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Newsletter Vol. 3 # 109 – March 1, 2010

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

Avoiding Avoidance
by Gerald Klickstein

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

Improve Your Guitar Teaching
by Tom Hess

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

Solving Timing and Rhythm Problems – Part 1
by Nick Minnion

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for March 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 25)

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

Here’s a run using our sub:

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

Thanks for reading.

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

Event Horizon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 108 – February 15, 2010

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

Auto Correct In Guitar Practice
by Jamie Andreas

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

Pentamodal Idea
by Paul Tauteroff

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

The Ears Have It
by David Hodge

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for February 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 24)

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

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

Let’s do a run with Gm7b5

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

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

Emails? We Get Emails!

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

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

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

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

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

1) Is it frustrating?

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

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

2) Do you need a degree from college?

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

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

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

4) Would a degree help you get better?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope this helps and good luck to you!

Peace

Event Horizon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 107 – February 1, 2010

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

How To Practice For Maximum Guitar Speed
by Tom Hess

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

Respecting Others While You Practice
by Mark Mills

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

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

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for February 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 23)

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

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

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

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

And this descending run.

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Event Horizon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 106 – January 15, 2010

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons And Articles

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

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

Hello In There
Songs for Intermediates #29
by David Hodge

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for January 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 22)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Dear David,

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

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

Much appreciated,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Event Horizon

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 105 – January 1, 2010

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

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

New Lessons and Articles

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

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

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

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

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

Banana Pancakes
Easy Songs for Beginners # 42
by David Hodge

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 21)

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Event Horizon

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

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

Not So Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 104 – December 17, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

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

Soon-To-Be New Lessons and Articles

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

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 20)

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Event Horizon

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

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

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

Soon-To-Be Reviews

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 103 – December 1, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

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

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

Teaching Chords to Beginning Guitar Students
by Tom Hess

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

Away In A Manger
by David Hodge

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 19)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hi Dave,

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

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

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

Again, your analysis/tutorial is top-notch!

Hello

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

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

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

I look forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Reviews

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 102 – November 16, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the middle of November!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

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

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

Practicing Performance
by Gerald Klickstein

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

How to Make A Great Guitar Solo
by Tom Hess

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

Sailing to Philadelphia
Songs for Intermediates
by David Hodge

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for November 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 19)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hello!

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

Hi!

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

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

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

Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Reviews

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

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

Event Horizon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 101 – November 1, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

IN THIS ISSUE:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

What A Wonderful World
by Hank Stupi

Here is Hank’s second Guitar Noise lesson, an accompaniment to “What a Wonderful World” as performed by Louis Armstrong. He draws on some of the ideas used in his first arrangement, “Smile”, and provides some nice movement in the bass line. Since this is an accompaniment arrangement designed to support vocals, most of the chord voicings will incorporate the melody note on the upper strings.

Hush Little Baby
by Brandon Carrasco

Creating chord melody arrangements can be addictive! And you can start out as easy or as complicated as you’d like. Brandon Carrasco takes us step by step through his first time out, turning this timeless lullaby into a wonderful single guitar piece.

Going On Vacation
by Dmitry Kiryukhin

First time contributor Dmitry details the work and thought process involved on taking one’s guitar along a trip, using his latest vacation as an example of how well things can work out!

Coming Attractions

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

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

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for November 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 18)

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

First, the lick once again:

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

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

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

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

Delayed Gratification

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hi David:

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

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

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

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

Thank you again for all you time and effort.

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

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

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

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

Peace

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 100 – October 19, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

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

EXPLORING MUSIC WITH DARRIN KOLTOW

Tip for October 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 17)

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

One Last Bit of News

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

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 99 – October 1, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

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

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for October 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 16)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

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

Event Horizon

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

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

Hello everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks again,

Louis

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 98 – September 15, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

Smile (A Charlie Chaplin Song)
by Hank Stupi

Here is a finger style chord melody arrangement of the beautiful Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile.” Long-time Guitar Noise reader and first-time contributor Hank Stupi takes you through the process step by step, so you’ll see how an initial “busy” arrangement consisting mainly of eighth notes and arpeggios was pared down to make it easier to play and to allow room for some nice movement in the bass line.

Guitar Teaching: Lesson One
by Paul Andrews

If you have read Nick Minnion’s article “Could You Teach Guitar?” and finished with a resounding “Yes!” then the next question is “How?” This article hopes to answer that question with a detailed look at how to teach the all-important first lesson.

How To Advance Your Lead Guitar Solos
by Mike Philippov

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

Coming Attractions

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for September 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 15)

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

Here’s the fundamental C7 sound in scale form.

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

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

Random Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just thought someone might be encouraged by this.

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

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 97 – September 1, 2009

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

Greetings,

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

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topic of the Month

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

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

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

New Lessons and Articles

Alan Green Interview
by David Hodge

All of us at Guitar Noise want to congratulate Alan as he starts off teaching guitar and music pretty close to full time! Get to know one of our Guitar Noise Moderators a little better – you might see him on television one day!

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

In the final installment of her video lessons on the Guitar Noise arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” guitar teacher extraordinaire Jamie Andreas takes you step by step through the bridge section of the song with very clear and detailed instruction. I learned quite a bit from Jamie’s videos and I hope you do, too!

Need Help Starting A Successful Career In Music?
by Tom Hess

Tom details four very important steps that anyone seriously thinking about starting a career in the music business as a performing artist truly needs to think about and develop. If you take Tom’s advice to heart, you’ll giving yourself a big step forward.

Seven Nation Army
Easy Songs for Beginners #41
by David Hodge

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to turn a song into a single guitar arrangement and the first part of the answer is that you have to learn the song! In this lesson we break down this White Stripes’ song into its component parts – bass, rhythm and lead (learning them on the electric guitar) – so that we can later create a single acoustic guitar arrangement of this song.

Coming Attractions

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

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for August 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 14)

We continue our exploration of modes in this issue. Specifically, let’s move into C7 arpeggios as a natural follow-up to our study of C7 chords. As we did last week, we’ll work with position V, give or a take a fret.

Here’s our initial C7 garden-variety arpeggio:

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

To add just a bit more variety to this pattern, repeat it–but with the beat shifted to the notes that got the off beat on the first run. Maybe the full tab will better explain what I mean:

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

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

Thanks for reading.

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

This Day (or Approximately) In (Guitar Noise) History

As I mentioned earlier, Tom “Noteboat” Serb is celebrating the first year of his music school, the Midwest Music Academy. One year ago today we ran a short interview with Tom and this would certainly be a great time to post it once again:

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

GN: Occupation?

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

GN: Playing music since?

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

GN: Playing guitar since?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My first real music lessons were on drums – I bought myself a drum set with money I’d saved from my paper route. I played percussion all the way through high school and college, performing in the HS marching and concert bands, and in the college jazz band. I don’t really keep it up today, but every once in a while I’ll play tympani with a local community orchestra. I messed around with every instrument I could get my hands on. My first guitar was one my mother bought for my father… he never learned to play, and gave it to my sister… who never learned to play, so I swiped it and learned. I still have that guitar, too – a 1962 Harmony!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts

Not that this should come as any kind of surprise, but teaching, and teaching music, is always a topic of discussion at my home. There’s no end of subjects when it comes to thinking about how to bring knowledge of any kind, whether it’s about creating music or understanding mathematics or even instilling the idea that most things in life never have the wonderfully simplistic single answers that the much of the world would have us believe.

