As David pointed out in his recent newsletter, it’s going to be Bastille Day again before we know it. Before we let things get that far, I want to share my warmest wishes for this holiday season. Over the past year it’s been my pleasure to correspond with many Guitar Noise users - by email, newsletter, the forums and now this blog. Best wishes to all my online and real world friends.

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 the’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.

I got this note from Jim of Pennsylvania and thought I’d share it with you all:

My joy of music story is of a friendship that has bloomed from music. When I moved to central Pennsylvania I did not know anyone. As I got acclimated to my new job I met some people and eventually the subject of playing music came up. One of the guys invited me to his home to play guitars. The first time we played it was awful, my friend’s sense of timing and hearing a song made it very difficult to play together. Each week we would get together and play the songs and each week he just didn’t improve. It was frustrating but we didn’t give up. Our mantra was, we are here to have fun (knowing neither of us would ever be a professional) so we kept after it.

After a year of playing and not seeing any improvement I got frustrated and said you know this isn’t all that hard you just need to… Well, it was the one thing that finally turned on the light and since that time my friend has made remarkable improvement and we are enjoying our sessions greatly. He thanks me profusely for sticking with him and helping get him to where he is today.

That is not why I am writing this. As I thought of the joy of music, sometimes the music is just a vehicle for better things. As I think of the friendship we have enjoyed, the meals we have eaten together, the things he has introduced me to that I had never experienced, I think how blessed I have been and what I have gained. I have improved my own playing a hundredfold by practicing and playing regularly.

I didn’t what this to be a book, but thanks for making me think about what music has meant. A friend told me a long time ago, don’t ever give up playing music, when everything else is going bad it will never let you down. There is a lot of wisdom in that.

Thanks for writing, Jim! And our best wishes to you and your family and friends this holiday season!

Peace

Hello to all!

Even though we can certainly do it every day all year ’round, there’s something about this particular time of the calendar that makes us reflective. At Guitar Noise, we try to encourage everyone to share their music and their joy of music whenever possible. We even have a whole page devoted to stories on the Joy of Music that we’ve collected from our readers throughout the years.

This year, I’ve ask our readers to once again feel free to chat with us about their experiences and we’ll be posting them here on the Guitar Noise Blog as well as putting some in our newsletters. This one comes from Peter of New York:

Mr. Hodge,

In a busy and often out of my control world I find joy in little improvements. At night the wife and kids are asleep, and I strum and fingerpick and sing the songs I like. Few of the songs are anything I would want others to hear yet, but every once in a while I notice something gets easier, something gets better and it feels really good.

I change the key the song is written into the key I sing in, or figure out where the capo should go, the barred F chord doesn’t sound like pots falling out of a cabinet, my fingers find the right strings for the Bm chord easily after more than a year of struggling, a new fingerpicking pattern takes a song to a new level. I feel I am polishing the songs I sing and discover different facets as my skills/knowledge improve.

To me the joy of music is standing alone in my living room playing something and going “wow… that sounds nice”.

Thanks for “Margarettaville”, “For What it’s Worth”, “Bookends”, “Time After Time” and all of your lessons.

Take care…

Thank you, too, Peter for sharing with us!

And if you’d like to do so, please either post directly here on this thread or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and be sure to include “Joy of Music” in the subject line.

We at Guitar Noise would like to wish each reader, not to mention his and her families and friends, a wonderful and safe holiday season. And thank you again (and always) for having us be a part of your lives.

Peace

We’ve had these for a few years now, but it’s always nice to share scary music stories around Halloween.

Head over to the Music Careers website if you don’t believe that most musicians have scary stories to tell. Scary Stories: Frightening Tales From the Front is a collection of anecdotes of horror and humor from working musicians and bands. Be warned, the stories get kind of weirder as you go along.

Happy Halloween everybody!