can pick a scale. You can take your pick from all of these scales and modes: Major, Pentatonic, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor, Gypsy Minor, Chromatic, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Arabian, Hawaiian, Hindustan, Hungarian, Javanese, Leading Whole-Tone, Lydianminor, Mohammedan, Neapolitan Major, Oriental, Overtone, Persian, Rumanian, Spanish, Super Locrian, or Symmetric.

How about we choose Dorian? No, that’s way too easy! How about Javanese? No…I know…Rumanian!

But wait! I want to know what the notes of this scale are on the seventh fret.

That’s a piece of cake, just grab the button that says “move me” and slide it up to the seventh fret.

Voila, you have the Rumanian scale in G# at the seventh fret.

“But hold on!” you say, I’m playing in DADGAD tuning!

No problem in ScaleSMART! Just click the tuning box and pick your tuning. You can pick from Standard, Drop 1/2 Step, DADGAD, Drop D, Open D, and Open E.

And you end up with something that looks like this:

If you are looking to investigate open tunings it’s a great tool. If you are looking to explore either basic or exotic scales in standard tuning, ScaleSMART handles the task with ease.

Go and get it.

http://www.guitar-learning.com.

How to buy a used acoustic guitar

Nick Torres — Sat, 13 Dec 2003 08:00:50 +0000

Ooooooooh, don’t you dare turn up your nose at used guitars. That’s precisely the reverse of what you should be thinking. If you offered me two guitars, exactly the same except one was brand spankin’ new and the other had been gently played for the past 30 years, I’d pay more for the used one. Let me give you eight reasons why.

1. The wood ages and the sound matures, bringing out overtones you never knew existed.

When you buy a new acoustic guitar you need to be very careful the first several years that they don’t dry out or get too much humidity. Why? The wood hasn’t settled into its cured state yet. Curing of wood is so very important that done right the wood goes for a pretty penny. The old forest wood that is being pulled up from the bottom of the Great Lakes is prohibitively expensive. Some believe that Stradivarius aged his wood under water so that the cells would lose moisture slower and also be affected by anaerobic bacteria. Personally I haven’t got time to wait, so I’ll go with a used guitar. Now maybe you can’t tell the difference, but you will be able to tell the difference in the next item.

2. Used guitars are generally a lot cheaper, 50% less than what they retail for isn’t uncommon. The PK30 from Tacoma sells for $1469 US online, you can get it from guitarweb on Ebay with a cosmetic finish flaw for $749. That’s a practically new guitar. My 1979 Flyde Orsino cost me $300. New that guitar is $1500. To get the tone that my 25 year old guitar has you’d have to spend $2000-3000. All those numbers are retail folks.

That brings up an interesting point, I classify “used” guitars into four categories: old used, new used, refurbished, needs work to play.

Here is how I break them down:

Old used is at least 10 years old. These guitars have a history. They weren’t turned over just because a new model came out. Most have been gently played or played and forgotten. This is where I recommend you buy. The best bargains are here.

New used is less than five years old. “I bought it for my son and he lost interest” guitars fall into this category. “I thought a better guitar would make me play better” guitars fall in here too. Generally these are low to mid range guitars. Still you can find some decent bargains in here too.

Refurbished guitars are factory seconds or used trade in guitars that have been fixed by a reputable dealer like my friends at guitarweb on Ebay. You can find some great deals on very recent models at places like this. If you go this EBay route, look for a seller with lots and lots of positive feedback.

Needs work to play is something you should just steer clear of, unless you find a 1943 Martin that needs a new neck for $200. Buy it and take it to your local guitar shop to be fixed. The other time you might buy a guitar like this is if you are looking for a specialty guitar. For instance an old archtop Jazz guitar could be had for next to nothing. Take that into a luthier to have the neck reset for a couple of hundred bucks and you could have a real gem.

3. Most guitars don’t get used that much in the first place. More people give up rather than stick to playing. I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but I’m sure there are more guitars in basements, under beds, in attics that aren’t being played than there are guitars being played. Wouldn’t that be nice to find an old Fender Strat that was only driven to church on Sundays by a little old lady?

4. The design of the guitar hasn’t changed much, if at all, in the past 30 years. Not that I need to elaborate on this one, but aside from pickups, not much else has changed.

5. There is something satisfying about bringing the guitar home, taking off the strings, vacuuming out the inside, cleaning the fretboard and body, restringing with fresh new strings and hearing that first chord.

6. Used guitars are not like used cars. Used guitars are like vintage wine or cigars, they get better with age.

For instance, this will link you to a page with a 1943 Martin that is listed for $9000. Click on over to the next page and you’ll see one listed for $135,000.

7. There are woods available in older guitars that are no longer available. Brazilian Rosewood for example, is only available now in three piece backs. Why? Because all that can be logged now are Brazilian Rosewood stumps. True you can find really high end guitars that have solid Brazilian backs, but if you are reading this article you probably aren’t looking to spend six grand for a guitar.

8. Older guitars are often handmade. Why is that better? Because each individual unit was examined by hand every step of the way. Sometimes cutting to laser precision doesn’t make the best sound out of a naturally grown piece of wood. Luthiers used to tap the tops and listen to make sure the tone was right all over the top and they still do in high end guitars. That doesn’t happen in an assembly line factory.

Okay, let’s pretend I convinced you. What do you need to check to make sure the guitar is in good working condition? Well here is a list of 10 things to check.

How does it look? Does it look like it was well taken care of? Does it look like it was well played but still in good shape? If a guitar was well cared for it shows. I like mine to look slightly played in, so I know a guitarist was caring for it.
How does it sound? Play every note on every fret of every string. Make sure it doesn’t fret out. Could be a sign of needing a fret job, or worse yet a neck reset. If you bend strings, bend ‘em and check out the sound. Pay attention to all of the frets, not just the ones you play. Pay special attention to the ones at the sound hole end of the fret board.
Speaking of the neck here are five handy dandy tests.
a. Sight down the neck from the side. The neck should appear pretty straight. A little bit bowed is okay, a lot is not. A hump where the fretboard meets the body is a good reason to put the guitar down. Also make sure the neck is not twisted from side to side.
b. Hold down the low E string at the 1st and 12th fret, or wherever the neck meets the body. Now look at the 6th fret, can you just barely see light? If you think you could fit a first string under you are good. Any space greater than a 6th string and you need some setup work, possibly a neck reset if the action is too great and there isn’t enough saddle or bridge.
c. Gently push the neck to and fro, up and down; it shouldn’t give at all. It may flex a little, but the neck socket should be like a rock.
d. Look at the neck joint at the body, it should be flush.
e. Look at the joint of the fretboard and the top, it should fit snug.
Check to make sure the neck has a truss rod. Reinforced is okay, truss rod is better.
Check out the space directly in front of and behind the bridge. Both sides should be relatively flat. If the back bulges up a lot behind the bridge, or sinks in front, put the guitar back. A symptom of this is very high action. Some bulge and sinking is to be expected, but the distortion should be less than half of the bridge height.
Speaking of action, how is the action at the 12th fret? Is it how you like it? If not, see number 7.
Check out the bridge and saddle. Is there any room for the saddle to be lowered? Is there any room for the bridge to be lowered? If both have been lowered as much as they can be, it’s a sign the neck probably needs to be reset. The saddle shouldn’t have big grooves in it either, that’s another sign of a desperate need for a neck reset.
Little cracks are not a problem, big cracks are. Use your best judgment. They are cheap to fix.
Push down lightly on the top all over and listen for creaking. If it creaks one of your braces may be unglued.
Listen to it. Try to disregard the strings, they are probably older than dirt. Does it sound like a new set of strings would make it sing? If you really think you might buy it, ask the shop to put on some new strings. If they won’t, buy a set yourself and put them on. $4 spent to test the thing isn’t much.

Some of the problems above may be acceptable to you. I sometimes buy good guitars with necks that are coming off the body. I know ahead of time that a neck reset($200-300), or new frets($10 each), or a top crack($50) is going to be necessary and bargain accordingly.

What are some good brands to look for? Well, to each their own, but here is what I look for:

Lesser know names: Fylde, Grammer, Springhill-(Fender), Mossman pre-’76, Weymann, Marwin, National, Vega, Washburn (30s and 40s)

Better known: Guild, Epiphone or Epi – archtops, Kay archtops, Gretsch, Yamaha LL series, Gibson, Takamine – (high end only), Alvarez – (high end only)

Well known (and hard to find a bargain): Martin, Taylor

High end but sometimes a good deal: Everett, C. Fox, Froggy Bottom, Lowden, Huss and Dalton, Northwood, Lakewood, Brook, McIlroy, Breedlove

Probably should steer clear: Any old Ovation, but there are exceptions. In general plastic doesn’t age as well as wood. I do love the new ones though. If you find a refurb, that might be a great deal.

Not even if you paid me: Any acoustic Fender from the mid 70s with a Strat headstock, huge neck block and broomstick support inside.

And two more I just wouldn’t buy: Any old used twelve string. New used maybe, but the string tension over time is a force to be reckoned with. Any laminate top guitar. What’s the point? Laminate tops are strong, so strong they don’t really improve their tone with age. If you are just looking for a knockabout, this may still appeal to you.

Where should you go to get them?

Here are my favorites:

Looking to save a buck or two on a new used guitar? Can you live with a crack repair, bridge reglue, finish defect? If yes head to guitarweb on EBay. 5157 positive feedback ratings can’t be a fluke. They go through cycles on guitar brands, Gretsch is really popular now, Garrison was a week or two ago, Takamine is ever present and some good deals on Tacomas can be had. They also have a large selection of Electrics and inexpensive acoustics.

Strictly high end guitars – Shoreline Acoustic Music. Looking to step up to a better quality guitar? This is definitely a must browse site. Shoreline has McIlroy, Taylor, Martin, Lakewood, Brook, Fylde, Northwood and whatever anyone has traded in. Some great deals, (don’t confuse great deals with dirt cheap, these are high end guitars), can be found on their Dutch auction page.

All types of guitars can be found at Elderly Instruments. Got $135,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Well they have a Martin for you. Elderly also has guitars for $200 so you should be able to find a vintage guitar in your price range. Elderly does the best job of describing the condition of their guitars that I have ever seen.

Buffalo Brothers has a nice selection of mid to high end guitars and includes a special section for lefties.

Did I hear you say you want a bargain? You want something off-beat or maybe just a fun place to shop? Go to Fat Dawg’s World Famous Subway Guitars. Not only do they have a little of everything, they have good prices and a great return policy.

One other choice you might want to consider is a pawn shop. If you’d like to learn more go and read A-Js article Where to Find Great Prices.

I hope this helps you in your quest for ancient tone.

Good luck and if you have questions, I’m just a forum away.

Sounds of Wood & Steel – A Windham Hill Collection

Nick Torres — Sun, 19 Oct 2003 05:05:38 +0000

If you’ve read my articles or other postings on Guitar Noise you probably know that I like good guitars. I play some high end guitars like Breedlove, Martin, Fylde, and limited edition Ovation and Takamine.

For some unknown reason I don’t own a Taylor guitar.

So I was pretty interested in opening the CD I got for review. It seems that all of the tracks are recorded using Taylors. Here’s a partial list of who is playing on this CD:

Phil Keaggy
Doyle Dykes
Dave Matthews
Paul Rodgers
Billy Sheehan
Jimmy Messina
Jars of Clay

The CD has 17 tracks of instrumental guitar. Here’s a few of my favorites:

Listen to the beginning of track 3, “Cajon Pass”, if you need a little reminder of why you practice. Phil Keaggy blows you away with his technique and subtle melody hooks.

“Butter Fingers” by Bill Cooley with Kathy Mattea is a very cool modern ragtime piece. Just what I needed, another style I want to learn.

“I will take care of you” by Susanna Hoffs is a great example of how the empty space within a musical line is almost as important as the sound. She takes a relatively empty line and builds it into a musical wall of sound while retaining the original melodic idea.

I can’t narrow down a favorite but the two that make me pick up my guitar are Dave Matthew’s “Litho Blitho” and Jars of Clay’s “Jesse’s Song”.

If you only bought the CD for the musical ideas it brings you it is well worth the price.

Now I can’t tell you what the tracks would sound like if they were recorded on a different brand of guitars, but I can tell you I’m going guitar shopping this afternoon.

One more thing, don’t even think of going to the website http://www.windham.com

If you did you might be tempted to click on the promotions link on the right hand side where you can win a Taylor Windham Hill Commemorative Edition guitar.

Hey, you wouldn’t want to decrease my odds of winning, would you?

Songwriting for Intermediates

Nick Torres — Sat, 30 Aug 2003 08:00:42 +0000

So you’ve mastered everything in Songwriting for Beginners? You want more? Fine, but don’t treat this column as a “stand alone.” You still need to keep in mind the 38 or so tips that made up our “Songwriting for Beginners” article (and don’t forget all the great articles you can find on our “Songwriting Page”). Now I don’t have 38 things for you here, but these helpful hints are going to be harder to incorporate.

