You may have noticed already that guitar tabs and lyrics have been removed from most of the song lessons. This sometimes makes for confused reading and I’m sorry about that. We’re going to try and fix that. The lessons are still there for you to read, but for now you’ll have to work out the notes and lyrics on your own using the audio files and information in the text. In the cases where published transcriptions can be bought they will certainly make useful accompaniments. If you’re looking to buy guitar tabs from the publishers you should check out our FAQ on Where can I find guitar tab for any song?. There are still several lessons featuring public domain songs, such as our Christmas songs and Celtic arrangements that have been left untouched. And you can always email your questions about any lessons to David who is always happy to get information to people who ask for it.

On the legal side of things, I have been in contact with a copyright lawyer familiar with the issues at stake. His counsel has been very helpful because it has furthered my understanding of copyrights. Unfortunately, the result is not so positive. His advice confirms what I’ve already learned from other website owners who have faced similar takedown letters. Simply put, the MPA can make it prohibitively expensive for us to argue that we’re not copyright infringers. We may have a good argument for fair use and non-infringement, but from a business point of view, it isn’t worth the cost of trying to reach that conclusion.

It’s clear from emails I’ve received that many of you have spent more money on published works of music because of this site. The publishers, however, do not see it that way. Their position is that they are also engaged in creating, publishing and distributing teaching materials using their songs. It’s virtually impossible for them to compete with free and pirated works. To protect their business, lawyers for the MPA are demanding our ISP takes Guitar Noise offline unless we remove the “unauthorized” material or obtain a license to use the material lawfully.

Permanently removing the lyrics and tabs or negotiating a license with the publishers may be our best choices for a way forward.  While we do this, though, understand that we are working at a way of bringing them back within the legal copyright system. This process may take some time, though.

Many of you have written to ask what you can do to help. First of all, there is no petition to sign. It’s also not necessary to begin an online petition against the MPA or NMPA. If you want to voice your opinion you can join us on Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people have been sharing ideas there. You can also comment on this post, join the discussion in the forums or send us an email.

Another thing you can do to help is continue to make people aware that this is happening. We also hope you’ll try and see both sides of the coin. Guitar Noise has always been a place where our users are pretty good about respecting the views of others. Hopefully the discussions on this topic will remain civil.

Finally, whatever your feelings about these issues, take part in the discussion. What is particularly helpful is to explain why and how the Guitar Noise lessons, in their format, has been helpful to you. From its inception, this website has always been about teaching guitar and music and hearing how it has helped you learn can help us make this place even better.

The good news is that, aside from the tabs and lyrics which we’ve removed, Guitar Noise isn’t going away. We’re talking about less than a hundred “unauthorized” guitar tabs. Anyone who’s spent any length of time on the internet knows that isn’t even a drop in the bucket.

We intend to be an even stronger community as all this works itself out.

See you around.

This week NPR ran a story about a website called Invisible People. The site’s owner Mark Horvath was once homeless himself. Now he uses his website to profile people with nowhere to live.

The first video that I watched on the site was a profile of Michael in Denver. Instead of panhandling, Michael plays his guitar for money. Each interview typically ends with the person talking about their three wishes. Making his interview especially memorable, Michael sings his three wishes. It’s a special moment that might make you appreciate some of the people we hear making music even more. Check out the interview here:

The next time you see someone playing guitar for spare change, are you going to be able to give them something? As Mark Horvath writes on his site:

How many people with hope and talent do we pass each day, dismissing them because they have nowhere to call home?

While his success as a “crossover” artist is undeniable, his legacy is still rooted in the blues. In fact, Vaughan is often credited with rescuing blues music from obscurity. Stephen Thomas Erlwine of Allmusic.com explains:

It’s hard to overestimate the impact Stevie Ray Vaughan’s debut, Texas Flood, had upon its release in 1983. At that point, blues was no longer hip, the way it was in the ’60s. Texas Flood changed all that, climbing into the Top 40 and spending over half a year on the charts, which was practically unheard of for a blues recording. Vaughan became a genuine star and, in doing so, sparked a revitalization of the blues.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He got his first instrument, a three string toy guitar from Sears, at age seven. It was replaced by his first electric guitar when he was nine – a hand me down from his older brother Jimmie. Both brothers shared a taste for the music of bluesmen like Albert King and Freddie King as well as Texas blues rocker Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Stevie was particularly drawn to guitarists who mixed blues and rock such as Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack. He later covered songs by both of them. Stevie’s own guitar playing is often compared to Jimi Hendrix, as both guitarists play simultaneous lead and rhythm.

Stevie’s professional life in music began when he dropped out of high school and moved to Austin, Texas. It was here that he cut his teeth playing with different rock bands in bars and clubs before forming his own band with bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. They named themselves after a famous Otis Rush song, and were henceforth known as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. One of the first people to take notice of them was Rolling Stones‘ drummer Charlie Watts, who was given a videotape of the band’s performance at a Texas music festival. That got them a gig to play at a private party for the Rolling Stones in New York

1982 was a huge year for Double Trouble. They were the first unsigned group to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Their performance caught the attention of two famous audience members: David Bowie and Jackson Brown. So impressed by the show, Brown offered the band free recording time at his L.A. studio. In a similar show of admiration, Bowie offered Vaughan a gig playing lead guitar on his new album Let’s Dance. Around this time John Hammond, credited with discovering Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, signed the band to Epic Records. They recorded their debut album, Texas Flood, at Jackson Brown’s studio in less than a week.

By the time Texas Flood was released in 1983, Vaughan was already getting a lot of attention for his work on the Bowie album. Let’s Dance was the biggest selling album of Bowie’s career and he offered Stevie a spot playing lead guitar on his 1983 stadium tour. The job was ultimately turned down so he could tour with Double Trouble instead. The band’s follow-up album, Couldn’t Stand The Weather in 1984, was even more successful. Vaughan and Double Trouble continued touring and added a few new members to the band: Reese Wynans on keyboard and Joe Sublett on saxophone, both newcomers appearing on the next album, Soul to Soul, in 1985. Things slowed somewhat in 1986 with the band releasing a double live album and taking some time off. After recovering from alcohol and drug related problems, Stevie returned with renewed passion and energy in 1989 with the aptly titled In Step.