One of the biggest challenges, and I suspect also one of the biggest frustrations, is knowing that regardless of how good a teacher one might be, teaching itself is one small piece of the whole process of learning. Not everyone who goes to the same teacher learns the same things or even gets the same grades. That seems ridiculously obvious.

It’s also very obvious that everyone learns in different ways. But one thing that holds constant, at least as far as I can see, is that without some practical application of the learning, the process itself will be a slow one. Reading music, or even learning what notes make up a particular chord is a great example of this. A G chord consists of the notes G, B and D. People know the win-loss statistics of their favorite teams or any of the many PIN or passwords they use everyday, but something as simple as
remembering three notes requires more of a superhuman effort for some.

So a good part of teaching is not just giving knowledge, it’s giving, and more importantly, demonstrating and inspiring a student’s individual need for that knowledge. That’s not always easy.

If you’re having trouble with learning something in particular, go to your teacher and discuss ways to make that knowledge something you want to and need to learn. Without a student’s participation, there’s not all that much learning that can be done.

If you’re trying to learn something without a teacher, say through the Internet, then be certain to visit chat rooms and post questions. But also go one step further and look for answers yourself. Answers that you have to dig for will stay in your head longer than those you are simply given.

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 96 – August 15, 2009

David Hodge — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:57:27 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #96 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

GREETINGS, NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Welcome to the August 15 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

Our big news this time out is the announcement of the 2009 FODfest tour. I recently got word from Todd Mack yesterday with definitive dates for this year’s FODfest and wanted to pass them along. In case you’ve not heard or read about this show before, let me give you the lowdown from the FODfest website itself:

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

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

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

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

Having played in FODfest the last three years, I can attest to what a magical time it is. This year the shows are going around the country. Here are the scheduled dates and venues:

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

If you think you might want to play, check out more info at the FODfest website (http://fodfest.org) and send the organizers a note through the “Performers” page.

I’m hoping to be at the October 28 show in Oak Park, IL as well as the final show in Norfolk, CT. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Topic of the Month

Our Topic of the Month of August is “Soloing and Improvisation.” We’re featuring the many, many articles on this subject, coming from past GN contributors, such as Josh Urban and Gilbert Isbin and Randell Young and Mark Yodice as well as a wonderful piece from our favorite guitarist from the Netherlands, Arjen Schippers. And let’s not forget that we’ve also all eight parts of the current series, “Turning Scales into Solos” and other articles and lessons from current GN contributing writers as well.

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Our Guitar Noise Featured Artist as well for the month of August is Bob Marley. Read about him on our artist profiles page and be sure to check out our lesson on “I Shot the Sheriff.”

New Lessons and Articles

A True Legend
by David Hodge

There are few people who have contributed so much to rock music, to music in general, and to the recording industry, as Les Paul. Join us in honoring this true musical legend that passed away earlier this week at the age of 94.

Coming Attractions

Now that I’m wrapping up work on “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” things will hopefully soon settle back into a semblance of normalcy. Once I catch my breath, the plan is to get back into Guitar Noise lessons and Podcasts and to try to make up for missing so much time these last two months.

Coming up in the very near future will be a lesson called “Subdivide and Conquer” one of the first of the long awaited sequels to “Sock Puppets” (which is, in turn the kind of sequel to “The Pattern Trap”). In this new lesson we’ll look at strumming in terms of sixteenth notes, as well as tied and dotted notes, and show how you can easily suss out a “down and up” pattern based on written music notation, even if you can’t read notes. As a bonus, we’ll use the verse and chorus patterns from the Jack Johnson’s song “Taylor” for our examples. Plus, just to prove how important it is to be able to read rhythms, I’m working up an acoustic arrangement of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”

And in honor of the finches flocking to the birdfeeder here at my home, we’ll also have a lesson on Coldplay’s “Yellow” and, just to show I learned something from June’s “Topic of the Month” (Alternate and Open Tunings), I’ve come up with an arrangement for Mark Knopfler’s “Sailing to Philadelphia” in EADGBD tuning that I think you’ll enjoy.

And there’s more coming to Guitar Noise as well:

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for August 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 13)

We’re exploring the C Mixolydian sound at position 5. This is a continuation of our extended journey through modes.

The last issue got us started with C7 (Mixolydian) chords whose melody or top notes lay on strings 1 and 2. Can you guess what this issue has in store? Let’s dig in:

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

Notice what we’re playing for the A melody note here: it’s Bb major 7, which shows up in the key of F major, as does C7. Because Bb maj 7 and C7 share a key center, they can sometimes substitute for one another. I like to mix up the chords, enough to add variety, but not so much as to confuse your ear. I hope your ear likes this exercise.

Thanks for reading.

This Day (or Approximately) in (Guitar Noise) History

Back in August 2003, I was still in Chicago but I got my first look at where I would end up moving to the coming New Year’s Day. Thinking back, it may actually have been my second or third look, but it’s hard to remember accurately. All I knew was that all sorts of things were going on and life was a bit of a roller coaster.

Looking back now, I’m tempted to say that some of the unsettledness had a subliminal effect in my choosing Cat’s Steven’s “Wild World” as a new Easy Songs for Beginners lesson, but I suppose that could just be me making a typical use of hindsight.

Whatever the reason, or lack of reason, it still makes a good lesson!

Wild World
Easy Songs for Beginners #23
by David Hodge

We’re going to hit the ground running here. This may be the most involved beginners’ song that we’ve done yet but don’t let that deter you! While the focus of this lesson is on switching chords smoothly, you’ll also learn some cool flourishes and riffs and strumming patterns and even find a good practical use for that pesky C major scale!

Event Horizon

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 April (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

If you’re in the Chicago area, you’ve got a chance to see GN Forum member Tommy Gun’s band, “U-Godda-Wanna” playing tonight at THE place to play on the Southside, at115 Bourbon Street, Merionette Park, IL. Show is from 10pm-2am.

Random Thoughts

When I found out that FODfest was going to run through Chicago, I made it a point to clear up my calendar so that I’d be able to be there. Not only will it be fun to play in my old stomping grounds, it will hopefully be a chance to meet up again with friends and former students and to make some music again.

To get into the spirit of FODfest, you need to talk with Todd Mack, who started this up. Last year I had the chance to interview Todd for Guitar Noise and you can find that interview here.

I hope that if you live someplace close to a FODfest show that you can make the time to attend. Or even sign up to be a performer. The shows are free to the public and this is a wonderful to both take in and give back to the music community as well as to the world at large.

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 95 – August 1, 2009

David Hodge — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:17:45 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #95 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

Welcome to August and what is hopefully the August 1 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com). I say “hopefully” because I’m not exactly sure when this newsletter is going out. Paul will be travelling across roughly half the world and may not arrive home in time to put this issue out to everyone on the first, so if it happens to be the second or third of August, please accept our apologies.

Whether it’s the first or fourth of August, though, I have it on good authority that winter months, regardless of which hemisphere you happen to occupy, pretty much crawl along. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but that’s the report I’m getting back from numerous Guitar Noise readers south of the Equator.

I am just about done with all the writing for “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” although there’s still a lot of rereading and double checking to do. But it looks like I’ll be able to get everything turned in to Alpha Books on schedule. My thanks go out to all of you for your patience while I’ve been working on this project.

Topic of the Month

New month, new Topic of the Month! In August we’re featuring the many articles here at Guitar Noise that deal with “Soloing and Improvisation.” There are articles from many past GN contributors, such as Josh Urban and Gilbert Isbin and Randell Young and Mark Yodice as well as a wonderful piece from our favorite guitarist from the Netherlands, Arjen Schippers. Not to mention all eight parts of the current series, “Turning Scales into Solos.” You’re bound to learn something!