Let me also add that this article is going to lean a bit more toward “mainstream” song writing. By “mainstream,” I mean those folk, rock, country and pop songs that tend to reach a broad audience. You might be tempted to say “commercial” (which isn’t a bad word if you are trying to sell your songs), but since I’m much more concerned about the quality of your lyrics than your bank account, I think that “mainstream” is the better term.

There are things that make songs popular, things that make songs stick in your head. What I’d like to explore with you are the lyrical aspects of this. We’ll also go over some techniques we’ve used over this past spring and summer on the Sunday Songwriters’ Group forum page, which have produced some excellent results for those participants who used them.

Remember too, that these are all suggestions and tips and not rules. There will always be an instance where I’ll say something and you’ll point out some song that doesn’t fit my point. That’s okay. These tips are simply here to add to your skills should you wish to develop further as a songwriter.

Identify with your listener and allow your listener to identify with you

1. Write with common language. “Assimilate” may be exactly what you mean, but it isn’t what you would say. You want to write from your own personal experience, in the language that belongs to that experience.

2. Make your central character likeable. There aren’t too many Charles Manson or Ted Bundy songs out there you know. What you want is empathy.

3. Have some emotional content. A lyric that talks about the content of your lunch bag isn’t going to be very popular.

The song as a piece of drama

4. You need to identify the conflict early in the song. Pull the listener in early.

5. You need to resolve the conflict late in the song. Don’t let the listener leave too soon.

6. Try to think of your lyric as setting up a scene in a camera’s viewfinder. You need to think about what is in this scene. Is that tree branch in the way? Is it in focus? Did the props person put in too much stuff? Are the costumes ok? Is there too much shadow or vagueness? Too much light?

7. Continuing with the camera idea, ask yourself this: is my song a photograph or a movie? Both approaches have merit. Composition, or how you present your lyrics, is key and you want to start off either approach with a good set of images.

8. An excellent idea at any stage of the songwriting process is to completely forget about lyrics and simply work on imagery. Write down strong, striking images. Write down as many as you can think of. Go out and search for some – look out your window, take a walk or a drive, watch a movie, read a book, get on the computer and do a search on your favorite search engine. The possibilities, pardon the cliché, are limitless. Make a notebook of your images. Doodle around them, draw lines connecting one to another, make connections between seemingly unrelated imagery. Most important – say them aloud! Get the feel of the aural power of your images. This may, at one point, help you decide on what type of music best suits your words.

9. Use imagery to replace narrative. Instead of saying “It’s six in the morning,” make yourself a list of things that would show someone that it is 6 AM rather than simply telling them that. Write about taking a shower, about smelling the unmistakable bittersweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee, about trying to remember exactly who and where you are, not to mention the name of the person sleeping beside you! You can be running late or you can “get your coat and grab your hat…make the bus in seconds flat…” You’ve heard it since your high school English classes, “show don’t tell.” Imagery of this nature turns your song into a motion picture.

10. Let’s get back to the movie making analogy – Think about the end scene of a movie. You know the one, when the camera rises up above the scene on the camera crane. Now look down on your complete scene. Have you finished the picture?

11. And speaking of the scene, do your best to set it within your lyric. Don’t throw away the little details of where. It makes a big difference where you do something. Say you are going out on a date and your date suggests dinner. Does it make any difference to you whether it is Pizza Hut or a private candlelit dinner?

Building Art (a step by step method used in the SSG forums)

12. Start with your title.

13. If you can’t start with your title, start with the lyrical hook, your “catch phrase.”

14. We talked about the plot in the beginners’ article, but as you get more advanced your plots will become more in-depth. In the movie business you’d be creating a scene by scene storyboard. You want to do that for your song. Use pictures or use a flowchart or “an 8″x 10″ glossy photograph with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back”. Do whatever you need to do in order to show the song’s progress.

15. Go for the gusto, write down every ridiculous detail you won’t ever need. You don’t need to fill the entire song with the details you list, but you need to make these characters and situations real. And you never know – it may spark a new idea or clever line. Where are they, when, why, how? What are they wearing, doing, and seeing? How do they look or smell? What were they doing 30 minutes ago?

16. The chorus is not for exposition. Make the chorus short, sweet and to the point. The point of the chorus is housing the hook and perhaps the title.

17. Use the tools available to you. Don’t think you are cheating by using a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary.

18. In Songwriting for Beginners, I said read your lyric out loud and let your own ears edit. You still want to do that. Now though, you need to read out loud to someone else. Check to see that that person reacts the way you planned. Make sure they react the way you planned in the places you planned.

19. Distance yourself from your work when you edit. Try to look at your lyrics from an outsider’s point of view. Sometimes I get so hung up in what I think is clever, I can’t see that it has no meaning to an outsider.

20. Prioritize your lyric work. Here are the parts of a lyric listed in order of importance:

Title

Chorus

First line

First verse

Verses

21. The first verse is incredibly important. You capture or loose your audience here. What’s the first thing you do when you meet a new person? You introduce yourself. Introduce your characters and conflict first.

The Delicate Balance

22. While it may seem very easy to write a mainstream lyric, it’s actually very hard for most people to do because of one simple reason: You invariably hate what you’ve written! It’s a cliché! Everyone else has written the same thing. If you listen to the songs you like, chances are that there is simplicity and an ease of lyrics that you don’t feel from your own. Why is that? Because you have two seemingly contradictory feelings about it: (1) that it’s a very personal song that the artist has written and (2) that you yourself have a personal relationship with that song. As David wrote in “Finding the Right Words” (which means you can blame this pun on him), the song strikes a chord in you. And if you think about it, I’ll bet that most of your favorite songs do this. You, too, have to develop the gift of paradoxical writing. You want to make your unique personal experience become something that others can both relate to and experience in their own individual ways.

23. Pick a universal meaning for your song. You want as many listeners as possible to identify with your song. An easy way to do this is to think of an old saying and subtly tie your lyric into it. It’s not as hard as you think, since there is an old saying for practically every occasion. Sayings like “Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it”, “Look before you leap”, “The early bird gets the worm” are good examples of the inner meanings of thousands of songs. This meaning doesn’t have to be in the forefront. Let it just be a guide to make sure you are on track throughout your lyric.

24. Go back to our photograph/movie ideas. Think about how you feel when you experienced what you’re writing about. What will be the best way of getting that across? Is it a story? Then you might be better off going with a narrative or “movie” style. Is it more emotional, harder to get a handle on? Then you might opt for the “photograph” and let your images speak for themselves.

25. Remember to trust your audience. As much as you might want them to, it is rare that any song will convey the same exact meaning to everyone who hears it. That’s actually one of the beautiful, exciting things about music.

26. Get as much feedback as you can before you make your final edits. And don’t be discouraged if your song starts taking you on a different direction than you first envisioned. That’s not an unusual occurrence! Sometimes you may find yourself with a much better lyric than you could have ever imagined.

Taking your writing up a level is both harder than it seems and easier than I make it out to be. You have to pay attention to the building blocks. You have to pay attention to detail. You have to be objective about something personal. You have to take the time to craft the components of the lyric into art.

Think about anything that is well made. You can get top of the line stereo equipment to listen to music, or you can get some import knock off. You can get a racing bike or one that looks kinda like it. Can you tell me why on earth you would spend $1000 US on a guitar when you can get brand new guitars on Ebay for $25 US?

It’s a matter of what is your goal? It’s perfectly acceptable to write lyrics that are simply pleasing to you. There is nothing wrong with that at all.

The questions you need to ask yourself are:

1. Why am I writing lyrics?

2. Do I want to write lyrics that work, or do I want to write powerful, meaningful, hand crafted lyrics?

It’s completely up to you. Write well, whichever you choose. And, above all, have fun.

Hammer on, Pull off, Tap, Repeat

Nick Torres — Sun, 20 Jul 2003 08:00:47 +0000

Here’s a frequent question in the forums: “What’s a hammer on/pull off/tap? How do I do it?”

Once upon a time I used to play metal, had hair, wore leather pants and played guitar on stage leaning over a fan. I was a legend in my own mind. So drawing on that long forgotten experience, let’s figure out this hammer on/pull off/tapping thing using the ending section of Van Halen’s Eruption as both example and exercise.

First though, let’s define things:

Hammer on -- Note generated by lightly snapping your finger down behind a fret.

Pull off -- Note generated by removing your finger from a string, slightly pulling the string as you do.

Tap -- Note generated by tapping the fretboard behind a fret with your non-fretting hand’s index or middle finger.

One thing at a time, let’s get Hammer-on down. I’m going to use an acoustic for this first part.

Now I’m not going to re-invent the wheel. I’m just going to paraphrase it a bit. I took all of this next section practically word for word from David’s wonderful article Tricks of the Trade:

On your guitar, make an open Em chord. Strum the chord and then one at a time lift, pick the open string, and hammer on with your fretting fingers. It is just a little snapping motion, bring down your middle finger where it is supposed to go. This isn’t a brute force thing. It’s simply a sharp little tap.

When you are playing alternating bass with your chords, a hammer-on helps to spice things up a bit or it can be used as a rhythmic fill.

Try this on your acoustic or without distortion if you’re playing electric:

It should sound like this:

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

Does it? Great! You are on your way!

Okay let’s go to the Pull-off.

Let’s stick with the acoustic. Put your finger on the second fret of the A string. Pick or strum the string with your strumming hand. This will sound the B note. Now pull your finger off.

If you’re lifting your finger straight off the string, you will not get much of a sounding of the open A. What you need to do is pull the string when you’re removing the finger and the best way to do this is with a slightly downward motion. Basically what you are doing is “picking” the string with the finger on the neck.

It should sound like this:

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

Here is the Exercise in C from David’s lesson. It combines hammer-ons and pulloffs. See the article for the tab.

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

And there you have it. Two thirds of what you need to know to play Eruption: Hammer-on and Pull off.

Before we go any further, here is our Guitar Noise disclaimer:

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.

Remember, too, that this is just how I do it. If you are only looking to play along with the recording this isn’t for you. I think EVH tunes it down a half step and he plays so fast I have no idea what he is doing really. But this will give you a pretty darn good approximation of the style and feel. I actually play a couple of sections on the way up that he doesn’t just to lengthen the thing a bit. Besides, practically no one will notice the difference on stage.

Now when you see this tabbed out it seems really complex. It isn’t really. You are playing sets of four notes over and over and over again.

It goes like this tap, pull off, hammer on, hammer on. Start again, tap, pull off, hammer on, hammer on.

Take this slowly and work your way into speed. It will come.

I’m going to break this into three parts. The first part is going up the neck. The next section is coming back down. The final section is eruption of the blood vessels in your forearm.

In the first section, going up the neck, each of the sections is repeated eight times. Think of these sections individually and then put them together.

Now put away that acoustic and get out the electric.

Let’s pick and hammer.

We are going to use the B string since that is where we are going to end up anyway.

So here’s what we are going to do. Pick the open B, now hammer on with your left hand index finger onto the fourth fret.

Great, but wait there’s more, leave your index finger on that fourth fret and hammer on the seventh fret with your ring finger.

Do this 43, 895 times or until your forearm feels like it is about to fall off.

Now let’s pick and pull-off.

On your B string, place your index finger on the fourth fret. Now pick that string and ever so slightly pull your fretting finger down towards the floor and off. It should pluck the open string.

Now fret the B string at the seventh fret with your ring finger AND fret it at the fourth fret with your index finger. Pluck the B string. Now pull off with your ring finger. You should sound the note of the fourth fret. But there’s more, now pull off your index finger on that fourth fret, sounding the open note.

Now the only other thing is the tap. Bring the finger of your choice down, (I use the index) on the twelfth fret. It should sound a nice and clear note. Remember you are using a sharp, but light tapping motion. In this exercise, I am ever so slightly pulling off with my tapping finger. Try it and see what you think. It depends a lot on your setup.

When you get this going you will notice an accordion-like pattern, the tapping finger goes up, the hammer-ons follow. The tapping finger goes up, the hammer-ons follow.

For examples of all of the above, check out the MP3 after the tab. I play the whole thing slowly.

Here is “Going up the neck”: Notice each section is repeated 8 times except the last which I play only four times in the recording.

Here is an MP3 of the going up section at a slow tempo.

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

Onward to section two; let’s go back down the neck.

Same thing as before, but you only repeat each section three times. I tabbed it out, but notice the first 8 repeated sections are really the same set of four played twice.

Go slowly and just memorize the pattern. Once you have the muscle memory in place, speed will come quickly.

And finally, here is the section where your arm explodes. Have I said work this slowly? No need to say it here, you have no choice. This is the little finishing piece, six each of two riffs, play the first one again, skip to the last section and alternate them 1 time each as fast as you can. When your arm starts to bleed, run your fingernail or pick down your low E and hit a power chord at the bottom.