In Step saw Stevie co-writing songs with a long time friend and fellow Texas musician Doyle Bramhall. Doyle had also struggled with addiction and the pair co-wrote a few songs dealing with recovery such as “Tightrope” and “Wall of Denial.” Stevie recorded another Bramhall penned song about addiction, the acoustic “Life By The Drop.” Bramhall was also involved in Stevie’s next album – a collaboration with his brother Jimmie. Family Style sounded different than previous Vaughan albums as it used neither brothers’ backing band – Double Trouble or Jimmie’s Fabulous Thunderbirds. Working with producer Nile Rogers the result was an album that was not quite a purist blues album, but instead a joyful celebration of the music both brothers grew up listening to.

However, tragedy struck before the album’s scheduled autumn release. On August 26, 1990, after sharing the stage with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray, at Alpine Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin, a helicopter carrying Stevie and four others crashed, killing everyone on board. Stevie was thirty-five years old.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was a one of those musicians that never tried to hide his influences. He proudly reworked the music of Albert King, Jimi Hendrix and many, many others, with cover songs making up a fair share of the songs in his catalog. His legacy continues to influence many of today’s musicians like John Mayer, Kelly Richey, Robert Randolph, Johnny Lang and Doyle Bramhall II. Stevie’s unabashed playing makes his music accessible to more than regular blues audiences. Rock fans and their radio stations embraced his music and opened the door to blues music for a whole new generation of music lovers.

There are many books, DVDs and websites devoted to learning the guitar style of Stevie Ray Vaughan. After learning a few of his signature licks you’ll want to pay attention to capturing his tone. This is explored in detail in the eHow tutorial How to make your guitar tone sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Gibson Myth Busters article Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Massive Tone.

Slash (real name Saul Hudson) was in born in England in 1965. He wouldn’t even have to wait to grow up before getting an inside view of the music industry as his mother, a costume designer, worked for David Bowie (among others) while his father designed album covers for the likes of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. The Hudson family moved to L.A. when Slash was eleven and growing up in Los Angles in the 1970s is about a cool a place as any for a musician to come of age. Riding his BMX around Hollywood, Slash would find himself hanging out at the same playgrounds as other kids like Flea, the future bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Early music influences for Slash included the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, and these bands’ take on American blues music is a prominent feature of Slash’s sound. Taking up guitar himself, Slash quickly abandoned guitar tab and music books to figure things out by ear. One of the first songs he learned to play was “Smoke on the Water.” Later in life he would come to say: “Imitation should remain a stepping stone for a player to find his or her own voice, but it must never become his or her own voice: no one should emulate their heroes to the point of note-for-note mimicry. Guitar is too personal of an expression for that; it should be exactly what it is – a singular extension of the player.” So he probably smiles with a bit of irony when remembering his first band, a Motorhead tribute called Road Crew that he formed in 1983.

Among the other members of Road Crew were his childhood friends Steven Adler and Duff McKagan (who played bass for a brief spell). After Road Crew disbanded, Slash briefly played with another L.A. hard rock/punk band called Black Sheep. They sometimes shared the same bill with a band called Hollywood Rose, who were fronted by a singer calling himself Axl Rose. The pair became friends and they would eventually form a band together. They were joined by bassist Duff McKagan, guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and drummer Steven Adler to form Guns n’ Roses.

Guns n’ Roses spent 1985 and 1986 writing songs and making a name for themselves around the L.A. bar scene. In 1987 they released their first album Appetite for Destruction. The album would become the best selling debut album as well as the fastest selling album of all time. To this date it has sold over 28 million copies. This album is a virtual greatest hits of 1980s hard rock staples like “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City” and that staple of guitar store noodlers everywhere, “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” The band released an EP in 1988 but it would seem an interminable wait for another full length studio album. In 1991 Guns n’ Roses released a pair of new albums on the same date. Use Your Illusion I & II were sprawling and less cohesive albums than Appetite. Still, they produced another torrent of rock radio anthems such as “Civil War,” “November Rain” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” The band’s popularity was underscored by the memorable music video for “You Could Be Mine.” The highly requested MTV video featured Arnold Schwarzenegger from the movie Terminator 2 hunting down members of the band at one of their concerts. (You can check out the video here.)

Guns n’ Roses toured for more than two years on the strength of their continuing album sales. These were turbulent times for the band, and they would only release one more album of cover songs before Slash was out of the band for good. The band today is still fronted by Axl Rose with all new musicians. In 1995 and 2000 Slash released solo albums under the name of Slash’s Snakepit. In 2002, Slash reunited with former Guns n’ Roses pals Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum (Adler’s replacement since 1990). They initially approached Izzy Stradlin who opted out, preferring to stay away from life on the road and his unwillingness to work with a singer again. The band found a willing collaborator in Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots fame. Velvet Revolver, as they were called, released a pair of albums in 2004 and 2007 and is now currently looking for a new singer to replace Weiland who has returned to his former band.

The ups and downs of Slash’s career are chronicled with great detail in his 2007 autobiography simply titled Slash. He writes at great length about growing up in L.A. and his musical influences. He describes playing guitar as a personal experience: “Finding guitar was like finding myself; it defined me, it gave me a purpose. It was a creative outlet that allowed me to understand myself. The turmoil of my adolescence was suddenly secondary; playing guitar gave me focus.”

Slash has a well documented love of Marshall Amps and a collection of over a hundred guitars. Gibson Guitars now sells a Slash Signature model Les Paul which comes close to matching the axe used on Slash’s most famous songs. Slash has also lent his distinctive sound to other artists, including Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Ronnie Wood, Ray Charles and Daughtry. For an unapologetic read on sex drugs and rock and roll, plus a behind the scenes look at a life in rock music, check Slash’s autobiography. You can also find numerous resources online for emulating Slash’s style, including this one on his use of licks and scales and this one on trying to get the right tone.  Lick Library offers some very good tutorial DVDs as well.

This year we introduced a new topic every month as well as a featured artist of the month. A few of those artist profiles made the top ten. We’ll be adding even more featured topics and artist profiles in the new year so keep your eyes open for that.

Happy holidays. Hope to see you all in the new year.