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

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

And we’ve got a new featured artist as well for the month of August. Read about Bob Marley on our artist profiles page and be sure to check out our lesson on ”I Shot the Sheriff.”

New Lessons and Artivces

How To Improve Your Guitar Technique – Part 1
by Tom Hess

Sloppy technique leads to sloppy playing. Tom Hess looks at the three basic problem areas and addresses two of them in depth in this first of two articles.

Coming Attractions

Coming up in the very near future will be a lesson called “Subdivide and Conquer” one of the first of the long awaited sequels to “Sock Puppets” (which is, in turn the kind of sequel to “The Pattern Trap”). In this new lesson we’ll look at strumming in terms of sixteenth notes, as well as tied and dotted notes, and show how you can easily suss out a “down and up” pattern based on written music notation, even if you can’t read notes. As a bonus, we’ll use the verse and chorus patterns from the Jack Johnson’s song
“Taylor” for our examples. Plus, just to prove how important it is to be able to read rhythms, I’m working up an acoustic arrangement of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”

And there’s more coming to Guitar Noise as well:

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for August 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 12)

Let’s give the C major/Ionian sound a break this time out, and do some C Mixolydian sounds. You can say C dominant 7 if C Mixolydian is giving you a hard time.

Let’s first work the diatonic (in-key) chords around position V (5). Here are chords with melody notes on strings 1 and 2. Next time we’ll do string 3 chords, and maybe chromatic C Mixolydian chords further on.

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

*Note: at least two chords in this exercise aren’t completely diatonic. I threw in a b9 (Db) to add some spice. I hope you like it.

Thanks for reading.

This Day (or Approximately) in (Guitar Noise) History

Setting the “Wayback Machine” for 2006 led me to Josh Urban’s first piece for Guitar Noise and since ear training and listening is a huge part of learning to solo, it seemed to make sense to use it as a feature. Plus, any lesson from Doug Sparling, be it new or old, is certainly worth a read!

Frere Jacques
by Doug Sparling

Also known as “Are You Sleeping Brother John,” this has to be one of the best known children’s songs in the world. Doug brings up a fun and thoughtful arrangement of this favorite song.

Listen Up
Examining the overlooked skill of ear training
by Josh Urban

Guitar Noise is pleased to welcome Josh Urban as a contributing writer to our website. Josh’s first piece examines what many musicians refer to as the most important skill one can develop – listening. And, as with most everything about the guitar, listening has many different aspects and each must be practiced in order to become a better musician.

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 April (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

As mentioned earlier, I hope this newsletter is getting out on August 1. If so, you might want to check out Tommy Gun’s band, “U-Godda-Wanna” playing tonight at Harrahs Casino Joliet Stage 151 in Joliet, Illinois (home away from home of Jake Elwood) from 9pm-1:30am.

Last time they played there they literally rocked the boat and the audience response was so great that Harrah’s went out of their way to bring them back.

If you don’t catch them there, you can see them in two weeks at THE place to play on the Southside, at115 Bourbon Street. That’s Saturday, August 15 and the show goes 10pm-2am.

And if this is August first and if you happen to be in Middletown, Ohio, you might be able to spot numerous Guitar Noise folks and other musicians at Big Shots Bar at 1791 Germantown Road. It’s a fundraising benefit for the Middletown Aviation Foundation and it starts at 7:30. You’ve not lived until you’ve sung along with Nick Torres on “Eurotrash Girl.”

Random Thoughts

As I mentioned, I’m actually on the road today. Okay, maybe not on the road or even beside it, but I’m certainly not in Western Massachusetts. Today happens to be the weekend of this year’s Riverside Jam, an annual get-together of friends and musicians started back in 2000 by Guitar Noise Moderators Dan and Laura Lasley. If you’ve not read about that historic event, here is a link to Dan’s account of the festivities: Making Jam

As well as a link of my own: Build Your Own Band Buffet

Even better than both accounts, though, is this little essay from Nick Torres, who wrote this as part of our “Playing Well With Others” series:

I was talking to David a couple of days ago when he asked if I would write something about playing guitar with others.

Well sure, why not?

It turns out that it’s easier said than done.

Why is that? What makes this a difficult topic to write about?

I pondered this question for a while. Blank paper stared at me. I couldn’t take the first step. I didn’t want to expose myself to ridicule. I didn’t want the rest of the Guitar Noise community to think I was a weirdo, or insecure, or too sensitive. I didn’t want to write something I really felt uncomfortable sharing. I’m sure that you already know all of the stuff I would write anyway. I just don’t know enough to make it worth reading. I’ve really just got nothing to offer to you.

Wait a minute! Those are the very same reasons I gave myself for not playing with others.

1. “Blank paper stared at me.” Lack of inertia is the hardest thing to overcome. Make a commitment to yourself to find a playing partner or a ”porch players” group by a certain date. Mark it on your calendar or day timer. That’s how I started writing this.

2. “I couldn’t take the first step.” Closely related to Number 1 above. Start small if you feel uncomfortable in groups. Find one friend or neighbor and just jam. Find a group if you just want to lurk and feel uncomfortable one on one. Have an opening line prepared, like “I’ve been playing for six months, a year, whatever, and I was looking for someone to jam with.” That way you can let the other person know your relative skill level without degrading yourself.

3. “I didn’t want to expose myself to ridicule.” Everybody fears this. But keep in mind jamming isn’t a contest. You don’t need to bring something to dazzle, just be honest about your ability. You can play open chords all evening long and if someone asks you to solo, just say “I’ll pass for now.”

4. “I didn’t want the rest of the Guitar Noise community to think I was a weirdo, or insecure, or too sensitive.” Again, this is closely related to the previous reason for procrastination, but when you are in a room with a bunch of people who have come to jam, you are amongst like-minded individuals. These people know how you feel. Once you start, you’ll get a great sense of belonging to a very supportive group and your fears will melt away.

5. “I didn’t want to write something I really felt uncomfortable sharing.” I’m not an expert on the psyche of the budding guitarist. I’m not a professional writer. I’m not an expert on group dynamics. I’m not a professional guitar player. But I know how to jam. By the way, nobody at a jam wants a flashy know-it-all, show-off, egomaniacal guitarist anyway. The first time anyone plays with a group of strangers they feel uncomfortable. You are no exception.

6. “I’m sure that you already know all of the stuff I would write anyway.” Hey look, if the guitarists you jam with already know all the stuff you would play anyway, that is fantastic. Think of all the material you could play.

7. “I just don’t know enough to make it worth reading.” You may think you don’t know enough to play with others, but I guarantee you do. If you can play open chords and strum you’ve got enough. What you don’t know, someone will be happy to show you.

8. “I’ve really got nothing to offer to you.” You’d be surprised at how much you can teach. You’d be surprised at how much others can learn from you. I have a student who is an absolute beginner and I’ve gotten so much better at the basics of thumb position, palm muting, percussive strokes, chord changes, finger position by teaching her. Get it? By teaching her, she taught me. Everybody has something to offer. Besides, company and support are always welcome.

At the end of last summer, I traveled up to see David in the Berkshires. It was time for the annual Riverside Jam, which is usually always a blast and this past August was no exception. The “main event” on Saturday night was all twenty-five musicians playing at the Berkshire Blues Caf e. We started in the late afternoon and played sets for the guests and Cafe patrons until closing time. I played and sang until I was wiped out. We had guitarists and other musicians come in from across the country – Guitar Noise denizens, some students, college buddies, friends, spouses, just a wonderful mix of people.