And here it is complete and up to speed. Ha-ha, up to speed, I crack me up. It’s all relative. It’s as up to speed as I’m going to get. I’m playing my 1979 Fender Heavy Metal Strat, with everything at 11, played through distortion, compression, flanger, and a dash of reverb. I stomp on a stereo phaser at the very end.

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

Enjoy it, but don’t blame me when your left arm packs its bags and walks out on you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find where my arm stormed off to.

The Great Guitar Noise Experiment

This is an experiment. Use it at your own risk. No guarantees here.

The links below will take you to a short video of the lesson above. Let us know in the news section how this works for you.

Joanne Juskus

Nick Torres — Sat, 05 Jul 2003 13:30:00 +0000

Well she’s got voice.

Joanne has the kind of voice you know you’ve heard before. On the other hand it’s uniquely hers. You’ll find it impossible to say, “She sounds like…” She reminds me of either a blend of the current indie/women’s rock voice or every great singer from the late 60’s early 70’s folk movement.

Listening to her self-titled CD you can see why she has been nominated for so many awards.

Her producer/guitarist/co-writer Brad Allen does an amazing job of supporting the songs underneath Joanne’s keyboards and vocals.

Have a free listen at MP3.com

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/158/joanne_juskus.html

Listen at your own risk. Don’t blame me when you end up spending your hard earned money to buy the CD.

My personal favorites, Intersection, Waters of March, Never Be the Same, Birthday.

An Interview With Joanne Juskus

Nick Torres — Sat, 05 Jul 2003 08:00:10 +0000

Those of you who aren’t on the East Coast of the US may not recognize the name, but it’s only a matter of time. I went to see the Joanne Juskus band here in DC and they blew me away. Tight harmonies, beautiful melodies and complex instrumentation are combined with Joanne’s talented keyboard playing, singing and amazing songwriting. After the show Joanne took a few minutes to answer some questions for Guitar Noise.

GN: Can you describe how the songwriting process works for you?

J: For me, in most cases, I hear melodies first, and the challenge is often to capture them, either by singing them or playing them on piano, and then to be open to what they are communicating lyrically. I’m someone who hears a lot of music streaming through and it’s a matter of receiving it. (I do a lot of humming — it probably drives people crazy.) I’ve heard other songwriters talk about being the recipient of songs that seem to be swirling through the ether. It seems like the songwriter’s task is to take dictation — and stay out of the way — or maybe let yourself be run over by it, smack dab in the way! Some of my songs were poems that I set to music, like Breathing Underwater and 2 Days in July. Other times, Brad (Brad Allen is producer, guitarist, songwriter) brings me chords and I listen to them over and over until I discover a melody that seems to be lurking with them, as with Good Thing. Or he’ll have full-blown songs, finished entities within their own right, that I add my own melody lines on top of, and write lyrics, such as with Intersection. Sometimes I’ll sing or play a melody for years before the words come, as with Meet You There, based on a poem by the Sufi poet, Rumi.

GN: Have you ever dealt with a time when you just couldn’t find the inspiration to write? What did you do about it?

J: I can only think of a few instances where I had to force myself to write — usually if someone requests a song for a certain occasion or something like that. Art on demand. I don’t enjoy that kind of writing. I normally don’t worry if I go through a period where I am not writing. In fact, it seems to come in waves. Sometimes, I’ll have a half-dozen songs in various states of being, written in my notebook. At other times, I’m just living, which is a necessary step in the writing process. John Prine once said “pain writes”. For me “love writes” and so if I’m lucky enough to be living and feeling deeply, especially with love, then the faucet is more easily turned on.

GN: You have an interesting mix of instruments in a lot of your numbers: violin, mandolin, all sorts of percussion, acoustic/electric guitar and keyboards. Does this affect your songwriting? I mean do you think of the final sound in the initial stages of writing a song?

J: I think Brad thinks about it more than I do, since, for one, he is a multi-instrumentalist, but also because he is the primary producer. When we are working on a song in the studio, we both hear particular instruments or sounds that seem to want to be a part of the song. But because I primarily hear melodies, or feel my way around the piano, and think in terms of the meaning of the lyrics when writing, I don’t think that much about instrumentation, at least not initially.

GN: I see you write as a team on a number of your songs. How does that work? Or is this a Lennon-McCartney thing, (or is it McCartney-Lennon now)?

J: The more we write together, the more we seem to be writing together! What used to be clear cut — I’ll write the lyrics and melody, you write the chords, or something like that — is now more of a merge. There may come a point where we do the Juskus/Allen thing (or is that Allen/Juskus?). On our first project, mostly because I was so shy, working with such an accomplished musician as Brad, and because the writing process is so personal for me, I had to be alone to write. Brad and I live about 35 miles from one another, so there’s that long drive home — on the Washington Beltway, which can be quite a journey! I’ve written several songs, notebook in my lap, on that Beltway! Or he’d give me a CD of something he was working on and I’d play it in my car or at home, working separately, and then go back into the studio and share what I had come up with. It’s been interesting watching the evolution of our writing process. I think we are a lot more comfortable with each other now, and we really like what each other does, what we each offer the music.

GN: I was trying to classify your musical style and the best I could come up with was Alternative folk/jazz -Mediterranean- Middle Eastern- Flamenco – American Indian influenced music. There must be a better description than that. Do you have one? Where the heck will they put the CD at Tower Records?

J: We have CDs in Tower Records! In the Pop section! Right there with Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. Classifying music is getting more and more difficult, which is probably not a bad thing. There is a lot of fusion going on, and with it, the potential for more interesting music. Record company executives don’t always see it like that though! When describing our music, I often call it “Progressive Folk”, mostly because we end up playing a lot of “folk” venues, but we often hear the comment that our audiences are surprised by our jazzy sound. They don’t expect to hear the variety of influences that show up in our music. This probably comes from the fact that Brad is a jazz-based player, as is Willard Morris, our violinist, both well-schooled, as well, in progressive rock. I was influenced early on by folk and classical music, because that’s what was played in my home growing up. And all three of us have had interest in eastern philosophy, oriental cultures, and such. So our sound is a merge of all these factors.

GN: So how do you write music for so many different flavors and styles?

J: I have to say that, most of the time, that is the farthest thing from my mind. I usually make no attempt to have a certain sound on a particular song. I have one song that has not yet been released — one of the first ones we recorded together — that is about addiction, but the piano part sounds sort of Chinese! There is no connection, at least not consciously, at all. It just rolled out that way! On the other hand, Within Your Fire, was inspired by the Hindu god Krishna, and I wanted an Indian sound. Brad was able to bring that about — teaching himself tablas and fooling around with sitar sounds. The result was exactly what I envisioned — and more.

GN: Joanne, forgive me for the list, but here is some of the recognition you’ve received:

Never Be the Same finalist in Women of MP3.com’s “Song of the Year” contest

Birthday Silver Prize Winner, Adult Contemporary Music, Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.

Washington Area Music Association, “Wammie” Award Nominee “Best Contemporary Folk Vocalist”, “Best Contemporary Folk Duo/Group” (Near Oblivion), and “Best Debut Album”.

..and to top it off, the Washington Post just picked Birthday as one of it’s top 10 MP3s of 2002.

So do you ever find yourself prone to fits of giggles, pinch me if I’m dreaming kind of stuff? How do you follow up on a list like that?

J: I’ve been very grateful for the attention we’ve gotten. I try to make sure it’s not really about that, though. We write because we love to write; we feel compelled to write. When people like it or are inspired by it, then that is an added bonus. It feels great to share what we do and have it well-received. The reality, though, is that you have to go after those accolades. Especially now, when there are SO MANY musicians vying for performance opportunities and record contracts and public attention. We do work hard in the PR department!

GN: Joanne, Who are your vocal influences?

J: At the top of my list of influences — both in songwriting and vocally — is Joni Mitchell. And one of my favorite vocalists is the British/Indian singer Sheila Chandra, who has an amazingly open and natural voice and who does quite a bit of experimentation, which I admire. I love the old folkies Judy Collins and Joan Baez, and used to copy their singing styles when I was barely old enough to talk! My biggest vocal influence right now is my vocal coach, the wonderful bluegrass singer Dede Wyland.

GN: You all have played some big venues, like Merriweather Post Pavilion here in the DC area. We often get questions about dealing with stage fright in our forums. For our readers just venturing out into the world of open mic, do you have any words of wisdom? Do you all still get stage fright? How do you deal with it?

J: Stage fright used to be a big problem for me, and it kept me from performing for years. There were a couple of things that helped. There is a book called The Confident Performer by David Roland. And the comedic-folk singer Christine Lavin has some great tips about performance in general on her site (http://www.christinelavin.com/tips.html) that helped me as well. The most useful thing for me is making sure I center myself before I perform, stretching and relaxing and breathing and remembering this isn’t about me! If I don’t take the time to get grounded, I can really feel the difference. The best remedy is doing lots of performing. Even if I go a few weeks without a performance, I can feel the difference; some of the momentum is lost. Eric Clapton is quoted as saying that “To play sober, to play straight, is like going to the dentist.” He said that you may be extremely nervous until the actual thing is taking place, and then you call on some reserve inside you which is just waiting. Once you get past the first couple of songs, you’ve broken the ice for yourself and everyone else. (He said this in 1994, even after years of performing!) It’s also true that a little nervous energy can be fuel for a good performance.

GN: So what’s next for you?

J: We are working on our second CD and I’m very excited about that. It is our intention to have the CD out before the end of 2003. We continue to perform, expanding now beyond the DC/Baltimore area, playing more in New York and other areas, and playing more festivals. In the future, we’d also like to add some visual components, multi-media kinds of things, to our shows. It would be nice to have our performances be more than just an auditory experience. We did a show called “Sound & Vision” at the Knitting Factory in New York recently that combined visual art, poetry and music. I’m also working with a new songwriting partner — a Swami in California! We are taking his poetry, and works from some ancient Indian devotional poets and putting them to music, as well as taking some of the many gorgeous Bengali and South Indian devotional tunes and creating new English translations for them. Brad, Willard and I recently did our first performance with the Swami at an Interfaith Center to much acclaim.

If you’d like to find out more about the Joanne Juskus Band, go to:

http://www.joannejuskusmusic.com/

Don’t miss the Guitar Noise review of Joanne Juskus.

An Interview (and tour) at Huss & Dalton

Nick Torres — Sat, 12 Apr 2003 08:00:16 +0000

So who doesn’t spend his lunch playing guitar at the local music store? Not only is it a great way to unwind, but you can find all sorts of reasons why having that job is important. How else would I pay for the guitars I test out?

Anyway, one recent lunch break found me doing some innocent dreaming among the high-end guitars. “Hey, what is that? Think I’ll give that one a try.”

About 45 minutes of Zen guitar later I realized I did still have a job and if I wanted to keep it I better get back. You know I’m rarely at a loss for words, but playing this guitar did it. It’s truly an emotional experience. If you want to know why people buy high end guitars, just go play a Huss and Dalton. You won’t be able to describe it to anyone else either, but at least you’ll know.

So I looked up the amazing guitar I was playing on the Web that afternoon.

http://www.hussanddalton.com

You can see it right there on the home page. Much to my surprise I also found out that Huss and Dalton is about two hours south of me in Staunton, Virginia. Don’t pronounce the “u” or they’ll have you pegged as an outsider. It’s Stan-ton.

I called up and spoke to Jeff Huss. We set up an appointment for some Q&A and a shop tour.

Heading down through the heart of old Shenandoah isn’t so much a trip of distance as it is of time. No, not to settler days. But maybe roll back 40 or 50 years off the odometer.

After 45 minutes of driving from Alexandria, Virginia, civilization quickly fades from view. Before you notice what’s happening, the road stops being flat and starts to undulate like the little kids’ roller coaster at the amusement park. You are entering the foothills of the Appalachians.

Out the driver’s side window, (the left one here in the U.S.), the mountains start to rise like a giant room divider. All the junk you don’t want your guests to see is stored behind it. You begin to feel separated from your recent past.

Through the other window you see in the distance the green checkerboard of pasture, with the occasional sprinkling of tiny dots of all black cows. Barns so old their wooden skeletons show through holes in the skin, replace fast food restaurants.

A stream meanders up beside the road and runs by what’s left of the stone walls of a mill. Its waterwheel is long since gone, no longer able to supply grain to the trains that no longer stop there anyway. The train tracks keep me company for a while, tracing the highway, or maybe the highway traces them. I get the unpleasant feeling of watching your own demise; long ago the highway was mocking the train tracks, knowing 18-wheelers would soon replace the train. Still, the tracks run on to nowhere in particular.

Grain silos pop up now and then like giant metallic mushrooms after a spring rain.

Now the mountains are on both sides of you, protecting and guiding you forward, blocking out the rest of the world. You have arrived.