The Guitar Noise Top 10 Lessons from 2009

1. Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s (February 10)
2. Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd (April 11)
3. Lay Lady Lay – Bob Dylan (June 1)
4. Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes (August 31)
5. Dust In The Wind – Kansas (February 6)
6. Behind Blue Eyes – The Who (January 16)
7. Coldplay Guitar Lessons (June 1)
8. While My Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles (April 25)
9. The Beatles (September 1)
10. Easy Guitar Songs by R.E.M. (January 17)

You can also check to see if you missed any of our top articles from 2008 and 2007.

According to the author, this nifty piece of work involves “Over 1000 cuts. 6 hours of guitar tabbing. 1 hour of shooting. God knows how much editing.” It’s already received 30,000 comments and is closing in on 5 million views. Pretty nifty work, if you ask me. We can probably expect to see a few more guitar videos make this list. I’d be surprised if United Breaks Guitars doesn’t turn up somewhere.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuU00Q3RhDg

“Musically, Hendrix did much to further the development of the electric guitar’s repertoire, establishing it as a unique sonic source, rather than merely an amplified version of the acoustic guitar. Likewise, his feedback, wah-wah and fuzz-laden soloing moved guitar distortion well beyond mere novelty, incorporating other effects pedals and units specifically designed for him.” – Wikipedia

As a performer, Hendrix’s flashy persona took center stage and one sometimes has to remember just how talented a musician, writer and producer that he was:

“His frequent hurricane blasts of noise and dazzling showmanship — he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth and set his guitar on fire — has sometimes obscured his considerable gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B, and rock styles.” – All Music Guide

Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington in 1942. After an unstable childhood that involved a bit of moving around he ran afoul of the law and wound up doing a stint in the U.S. army to avoid jail. Freed from his military obligations after a year, he focused on music fulltime. He tried his luck around Tennessee, working on his own as well as backing up numerous blues, R & B and soul artists such as Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. The years he spent in Nashville’s Jefferson Street as well as other cities and venues on the famed “Chitlin’ Circuit” helped establish him as a solid guitarist with great chops. In January 1964, he moved to New York City and a month later won a talent contest at the famed Apollo Theater. This exposure landed him a gig playing lead guitar for The Isley Brothers. As well as touring and recording with The Isleys, he found work with other R&B greats such as Little Richard and King Curtis. Hendrix was later quoted as saying “I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice.”

In 1966 he met Chas Chandler, the former bass player for The Animals, who was looking for an upcoming star to manage. Chandler convinced Hendrix to join him in England where he teamed up with British musicians Noel Redding (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums) to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The band was initially conceived as a backing band for Hendrix, but they quickly took to the power trio model that was working so well for the super group Cream. Their collaboration resulted in three exciting albums that feature some of rock music’s most influential guitar work. Are You Experienced? (1967), Axis: Bold as Love (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968) all rank highly in Rolling Stone magazine’s top 500 albums of all time. The Jimi Hendrix Experience very quickly made a solid impression on England and other parts of Europe, thanks in part to a few famous fans like Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, and The Beatles. On the recommendation of Paul McCartney, The Jimi Hendrix Experience was booked to play the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in California. This wild performance at the outset of the “Summer of Love” catapulted Hendrix to stardom in the United States. The pyrotechnic set ended with the infamous burning and smashing of Hendrix’s guitar during a cover of Wild Thing (a trick he’d been using for a while).

The band’s dramatic rise was not without tension. Noel Redding left the group in 1968. Hendrix became entangled in a series of legal troubles that included contract disputes with various managers and a drug arrest. On August 18, 1969, Hendrix appeared onstage with a new group of collaborators which he dubbed “A Band of Gypsies.” After some delays due to bad weather, the group played before an eagerly awaiting, albeit diminished crowd, at the infamous Woodstock Music Festival. The performance was notable for its “rocket’s red glare, bombs bursting in air” machinegun rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. If ever there was a defining musical moment for the 1960s hippie movement, it was this five minute psychedelic blues improvisation. Hendrix had always maintained an avid interest in the hippie movement and this was to become the iconic moment for which he is most often remembered.

Hendrix himself was, like most people, often paradoxical. While press in America went on and on about his flamboyant shows and guitar stage tricks, Europe quickly got past that stage and lauded him for both his true-to-roots blues arrangements and his pioneering work with multi-tracking and use of effects (he bought his first wah-wah pedal from Manny’s Music in New York immediately after meeting Frank Zappa there in the summer of 1967), playing the studio itself as a musical instrument. While constantly touring, he managed to create over three hundred unreleased recordings. He was also a big admirer of Bob Dylan. Not only did he cover Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, but he probably also took a cue from Dylan when considering his legendary hairstyle.

A light that burns twice as bright often burns half as long. Tragically, Jimi Hendrix was found dead on September 18, 1970 under circumstances that have never been fully explained, though a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol are often listed as causes. A bit too much is often made of the fact that Hendrix died at the age of twenty-seven, the same age as other notable music icons of his era. Understandably, Jimi Hendrix’s image has taken on an iconic stature (we even used his image as part of our site for years until we learned that was a no-no), but nothing really overshadows his musical achievements. Endless praise is often heaped on him for his innovations and contributions to popular music, but it should never be forgotten that he also created simple, beautiful melodies. Three minute songs like Purple Haze, Little Wing, The Wind Cries Mary, If 6 Was 9, Rainy Day Dream Away and Angel will always be as memorable as they are incomparable.

A new Jimi Hendrix album of twelve unreleased studio recordings is due out in 2010. Valleys Of Neptune includes Hendrix’s inspired interpretations of “Bleeding Heart” by Elmore James and Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love.”

In the near thirty years since his death, Bob Marley’s popularity hasn’t waned. His greatest hits album, Legend, has sold over twenty million copies, making him reggae music’s most recognizable and possibly best-loved ambassador. His music combines deceptively simple chord and melody structure with an intricately layered rhythm and adds a social message that reveals much more than the day-to-day struggles of poverty that inspired it.

Bob Markey was born on February 6, 1945 in a rural Jamaican village. The son of a middle-aged white man and a teenage black woman, Marley endured racism and prejudice as a child. Although absent most of the time, Marley’s father provided financial support for his family until his sudden death when Marley was only ten. The family was forced to move to a slum area of Kingston, Jamaica known as Trenchtown. This is where young Marley’s musical life first intersected with fellow reggae musicians Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. Marley’s earliest recorded songs were a pair of singles recorded in 1962 that attracted little attention until they appeared on a box set released after his death.