But the main Riverside Jam event wasn’t the best part of the weekend for me. It was the next night when about ten of us (those who decided to leave on Monday instead of Sunday), players of all ages, sizes, styles and genders, sat around David’s fireplace and jammed. I didn’t know half of the songs, but someone would yell out the chords or hand me a sheet with the chords and lyrics and away we’d go. If I had a problem with some part of the song, someone would lean over and say, “Try it like this.”

If I wanted to sit one out and just sing, no problem. If I wanted to just shake a maraca for a while, while my fingers recovered, again no problem. No expectations, no minimum skill requirement, no egos, just an amazing time of sharing a common love, making music. Go ahead and think I’m a weirdo, but it was as close to an Across the Universe moment as I have ever been.

You owe it to yourself to get out and share with other guitarists, so that they can share with you. Go and play well with others.

I’m obviously putting this newsletter together ahead of time. For you it’s sometime on or after August 1 (I know that Paul is arriving home on the first and will probably have a lot of jet lag from flying so far in the past two days).

For me, it’s Monday, July 27, 2009. And I have five days of music and friends like Nick to look forward to. Songs to learn, songs to play, people I can’t wait to make music with. Should be just what the doctor ordered.

Until then, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 94 – July 15, 2009

David Hodge — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:27:46 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #94 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month and Featured Artist
Coming Attractions
This Day (or Approximately) In (GN) History
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the July 15 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

There’s a lot going on but not so much in the way of news. Charley asked me to pass the following article along to you, but I suspect this is old news: Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds

Meanwhile, summer is moving too quickly, as summer tends to do. Do the winter months fly by in the Southern Hemisphere? Can’t help but wonder…

But part of summer is summer vacation, and we’re going to be giving Darrin a well-deserved break for this newsletter. I hadn’t realized it, but he’s written something for each of the ninety-three newsletter since July of 2005. Wouldn’t you agree that it’s time we gave him a little time off?

Because things happen fairly regularly at Guitar Noise, particularly with the newsletter and on the forum pages, it’s easy to forget that everyone involved is volunteering his or her time. Personally, I’m glad to know that our Forum members (and moderators), as well as our contributing writers don’t spend their days sitting in front of the computer. Hopefully, they are getting in some time playing guitar.

Topic of the Month

“Music Theory” is the Topic of the Month for July. Did you know that there are over thirty-five articles on various aspects of music theory here at Guitar Noise? They range from basic introductory overviews, such as “The Musical Genome Theory” trilogy of lessons to articles on specific topics, such as extended and altered chords.

So if you’d like to delve more into the wild and wonderful world of Music Theory, bop on over to the home page and click on the “Theory Without Tears” box up at the top left (just under the banner) and help yourself to the contributions many talented writers and teachers have made to Guitar Noise over the years.

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

And, in case you missed it last time out, Michael Jackson is the Guitar Noise Featured Artist this month. You can read about that on our artist profiles page.

New Lessons and Articles

How to Improve Your Sweep Picking
by Mike Philippov

Sweep picking isn’t easy. But if you look at the pitfalls you’re likely to run into, that can go a long way toward making this technique work for you. Mike Philippov examines the aspects of sweep picking that most players stumble on and provides some very helpful practice techniques.

Coming Attractions

My apologies that the book is taking precedence over the lessons at this point, but new material will be coming online at Guitar Noise before you know it. Look for a lot of new material after the first of August.

And there’s more coming to Guitar Noise as well:

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

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

This Day (or Approximately) In (Guitar Noise) History

I had to do a little checking, but this week is another Guitar Noise anniversary – somewhere around July 15, 2003, we posted our first (and only!) video lesson! If you’ve ever wanted to see what Nick Torres’ fingers looked like, here’s your chance! Plus we also had a great article on replacing pickups, courtesy of Bill Cozzo:

My Journey Into The World Of Replacement Pickups
Part one – The Definition of Tone
by Bill Cozzo

If you’re like me, you probably think that changing the pickups on your guitar is a thing best left to the pros. But it doesn’t have to be. Bill Cozzo brings the same style that defines his reviews to help us get through the first step in choosing a new set of pickups – deciding what we want in the first place! And then knowing how to get what tone we desire from our guitar.

Tap, Hammer On, Pull Off, Repeat
by Nick Torres

Hold on to your hats! Don’t try this at home! Amaze your friends and family! Have I missed anything? Nick Torres literally brings another new dimension to Guitar Noise with this lesson on Eruption by Van Halen. Now you can WATCH how to tap, hammer on and pull off while you read a wonderfully enlightening piece on this mysterious combination of techniques.

Random Thoughts

And with that, we’ll see on August 1. I’ll actually be on the road then, but as soon as I hit home on August 3, watch for a lot of new stuff here at Guitar Noise.

Until then, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 93 – July 1, 2009

David Hodge — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:46:28 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #93 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to a (or “another”) brief issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com). Things are going fast and furious with the writing of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” so much so, in fact, that there’s a good chance I can finish it this month if I sit at my computer long enough!

There is some terrific news from Tom Serb (“Noteboat” on the GN Forum pages). Some of you may remember that he opened a music school last September in Plainfield, Illinois (not that far south and slightly west of Chicago). On Friday, June 19, the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce awarded Tom’s Midwest Music Academy as Plainfield’s “New Business of the Year.” They also received a nomination for the “Best Small Business” Award. We’d like to extend Tom a hearty round of congratulations as well as our wishes for outstanding new school year this coming fall.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

The music world has lost a number of icons these past few months, from Dan Seals to Koko Taylor to Bob Bogle, lead guitarists of that seminal surf band, The Ventures. But the news of Michael Jackson’s death was quite a shock to almost the entire world. When Paul asked if I’d write up a bio on the “King of Pop,” I wasn’t quite sure I was up to the task.

As human beings, we’re all incredibly layered (and you can decide yourself if you’d prefer to be thought of as layered like an onion or layered like a cake) and, as human beings, it’s incredibly easy (not to mention, for a lot of people, desirable), to place a life under one convenient category and totally neglect other aspects. And with this bio, I certainly did that - focusing solely on Michael’s musical achievements and contributions.

But whatever you thought, or still think, of Michael Jackson, I hope that you will join us at Guitar Noise as we remember the man as a musical force.

As always, if you’ve suggestions of bands or musicians you’d like to see added as a Guitar Noise Featured Artist, please feel free to drop me a line with your ideas. I’m always willing to get more ideas!

Topic of the Month

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

New Lessons and Articles

While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Performance Notes For The Verses
Video Lesson by Jamie Andreas

In this second installment of her video lessons on the Guitar Noise arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” guitar teacher extraordinaire Jamie Andreas (of www.guitarprinciples.com) guides you through the verses of the song with very clear and detailed step-by-step instruction, designed to help you with the fingering involved in the tricky chord changes.

Five Big Mistakes You Should Avoid When Teaching Beginning Guitar Students
by Tom Hess

Teaching beginners is tricky at best and can be, for some guitar teachers, downright frustrating. Guitar teaching guru Tom Hess outlines five basic mistakes that many guitar teachers make when teaching beginner students and details way to avoid them in the first place.

Coming Attractions

My apologies that the book is taking precedence over the lessons at this point, but new material will be coming online at Guitar Noise before you know it.

And there’s more coming to Guitar Noise as well:

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for July 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 11)

We’ve been taking an extended journey through the C Ionian sound, most recently, over the harmonic landscape: C major chords, essentially. In the last few issues, we played a C major/Ionian chord, or one complementary to it, on each fret on string one. That is, the chord’s melody note, or top note, fell on a particular fret, from F, fret 13, down to open E, fret ”zero.”