Huss and Dalton guitars are made in a non-descript brick building just south of Staunton.

From the outside there’s no hint of the majestic guitars built inside.

Jeff Huss greeted me at the door and after getting settled we get to the questions.

Guitar Noise: When did you start building guitars?

Jeff: I started out building banjos for Stelling, for about nine years. I built my first guitar there on nights and weekends. After Geoff Stelling heard it, he wanted one. So I built one for him. A customer heard Geoff’s and wanted one. So I started building guitars for Stelling. Then I decided to build them for myself, so I left Stelling and set up shop in my garage.

GN: You started building guitars as a hobby. Now that you build them for a living, is the thrill gone?

Jeff: No. Pretty much the same feeling seeing a guitar completed

GN: How many different models of your guitars do you sell?

Jeff: Currently we have about 15 different models with many options available.

GN: How many guitars do you produce?

Jeff: We make about 20-25 a month now with about six in production at a time.

GN: Do you use computers in your construction?

Jeff: Just this here (at the front desk), which keeps track of inventory and invoices. The guitars are all hand made.

GN: How do you decide what new features you incorporate into your guitars? Do you do research and development, so to speak?

Jeff: Right now our efforts are concentrated on being efficient while making the same consistently good guitar.

GN: I hadn’t thought of that, but if someone hears one and likes it, they want to be able to buy one that sounds just like it.

Jeff: That’s right. It’s a trade off. You want to make your own guitar, but you don’t want to be too unique or people will say, “That doesn’t look

like my dad’s Martin.”

GN: But you do have a unique feature that I really like. Tell us about the radiused top.

Jeff: The top of most “flat top” guitars is under a lot of stress from the pull of the strings. This pull pre-stresses the top and can deform the top. Our guitar bodies, bracing and top are radiused to take advantage of the strength of the dome and to reduce the pre-stress.

GN: And that makes for a better sounding guitar.

Jeff: (laughing): It makes for a different sound. A Martin sounds like a Martin because that’s the way it’s built. Our radiused tops, besides being stronger, get a significant boost in mid-range tones and that makes a more balanced guitar.

GN: What is the most time consuming aspect of building your guitars?

Jeff: The finishing takes probably 30% of the construction time. You have to be able to hang a Huss and Dalton on the wall next to high end Martins and Breedloves.

GN: Does building in the Shenandoah’s have any drawbacks?

Jeff: Perception is a hard thing to change. We get reviews that say the Huss and Dalton is a great, driving Bluegrass guitar, and it is. But it’s more than that. It’s like saying the Lowden is good for Celtic music because it’s built in Ireland.

GN: You are about to make guitar number 1,000. Do you ever step back and shake your head in disbelief?

Jeff: (laughs) All the time.

GN: What’s the latest and greatest in guitars now? What’s the thing to look for?

Jeff: Australian Blackwood.

GN: Why’s that?

Jeff: One of our guys says it’s like Koa with balls.

GN: Last question. What do you play?

Jeff: (laughs again) A factory second.

For more info on Huss and Dalton, their unbelievable guitars, and where you can buy one, go to:

http://www.hussanddalton.com

To see Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s review “Ten Top Flight Dreadnoughts,” which includes the H&D D-RH:

http://www.acousticguitar.com/issues/ag107/feature107.html

Let me just say as I close, if you are in the market for a high end Martin, Taylor, Breedlove, etc. you owe it to yourself to track down a Huss and Dalton before you make your choice.

Songwriting for Beginners

Nick Torres — Fri, 21 Mar 2003 08:00:16 +0000

This was originally a forum post titled “38 or so things Nick says all the time (and some I should)”. Later it was suggested to me that we had a pretty good reference for the beginning songwriter. So here it is in all of its glory. And, yes, even though there are a couple of new additions, this list is only thirty-seven. That’s one of the great mysteries of life. Happy writing.

On inspiration:

1. Be on the lookout for things to write about everyday.

There was a comedian on the Letterman show the other night who told the story of her college years. She was living in a garage, the kind with the roll up doors. Whenever she sat down to relax on her couch she was staring at the two motorcycles that were parked in her living room. She used to sit there and stare at them and wonder if there was anything funny she could write about.

Okay, so you are living in a garage and your front door rolls up instead of swinging open and the centerpieces of your living room are two motorcycles. Wait a minute – that is funny.

Don’t overlook what’s right in front of you. There are things all around you every day that would make great songs. Go and find them.

2. Take a notepad or micro-recorder with you everywhere.

I have a friend who has been playing and writing for many years now. She tells me she has forgotten 10 times as many great lines as she has written down. If you don’t have a notepad or recorder, write them in your own blood. Just write them down.

For those of you who are Nirvana fans, if you take a look at Cobain’s writing, it’s in a spiral notebook like you’d get for school.

Many a great song has been written on a McDonald’s napkin.

Inspiration is a precious gift. Don’t waste it.

On writing lyrics:

3. If you can say it in fewer words, why don’t you?

You can pause while singing. You can hold notes out. Don’t feel the need to fill every space with a word. This is a danger most often experienced by lyric first songwriters.

Let the listener’s ears rest. Use empty space to develop contrast.

This one ties in with the next:

4. Try not to use phrases like “I feel”, “it’s like”, “because”. Tell me how it is, not what it’s like.

These words are often used to make lines fit the meter. But the effect they have is dilution.

Is she the most beautiful woman ever, or is she like the most beautiful woman ever?

Are you crushed and thrown in the gutter, or do you just feel that way?

5. Be direct, don’t give the listener too many choices.

Although you do want to allow for individual interpretation, you want to make sure the listener is getting the point. Write like a salesman. Ask questions that get you where you want to go. Don’t ask “Would you like to buy this car?” Ask “Wouldn’t it be great to be out on the coastal highway, top down, radio playing?”

6. Content dictates form, not the other way around. You aren’t writing haiku.

Don’t limit your initial creative output by imposing form limits. Maybe you have 4 lines and a chorus, maybe 8. Maybe you’ll have two verses then chorus, maybe 1. Just get that initial burst of creativity out. Create the form of the song around the content you have.

I doubt Stephen King decides beforehand, “Hmm, 637 pages, and I want every other chapter to be 42 pages.” You don’t need to either.

7. If you have to explain a line to me, you need to re-write it.

If I have to explain that line to you, I need to re-write it.

8. Do not confuse profound with vague.

This one ties in well with number 7.

This is one of the biggest errors I see and it manifests itself in a couple of ways.

First, even the lyricist doesn’t know what they are writing about. Overly impressed by their own ability to use flowery imagery, the writer will get stuck for an ending or chorus and ask for help. Heck, if you don’t know what you are writing about, how should anyone else know?

Second, the message is so lost in flowery writing that the natural progression of the song gets lost. The obvious symptom of this is overly long, formless writing usually followed by a request for help formatting the song into singable lyric.

No one needs to write in “Dick-and-Jane” style, but you don’t want to sound like a dot com company earnings call either.

9. Write about what you know.

I guarantee these will be your best songs. Go ahead and write about something you know nothing about and compare.

One day you cut your hand badly and require stitches, do you go to the auto mechanic? Nope, you go to the doctor. You want someone whose life experience includes stitching up cuts. Songwriting is no different.

9a. When you want to write about something outside your realm of experience, use what you do know to write about what you don’t know.

If you have to write about something, someone, someplace that you have no personal experience with, find something, a feeling, a belief, that you do have in common. Start from someplace that is authentic.

10. As you get better and better at writing, you’ll write simpler and simpler lyrics. Why not start now?

This one I stole from David Hodge. It’s true. There is power in brevity.

Don’t mistake “simple” for lack of meaningful content. One well chosen single word can have many more connotations and power than an awkward phrase.

10a. Even if you want to write about a passive condition, write it actively.

Speaking of stealing from David…

I wrote a song about a guy sitting in the dark, losing it ’cause he is suddenly alone. He’s sitting and thinking, then lying down and thinking, and then in the last verse he’s suddenly smashing things. It just didn’t flow right, it didn’t build.

Here is the first verse before and after:

Before:

Alone in the dark at the kitchen table
I wonder whatever became of you?
Didn’t I tell you often enough?
Can you tell me what I didn’t do?

After:

Talk to the empty chair in the darkness
I wonder whatever became of you?
Didn’t I tell her often enough?
Can you tell me what I didn’t do?

It’s a minor change, but combine that change with the new second verse you can see an active progression into losing his marbles.

11. Even if your lyric doesn’t tell a story, it takes the form of a story. It has a beginning, middle and end.

Number 11 is the subject of much confusion. There is a big difference between a story song, like old folk songs, and a story line. I think we decided to call this the “Song Agenda” or “Song Progression”, but the more I think of it, the more I like plain old “Story”. You may write a silly story with no point, a clever story, fable, parable, that it obvious fiction, a review or description of some thing, or an old fashioned folk tale, or even a true story, but they all have a timeline or agenda or progression from start to finish.

Even if a lyric has no story, it has a beginning, middle and end. Heck, even if a song is an instrumental it develops from beginning to middle to end.

Make sure you know what your story/agenda/progression is.

If you get lost while writing, take a couple of minutes to write a paragraph describing how your song develops from beginning to end. Best of all, go to number 12.

12. Write down the story you want to tell in a couple of sentences before you start the lyric. You can revisit this later if you get stuck.

Usually I do this after the initial burst of writing subsides. Then I organize my thoughts into a progression.

13. Make sure your lyric pulls the listener through from beginning to end.

Number 13 is the reason for 11 and 12. The listener should want to hear what comes next. They should be waiting for the exciting, (or not) conclusion. If you give it all away in the first verse, what is the reason the listener won’t just tune out?

OVERVIEW of 11 – 13:

Think of a song like any other form of communication for entertainment purposes. Songs are like miniature books, films or plays, a 3 minute diversion to transport the listener to another world.

14. When you have “finished” your lyric, read it OUT LOUD. Let your ears do the final edit.

The single most valuable editing tool is listening. After you read it out loud to yourself, subject someone else to it. Some words that fit when written will break oddly across rhythm.

15. If it sounds forced when you read it, it will sound forced when you sing it.

16. If you would never, ever say it that way, double check that you can sing it that way.

Probably tied for number one on the most often seen problem list, is the forced rhyme. Don’t do it. Forced rhyme pegs you as an amateur right away. Not even great lyrics will pass the “would you say it that way” test all of the time, but it is a good test. The most often seen example of this is the reversed sentence:

“..and so to you I will not go.”

or something similar. Wouldn’t you just say “I will not go to you?”

17. Write often. Practice writing just like you would practice a guitar riff.

One of the early controversies about the Sunday Songwriter forum was that you can’t force inspiration. This is true, but you can learn technique so that when inspiration pops up, you have nothing standing in your way.

If you want to improvise guitar, you go and learn riff after riff until they flow effortlessly. When the time comes to improvise, you don’t want to spend a bunch of time saying: “uhh, that would be at the fifth fret and…. I think I’ll do that Led Zeppelin thing”. By the time you get that thought out, the rest of the band will be on to the next verse.

I have a place to write with a guitar on a stand nearby, computer, rhyming dictionary, pencils, paper. When I’m inspired to sit down to write, I’ve practiced it so many times before that it just flows.

On receiving critiques:

18. If someone points out something that bugs them, I guarantee it will bug 100 others. Listen to them.

You may not agree. They may be wrong. You may not be willing to change, but you must consider what they are saying. If not, why bother to post the lyric in the first place.

When I started posting songs, I had to force myself to get over my defensive reaction. But I did it and now I probably incorporate 75% of all suggestions into my work. Hey someone wants to do work for you for free, take them up on it.

19. If someone takes the time to critique your lyric, listen to them.

20. Don’t get defensive. Listen.

21. If the critique starts with “This sucks”, you have my permission to ignore #20.

22. Turn about is fair play. If someone critiques yours, return the favor.

Besides making a habit of writing, this is probably the most powerful songwriting tool available. No kidding. By reading other writers lyrics and styles you learn volumes. You learn what works and what doesn’t, you get “what if” ideas, you expand your own lyrical horizons and you gain an ability to see things in your own work through others. Sometimes things are so close to you, you can’t see them.

23. Listen, listen, listen.

Did anyone pick up on my subtle message in this section?

On writing critiques:

24. Do unto others.

A critique of “This sucks” is about as useful as one that says “this is perfect”. Well, unless you really mean it. I haven’t seen one yet. I haven’t written one yet, the perfect one I mean.

25. Find at least one positive thing to say, there is always at least one.

The fact that someone was brave enough to put pencil to paper is one. Is there a story line? Are the feelings out there and exposed? Did one of the verses not have a forced rhyme or cliché? Come on now, you are supposed to be creative.

26. Do not start reviews with “This sucks”. I told them not to listen to you in #21.

27. Don’t get offensive.

This is not a battle zone. No tit for tat, “he really let me have it in his last critique, I’ll show him, (or her)”. Try to help no matter what.