Teaming up with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh and calling themselves the Wailers, the group was joined by producer Lee “Scratch” Perry for a short-lived but successful musical relationship. Their first major label album, Catch a Fire (1973), boasted the song “Stir It Up.” The following year they released Burnin’ with the classic songs “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” The latter song launched Marley to worldwide fame after Eric Clapton scored a hit with it in 1974. Around the same time the three core members of the Wailers broke up, with Marley going his own way. He continued to record under the name “Bob Marley and The Wailers” and it wasn’t long before he produced an international hit of his own with “No Woman No Cry” in 1975.

In 1976 Marley moved to England to record two of his most successful albums: Exodus and Kaya. These albums may have been recorded at the same time but they present very different material. The songs on Exodus reveal a more urgent political message while Kaya features more laid back music exploring the universal topics of love and spirituality. Notable songs from these albums are “Exodus”, “Jamming”, “Waiting in Vain”, “Is This Love” and “Satisfy My Soul”.

Marley’s next pair of albums dealt further with politics (Survival, 1979) and religion (Uprising, 1980). Uprising closes with the ballad “Redemption Song,” celebrated by solo guitar players everywhere. Marley’s final album of new material, Confrontation, was released in 1983, two years after he died from cancer.

Bob Marley was only thirty-six at the time of his death in 1981. He was given a state funeral in Jamaica and buried near his birthplace. In 1999 Time magazine chose Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century, saying:

Every song is a classic, from the messages of love to the anthems of revolution. But more than that, the album is a political and cultural nexus, drawing inspiration from the Third World and then giving voice to it the world over

The same could be said of Bob Marley’s whole body of music. It’s hard to imagine another musician that has crossed as many cultural boundaries and united so many people under the banner of music.

Ever heard of Woodstock? Barely a month after the first moonwalk, a farm near Woodstock, New York played host to the most infamous rock festival of the hippie generation. Some of the bands that performed may be lost on today’s audiences, but it’s hard to think of guitarist Jimi Hendrix and not consider his Woodstock rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. Other bands that made names for themselves at the three day festival include Santana, Janis Joplin, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Two notable bands from the San Francisco area made appearances at the festival: Creedence Clearwater Revival who was enjoying the success of Bad moon Rising and The Grateful Dead who had just released their experimental album Aoxomoxoa.

While Woodstock is often given the label of “peace and love,” the Grateful Dead would pull out of a similar festival near their hometown later in the year. The Altamont Speedway Free Festival at a west coast speedway was to include the Grateful Dead but they refused to play because of increasing violence at the show. The audience outbursts and fighting would rattle but not deter the show’s headlining band The Rolling Stones. The show became the band’s most notorious after a fan was stabbed to death by a member of the Hell’s Angel for brandishing a revolver during Sympathy for the Devil. Much of their performance was captured in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter.

Over in England, newcomers Led Zeppelin released their first two albums in 1969. Led Zeppelin I appeared in January with such classics as Communication Breakdown and Dazed and Confused. In October they followed it up with Led Zeppelin II which featured Whole Lotta Love and Heartbreaker among others.

Although it wouldn’t be announced until the following year, The Beatles decided to disband in 1969. In January they performed their last concert on the roof of their Apple headquarters in London. They would also release two classic albums that year: Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road. Most of their final album Let It Be was also recorded in 1969. While still a member of the Beatles, John Lennon traveled to Montreal with his wife Yoko Ono for a Bed-In protest. The couple spent seven days at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and invited their guests to join them for the recording of Give Peace a Chance.

Meanwhile back in England, a musician by the name of David Bowie released his first single which shot to the top of the charts.  Space Oddity dealt with, of all things, a spaceman and was used by the BBC during their coverage of the moon landings. Is there a more topical song for the ups and downs of 1969 than a man in space? To commemorate this historic day, why not check out David’s excellent lesson on the R.E.M. song Man on the Moon.

If you make a mistake it’s up to you to fix things. This is now true for corporations more than ever before. You may spend millions of dollars building a corporate image but most people are going to go along with what they read on Twitter and see on Youtube. Get on the wrong side of a journalist and they’ll probably write about it. In the case of musician Dave Carroll, he wrote a song about how United Airlines broke his guitar and refused to accept resonsibility. It’s too late for me to change my ticket for next week, but at least I know to leave my guitar at home.

If you haven’t seen it already on CNN or elsewhere, here is the video for “United Breaks Guitars” from Dave Carroll.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

A four piece band, the members of Coldplay met while they were students at the University College London in 1996. Their first album, Parachutes, was released in 2000 and includes the songs Yellow, Trouble and Don’t Panic. The album climbed the charts quickly in the U.K. but had a slower rise in the U.S., which may have been helped by the inclusion of Don’t Panic on the Garden State soundtrack.

That same year the band began their first headlining tour and appeared at the Glastonbury Festival. By 2002 they had released their second album A Rush of Blood to the Head which featured the popular songs In My Place, Clocks, The Scientist and God Put A Smile Upon Your Face. Their highly anticipated third album, X & Y in 2005, finds the band exploring signature guitar riffs on songs like Talk and Fix You. Guitars also feature prominently on their next album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends in 2008. The song Violet Hill has perhaps the band’s loudest crunching riff while the title track Viva la Vida is the first Coldplay song to top the charts in both the U.S. and U.K. In terms of new direction Viva La Vida is comparable to what U2 did with Achtung Baby in 1991. This isn’t surprising as both albums are produced in part by Brian Eno.

Coldplay for Guitar

In terms of style, Coldplay are comparable to bands like U2, Oasis and Radiohead. As a four piece band many of their arrangements rely on melodic guitar riffs and piano melodies. We have two lessons on Coldplay songs, God Put A Smile Upon Your Face and Don’t Panic.

Don’t let the intermediates tag discourage you from trying out our cool single-guitar arrangement of Don’t Panic, the opening song from Coldplay’s Parachutes CD (also featured in the Garden State Soundtrack).

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face is another very easy song to learn. We use our easy songs for beginners lesson to throw in some material on drones, moveable chord voicings and capos! It’s also an excellent start to working with open C# tuning.

The Allmusic.com website has this to say about Dylan:

Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable. As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting, from confessional singer/songwriter to winding, hallucinatory, stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the notion that a singer must have a conventionally good voice in order to perform, thereby redefining the vocalist’s role in popular music. As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop music, including electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And that just touches on the tip of his achievements.

Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941, Bob Dylan has released over sixty albums and compilations. During his rise to prominence in the early 1960s, he became more than a household name with folk-inspired songs like Blowin’ In The Wind and The Times They Are A Changin’. His early popularity and appeal almost ran contrary to the popular music of the time. While rock bands like the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and pop groups like the Beach Boys and the music coming out of Motown all were coming into their own, Dylan crafted folk tales that consisted of simple acoustic guitar arrangements and harmonica. The sudden popularity of his topical and socially-conscious music forever associated him with the civil rights movement and counter-culture of the era. By his early twenties, Dylan’s brand of folk-rock achieved commercial and artistic success that surpassed even that of his own musical idols Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.

It’s hard to believe how fiercely he was criticized when he introduced electric instruments into his music in 1965. Highway 61 Revisited, released that very year, opens with the legendary six- minute song Like a Rolling Stone, which if anything signals the end of Dylan’s career as a protest singer and rebirth as rock n’ roll singer with something to say. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine chose this song as the greatest song of all time, saying that “No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and conventions of its time.” Touring at this time, Dylan divided his concerts into two sets: a solo acoustic performance, followed by a raucous electric set which featured Ronnie Hawkins’ band the Hawks, who would soon rename themselves as The Band. At times the electric set would be jeered by fans that still preferred to hear the acoustic folk music.

Over the course of the 1970s Dylan released more than ten albums, including Before The Flood, a double live album documenting his tour with The Band. He had recorded extensively with The Band in the late sixties writing several albums worth of music, some of which would eventually appear on The Basement Tapes. Dylan also worked with George Harrison, first appearing on Harrison’s debut solo album with If Not For You and later taking part in the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971.

Showing an interest in other arts, Dylan appeared in the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. While the film is recognized as a one of director Sam Peckinpah’s major works, it’s often remembered for the music Dylan supplied the soundtrack, especially the sublime Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. This soundtrack album is often overlooked in light of the huge successes that followed. In 1975 Dylan released something of a comeback album, with the deeply personal Blood on the Tracks. The album was a critical and commercial success with the songs Tangled Up In Blue, Simple Twist of Fate and Shelter From the Storm (all available as song lessons on Guitar Noise).

Sometime in the late 1970s Dylan announced he was a born again Christian and subsequently released a trilogy of spiritually themed albums. Among them was 1979’s Slow Train Coming which features guitar work by Dire Straits front man Mark Knopfler. The song Gotta Serve Somebody was a hit and won a Grammy award. Dylan again enlisted Mark Knopfler in 1983 to produce the album Infidels. This album is generally seen as Dylan’s return to secular music, although songs like Jokerman still contain biblical and religious references. If anything, the song melds Dylan’s socially conscious folk roots with a spiritual rebel message.

Constant touring throughout the 1980s may have helped Dylan lighten up. He played with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood at the end of the Live Aid concert in 1985; toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, releasing a live album, Dylan and the Dead, commemorating the occasion; and reunited with George Harrison to become a member of The Traveling Wilburys in 1988. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Dylan continued to release strong albums that ventured into different musical territories, such as folk, blues, rockabilly and swing – almost anything distinctly American. In 2005, a Martin Scorsese documentary, No Direction Home, dissected Dylan’s life and music from 1961 to 1966. Dylan released the eighth installment of his bootleg series entitled Tell-Tale Signs in 2008. The twenty-plus songs consist of outtakes and rare songs recorded between 1989 and 2006. His most recent album, Together Through Life, was released in April 2009.

Born in Toronto, Neil Young began his music career in Winnipeg, Manitoba working in folk clubs where he crossed paths with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Randy Bachman and Stephen Stills. After a record deal with Motown fell through, he relocated to Los Angeles, and met up with Stephen Stills to form the band Buffalo Springfield. Although short-lived, the band scored a hit with the classic song For What It’s Worth. Young’s songwriting contribution to Buffalo Springfield included Expecting to Fly, Broken Arrow, I Am a Child, On the Way Home and Mr. Soul. He followed Buffalo Springfield with a series of solo albums, sometimes with the backing band Crazy Horse (three musicians whom Neil recruited from the band The Rockets). His second album, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” opens with Cinnamon Girl and also features the lengthy jam tracks Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand. In 1969, Neil reunited briefly with Stephen Stills by joining Crosby, Stills and Nash – forcing the group to change their name rather than working as their sideman. They appeared together as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Woodstock and recorded one album together as a quartet, Déjà vu, which features Neil’s ballad Helpless.

Neil then recorded and released a series of solo albums that heavily favored country-folk sensibilities. Harvest from 1971 includes some of his most famous songs, such as The Needle and the Damage Done and Heart of Gold. Neil felt that Heart of Gold was a song that put him smack in the middle of the road, and he took a characteristic sharp turn for what he called “the ditch.” He followed the hugely successful Harvest with darker sounding electric albums like Tonight’s The Night, On The Beach and Zuma (performed with the re-formed Crazy Horse).

For much of his career Neil has alternated between acoustic and electric based albums. The 80s saw a period of experimentation in guitar noise, rockabilly and electronic music. At one point, he was even sued by his own record company for making music that didn’t sound enough like “Neil Young”. He returned to the forefront of rock music in 1989 with Freedom, one of his strongest albums to date. In the 90s he would become known as the “godfather of grunge” for his distinctive electric style on albums like Ragged Glory and Sleeps with Angels. Fans of his lighter acoustic material were pleased with his returned to acoustic prominence during the unplugged fad of the 90s with Harvest Moon and Unplugged . In 2005 Neil had a near death experience due to a brain aneurysm. After recovering, he released Prairie Wind which contains eight songs he wrote prior to undergoing medical treatment. Jonathon Demme’s film, Heart of Gold, documents the premiere public concerts for Prairie Wind, performed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

Neil recently toured in support of his latest album Chrome Dreams II, which is reminiscent of albums like Freedom and Rust Never Sleeps, touching on both lighter acoustic material and longer jam style songs. He also remains busy releasing live performances from his extensive catalog. This year will see the release of a long awaited archives project and the new album Fork In The Road.