I then explained a bit how I came up with chords for the melody notes that seems to be at odds with the C major sound. For example, where am I getting D min 7b5 for melody note F on frets 13 and 1? The Dmin 7b5 is nowhere near being a C major chord.

But it _sounds_ like it belongs with C major. Let’s use this issue to explore the main idea of coming up with chords for those non-diatonic –non-C-Major — melody notes.

Let’s take the melody note Ab, just for example. Does Ab show up in C major? No: C major has C E G, and optionally B or A. So, how do we find a chord that somehow fits with C major, but that has Ab as its melody note?

One approach is to think in terms of key centers. The line of thought goes like this: The C major scale has zero accidentals; every other key center has accidentals, (eg.: Bb in the F major scale). The fewer accidentals a key center has, the more harmonious it will sound with chords and melodies from the C major scale. For example, try playing the F major or G major scale over a C major chord. Since both of these key centers have just once accidental (Bb in F and F# in G major) — they’ll both sound pretty sweet, once you work out how to (not) play the notes that sound a bit weird.

Now, try to play the B major scale over a C chord — train wreck, right? Now, let’s use this idea to rephrase our original problem/challenge. Instead of asking “what C major-related chord has Ab as its melody note?” we now ask ”What scale containing Ab has the fewest accidentals (i.e., is closest to the C major scale)? I’ll leave you with this cliffhanger, and answer the question in the next issue. See if you can figure out what possible scale(s) might work.

Thanks for reading.

This Day (or Approximately) in (Guitar Noise) History

Here’s something I couldn’t believe – Apparently it was only four years ago (July 1, 2005 to be precise) we started “Volume 3″ of the Guitar Noise News. It was the start of the “bi-monthly” newsletter format that we currently have today, and it was certainly a bit ambitious. Even Nick had his own little dedicated soapbox.

But since July 1 is also Canada Day, we were fortunate enough to get a nice mini-piece from Guitar Noise’s creator / owner Paul Hackett. It’s certainly worth a second look as we celebrate Canada Day here in 2009:

Canada Rocks By Paul Hackett

July 1 is Canada Day, Canada’s national holiday. It celebrates the creation of the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. It is a day generally marked by patriotic celebrations featuring fireworks and entertainment with a Canadian theme. Today being July 1 has got me thinking about some of the more notable rock bands to come out of Canada throughout the years.

Since the emergence of Canada’s first major pop star, Paul Anka in the 1950s, many types of Canadian music have flourished, reflecting the diverse tastes of Canadians. Distinctly Canadian styles of music include French-Canadian music, Maritime music, Native American and Inuit music as well as homegrown folk and country. Some of the more notable singer/songwriters from Canada include Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and Bruce Cockburn.

In celebration of Canada Day I want to share my picks for some of the more enduring Canadian rock acts. Rock music in Canada owes a great debt of gratitude to The Guess Who, whose best-known songs (“American Woman”, “These Eyes”, “No Sugar Tonight”, etc.) are among Canada’s most enduring classic rock anthems. Initially the band wanted radio stations and record buyers to believe they were a British Merseybeat band in disguise. So when they released their debut album, it didn’t bear their own name — instead, it was labeled “Guess Who?” The ruse worked, and within a few years The Guess Who were one of Canada’s biggest musical names.

In 1970, the Canadian government introduced Canadian content regulations, requiring radio stations to devote 30 per cent of their musical selections to Canadian content. The most immediate effect of these new regulations was the sudden rise to fame of Anne Murray, whose 1970 “Snowbird” was a multi-million selling record. The rest of the decade proved to be a golden age for Canadian music with the emergence of internationally renowned acts such as Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Rush, Bruce Cockburn, April Wine and Neil Young. Another of this period’s most influential and popular rock bands, Heart, resulted from the collaboration of two sisters from Seattle with a supporting band from Vancouver.

The 1980s produced many mainstream pop-rockers such as Bryan Adams, Tom Cochrane, Platinum Blonde, Honeymoon Suite, Helix, and Corey Hart. This era also produced the country cowpunk of k.d. Lang, who eventually become one of pop music’s biggest names. The late 1980s saw even more popular acts such as Alannah Myles and Jeff Healey (the blind blues guitarist extraordinaire who appeared the film Roadhouse). Alternative rock also emerged as an influential genre, with artists such as 54-40, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan, Cowboy Junkies, The Tea Party, and Our Lady Peace all gaining widespread attention during this time.

An unassuming demo tape by the Barenaked Ladies became the hottest item in Canadian record stores in the fall of 1991. Alanis Morissette, who began as a dance-pop artist before transforming into an alternative rocker in 1995, launched an era in which Canadian women ruled the pop charts worldwide. In the late 1990s, Morissette, Shania Twain, Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan were arguably the four most popular and influential recording artists in the world during this decade.

With such diversity in styles, Canadian rock and pop music has a real staying power. And with a new album by Paul Anka in stores now, there seems to be no end in sight. Hopefully you’ll find some of this music enjoyable, and have a happy Canada Day, eh!

Random Thoughts

And with that, we’ll see you again in two weeks.

Until then, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 92 – June 15, 2009

David Hodge — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:21:50 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #92 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to a rather brief (at least for us) issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise. For those of you coming in late, today, June 15, is one of my many deadline dates involved in writing the upcoming “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” book. So I’ve had to take some of the time I normally use for writing the newsletter and employ it for other ends.

This need for time has also cut into the lesson planned for this week. But it will be ready, probably around the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of the month. And there will also be at least one new Coldplay song lesson as well making its way online before June is out. Why Coldplay? Glad you asked!

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Since the start of 2009, Paul has been running a “Featured Artist” section each month. You can usually find a link to a bio, plus links to Guitar Noise song lessons of that particular artist’s work, on the home page, as well as most of the “main” pages of Guitar Noise.

Our Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of June is that pop / rock group, Coldplay. And if you’d like to go straight to our Featured Artist page, look no further than here.

Topic of the Month

Since we recently had two lessons involving both alternate tuing (the DADGAD arrangement of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “All I Can Do Is Write About It“) and open tuning (see the next section for more on the recent lesson on “Buckets of Rain” by Bob Dylan), it kind of made sense to highlight the many articles here at Guitar Noise on this particular subject. So the “Topic of the Month” for June is going to be Alternate and Open Tunings.

As usual, if you go to the top left hand corner of the Home Page, you’ll find links to some great articles here at Guitar Noise on that particular topic, including some wonderful song lessons featuring music from the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and (surprise!), Guitar Noise’s Featured Artists, Coldplay.

And there will also be links to other articles, particularly the old Guitar Columns, which not only do a wonderful job of exploring the many aspects of alternate and open tunings, but also contain some “hidden gems,” such as a terrific arrangement of the Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” played in open D tuning.

Alternate and open tunings are a great way to explore more of the potential of your guitar, so why not give it a try?

Coming Attractions

Coming up in the very near future, as mentioned in the first section of this issue, will be a lesson called “Subdivide and Conquer” one of the first of the long awaited sequels to “Sock Puppets.” In this lesson we’ll look at strumming in terms of sixteenth notes, as well as tied and dotted notes, and show how you can easily suss out a “down and up” pattern based on written music notation, even if you can’t read notes. As a bonus, we’ll use the verse and chorus patterns from the Jack Johnson’s song “Taylor” for our examples.

And in honor of the finches flocking to the birdfeeder here at my home, we’ll also have a lesson on Coldplay’s “Yellow.”