28. Writing critiques is probably the single best way to improve your own writing.

By learning how to articulate your own thoughts about someone else’s work, you can appreciate the thought that went into someone else’s critique of yours and also develop a mindset of looking for problems in your own before you start. See number 22.

On cliché:

29. Never use the words “stairway” and “heaven” in the same line.
30. Make that the same verse.
31. Did I say verse? I meant song.
32. What the heck, just never use them…never.

Don’t make me think of someone else’s song while I’m listening to yours.

33. I would rather hear about your personal experiences than generalizations.

Take a gourmet dinner:

Fresh caught Jumbo Shrimp cocktail
Fresh made bread
Filet mignon medium rare
Baked potato with fresh butter and chives
Vintage red wine
Tiramisu

Now put the whole thing in a blender until it has the consistency of baby food and eat it. Somehow the generalization of the meal just isn’t the same. Give me the experience first hand.

34. Using cliche is the equivalent of saying, “Yada, yada, yada”.

The biggest problem with cliché is that it is shorthand for your experiences. I don’t want the Cliff Notes version, I want to do the interpretation myself thank you.

35. If you twist a cliche into something new, it is by definition no longer cliche.

It’s a pretty good technique really. You get a sense of the familiar combined with a sense of originality.

36. Back by popular demand, here is my famous cliché analogy.

If you ask 100 people to draw a tree, 99 of them are going to:

draw two parallel lines to represent the trunk
1 perpendicular line beneath to represent the ground
-and a series of scalloped lines above to represent the leaves.

But they haven’t drawn a tree. They have drawn a representation of a tree.

If you tell them that, they won’t get it. But if you show them the picture that the 1 out of a 100 drew, the one that actually looks like a tree, they’ll say, “oh yeah, now that’s a tree.”

That artist didn’t draw a representation of a tree. The artist drew one that is based on that artist’s actual interaction with a specific tree. It’s the tree climbed long ago. It’s the tree of a summer nap in its shade. It’s the tree the artist raked the leaves from under.

When you look at that picture, you can see the artist’s song about that tree.

Be the 1 in 100.

37. Rules are meant to be broken, but you better have a darn good reason why.

Does this all make sense to you? Would you like to learn more about songwriting? Then join us in the Sunday Songwriter’s forum. All writers are welcome regardless of writing experience. You’ll find a place to get positive and constructive feedback on developing both your songs and your writing style. The big benefit of the Sunday Songwriters forum is we aren’t expecting the polished, we’re expecting to help you polish. Come on in and give it a try this week or next.

Molly Pitcher – Watching The Rain

Nick Torres — Tue, 18 Mar 2003 12:22:37 +0000

So no one loves a folk song anymore? Well, apparently they haven’t listened to Molly Pitcher’s CD, Watching The Rain.

If you read last month’s interview with this exciting duo, then you are already familiar with Molly Pitcher. For those of you who might have missed it, read it here: A Few Words with Molly Pitcher.

Molly Pitcher is Rebekah Fischman and Victoria Lavington. They are both singer/songwriters now based in New York who happened to run into each other at an open mic. Very fortunate for us.

If you’ve ever read any of my rants over on the Songwriters Forum page here at Guitar Noise, you know that one of my mantras is “Write what you know.” This CD is full of great examples as to why this is sound advice. One day Molly Pitcher will be famous for doing exactly that – doing what they know and sticking with it. This CD boasts clever and addictive melodies, tight harmonies and capable guitar and keyboard playing.

It’s such a pleasure to listen to. The title track, Watching The Rain, is one of my favorites. Rebekah’s composition and piano playing makes this song downright haunting. Another number that rates right up there is Unaware. It’s just mesmerizing.

No One Loves A Folk Song Anymore is brilliant. combine a simple song with a simple lyric, melody and harmony and you get a powerhouse of a song that adds up to much more than the sum of its parts. Did someone say “write about what you know?”

Watching The Rain does an amazing job of capturing the magic these two generate on stage. Most groups that don’t have chemistry don’t worry about it. It can, like most things these days, be created in the studio. But whoever was in charge of the chemistry department in the studio that session must have been given a holiday. Each member of Molly Pitcher enhances the other’s strengths.

I had the pleasure of seeing Molly Pitcher in concert here in the Washington DC area. One of the songs they played was the powerful Susan. And the “Susan” of the song just happened to be in the audience! Hearing the song that night made me feel uncomfortable. It’s a great tune, but something about it made me feel…weird. Then it hit me! Because the song was so intensely personal between the songwriter and the subject that I felt like a voyeur. The writing is that good.

Molly Pitcher classify themselves as “alternative folk.” I think they do themselves a disservice. It’s just plain old good music.

For more info on Molly Pitcher, including CDs and upcoming shows, check out their website: Molly Pitcher

Music Theory for Guitarists by Tom Serb

Nick Torres — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 05:02:23 +0000

When I noticed Noteboat was answering almost every theory question on the forum, and those answers were complete, well thought out and detailed, I thought, “Wow, that guy should write a book.” Well it turns out he already had.

Music Theory for Guitarists is not your every day theory book. Almost every other theory book I’ve seen was more suited to a keyboard than a guitar. Not so in Tom’s book. He takes a fresh perspective of learning theory on the fretboard, without needing to read music. As a matter of fact the initial 50 pages of the book will teach you all you need to know about reading music so you can understand the rest of his book.

Almost every stanza of notation and scale in the book is accompanied by tab or chord charts. Scales and chord formation are covered extensively. There are also a number of cool things thrown in, like alternate scales. Every wanted to play the Pelog scale or Manaranjani? It’s in there. Want to know what Morendo or Rubato means on a piece of music? It’s in there.

Perhaps the front cover of the book describes it best,

“A step-by-step guide through the elements of music, with new ways to think about playing.”

If you are looking for a great book for basic theory, designed for guitarists, this is it.

Tom has arranged special pricing and free shipping for Guitar Noise readers. Check this link for more information and to order this book.

www.noteboat.com/specials/gn_special.html

Fretboard 101 Part 2 – Fretting About The Board

Nick Torres — Fri, 07 Mar 2003 08:00:13 +0000

So I lied. I said 10 days. Apparently I’m not the only one who has things to publish on the site. Who knew?

Well hopefully you have been doing the relatively easy exercises, familiarizing yourself with the frets we learned last time. Just to refresh, we learned the names and notation for the open strings and the notes you tune to. This week we are going to end the brute force memorization pretty darn quickly. One fret and one scale and you are on your way to enlightenment.

The one fret is the tenth

Why did I pick this one? If you take a look, you’ll notice there are no sharps or flats to be found. The tenth fret, and the fret one octave higher, fret 22, are the only frets on the neck other than the open and 12th that have no sharps or flats.

Those three frets, 0, 10 and 12, I treat as my mental home keys. Think of them like a familiar landmark in case you get a little lost. That wasn’t so bad was it?

Now about that scale. Here it is. We are going to learn it two ways, but there are many ways to play it. I could give you exercises, but you’ll really benefit from looking at the strings and figuring out a couple of new ones yourself.

What is so important about this? I’ll tell you. You may not have learned barre chords yet. But when you do, knowing the location of each note on the sixth string will give you the name and location of every E shaped barre chord.

You want a G major chord? Well, stick that barre finger on the 3rd fret, over the G on the sixth string. Feeling adventurous? Try the 15th fret. Want a D chord? No problem. You know that D is on the tenth fret, strings 1 and 6, so put your index finger there.

What do you do when you see someone playing something you want to play, but you don’t know the chords? Take a look at where the guitarist is forming the chords. After this lesson you should be able to play and identify at least a couple of barre forms. That knowledge, combined with the knowledge of what the root note of the chord is, will have you playing that song in just a few minutes.

With that in mind, here is the other method of playing the same scale, starting with the B note on the A string, fret two.

Why this scale? It will all become clear soon. Trust me. Just go over both of these scale figures as exercises, naming the notes out loud, trying your best not to look at the tab. Instead, use the standard notation as much as possible. What we are striving for is a solid knowledge of the natural notes on the E and A strings.

Think about this: The low E string, fifth fret is the same note as the next string up, played open, correct? E string at the fifth fret is A. So if you know this stuff one way, you know it the other. If you memorized the E string, you already know most of the A string. Heck, you know most of the other strings, too! What am I talking about?

Here is a picture to clarify my rambling:

Notice how the notation is exactly the same in all three examples, but the tab is different.

The following stuff is just meant to jog your mind into seeing relationships on the fretboard. You won’t have time to figure this stuff out while playing, but the insight you gain will help you become more familiar with the fretboard.

From a math perspective, the fifth fret of E is A, and the fifth fret of A is D. Logically it follows that the tenth fret of E is also D. 5+5=10. Follow me? So if you know the notes on the E string from 10 up, you know the notes on the D. If you know the notes on the E string from 5 up, you know the A string.

Take a minute and think about this, and you’ll see the reverse is also true. The 14th fret of the A is B. You know that to get to A on the E string you add 5 frets. So B must be the 19th fret on E, 14+5. In fact, this holds true anywhere on those strings: the distance between two identical notes on the E and A is 5 frets. The same holds true for the A and the D strings. The relationship between E string and D string is 10 frets. Check it out in the notation above.

B is the 19th fret on E, the 14th fret on A, the 9th fret on D, the fourth fret on G and open on B.

And that is the basis for the only exercise for this week. I’d like you to do your own note and scale discovery. Noodle around on the frets and figure out how many different ways you can do the same thing. Keep in mind the important thing: the names of the notes on the tenth fret and the natural notes on the E and A strings.

Here are the rules for the exercises from last week. Remember to refer back to David’s Your Very Own Rosetta Stone if you have questions about the note names on the staff.

When you play the exercises say the notes out loud as you pluck the strings. Try to match the pitch of the note. No, you don’t have to sing. No, it doesn’t have to be pretty. Just try to get close.
As you say and play the note, visualize where it is on the staff. Get the picture in your head. For instance, low E is below the staff with three ledger lines above it. Low A is just under two ledger lines. If you can imagine the locations you are halfway there.
When you tune your guitar before playing, say the notes as you pluck both strings. Try to match the pitch. So you’d pluck the fifth fret of the low E and say, “aaaaaa.” Then you pluck the open A string and say, “aaaaa.”

Play the exercises above for 10 minutes a day.

Speed doesn’t count.
Say the note as you play. Feel free to drop your voice down an octave at the top. Don’t strain yourself.
After you have run through the line once, cover the tab with a blank sheet of paper and keep playing.

Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Here it is, the big payoff. Don’t cheat now;

go memorize the E and A strings first.

Right. Who can play an open A major chord? How about Am? Can you play an E major chord? Don’t tell me you can play Em too!

So, that’s just four chords, right? Wrong. With the knowledge of the note locations you gained above, you’ve got at least 12 E shaped chords, 12 Em shaped chords, 12 A shaped chords and 12 Am shaped chords.

What on earth do I mean?

I mean you can’t imagine the power of what you have just learned.

This is not optional, in order for this to make sense you must read David’s column But Then Again.

That should both clarify things and amaze you.

Next stop, scales and improvising.

Play well.

Also check out… Fretboard 101 Part 1

Building a better Guitar Stand

Nick Torres — Wed, 05 Mar 2003 06:07:45 +0000

So how do you review a guitar stand anyway?

Well first you stand up some guitars. Second you marvel at how well they work and how good they look. Third you tell people they should go buy one.

The kind folks at ShadowStand sent me a couple of their stands to review. I was wondering how much of a difference a stand can make anyway. I’ve gotta tell you, it turns out it makes a bunch of difference.

First off, the ShadowStand isn’t much like your ordinary stand. Generally I use three kinds of stand. I use stage stands for convenience, but they aren’t that secure without the neck support. I use generic stands that you’ve all seen that hold the guitar top and bottom, but they aren’t that stable or convenient. I’ve used wall hangers, really easy to get your guitar in and out, but unless you carry a cordless screwgun with you, they are not at all portable. If only there was a portable wall hanging guitar stand.

Well now there is. That is exactly what the ShadowStand is. It supports the guitar from the neck and has a very wide stable base. The weight of the guitar holds it in place.

I’ve been using two of them for a week now and can’t see myself going back to any other kind.

The stands are ultra-stable and look very cool. Also they take up very little space if you are loading them into a van, a big plus. The shadow stands come in acoustic, fender and electric models.

I recommend them highly.

A Few Words with Molly Pitcher

Nick Torres — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 08:00:35 +0000

After watching the wonderful show a few Sundays ago at The Focus Inn, I was able to catch up with Rebekah Fischman and Victoria Lavington, the singer/songwriter duo that make up the band Molly Pitcher. Rebekah and Victoria classify their style of music as “Alternative Folk”. Personally I think they defy any classification, but that’ll have to do since I can’t think of a better one. Hmmm, since this is a review, I supposed I should try to describe them. How about a dash of Carly Simon, a bit of Patty Griffin, a hint of James Taylor, does that help? Hey, I know, how about if you just go have a listen? Go to their web site and click on “sounds”. All four songs are good, but make sure you check out “No One Loves a Folk Song” and “Susan”. Their writing is powerful, their performance skilled. Speaking of which, much has been written about the blending of their voices and their subtle harmonies, but perhaps my daughter said it best when she asked; “Daddy, is that the same lady singing twice?”