Neil Young Guitar Style

For those of you interested in making some real guitar noise, we have lessons on many of Neil Young’s most popular songs, complete with guitar tab and MP3 files. Neil Young’s work generally falls into one of two distinct styles: folky-acoustic rock (as in Harvest Moon, Old Man, and Heart of Gold), or feedback laden hard rock (Cinnamon Girl, Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) and Rockin’ in the Free World). You will find several of these songs arranged here.

Easy Songs for Beginners

Beginners will appreciate the simplicity of the two chord song For What It’s Worth. In our arrangement we use this old Buffalo Springfield classic to learn a new strumming technique and figure out how to get a cool percussive rhythm sound.

Neil Young’s songs are relatively easy to learn yet still complicated enough to help you hone your skills. From 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps, Hey Hey, My My (or is it My My, Hey Hey?) can be played on both the electric and acoustic.

Neil Young’s Heart of Gold is a classic guitar-harmonica song. Take a four chord song, add a few simple touches, and you’ll be amazed how cool you sound!

Old Man is a fun and easy song from Harvest that you can learn in practically no time at all and still spend ages on practicing in order to get the kinds of sounds you want. Songs like this never get old.

Harvest Moon is a classic Neil Young tune. Have fun learning something about chord voicing, strumming, Drop D tuning and even a little ear training on the side. This lesson includes a bonus MP3 for all you twelve-string guitar players.

Songs for Intermediates

The Neil Young classic Like A Hurricane lends itself nicely to learning how to integrate a song’s melody into your strumming. In this lesson we’ll also work on arpeggios and partial chord picking.

The Needle and the Damage Done is one of Neil Young’s best loved acoustic songs. On the surface, there’s not an awful lot to this short, yet powerfully moving song. Because of the structure of the song, it’s very much up to the single guitarist to make this an interesting arrangement. And that’s what we’ll do with an arrangement that is interesting, challenging and also gives us some things that we can use in our every day guitar playing.

Here’s a short lesson on After The Gold Rush that uses the chord melody approach to come up with a nice song arrangement that you can play either as a chord melody or as a single guitar accompaniment for a singer (or yourself).

Let’s take Cinnamon Girl to look at alternate tunings and a song with an instantly recognizable and catchy riff.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

As a guitar teacher, would you say that you’re making a significant contribution to your students’ playing?

My contributions aren’t so much contributions as they are me just being me. I run into more people than I care to say who will tell me, “Oh yeah, I used to play an instrument. I used to make music.” And that, to me, is possibly the saddest thing one could ever hear. So, as a guitar teacher my goal isn’t even to turn someone into a professional guitarist. I simply hope that I can give my students a gift that will be with them throughout their lives, a gift that they in turn can share with others. I will give them what tools I can to achieve their goals, but ultimately it’s all about the contribution they are going to make to the world. I’m just a very small part of that.

Read the complete interview on Jemsite here: The Guitar Hero Series: David Hodge

And congratulations to David for receiving recognition for being a Guitar Hero. Indeed you are. We look forward to many more great things from you. Again.

Pink Floyd formed in London in 1965 when Syd Barrett moved down from Cambridge and joined fellow musicians Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Rick Wright. The band’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was released in 1967. Due to increasingly erratic behavior, Barrett would only remain with the band for another year. He was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour in 1968. The band spent the next few years recording film scores and albums that were more psychedelic experiments than the songs of Piper. The group would eventually cast aside their psychedelic works for stronger songwriting and achieved their first real commercial success with Dark Side of the Moon in 1973. It was followed by Wish You Were Here in 1975 and The Wall in 1979.

During these years bassist Roger Waters exerted more creative control over the band. While each member of Pink Floyd can be found with songwriting credits on Dark Side of the Moon (Mason has a credit on “Time”) and Wright has numerous contributions on Wish You Were Here, Waters is the principle songwriter on The Wall, although you will find Gilmour collaborated on the music of Young Lust, Run Like Hell, and Comfortably Numb. This phase culminated with Waters being the sole credited songwriter credit on the 1983 album The Final Cut, which proved to his last record with the band.

After a lengthy legal dispute concerning the use of the band’s name, Pink Floyd returned with David Gilmour at the helm, releasing two albums and touring successfully in the 80s and 90s. Pink Floyd’s final studio album was The Division Bell in 1994. The band reunited briefly in 2005 to perform at the Live 8 concert. Syd Barret died in Cambridge in 2006. In September 2008, keyboardist Rick Wright died at the age of 65. David Gilmour credited Wright with having a huge influence on the overall Pink Floyd sound.

Pink Floyd for Guitar

David Gilmour’s distinctive guitar style is often regarded as the most familiar aspect of the Pink Floyd sound. It’s instantly recognizable for its economy and tone and his gift of melodic phrasing is still influencing guitarists all over the world.

Guitar Noise features several lessons on the music of David Gilmour and Pink Floyd. If you’re going to play an emotionally charged song, you can’t hide behind a single strumming pattern. Comfortably Numb is one of the highlight songs from The Wall and we have arranged it for a single guitar, using many strumming and crosspicking techniques we’ve gone over in our Guitar Noise Podcast series.

For the solo acoustic guitarist there is a two part lesson on Wish You Were Here. The first part of Wish You Were Here gives beginners a step by step lesson on getting the strumming pattern to sound natural.

Part two picks up where the first part leaves off. It’s aimed more at intermediate players and deals with the intro solo. The solo at the beginning of Wish You Were Here uses four basic guitar techniques: hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and bends.

More ambitious students might like to look at Wish You Were Here arranged for two guitars in the lesson Applied Science. While actually a lot simpler than it sounds, this lesson covers alternate tuning, alternate chord voicings and basic leads and fills.

Absolute beginner might want to take a stab at Brain Damage / Eclipse from Dark Side of the Moon. This lesson takes very basic chords and adds a very simple strumming and picking pattern.

Those interested in alternate tunings and a challenge should take a look at the lesson Cover Story. This lesson looks at how to use alternate tunings as a tool for arranging imaginative versions of people’s songs and coming up with wild interpretations of old familiar tunes. Included is a solo acoustic version of the Pink Floyd song Take It Back.

Students of the bass guitar will want to try out Money – Bass Guitar Lesson. Learning how to play this classic Pink Floyd song is as easy as counting to seven (and occasionally eight)!

