Unfortunately, due to David’s busy schedule and travel plans, we’re not able to bring you a new podcast this week.

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.

We’ve got two big pieces of news from our Guitar Noise Forum pages -

First, I’m pleased to announce that the Sunday Songwriters’ Group has just begun its sixth year. The SSG is a weekly workshop that helps songwriters of all skill levels practice their craft by giving weekly assignments for lyric writing. Many truly terrific songs have been written as the result of the assignments given in the past six years.

And, second, in addition to the Sunday Songwriters Group, we’ve just added the Sunday Composers Workshop, which will be devoted to helping songwriters develop their music writing skills. You can find the first assignment here.

I hope you’ll come by and participate in these group programs. We look forward to seeing you and hearing your music!

Peace

Hi to all

We’re currently experiencing a glitch in the Forum pages of Guitar Noise and will hopefully have it fixed soon. Hang in there!

Peace

It really just happened by chance that the fiftieth issue of our current newsletter also falls on another anniversary. It was five years ago this week, that I handed over the reins of Guitar Noise News to David. At the time I was probably complaining that I had too much work to do. It was only with careful optimism that I offered David the extra duties. I kind of expected him to react along the lines of “why would I want to do that?” Fortunately for all of us, he was more than happy to take over. I’m sure he would agree that it has been mostly smooth sailing so far.

In the latest issue, David admits to spending a little too much time mulling over the past five years and their sudden disappearance. I wasn’t even aware of the significance of today’s newsletter until I read it for myself. It got me thinking about things too. While the excellence of every newsletter is entirely the result of David’s efforts, sending each issue is still a team effort. While I get to read it before everyone else, David still might struggle to get it to me on time. We aim for the first and fifteenth of every month, but I’m 12 hours ahead and that feels like someone is always moving the deadline forward on us. When everything is ready to go, I feed the completed newsletter into the server.

Today I tried to recall some of the interesting places I’ve been when sending the newsletter. Aside from the places I’ve called home, there have been countless hours spent in Starbucks and Internet cafes throughout China, Hong Kong, Viet Nam, Pakistan and the United States. Once I spent a week living in an RV in Garden Grove, California and sent at least one issue from there. It really has been a fun ride.

Have you been with us on this long strange trip? Sometimes people forget all about the newsletter. If you signed up at some point but aren’t getting it, try checking your junk mail folder and/or signing up again. If you haven’t signed up yet, you’re missing the excellent “Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow” series. You’re also not getting a round-up of what’s going on with our Forum Findings, Event Horizon and links to all the latest lessons and reviews. And who wouldn’t want to get a free personalized message from David a couple times a month?

Even without subscribing you can always read the latest newsletter at http://www.guitarnoise.com/newsletter.php. On the same page you can also sign-up and find links to all past issues going all the way back to January 2001. So what are you waiting for?

Let me be the first to welcome you to the official Guitar Noise blog. Now you can stay up to date with all the latest site info posted by the Guitar Noise crew. We want to open the lines of communication and interaction a little further, and from now on you’ll learn about changes to the site as we make them. Perhaps the biggest benefit of all, is that you’ll be able to give us your feedback right away. We encourage you to use the comments section and join in the discussion.

My first concern is to keep this blog from being a boring place with site announcements that could just as easily go on the news page. To keep my back covered, I’ve already started inviting guest bloggers to share this space with us. Each of them has their own area of knowledge and expertise and they’ll be chiming in with guitar tips, mini-articles and what-not. Expect to see a variety of posts from some of the Guitar Noise regulars. Sometimes they’ll be informal and brief; others will be more structured. I hope you’ll find everything here useful. I’m not exactly sure what this blog will grow up to to look like, but I can say that it’s all going to be a lot of fun.

In terms of geek-ness you can syndicate this blog feed on a reader. (You are a geek if you know what I just said. I’m a little in doubt myself. :-))

If there is anything you want to see added here please let us know. Leave a comment. One thing to be aware of, is that we’ll be monitoring the comments to keep them free from spam and we’ll remove anything that’s unsuitable for younger, impressionable readers.

This is a much better way to share news and happenings with you. Whenever we have some maintenance to do, or need to ask for your feedback, this will be the place. Don’t forget to add this to your bookmarks and check back often.

Everyone is blogging these days, from David Hodge to David Gilmour and Prince. Hopefully you’ll have as much fun here as we’re going to have.