Rebekah and Victoria graciously agreed to answer a few questions to give us some insight into how they do what they do.

Guitar Noise – Can you describe how the songwriting process works for each of you?

Rebekah – I’m a relatively new songwriter and so far I have found my process to be consistently inconsistent. The first few songs I wrote were just lyrics and then I tried to put a tune to them. I find it very easy to write lyrics that way but very difficult to wrap a tune around it. I suppose in the beginning I had so much I wanted to say that the lyrics were most important. Now, although I still have something to say, I find I alter the method. Some of my better songs came when I imagined just one phrase of words and music together in my head and built a song around them. Sometimes I’ll just noodle around on the guitar or piano and find chords that sound interesting. Usually when I do that I start singing random sentences. It can be as obscure as “The dystrophy of you is inevitable now” or as ridiculous as “where’s the mail, where’s the mail, where’s the mail”

Victoria – Most of the time, it starts off with me trying to practice the guitar. Then I find some new chord or progression of chords that I’ve never played before. The sound usually evokes some sort of emotional response and a lyric line comes into my mind. More lyrics come, I can usually write the first verse or chorus fairly easily. Then I leave it alone for a couple of days. I think about what it is I want to say, I clarify it in my mind and work on it bit by bit over the next few days or weeks. A few songs took me a few years to finish.

GN – Have you ever dealt with a time when you just couldn’t find the inspiration to write? What did you do about it?

Victoria – I’ve encountered those times on several different occasions. It’s usually because my life is too busy and hectic. I don’t force myself to write during these times. I find that when there is more time a whole bunch of ideas come out and I go through a writing frenzy for a while. My dry spells have been known to last for 2 years at a time, but I don’t stress about it because I know that the floodgates will open again.

Rebekah – Yes. And again, yes. It was really starting to bother me until I heard an interview of, I think it was, Trace Atkins and he said “Not every song is going to be a home run. Sometimes you just have to get up to the plate” That really calmed me down. When there is REALLY no inspiration I go to a huge pile of half written songs filled with half written lyrics and see if I can find anything worth working on. The problem is that I usually only come away with poems that way. Victoria and I sort of made a pact that we would only write when something meaningful came to us and we’ve kept to it so far. If we really get stuck, I think we’ll try writing together and see what happens. In any event, I find that a good long commute home on a sunny day will always lead to introspection and eventually something resembling a song.

GN – So you just got back from the Kerville Folk Festival in Texas and you’re off to the Falcon Ridge Festival in July, do you still get stage fright? Do you have any words of advice for our readers who might be going to an open mike for the first time?

Rebekah – I am a very nervous performer. I am never fully at ease before a show or on stage. The two things that unnerve me the most are mike/amplification fears, and not being well rehearsed enough. These are the two pieces of advice that I can relay to open-mike singers. If you are very well practiced, you will feel much more at ease when you get up on stage.

Practice a lot more than you think you should. When you’re playing your song and you forget a guitar chord or two, being well rehearsed will allow you to find where you are and correct yourself instead of completely loosing it.

Also, take your time before you start your song. Are you REALLY comfortable? Is the mike too high or low, are you in tune? Take your time making sure that you’re set up well and you will be more comfortable. In general, open-miking is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but it’s the only way to move ahead. It’s like pulling off a band-aid. Just do it! I find that if you are real and honest with your audience “Wow this is out of tune…” they will respond with interest.

Victoria – The day I stop getting stage fright will be the day I die. It’s my way of knowing I’m alive.

For my first open mic, I didn’t let anyone know that I was doing it. I figured that if I totally bombed then at least it would be in front of people that I’d never see again. It took me 10 years of playing in my bedroom before I got the nerve to play out in the public…I wouldn’t recommend this though to other aspiring singer songwriters, just get out there and give it your best shot, you have nothing to lose. Who cares if a whole bunch of people you’ll never see again laugh at you and you never know they may not laugh; they may clap!

GN – On your website you write “Where has the melody gone?” Can you elaborate a little on what you mean by that? And while you’re at it, what do you think makes a good melody?

Victoria – It just seems that the trend in music for the past ten years has been to have one melody line that is repeated over and over. I try to let my emotions come out in different ways throughout a song. I can’t say what makes a good melody for everyone. For me, it’s just a tune that sticks in my mind and makes me hum it when I’m doing the dishes or whatever.

Rebekah – The trend in music now seems to be finding a phrase or a chord progression and repeating it often. More like speak-singing. A lot of trills, a lot of embellishment, a lot of really great vocal riffs. Songs today seem to be more like that than the long languid songs of the seventies a la Carpenters, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jim Croce, even some of the power ballads of the eighties.

Our songs seem to be a little more melodic and reminiscent of an earlier time. I think what makes a good melody is a lot of variation. Some notes high (Victoria is really good at that) and some low. Most important, it’s a song someone can hum a few seconds, hours, days after hearing it. A song someone can sing well who doesn’t have such a great voice.

GN – What happened to “Arrabella York?” (a song they performed). I really liked it, especially the rhythmic quality of the verses. Why wasn’t it included on the CD? How did you make that decision?

Victoria – We decided to save “Arrabella York” for our second CD, which we are presently recording. It is part of a trilogy of songs that I wrote and so we chose not to split them up.

GN – What’s next for Molly Pitcher?

Rebekah – More of the same. Documenting life and love melodically, recording it for posterity, finding people who enjoy it and singing for them. We will be going on a tour of the northeast this summer so we’re really looking forward to that. Mostly, we just feel grateful to have found each other and we probably will bask in that till we’re old and gray.

Victoria – We’re organizing a mini tour for this summer and like I mentioned before, we’re recording our second CD.

GN – Any parting words or suggestions for our readers?

Victoria – Don’t sit in your room for ten years.

Rebekah – All songs are valid. Some of my worst songs have gotten recognition, and some of my best ignored. Just be honest. It takes real courage.

Fretboard 101 Part 1 – Where Did I Put My E?

Nick Torres — Fri, 14 Feb 2003 08:00:08 +0000

There are a lot of questions that pop up on the forum on a fairly frequent basis.

Did I get a good deal on this guitar?
Is this guitar any good?
Was David smart enough to copyright his hairstyle?
What chord do I get when I play these strings?
Which scales should I use and where should I play them?

The answers are:

Yes you did, if that guitar makes you want to pick it up and play.
Yes it is, if that guitar makes you want to pick it up and play.
If he was, he’d be a billionaire.
Why don’t you tell me?
It depends a lot on the answer to number 4.

Ok, so I answered number 4 with a question. I’ll go ahead and answer that one too. The reason you don’t tell me is that you don’t know what notes you are playing.

I have no idea why there is so much reluctance to learn the names of the notes and their positions on the staff. It’s easy. Give me 10 minutes a day for 10 days and you’ll know them all. You only have to learn it once. Your understanding of theory, chord construction, scales, songwriting, and progressions will grow astronomically. You’ll get a bruise on your forehead from slapping it and saying “Oh, I get it.”

Read this excerpt from Jamie Andreas’ article: Why Should I Learn To Read Music?

“IN GENERAL, everyone can only benefit by learning to read music. Believe me, if you DO have talent, if you have something to say as an artist, you are not going to lose it by developing your mental understanding of the “theoretical” aspect of music. The only people who will lose their artistic ability by education in music are the ones who didn’t have any artistic ability to begin with…

(Not being able to read music is)… like trying to learn grammar without being able to read words. You may be able to get some understanding if you find a creative teacher, but you will never achieve a complete or satisfying understanding of grammar in the way you would if you could read.”

There is nothing magical about to happen here, just brute force memorization. Do you think you can’t memorize which note corresponds to which fret? If I can, you can. Do you know your telephone number? Social Security Number? Home address? Work telephone number? Bank account? I rest my case.

It’s going to work like this. I’m going to explain a couple of things about the notes we are working with. I’m going to give you some exercises that will take less than 10 minutes per day. At the end of two weeks, you will be amongst the fretboard enlightened.

Here is what we are going to memorize.

Truth be told, we are actually going to memorize an octave above the high A.

Now you probably see two ways of selecting notes above, but really there are three: Standard Notation, Tab, and the note names. We will be using notation and names together.

I’m going to put the tab in to identify the note the first time you see it. Then you need to cover it up. I’m all for tab. I use it all the time. Here, though, it will work as a hindrance to your development. Don’t use it.

If you’ve read my bio, or the scary stories column, you know I used to be an actor. It’s very rewarding but the most difficult thing to do is memorizing lines. Some shows I had several hundred to memorize, along with stage direction, inflection, and timing.

There are a number of tricks to help you memorize, but you really have to find out what way works best for you. The one way that seems to work for just about everybody is figure out some relevance to the thing you need to know. Create a relationship between what you do know and what you need to know.

So here we go relationship building. You already know a lot more than you think. This week we’re going to plunge headlong into memorization with things you already have memorized.

But first to save a bit of bandwidth, I want you to read the beginning of David’s Your very own Rosetta stone. Stop at the section called “Accidentals will happen.” We’ll get to that later. Don’t get too hung up in note values, we just want to know the names of the lines and spaces and a basic familiarity with what standard notation looks like.

Okay, now that you have a basic understanding of the staff and the names of spaces and lines, we are almost done.

Do you know the names of notes on the open strings? Do you know how to tune your guitar string to string?

Wow, that was fast. Congratulations, you’re doing great. You already know 24 note locations.

“Huh? 24?” you say.

Yep, 24.

Let’s count ‘em.

You know the open string names.

E – A – D – G – B – E

Here is how they look in notation and tab.

That’s 6 of them.

What happens at the 12th fret? Correct, it is the octave of the open strings. So the note names are the same, but where they sit on the staff is different.

12 fret – E – A – D – G – B – E

That is 6 more, so you have twelve under your belt now.

Where are the other 12 you know? Well, when you tune your guitar, you fret the string below the one you are tuning as a reference for the next string. So if you are tuning A you fret the fifth fret of the E string.

5th fret of E = A
5th fret of A = D
5th fret of D = G
4th fret of G = B
5th fret of B = E
5th fret of E = A

and amazingly an octave above is the same

17th fret of E = A
17th fret of A = D
17th fret of D = G
16th fret of G = B
17th fret of B = E
17th fret of E = A

Here are the every day exercises:

When you first pick up your guitar I want you to say the notes out loud as you pluck the open strings. I also want you to try to match the pitch of the note. No, you don’t have to sing. No, it doesn’t have to be pretty. Just try to get close.
As you say and play the note, visualize where it is on the staff. Get the picture in your head. For instance, low E is below the staff with three ledger lines above it. Low A is just under two ledger lines. If you can imagine the locations you are halfway there.
When you tune your guitar before playing, say the notes as you pluck both strings. Try to match the pitch. So you’d pluck the fifth fret of the low E and say “aaaaaa.” Then you pluck the open A string and say “aaaaa”..” These first three shouldn’t add anytime at all to your normal playing. You have to tune anyway right?
When you have finished practicing/playing go through the same thing again. Pluck the opens and say the name of the note, pluck the matching tuning note and say the name.

Here are the playing exercises. This is where the 10 minutes a day comes in. There are five exercises. Doing the math, it works out to 2 minutes each.

Speed doesn’t count.
Say the note as you play. Feel free to drop down an octave voice-wise at the top. Don’t strain yourself.
After you have run through the line once, cover the tab with a blank sheet of paper and keep playing.

This first exercise is just your open strings and the matching note on the string below.

This second exercise is an octave up from the first.

Now the fun begins. Although this will sound a tad odd minus F and C it gives you an idea of just how flexible you can be once you know the fretboard.

Where have you seen this one before? The frets have been changed to protect the innocent.

and finally:

That was a lot of reading and I promise next time things will be mercifully short of exposition. AND, we’ll have a two-for-one bonus. Memorize the low E string and I’ll throw in the high E for free.

Also check out… Fretboard 101 – Part 2

Jellifish

Nick Torres — Wed, 12 Feb 2003 12:05:34 +0000

So I’m reading through the forums, looking for what’s new when up pops this title “Jellifish”. How can you resist taking a look at that topic?

Apparently there is this little pick like device that has a series of 32 gauge guitar strings, cut at a precise angle and attached to a piece of Lexan. Think of a miniature version of the angled kitchen broom.

Now when you hold this correctly and stroke it across the strings, the angled jellifish strings pluck and release each string milliseconds apart. Pretty cool, huh?