Our latest series of additions includes links to our favorite social networking sites. Most of these sites are probably here to stay. They also do a better job than we do of following the changing tides of technology. Best of all, they will help put you in touch with one another. This can only be a good thing as you all share the common goal of becoming better guitar players.

Here is a quick run down of the social networking sites we’re a part of:

Twitter – Sometimes you can’t see it, but there’s always a lot of activity going on behind the scenes at Guitar Noise. Some of you may wish to receive rapid updates on different devices and that’s where Twitter comes in. We’ve already been tweeting about some of the daily happenings at Guitar Noise for a few months now. Twitter updates can be a little annoying when they’re overdone, so if you follow us on Twitter it’s unlikely there’ll be more than one update a day – unless there is something big going on. You can follow us here.

Facebook – Since Facebook is already the largest and most time-consuming social networking site, we thought we’d set up a fan page here. Regular members of our forums will like putting a face to some of their online friends. As time goes on we’ll continue adding new photos, posting news items and videos – and you can do the same. It will be updated regularly with links to our latest lessons and podcasts and even the latest issue of Guitar Noise News. Come on by and sign in as a fan!

Myspace – Everyday my inbox is bombarded with requests from bands asking me to listen to their music. All these bands have Myspace pages and the days of receiving a CD in the mail are most definitely nearly over. Head over to our Myspace profile and you can listen to some of our favorite bands, music we’ve reviewed and even music uploaded by Guitar Noise members. If you’re into that, check out the Guitar Noise Myspace page and start sharing your music.

RSS Feeds – We’ve been using RSS feeds for our lessons since last summer. By subscribing to these feeds, you won’t have to keep hitting refresh or visit the home page to see what’s new. Every time something new is posted you’ll be notified automatically. This can be done through most web browsers, it’s easy to set up and costs nothing to use. Find out more about how syndication works or subscribe to our feed.

Keep an eye out for any of the above icons on our site. From there you’ll be able to join us in different locations around the web. We hope to see you there. We also hope you’ll bring your brings too.

We’re giving away 3 copies of Len Collins’ Guitar Breakthrough. What is that, you ask? Guitar Breakthrough is a 2 DVD set of guitar lessons unlike anything else you have ever seen. We’ve already reviewed Guitar Breakthrough on Guitar Noise, with David Hodge calling it “a breath of fresh air.” We have 3 copies to give away to our readers. This contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. All you have to do is send an email to contest@guitarnoise.com and answer one simple question. The question is: “What is the name of the studio where the Guitar Breakthrough DVD was filmed?”

The best place to find the answer to that is over on the Guitar Breakthrough website. The deadline for entries is March 18, 2009. Good luck.

If you haven’t heard of Len Collins yet, he’s the brains behind First.stop.for.musicians, a new social networking event bringing together guitar players and students of all ages and levels, giving them a chance to meet in a relaxed environment and share their ideas about music. Best of all, this is a free project open to anyone. You can get the latest news on First.stop. for.musicians. on the Guitar Breakthrough site as well.

Update: Contest winners have been notifed. Congratulations to Dave, Steve and Tony.

Being romantic doesn’t have to be all bad. This year, to make things better, our friends at Amazon.com are giving away a free MP3 download of perhaps the sexiest song ever. There’s no obligation whatsoever, click here and download “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye for free. This offer expires at midnight on Valentine’s Day.

I’m not going to be shy about this. I know what I’m talking about when I say Marvin Gaye has some of the best music ever when it comes maintaining the right mood. It’s up to you to find someone and create that mood; but once all the participants are in place, a Marvin Gaye playlist will serve you well.

I know a lot of Guitar Noise regulars aren’t big on R&B and Soul. But if you’re ready to branch out, I personally recommend the Marvin albums What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On. From start to finish these albums get the job done. You also can’t go wrong with a Marvin Greatest Hits package either. And if you’re not sure about any of this, why not download the quintessential Valentine’s Day song Let’s Get In On for free?

There were plenty of changes during the past year. We moved our lessons to a new content management system. This is already making our work easier. We also changed the look of our site yet again. On top of that we had to upgrade our server unexpectedly and things have been running pretty smoothly since.

Perhaps the most fun addition to Guitar Noise this past year is the Guitar Noise Podcast, hosted by none other than David Hodge. David is perhaps the nicest guitar teacher in the New England area. All his hard work and occasional perfectionism should encourage us all to do better at whatever it is we are doing. And enjoy doing it too!

Let’s end the year by looking back. Here’s a list of the our most popular lessons published in 2008:

1. Help! – The Beatles (June 8 )
2. Brain Damage / Eclipse – Pink Floyd (April 1)
3. Man on the Moon – R.E.M. (November 17)
4. As Tears Go By – The Rolling Stones (January 1)
5. How To Play Simple Chords On Keyboard And Guitar (July 17)
6. Choosing Colors – Turning Scales into Solos – Part 1 (June 23)
7. Silver Bells (December 1)
8. The First Noel (November 24)
9. One Note At A Time – Turning Scales into Solos – Part 2 (July 1)
10. Targeting a Mode – Turning Scales into Solos – Part 6 (December 15)

I want to wish you all a very happy and successful new year! I’m looking forward to a great 2009 and hope to continue seeing you all, wherever you are.

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

Not only does Will have the virtuoso guitar leads, he also has something that a lot of guitarists don’t… composition skills. Well, I discussed with him at length about his playing techniques and his approaches to creativity.

After about an hour of being totally impressed with how this guy creates such compelling guitar music, I also discovered what a great teacher he was.

So today, I want to share a video with you where Will teaches how one of the most successful rock bands in the world, uses different scale modes for creating compelling and record-selling rock music. It’s a 12 minute video where he explains how Rush uses modes in their songwriting.

Will’s insight to using modes creatively is also at the core of his success as an instrumental guitar recording artist. Don’t miss this one.

Here’s the guitar lesson video link.

Think “guitar lesson blog.” Lead editor, senior columnist, and Acoustic Guitar contributor David Hodge is responsible for much of Guitar Noise’s content, which includes a wealth of song transcriptions, technical playing advice, and other tips for getting the most out of your favorite instrument.

I’m always happy to see the site’s name and the names of my friends in print. You can check out the online version of the article on Acoustic Guitar Central or shuffle on down to your local newstand and pick up the November 2008 issue of Acoustic Guitar.