And there’s more coming to Guitar Noise as well:

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for June 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 10)

Let’s talk a bit about the reasons for the chord choices in the last issue. Our goal was to put C Ionian chords to each note of the chromatic scale.

The first chord played, on string 1, fret 13, doesn’t sound anything like C Ionian, so did we fail in our goal? What *is* that chord we played? It’s a D m7b5, and it’s an excellent chord to play right before a true C Ionian chord. The reason is this: Dm7b5 shows up in the C melodic minor scale and is the ii in a ii-V-I minor, leading to C minor. If we were to play the full ii-V-I, we’d play Dm7b5, G7, then C minor.

C minor is obviously not a C Ionian chord, but hearing Dm7b5 makes you think a C minor chord is coming up. When a major chord (C major) shows up instead at fret 12, it gives your ear a sweet surprise.

Let’s move on to a more puzzling chord choice — the one on fret 11. That’s a C7#5#9 without the b7 (Bb). Where is *that* chord coming from, and does it really work with the C Ionian idea?

Our chord had to have Eb as the melody, which is pretty un-C Ionian, because C Ionian needs an E, not an Eb. But the basic C7 chord without any mods to it occurs in place of C Ionian in a lot of popular music — especially blues and rock. So I stretched this idea of C7-for-C major a bit further, to reach that Eb melody note, which a C7 chord is allowed to have.

Another chord choice for this melody note would have been the following:

|-11-----|
|--8-----|
|--9-----|
|-10-----|
|--------|
|--------|

That’s a C minorMajor7, which is actually closer to our target C-E-G, the plain C Ionian chord. (You’ll find C minor major7 in the E harmonic minor scale.)

If you’re thinking I’m pulling these chords out of nowhere, play the chords from last issue again, and get your ear more acquainted with the sounds.

Also very helpful is harmonizing the following scales: major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor. If you know the chords for each of the degrees for those scales, and use those chords somewhere in your practice, you’ll start to see and hear how they can be used to substitute for other chords — especially in those situations like ours: pairing a seemingly out-of-character melody note, Eb, with good ‘ol C major.

Thanks for reading.

This Day (or Approximately) in (Guitar Noise) History

Although it seems like ages ago, it was just around this time last year that we premiered the first of what has turned out to be a very popular series here at Guitar Noise, our lessons called “Turning Scales into Solos.”

While these lessons have been shorter in length than many of our other song lessons and guitar columns, they have been full of information on how to go about that seemingly impossible task of creating a solo. Plus, each lesson not only has MP3 files demonstrating the ideas covered in that particular article, they all include a “play along” backing track that allows you to create your own solo based on what you hopefully learned.

We’re currently up to Part 8 in this series, but if you’re interested in seeing where it all began, here are the first two, originally posted in the last half of June, 2008:

Event Horizon

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

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

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

I cannot tell you how thrill I was to hear that GN Forum member Tom McLaughlin (who you might know as “Tommy Guns” on the Forum pages) and his band U-Godda-Wanna is going to be playing at Taste of Chicago late this month. For those of you who don’t know, Taste of Chicago is a huge, free outdoor festival held in Chicago’s Grant Part, right next to Lake Michigan. It is a wonderful event and Tom and his band are going to be right in the heart of things as the opening act on the “Taste Stage.” This all takes place Sunday, June 28 at noon. If you’re anywhere in the area, you should treat yourself to a great show in a beautiful setting. Not to mention a lot of really great food.

And my apologies to Tom for not getting his last gig mentioned in our last newsletter (totally my fault), but you can read about how it all went right here.

If the Taste of Chicago show is even half as good, it’s going to be a real rocking time. And be sure to tell Tom “hi” from his friends at Guitar Noise.

Random Thoughts

I don’t normally do this sort of thing in the Guitar Noise Newsletters, but sometimes one just makes an exception. Last Friday, June 12, was the fifty-second birthday of GN Moderator Vic Lewis. A happy belated birthday wish from me, good sir! Not to mention a thank you for inspiring a bit of song writing this past week.

If you’ve ever visited our Forum here at Guitar Noise, then you have to have run into Vic at some point. He’s currently running the Sunday Songwriters Group (and doing an absolutely excellent job of it, by the way!) and still manages to make time to visit virtually all the other forum pages to offer help and encouragement to those asking for advice.

We have, literally, dozens of unsung heroes here at Guitar Noise, each of whom have taken countless hours to contribute to this website and to assist the community in whatever way they can. Without even looking at the Forum page, I can list folks like Noteboat, Twisted Lefty, Dan T., Fretsource, Gnease, Arjen (who’s going by Ignar Hilstrom), RParker, TR Guitar, Jason Brann. Or I can think of the relative newcomers like Chris C and Joe Hempel and Cat. And then we also can’t forget all the moderators, too, from Wes Inman to Elektrablue.

And yes, there are hundreds of other people I should be listing here. That’s the point! Guitar Noise exists through everyone who participates. And as much as you thank Paul for being our ever gracious host, don’t forget to thank and treasure each other as well.

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 91 – June 1, 2009

David Hodge — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:22:56 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #91 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

It may be a Monday, but it’s also the first day of June, so that means it’s time once again to bid you welcome to Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise.

As I mentioned last time out, one of our latest articles, a chord melody / finger style arrangement of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps, has generated a lot of interest. I’ve already told you about GN Forum member Dylan Barrett’s inspiring series of videos, detailing his personal process of learning this song arrangement. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s called “How Long Does It Take to Learn and Play a Song?” and you can find this Guitar Noise Forum thread, as well as a link to his video here.

I also mentioned that we got an email from Jamie Andreas, the founder of Guitar Principles, asking if she might put together a few video lessons about how best to make finger placement transitions for this song arrangement. The first one went up online earlier this past week and you can read all about that in our “New Lessons and Articles” section, a little further on down in the newsletter.

This may not be as big as news as all that, but I’ve recently put a hummingbird feeder at my window, right next to my “office,” which is actually just a corner of the main floor of my home, and Charley, Lily and I have been visited by seemingly dozens of the peppy little things. It’s amazing and fascinating how small and speedy they are. Three have come by for a drink just in the course of writing these first few paragraphs of this newsletter.

As speaking of newsletters, I want to let you all know that the next issue of Guitar Noise News, which comes out on Monday, June 15, also falls on one of my book deadline dates. Don’t worry, there will definitely be a newsletter! But it may be a little on the brief side!

Anyway, here in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is pushing its way into becoming Summer. It seems like the grass needs to be cut every other day. And, as one month turns into the next, it’s also time for us to move on to new things as well, such as…

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Our Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of June is that pop / rock group, Coldplay. And if you’d like to go straight to our Featured Artist page, look no further than here.

Topic Of The Month

Since we recently had two lessons involving both alternate tuing (the DADGAD arrangement of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s All I Can Do Is Write About It) and open tuning (see the next section for more on the recent lesson on Buckets of Rain by Bob Dylan), it kind of made sense to highlight the many articles here at Guitar Noise on this particular subject. So the “Topic of the Month” for June is going to be Alternate and Open Tunings.

New Lessons and Articles

While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Performance Notes
Video Lesson by Jamie Andreas

Guitar Noise bids a heartfelt “welcome back” to Jamie Andreas of Guitar Prinicples (www.guitarprinciples.com). Jamie has honored us by putting together a series of video lessons of performance notes for our Guitar Noise arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” She has a wonderful way of explaining the hows and whys of finger positioning and you’re in for a treat. Enjoy this first lesson and rest assured more are on the way.