So I ordered 3 to get the discount, and I waited. Two days later there they were in the mail box. Like a little kid at Christmas I ripped open the package, popped a couple into cases and got to work playing around with this newfangled contraption.

There are three effects for you to try written on the package, chorus, pluck and bow. Now also on the package it says it takes just a few minutes to master and picks will be obsolete. I’m going to say that’s a bit of poetic license and caution that if you believe that you’ll be disappointed. Well that’s it for negatives.

Here’s what I discovered:

The “Chorus” effect is pretty cool and quite easy use. This one really did take me about two minutes to get the downstroke consistent and about forty-five minutes to get the wrist roll correct for the upstroke. Nice dulcimer sound. Not a twelve string sound, but a cool effect. I’d use this one just about anywhere. The jellifish works much better if you relax your wrist and strum gently, letting the jellifish strings work. The harder and faster you go, the less time the jellifish has to react. So keep it light and easy.

“Pluck” took much longer, a couple of hours’ solid practice. I’m not complaining – it just isn’t intuitive. Still the jellifish gives a nice sound, sort of a banjo twang to a guitar string. You need to turn your hand just like it says in the picture on the package, like you are turning a key in a lock. I’ve had it a week now and I’m still trying to get this up to speed. It’s worth the effort. If you pluck sharply you get a sharp sound, if you really slow it down you get a miniature chorus effect using just the longest of the jellifish strings.

“Bow?” I’m still working on it a week later. I can get the sound, but I don’t feel comfortable using it to perform yet. I think it could be useful for something like Kashmir. I can only get this one to work with any consistency on the wound strings. I’ll let you know if and when I nail it down. It does give a unique sound that you aren’t going to find anywhere else.

All three of the above techniques are shown in a little quick-time movie on the website:

http://www.jellifish.com/

I’m not getting rid of any picks, but for less than $10 bucks it’s a cool little thing to have in your bag of tricks. If you are looking for something to give you that different sound, something to make you unique, (at least temporarily), pick up a jellifish or three. I highly recommend it.

Darrin Koltow’s Guitar Lessons On The Net

Nick Torres — Sun, 12 Jan 2003 11:56:27 +0000

Yesterday I downloaded Darrin Koltow’s “Guitar Lessons on the Net”. You may be familiar with Darrin as a frequent contributor here and as the head honcho at Maximum Musician. This ebook of 150 pages is chock full of information on where to find just about anything related to guitar playing on the internet.

An hour after buying and downloading I had gone through the ebook cover to cover, amazed at the breadth of information it contained. Now I say I went through it in an hour, but to actually CHECK out all of the references and sites listed in the ebook would take you a good week of surfing.

Darrin’s intent was to provide a well-written, easy to read guide on how to minimize your time on the internet so you can maximize your time playing your guitar. He succeeds.

Right off the bat I found a utility to slow down any MP3 while preserving the original pitch. It’s an amazing piece of software, complete with basic instructions to LOAD it in the document. I’ve used this software for several hours already, slowing down songs to jam along, played “Eruption” at 60% speed so I could figure out all the notes, and transcribed a couple of other pieces. I figure I got my $14.95 worth already.

Besides that little gem, there is a brief review of 9 or 10 of the top general guitar supersites. No surprise here, Guitar Noise ranks at the top, but there are a number of other sites listed that I had never visited. Darrin points out each sites strengths and weaknesses, things to beware and alternatives to consider. It’s not a complete reference to every site out there (would that even be possible?), but a well-balanced selection of sites covering just about every topic of interest to the guitar player.

The theory section has some cool sites I didn’t know about. Learning the fretboard online is especially valuable. When standard notation has relevance to the fretboard, theory makes a whole lot more sense. Darrin lists other sites here where you can get chord generators and even individual answers to theory questions.

“Guitar Lessons on the Net” has sections on Home Recording, converting wav to MP3, and wav editing. I already knew the information in this section, but for someone looking to start it would be an invaluable resource.

Everything is neatly indexed and arranged and if you can’t find it in his ebook, Darrin has also included a section on making your internet searches more effective. This little tidbit turned up a surprising number of more relevant hits for me.

The only negatives I could find was the pdf format does not allow for direct clicking on hyperlinks. That would make life a lot easier, but doesn’t really detract FROM the overall value of the ebook. One other minor item, there is a transcription in the middle of the book that takes up 20 pages – just an oddity of trying to get readable tabs INTO pdf, but you do have to scroll a while to get past it.

Next on my list to visit:

Ear training software
Improvisation and soloing Resources

If you’d like more information, follow this link to take a look at the TABLE of contents.

http://www.maximummusician.com/guitarlessonsonthenet.html

You can own this wonderful little ebook for the cost of a set of new Elixir’s. I highly recommend it.

Gin and Diatonic

Nick Torres — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 08:00:08 +0000

Some of the best topic ideas come from questions asked on the Guitar Noise forums.

Unfortunately this isn’t one of them, but it was a good question,

“…I know an octave is twice the pitch of one note, for instance A is 440hz and the octave is 880hz, right? Then I was told it is “8 notes above the first” what does 8 notes above the first mean?”

Generally discussions regarding the technical frequency value of a note verses the scale name is kept under lock and key for fear of sending musicians off to the loony bin.

Let’s start with the second half of the question.

Get yourself a strong cup of coffee, we are going to discuss the fretboard.

But first, just to add to the confusion, I’m going to talk about the piano.

The piano has 88 keys. If you divide 88 by the number of notes in an octave you get…?

7 1/3 octaves

How many people came up with 11?

Well that’s because an “Oct”-ave doesn’t have 8 notes, it has 12.

This confusion is easily dealt with if you just think of the Latin root of “Octave”: “Oct” from the Latin for “Eight”. “Ave” which in Latin means “add a random number here”

I suppose you really want to know how we get 12 notes to the octave?

Take a look again at the piano. From C to C there are 12 keys each a half step apart.

“Hold on there” you say “Are you insane? There isn’t a half step from E to F and B to C, is there?”

Ahh, grasshopper the answers to your questions are “Yes I am, but I am not dysfunctional.” And “Oh yes there is.”

All of the above mentioned keys suffer from the musical version of bi-polar disorder. E# is F, Fb is E and the same goes for B and C.

Don’t ask me why. There is an advanced mathematical formula that explains why, but involves hallucinogens, moon phases and animal sacrifice. I research this every Friday at my house.

Let’s look at the fretboard.

The guitar has 6 strings and if you divide that by twelve you get .72 octaves. Which is completely wrong, but helps to explain my limited playing ability.

But seriously for just a moment, the guitar does have 6 strings, (don’t start with me, we are sticking to six), and on average the neck has 22 frets. But no you may not multiply 6 times 22 and divide by 12.

Consider tuning your guitar:

5th fret of E is the same as A
5th fret of A is the same as D
5th fret of D is the same as G
4th fret of G is the same as B
5th fret of B is the same as E

If you think about this, any note above the fret that you are tuning the next higher string to, is repeated on that higher string. In other words, the sixth fret of the E string is A#, the same note as the first fret of the A string.

Now let’s figure out the octaves.

We are going to count only the half steps/frets on each string that are not duplicated on the next higher string. (Anyone who has read David’s beginning theory articles knows that each fret is a half step. If you haven’t read them, stop reading this nonsense and go do it now.)

Here we go:
5 on E
5 on A
5 on D
4 on G
5 on B

and how many frets on the neck? That’s right – 22.

22 on E – (there is no higher string so they all count)

46 so far

I’m going to add two to the total for bending the 22nd fret of the high E string, which is a D, up to E. (Ever wonder why some guitars have that funky extra bit of fretboard extending over the soundhole? Mystery solved.)

For a grand total of, drum roll please: 48 half steps

Now you have my permission to divide that total by 12 half steps in an octave.

Did we all get four octaves?

But to answer “What does 8 notes above the first mean?” is uhh… well, from a guitar point of view the octave note is 12 half steps above the root note.

If you want to get technical, the 12 half steps are also 8 “diatonic” notes, where diatonic is a low calorie mixer. We will come back to diatonic in the section about that party animal Pythagoras.

Just for fun consider this. Here are the locations of all of the E notes on the fretboard.

So if you are ever soloing and you want to start with E, just pull out this sheet and pick an E, any E.

“But Nick” you say, “You didn’t answer the question. 8 notes or 12, what does that mean and who picked 12 notes anyway?”

Stick with me here as we skip back to the first question.

Yes, “A” just happens to be 440Hz. That is the frequency of the sound waves hitting your ear from the source. The measure of wave peak to wave peak as they pass a given point. This doesn’t mean diddly to me really unless I’m tuning the orchestra or my guitar.

Frequency didn’t mean diddly to Bach either, his Well Tempered Clavier was a clever play on words about tuning to an exact ratio of tones divided within each octave, verses tuning to a tempered pitch to reduce overtones, and the fact that he was usually so drunk he was constantly hitting his shins on the furniture.

But before we get to Bach, let’s have a little Physics and Math lesson, shall we?

Wow, even my eyes are beginning to glaze over.

What the heck does that mean, tempered pitch verses exact ratio?

(Warning, do not read the following after 3.00 PM as it will cause your head to immediately plummet to your desk.)

Let us consider the note A, which is 440Hz.

The frequency of any component of a harmonic series can be figured using:

f(N) = N * fo

where:
N is the harmonic number
fo is the frequency of the fundamental.

We are looking for the second harmonic, which is also known as the Octave.

Hold on to your seats, here we go now,

fo = 440Hz
N = 2

So the second harmonic/octave is 880Hz.

Let’s look at the above in a different context.

Sound waves… who remembers the scene in Jurassic park where the scientist looks into the puddle and sees the ripples? The Tyrannosaurus was on his way. Time to go.

The ripples were caused by the sound wave created by the dinosaur’s footstep. They traveled through the ground and created the ripples in the puddle.

So let’s consider the T-Rex our root note frequency. Wherever he is stepping he is going to cause the ripples to move through the water at the same speed.

If you used the T-Rex ripple frequency as a base, you could figure out any other kind of dinosaur’s approach by comparing the ripples.

Now if instead of the T-Rex, it had been the dreaded “Octave-asaurus”, the ripples would move exactly twice as fast. Doubling the frequency of ripples in other words.

The “Fifth-asaurus” would send out 3 ripples in the same time as 2 T-Rex ripples.

The “Fourth-asaurus” would create 4 ripples in the same time it took for 3 T-Rex ripples.

Remember Mr. “Square of the Hypoteneuse” Pythagoras? He discovered the ratio for these harmonics, amongst other things, a couple of thousand years before Spielberg was born.

Octave = 2/1
Fifth = 3/2
Fourth =4/3

Pythagoras, who was a mathematician, came up with all of the combinations of these ratios to get numeric values for the scale.

For example:

A perfect fifth (3/2) plus a perfect fourth (4/3)
= 3*4 = 12/6 or 2/1= an octave
2*3

If you look at all the combinations of these ratios, you get the aforementioned and dreaded Pythagorean diatonic scale. In the line below big “C” is the root note and little “c” is the octave.

C=1; D=9/8; E=81/64; F= 4/3; G=3/2; A=27/16; B=243/128; c=2/1.

This is an exact ratio scale.

Pythagoras thought “Wow, harmony in music, math as harmony” until some wise guy came along and told him this system had problems. For instance, twelve pure fifths is not the same as seven octaves, but it should be.

This is called the “The cycle of Fifths” problem – not to be confused with recycling fifths, or moonshining.

Here is the “The cycle of Fifths” problem in a nutshell:

7 octaves = (2/1)^ 7 = 128
12 fifths = (3/2)^ 12 = 129.74

Let’s just walk through that in a slightly different way:

You take a note, we’ll call it the “root” and play the note a fifth above it. Now take the note you just arrived at and do the same. Repeat this a total of 12 times.

Where do you end up? Interestingly, (or not as the case may be), you end up at a note amazingly similar to your root note, 7 octaves higher.

(As an aside, and this one may take a second or two to understand, but if you flatten this series of fifths into a single octave, you get a 12-step scale. Haven’t we seen that before?)

But wait, there’s more.

If you take that note from above, the one that is 12 fifths from the root, and compare it to the original root note, taken up 7 octaves higher, well they should be exactly the same frequency, right?

Wrong.

The cycle of fifths note has a frequency of 3568.02 Hz. The octave-based note has a frequency of 3520 Hz

The difference comes from the fifth being off by .02 cents compared to the octave. Multiply this by 12 and you get an error of 24 cents or roughly a quarter semi-tone or about 48.02 Hz.

To get around this dilemma, you flatten the pitch of the fifth by 2 cents. That is a Tempered Fifth.

Why is that important?

It’s all about frequency. When you tune your guitar using harmonics and the two strings are slightly out of tune, you can hear the notes “wobble”. As you tune closer, the “wobble” decreases. As you tune further apart the “wobble” increases. Non-tempered scales do this all over the place. Say you need to play four notes simultaneously; the root, the third, the fifth and the octave. Well the root and the octave would be fine, but the third would be 14 cents flat and the fifth would be 2 cents sharp. People would run from you like you were dragging your nails down the chalkboard.