In the two years that the guitar has been in discussion, a number of prototypes have been produced, and the final version was only approved when David was happy that all elements combined to make a sound that was as close as possible to his own guitar’s. The ‘Black Strat’ comes in a hard case (by G&G) stuffed with extras: Phil Taylor’s ‘Black Strat’ book, a set of GHS David Gilmour Boomer strings, a copy of the 3-disc version of Live In Gdańsk, a cable by Evidence Audio, a deluxe Fender leather strap, and a David Gilmour plectrum. The interior of the case is a plush green, including embroidered David Gilmour and Fender Custom Shop logos.

That definitely sounds like something I’d like to see under my Christmas tree this year. Is it even worth dropping hints?

In less than two months we’ve added six podcasts. I think that makes this a good time to review what we’ve covered so far. Please keep your comments coming as they help us along the way.

Our next podcast will be available on April 28.

EVEN though Nazareth, Pa., isn’t quite the holy city its namesake is, pilgrims with a musical bent still go there every weekday in search of a potentially spiritual experience. They head to a quaint brick building, lured by the promise of taking a tour at the C. F. Martin & Company guitar factory.

More than 200 guitars are made at Martin each day, many more than when the company first opened in New York City in 1833 (it moved to Nazareth in 1839). But for any guitar player or music lover, getting to see the basic stages in the creation of a Martin moves them powerfully, putting some in touch with emotions they might have thought too inaccessible to be reached.

It’s well worth reading the rest. Check it out here: A Journey to the Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, Pa.

Something like ten years in the making, Gibson has released – in limited supply – the Robot Guitar. Basically, it’s a guitar that uses digital technology to tune itself. It can also do some altered tunings so it’s not just a one-note pony. This $2500 guitar can also assist the owner with fixing intonation problems.

Who really needs a robot guitar? If you can design a guitar that tunes itself, why not one that plays itself too? It’s kind of like a car that doesn’t need a driver. It takes all the fun out of going down to the music store to buy strings.

1. Folsom Prison Blues / Your Cheating Heart by David Hodge, published February 15
2. Time After Time by David Hodge, published March 19
3. O Come All Ye Faithful by David Hodge, published December 6
4. Making Practice A Success – Part 1 by Tom Hess, published March 31
5. If You Could Read My Mind by Allan Abbott, published April 14
6. Connecting The Dots (Part 1) by David Hodge, published September 7
7. Children’s Music: Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes by Doug Sparling, published May 15
8. How To Read and Perform Music on the Guitar – Part 2 by Peter Simms, published March 29
9. How to Read and Perform Music – Part 3 by Peter Simms, published June 3
10. On the Other Hand – Mastering Your Chord Changes by Josh Urban, published September 9

See what else is hot on the Guitar Noise Top 100!

AC/DC is one band that is still bucking the trend. You can download all of their songs online; but only from Verizon’s music service. The song You Shook Me All Night Long is available as a single track download – the rest of the catalog is only available as complete albums.

I can understand why a band would prefer their music to be downloaded in album form. What I can’t agree with though, is the necessity of signing up with Verizon, opening an account, and installing their software. I like AC/DC and I want to download more of their albums, but this arrangement just doesn’t suit me.

It’s a miscalculation on the part of the band. Digital music is something that makes fans want to update their collections. Now that music piracy is on the decline in the United States, it’s obvious that services like iTunes have already caught on. This year Amazon launched their own music download service. It’s something that’s here to stay. The more choices consumers have, the more music the band will sell. And that means lots of happy fans.

For now, it’s still more convenient to get pirated versions of all the AC/DC albums. Here’s hoping the band will do something about it in 2008.

Footnote: some of my facts for this article were gleaned from AC/DC Bypasses iTunes: Should Apple Care?

It’s my belief that this is generally a good time of year for musicians. Not only do most people get a short break from work and school, but there are often more chances to spend time with family and friends. Those who can’t get together with other musicians and jam, may at least get a little extra time with their guitars. It seems that there are always a few hours to kill on Christmas Day between opening presents and carving the turkey. Past experience suggests that Christmas and New Year’s are the two busiest days on Guitar Noise. Perhaps some of you will be logging in to wish your friends all the best.

While I sincerely hope that each of you has a great holiday, it’s also that time of year to remember that not everyone in the world is as lucky as most of us are. There are plenty of people and organizations out there that make being charitable fairly easy and straightforward.

Fans of YouTube guitar videos may already know about Justin Sandercoe and his website justinguitar.com. This Christmas, Justin and his girlfriend are traveling to Ghana to volunteer in an orphanage. They are paying the entire cost of the trip with their own money but have been accepting donations through Justin’s site. The money raised will be used to buy musical instruments for the kids. Justin wrote to tell me that they have collected enough money for the instruments, and with the leftover money they’ll be able to make a real difference in the village they’re staying in. Any extra money they collect is going to be used to build a new well, buy beds for the orphanage as well as new medical kits.

If you’re feeling good this holiday season, why not stop buy Justin’s site, check out some of the free guitar guitar videos, and read more about his plans to spend Christmas in Ghana.

Never mind that there is now a Guitar Hero III; and never mind how mind-numbing and time-wasting this is; most importantly, never mind that this won’t help your guitar playing in the least – sometimes you just have to say “so what!”

Here’s a free version of Guitar Hero II that you can play online. Have fun with it. The game: Guitar Hero II.

Big Warning: those of you trying to sneak in a few games a work, this blasts out some loud rock tunes at the startup. The mute button is in the game screen’s top right corner if your boss is within earshot.

Dan is the brains and fingers behind Lead Guitar Secrets and Blues Guitar Secrets, which we’ve had special offers on before. Today Dan is releasing his next series of DVD guitar lessons called Acoustic Guitar Secrets. I haven’t watched all 5 DVDs yet, but I’m looking forward to getting more into it. Even if it’s a bit too beginner for me, I always learn something new from Dan’s books and DVDs.

To enter the contest for the Martin acoustic guitar go to Dan’s blog here. Go here to get your copy of Acoustic Guitar Secrets, which is being released today.

Update: I should have mentioned that this contest closes at midnight Dec. 14. Get your entries in right away.

Update 2: This contest is now closed to entries. Over 500 people entered, with many GN readers getting in last minute entries. Please let us know if you win; I may want to come over to your house and try the Martin.