Buckets of Rain
Songs for Intermediates #27
by David Hodge

Here is a rather faithful arrangement of the closing song from Bob Dylan’s immortal album, “Blood on the Tracks.” Using open D (or open E) tuning, as well as a steady (and incredibly easy) bass part, it’s easy to make this song sound really good. And, it’s excellent practice both for honing your finger picking technique as well as for developing a good sense of syncopation.

Lay Lady Lay
Easy Songs for Beginners #40
by David Hodge

Some of you may agree with the “Easy” label, but our arrangement of this Bob Dylan favorite (from the album, “Nashville Skyline”) can be played very easily with the use of a capo, plus a very simple picking pattern. More important, though, is that is can be used as a great lesson to help you get used to switching between open position chords and basic barre chords. With some practice and patience, you should find yourself playing it well in no time.

Coming Attractions

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for June 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 9)

We’re going to continue our exploration of modes by playing C ionian chords whose melody notes lie outside the C major scale. We’ve done the C diatonic (in the key) chords, and now it’s time to “color outside the edges.” The following chords all have their melody notes on string 1. They are not the last word in chords you might choose; they represent what I thought sounded smooth and musical.

   Q   Q   Q   Q     Q  Q   Q  Q    Q  Q  Q  Q    Q  Q
 |-13--12--11--10--|-9---8--7--6--|-5--4--3--2--|-1--0----|
 |-13--12---9--10--|-8---8--6--6--|-5--3--5--1--|-1--1----|
 |-13--12---9--10--|-7---9--7--7--|-5--5--4--2--|-1--0----|
 |-12--10--10---9--|-9--10--5--6--|-5--3--5--0--|-0--2----|
 |-----------------|----10-----8--|-------3-----|----3----|
 |-----------------|-----8-----6--|-------------|---------|

Understand that we’re really stretching the idea of C ionian. The chords with the notes that fall outside the C major scale aren’t true C ionian sounds; they are complementary to the C io sound. Next time out we might delve into the reasons for the chord choices in this issue.

Thanks for reading.

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

Podcast Postings

If all goes according to plan, Guitar Noise Podcast #27 should be up online sometime today, June 1. It’s a continuation of our last lesson, and it also goes into totally new territory – exploring what to do when you get together with a second guitar player. I hope that you’ll have a lot of fun with it.

As always, I’ll be walking you through each step, so come on along and join in the fun. And, again as always, please let us know what you think.

And, in case you’re interested, you can find all our Guitar Noise Podcasts (the current one as well as the first twenty-six) up online at the Guitar Noise Blog (http://www.guitarnoise.com/blog/). As always, feel free to give us your feedback. You can post your thoughts here, at the Blog, or even PM or write me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com

You don’t need an iPod or iTunes to listen to the lessons. Below the play button is a link that says “Download.” Right-click and “Save as”. You can listen to it on your computer or transfer it to any music player you have.

If you are an iTunes user check this out: From the “Advanced” menu click “Subscribe to Podcast.” Paste the following link http://feeds.feedburner.com/GuitarNoisePodcast into the box and click “OK”. iTunes should automatically download the latest podcast when it’s published.

And, as I mentioned last time out, owing to my book deadlines, not to mention keeping up with my private students and all the other little things that have to get done as part of the course of life, it’s been a little tough of late putting together enough spare time to do everything. So, for a little while at least, I’m trying to keep the Guitar Noise Podcasts going on a once-a-month basis. If all works well, there will be a new one up online the first Monday of each month. So our next GN Podcast will (hopefully) be online on Monday, July 6.

Thanks for listening, and (again as always) thank you for your support

This Day (or Approximately) in (Guitar Noise) History

Sometimes it’s amazing when I think of how much material that there is here on Guitar Noise, and how most of it has come about in the last ten years. So, to celebrate our longevity, how about we look back from time to time at things that have happened?

For instance, going back just three years, to June 1, 2006, you would have found these two new lessons at Guitar Noise:

Irish Flatpicking Guitar – “The Humours of Tulla”
by Doug Sparling

Doug takes a break from finger-style guitar to bring us a few lessons in flatpicking. In addition to a terrific arrangement of a Celtic reel, you’ll learn a little more about timing and ornamentation, specifically the “staccato triplet.”

Friend of the Devil
by David Hodge

Sometimes the simplest things, such as a descending scale line, make all the difference between a song that is just strummed chords and one that sounds like you put a little work into it. Here’s an easy and very recognizable arrangement of this classic tune from the Grateful Dead.

Obviously, I’ve been into this whole descending bass lines for quite some time! The new lesson on “Lay Lady Lay” is just the latest example of how much time we’ve spent using this technique in our song lessons. Pretty wild, eh?

I wonder what year we’ll visit next time?

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hi

I’ve been following your excellent website for a while now and was wondering if you were going to continue with your blues lessons. They’ve been extremely valuable in getting me started in a genre which I very recently started listening to and enjoy playing immensely and from your description in “Roll Over Beethoven,” the second lesson (“Before You Accuse Me” being the first), the third lesson sounds like it was going to be very informative.

I realize that you must be under immense pressure to maintain a website which I can imagine gets thousands of hits a day and so it’s not possible to continue every set of lessons. If you aren’t going to continue with your blues lessons then I suppose I’ll have to look elsewhere.

Thank you for this amazing resource.

Hello

Thank you for writing. The third part of those blues lessons is actually up online and has been for quite some time. It’s the “Easy Songs for Beginners” lesson called “(Going To) Kansas City” and it teaches about turnarounds as well as tosses in some very simple blues riffs.

And, just this week in fact, I managed to have enough spare time in the schedule to put together sound files for MP3 examples for this lesson.

I hope this helps. There is no end of blues lessons out there on the Internet and you should definitely take advantage of all of them. I’m hoping that if my schedule permits that we’ll be doing more on Guitar Noise as well, probably starting in the fall.

Please feel free to write anytime. Thank you once more for the email and I look forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Random Thoughts

My “significant other” or whatever one calls the person one is sharing one’s life with these days (“sharing one’s life” meaning sharing most of the same time and (relatively) same space with, as I guess we can say we’re technically sharing our lives all the time with someone or something) (whatever) celebrated a “big” birthday this past week. As part of the celebration, I took her to see Marcia Ball in concert last Friday, at the Infinity Hall in Norfolk, Connecticut. Lovely place by the way – seats maybe two hundred or so people in a very old fashioned opera house type of setting. Great restaurant / bar in the building as well, so you can eat or drink before or even after the show (there’s local talent playing in the bar after the shows on Fridays and Saturdays).

Marcia Ball has been performing for more than thirty-five years now (can she really be turning sixty? You’d never think so to hear her pound out those keys like Professor Longhair’s long lost daughter!), and it’s rather safe to say that if you were to stop a dozen people the next time you were out and asked if they knew her, you’d be lucky to get one or two affirmative responses. Unless you happened to do so in New Orleans or other places she plays quite often. She’s a very talented pianist / singer / songwriter whose music would probably be categorized as “Cajun blues” or some such nice little box that would also contain maybe the Neville Brothers or Doctor
John. And she does a lot to help folks in New Orleans and the surrounding area through charity work and donations.

She had, and I suspect she always has, a terrific band. Dan Bennett (who’s been with her for ages) and Corey Keller (who has been playing with her for at least five years now) handled bass and drums, respectively, plus the occasional backing vocal here and there.

But it’s the two “new” lads, tenor saxophone player Thad Scott and (left handed!) guitarist Andrew Nafziger, who occasionally stole the show, trading solos and often acting as a single horn section, with Andrew and Thad sharing rhythm and riff lines as well as big smiles.