This is the reason some people argue against tuning using harmonics.

So back to Bach, his shins and his furniture…

Bach was well known around Vienna, (motto: “Sei gesegnet ohne Ende, Heimaterde, wunderhold!, translation – Birthplace of little sausages, in tins!) as a confused and drunken musician. Bach mistakenly called his shin the “Clavicle” and became an angry, belligerent drunk if you corrected him. So Bach became known as “Mr. Ill Tempered Clavicle”, Hence the play on words with Well Tempered Clavier.

Apparently at the time, there was a big debate about the use of exact ratio or tempered scale. Bach, in a moment of lucidity, wrote a prelude and fugue for each of the 12 major and minor keys – using his tempered scale. He had other tempered scales he used where 7 of the 12 fifths were tempered more and 5 were tempered less. Where the third was tempered such and such here but not there. Anyway, the first one is what we are stuck with today.

To tell the truth, Bach was only concerned with frequency as it related to the number of times he would have to urinate.

True story.

Back to reality…

Oct-ave, oct-agon, oct-upuss;

We have already seen the Latin root of the word, but Olde English is slightly different.

“oct” means 8, “ave” is old English for “it sounds like the same note but relatively higher, just please, dear God, don’t make me explain it in terms of frequency”

As you can see in the old English, music theory lessons could take a long time until they coined the word “octave”

Anyway, look at a piano or a sheet of music.

The notes go EFGABCDEFGABCDE starting at the bottom of the staff in treble clef extending up above the staff in this case. This is the singing range of the Castrati.

By the way, just in case you thought musicians were mentally stable, do a look up on the singing requirements for Castrati. I keep trying to start a Castrati choir at church, but very few ever show up for the first meeting. The ones that do are usually ex-wives whose husbands ran off with their 26 year old secretaries. They don’t want to sing, they just want to “help”.

I digress. Look back at the notes:

8 notes from E is E, 8 from G is G, 8 from A is A

Keep in mind you can have scales that have more or fewer notes, and often did way back when, so the number of notes to double the frequency was frequently not 8. You can argue with me here, but I will plug my ears and sing nah-nah-nah, alternating octaves without regard to frequency, just so I can’t hear you.

So the answer to the original question is:

1. Yes the octave is twice the frequency of the root note.
2. In our particular version of notation, the octave is also 8 diatonic notes above the original.

Here’s a couple of other scales to consider:

Pentatonic

Penta as in Pentagon, means five
Tonic again means a decent low calorie mixer for the copious amounts of alcohol needed to understand beginning music theory.

Advanced musical theorists no longer need tonic as they drink straight from the brown paper bag.

For the hard core musicians, (read this as Jazz), their theory helper is now measured in grams and it becomes the “pentagram” scale. When you understand this it makes it easier to understand Jazz chords.

anyway here are a major and minor movable pentatonic scale:

Based on a 5 note scale, the numbers on the frets represent the value of the note in the pentatonic scale. Some of these are octaves of each other, see above. If you notice, the fingers are moving in the same pattern, but the root has changed to protect the innocent.

You can move these up and down the fret board changing key willy-nilly,(a Grammy winning lip syncing duo, I have no idea what they have to do with this), and the root note becomes your new key.

Classical musicians the same applies to you, just move the guitar to the other leg.

Hope this clarifies it all.

Nick

P.S. Has anyone seen my brown paper bag? Call me if you find it.

Scoring Points

Nick Torres — Fri, 22 Nov 2002 08:00:12 +0000

Picture this production of Romeo and Juliet:

Juliet, played by Heidi Klum, (which is OK in this production because she doesn’t have anything to say) stands on her balcony. Romeo, played by your choice of the robot on Lost in Space, a Dalek from Doctor Who or Hal from 2001, enters. He sees her and says:

But… soft… what… light… through… yonder… window… breaks…

I would also speak like that gazing up at Heidi Klum, but you get the idea. The monotone ain’t gonna cut it for delivering the message of Romeo’s awestruck love.

Hello?

Hey! Pay attention or I’m changing Juliet to the Cafeteria lady with hair net and moustache.

What I’m trying to say here is words are just words. It is up to you to invest meaning and emotion. When your band mates have basic mastery of a song they start to add the little touches that make it their own. The hammer-on here, a little arpeggio before the chorus, distortion on or off, chorus effect here but not there, maybe reverb at three instead of two. Should I add the 7th to that chord? They make a number of choices to affect the phrasing and tone of every song.

As the lead singer, you have an obligation to do the same thing. Make the song yours. If you don’t, you might as well get Robbie the Robot to take your place.

“But I can’t do that.” You say. Why not? Most people are afraid to make these choices because they lack confidence. Why would you lack confidence?

Imagine this:

“Come on Honey, get the kids. We’re going on vacation.”

“Where, Dear? I didn’t take any time off from work. The kids are still in school. We haven’t booked a hotel, cancelled the paper or called someone to feed the dogs.”

You can’t feel really confident this vacation is going to go off without a hitch, now can you?

Shift that into the music world:

“Come on guys. I’m gonna sing a song in front of a bunch of complete strangers without any preparation.”

“Dude, what you been smokin’?”

As the saying goes, if you don’t know your destination, you will never get there.

When I was an actor, I used to be plagued by the actor’s nightmare. It goes like this: you are out on stage in front of a large audience and you have no idea what your lines are. It still gives me the willies to think about it. It’s terrifying.

If you don’t know what you are going to do with every word you are about to sing, you are about to have a real life version of that nightmare. That will shake anyone’s confidence. It’s a Catch-22. If you don’t have the confidence, you can’t make the plan. If you can’t make the plan, you won’t get the confidence.

I’ve got a real life example for you. During the NFL pro-bowl several years ago, Hershey’s had a half-time promotion: if you could kick a 35-yard field goal from a tee, you’d get $1,000,000. Just you, the ball and tee, and 12 million people watching you. They had a drawing several months earlier and selected one guy to make the attempt.

You know what he did? He quit his job. Hired an ex-professional place kicker as a coach and practiced every day. He learned every nuance of placekicking. During half-time at the pro-bowl he became a millionaire.

Your situation is similar here. You get one shot with this audience and this song. You need to be so practiced, so familiar with what it is you have to do, that the pressure isn’t going to shake you.

If you do what I’m about to suggest, I guarantee your vocal performances and confidence will improve by 100% or your money back. If you act now, as an added bonus I’ll throw in a 100% better connection with your audience.

This lesson is going to teach you how to mark your lyrics for singing.

But first a little history lesson.

You know around the turn of the century there was no such thing as a microphone? (No, I don’t know this from personal experience. You guys think you are soooo funny.)

Where was I? Right, no microphones. So how did they record? Well, picture a large, “his master’s voice” style funnel that has a glass sphere attached to the narrow end. On the side of the glass sphere opposite the funnel was a needle; beneath the needle was a platter of wax. So the sound waves go into the funnel where they are amplified, down to the glass sphere, which vibrates and moves the needle, which etches the wax. Cool, huh?

There were some major drawbacks to this setup. First, there was only one take; everybody played at the same time in the same studio. Second, there were only two volume choices, loud and louder.

The volume issue led to some interesting early musical choices. The guitar was just too quiet, but banjo cut through. No way could you hear string bass over trumpets, so early bands opted for tubas. Try to picture Metallica with this setup.

Another problem is that the instruments had to be arranged by volume and proximity to the funnel. You can see some pictures of early recording sessions with some instruments gathered closely to the wall with the funnel, some people on barstools up high, some down low, and some against the back wall. Rumor has it that Louis Armstrong played so loud they had him stand in the hallway outside the studio.

But in the 1920s the microphone came along. Its effect was dramatic; the sound was much clearer. If you’ve ever heard a 78 rpm platter and compared it to the LP, that is about the same degree of difference in quality. Now volume choices could be made. Singers could suddenly sing directly to you, with feeling and intimacy, instead of competing to be heard over all the other instruments.

If you’d like to read more about this, check out this excellent series on recording and technology on the NPR website.

Now that you have a microphone, everyone can hear you. You have the opportunity to connect on a very personal level with every member of the audience.

How do you do it?

Here are a few terms you’ll see on sheet music that may have some relevance to us:

ACCELERANDO: get faster
ALLEGRO: a lively tempo that also reflects in your style
ALLEGRO VIVACE : even more lively
ANDANTE: a medium tempo
CRESCENDO: get louder gradually
DECRESCENDO: get softer gradually
FORTE: loud. The first of three loud dynamics, notated as “f.” on sheet music
FORTISSIMO: pretty darn loud, notated as “ff.” on sheet music
TRIPLE FORTE: Spinal Tap volume controls to 11
LEGATO: smoothly joined notes
PIANO: softly
PIANISSIMO: twice as soft as piano
LENTO: slow
PRESTO: fast
STACCATO: the opposite of legato

Do you need to know those terms? Yes. Well, it depends.

You absolutely need to be familiar with them if you want to communicate with other musicians. These terms have been around for a thousand years or so and they are the basis for marking our own lyrics. From a personal perspective you can use plain old English if you wish.

If we look at the list we can make three categories:

If we go a bit further and translate into English:

Hold on there, partner. I know what you’re thinking. You don’t need me anymore. But wait, there’s more.

You need to think about two more things before you put pencil to paper:

What is the story of the lyric? Or what is the point of the song?
What is the mood you are trying to convey?

Okay. On to the business of marking it up.

First, print out your lyrics double-spaced. You need plenty of room to write here. Put two sections at the top: “Mood I want to convey,” and “Point I want to get across.”

Let’s mark up a selection from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Before we go any further:

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.

I’m going to let you answer questions 1 and 2 for this one and move right into marking the lyrics. I handwrite my markings, so they appear here in red italics for clarity.

Start very personal, almost speaking, at moderate speed.
I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Faster, hard and loud, church choir style, slightly mocking, staccato, without feeling
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
–>
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Little build from the original volume, very personal, almost speaking, ask the question
Easy come easy go – will you let me go

Faster, hard and loud rock, Devils choir VS Angels Choir, staccato
Bismillah! No – we will not let you go – let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go – let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go – let me go
Will not let you go – —————let me go (never)

This must keep the argument feel of above, Staccato
Never let you go – let me go
Never let me go – ooo

Loud, short sharp, increase volume on each “no” to very loud
No, no, no, no, no, no, no -

Drop only halfway back to personal volume, with some desperation
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go

Increase volume dramatically here soft to loud throughout the phrase
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
for me
for me

Faster, hard driving rock, slightly staccato, metal, defiant
So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh baby – can’t do this to me baby
Just gotta get out – just gotta get right outta here

Back down to the initial tempo, tone and volume
Nothing really matters, anyone can see

Slight pause, Very smooth and connected to end
Nothing really matters
Slight pause
nothing really matters
Slight pause
to me

Whisper
Anyway the wind blows…

But you already knew that one. How about one you don’t know?

Taking one verse, the bridge and the chorus out of one of the songs I wrote in the Sunday Songwriters Club exercises, here is an example:

But first my disclaimer:
This file is actually my work and I have my permission to use it here. So there.

Mood I want to convey:

Kind of Hitchcock, eerie, even a little Exorcist, chilling, lonely

Point I want to get across:

You better make sure you kissed the wife and kids this morning. Are you putting off something for tomorrow?…don’t.

V3:
A jagged loud whisper
heart pounding

Normal voice to start
I pull my jacket to fight

Speed up slightly here all the way to the end of this verse
the bite of the air

Get louder through “glare” and back off on “street lights”
ducking the glare of streetlights

Big breath here to last all the way through “face”
Chorus:
Back to original speed, smoothly flowing, connect the lines
did I drift into the line of fire?

Build tension, faster, louder
did I happen to pick the wrong time?

more tension Faster, louder
did I wander into the wrong place?

Release the tension, drop volume to a sad, soft wondering voice, original speed
Will I ever see my daughter’s face?

My son? My wife?

angry, but soft
If I win this twisted lottery,

Brief pause then almost a whisper again
send them my love.

Bridge:
Almost sing-songy, like a child’s jump-rope cadence through “in your head”
No scary monster hides under your bed
No evil creature lurks in your closet
when the lights go on that’s just in your head

Pause-Metallica whisper/roar
but this beast is real.

No music, no emotion here
The unseen, unknown loner
just drove in from Tacoma.

You may notice that I didn’t use all of the words in the English list and that I added some of my own. What matters is that you put down on paper a way for you to remember exactly how you want to sing. Practice it that way. Get to the point where you don’t have to look at the paper any more.

If you do this, you’ll connect with your audience in a wonderful new way. You will bridge the gap from wax recording to CD quality.

Then each person in the audience will think you are singing to him or her personally, not at him or her.