One of the things mentioned so often on the Guitar Noise Forums is how much fun it is to be at a concert, whether in a large arena or in the pub down the street from your home, where the band is having such a great, happy time that it’s positively infectious. And that was certainly the case with these folks.

And I couldn’t help thinking that here’s a guitarist that fewer people have heard of than have heard of Marcia Ball, yet he will certainly be one I’ll be thinking about for ages because he played so well and made so many people enjoy themselves.

If you get the chance, be on the lookout for Marcia and her band this summer. You can find the schedule here.

And those of you in the Chicago area who don’t manage to see them at Fitzgeralds in Berwyn, IL on either July 3rd or 4th are depriving yourself of the chance of a lifetime!

Spring is indeed making itself over as Summer, which means an incredible number of chances to catch some wonderful music. So start making plans to get away from the computer and the cell phones and the house and go out and have some real fun.

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 90 – May 15, 2009

David Hodge — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:32:39 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #90 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

Time keeps on moving along, so once again I bid you welcome to Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com).

One of our latest articles, a chord melody / finger style arrangement of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps, has generated a lot of interest. Not just as an article, but also as an example of the process of learning. Guitar Noise Forum member, Dylan Barrett, is using it as an example in his latest series of videos, called “How Long Does It Take to Learn and Play a Song?” where he’s posting his progress with learning this piece at regular intervals. It’s a fascinating study and you can find the Guitar Noise Forum thread, as well as a link to his video, here.

I was also thrilled earlier this week to get an email from Jamie Andreas, the founder of Guitar Principles, who asked if she might put together a few video lessons about how best to make finger placement transitions for this song arrangement and have Paul post them up here at Guitar Noise. Of course, I readily agreed and you should be seeing the first video online sometime early this coming week.

Moving on…

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

In case you never visit Guitar Noise’s Home Page (or the “What’s New” Page, for that matter), you might notice that in addition to our “Topic of the Month,” Paul has been running a “Featured Artist” section each month since the start of the year as well. Usually these consist of a bit of a bio, plus links to Guitar Noise song lessons of that particular artist’s work.

Since he’s having a birthday this month, not to mention to his just releasing his latest studio album of more than forty years of recording, Bob Dylan is the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of May.

If you go to the Guitar Noise Home Page, or any of the “What’s New” pages, you’ll find a little picture of Mr. Dylan that you can click on and that will take you to the Artist showcase that Paul has prepared. You can also check out our past Artist Profiles here.

Topic of the Month

Also, we’re putting a spotlight on “Songwriting” as the “Topic of the Month” all during May. Up at the top left hand corner of the Home Page, you’ll find links to some great articles here at Guitar Noise on that particular topic, including some gems from the Guitar Noise Forum’s Commander-in-Chief, Nick Torres.

And don’t forget that when it comes to songwriting, getting feedback from your peers (and potential audience) is one of the best ways to improve at your craft. So take advantage of both the Sunday Songwriters Group and the Guitar Noise Songwriters’ Club, both of which you’ll find on the Guitar Noise Forum pages.

New Lessons and Articles

Dusty Road Two Step – A Fingerstyle Song
by Peter Simms

This lesson is for anyone who is looking to go beyond background finger-picking. Peter Simms shows us a few new tricks in this fingerstyle arrangement

Get More From Your Guitar Practice
Eight Steps to Develop a Highly Efficient Practice Schedule
by Tom Hess

It’s easy to know that you want a practice schedule. And it’s easier to abandon it fairly early in the game for all sorts of reasons, most of which are merely matters of perception. Tom Hess demonstrates that a highly efficient practice routine doesn’t have to be boring and can actually generate creativity. Having fun practicing usually leads to more practice and more practice leads to getting better faster.

Taking Care of Choices
Turning Scales into Solos Part 8
by David Hodge

In our latest lesson in this series, we look at a basic rock progression and examine the choices we can make in terms of scales for soloing. Plus we get a look at the Mixolydian mode as well as discovering a new use for the Dorian.

Coming Attractions

In addition to Jamie’s video lesson, that should be up online next week, also be on the lookout for a song lesson on Bob Dylan’s Buckets of Rain, which should also be up online before Monday or Tuesday. This will be in the “Songs for Intermediates” section, but beginners may find it a good challenge, especially to get going on their fingerpicking. Because the song is done in open D tuning, it’s nowhere near as difficult to do as one might think.

And the following lessons are still on the horizon…

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for May 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 8)

We’ve been exploring C major chords as part of the mode workout. We covered C major chords with melody notes on string 3; we’re playing chords on string 4 this time. Note that the sound is a bit muddier — that’s the nature of bass chords.

In the following tab, we’re playing a Dm instead of a true C chord, for the F melody note. I chose Dm because it sounds good with the whole progression.

|---------------------------------|
|---------------------------------|
|---------------------------------|
|-10--12---9--7--5--3--2--0-------|
|-10--12--10--7--7--5--3--2--3----|
|-12--12--12--8--8--5--3--3-------|

Thanks for reading.

Podcast Postings

Owing to my book deadlines, not to mention keeping up with my private students and all the other little things that have to get done as part of the course of life, it’s been a little tough of late putting together enough spare time to do everything. So, for a little while at least, I’m trying to keep the Guitar Noise Podcasts going on a once-a-month basis. If all works well, there will be a new one up online the first Monday of each month.

Guitar Noise Podcast #26 did get posted on May 4. It’s a lesson on a song I’m sure most of you know and maybe learned in some summer camp or musical get-together. It’s a lot of fun to play and we’ve kindly provided the words and chords to the first verse and chorus over on the Guitar Noise Blog.

For this Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll work on getting the basics down, plus have a little fun with the bass line. Next time out, we’ll add the challenge of playing along with a second guitarist.

As always, I’ll be walking you through each step, so come on along and join in the fun. And, again as always, please let us know what you think.

And, in case you’re interested, you can find all our Guitar Noise Podcasts (the current one as well as the first twenty-five) up online at the Guitar Noise Blog. As always, feel free to give us your feedback. You can post your thoughts here, at the Blog, or even PM or write me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com

Thanks for listening, and (again as always) thank you for your support

Random Thoughts

People often write in requests for song lessons and I always try to answer each email. As most of you who have been reading these lessons and articles for close to ten years now probably already know, the last thing that either Paul or I want to do with a Guitar Noise lesson is simply post up a bunch of tablature and then say, “okay, it’s all yours!” Each song lesson is meant to be a lesson first and a song second. And that’s pretty funny, considering that I’m always talking about how the song has to the focus when working out arrangements and leads.

But lessons, and our song lessons in particular, should give you some tips or techniques or advice that you can use in all your playing. And that’s what we try to do first.

Sometimes, though, I will have a great idea for a lesson and it takes ages to make it all work out. It’s worse than actually writing songs! Take the upcoming (one day!) lesson on Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” for instance. Every time I sit and work on it, another angle comes up and I start thinking, “I should cover that, too,” and then all of a sudden the lesson is longer than a short piece by Tolstoy and the focus of the lesson is probably best described as “a new definition of “focus” that means entirely the opposite.”

So while I was working my way through the winding twists and turns this lesson was taking me on, I took time out to just sit and play. The guitar I picked up was in open D tuning and I was in a Dylan mood, so I first played “Shelter From the Storm” and then “Simple Twist of Fate.” Then goofiness set in and I found myself working out “Buckets of Rain,” the closing song from the sublime “Blood on the Tracks” album. Thankfully this was around one or two in the morning, so that when I found myself still totally mesmerized by it three hours later, I’d only lost out on sleep and little else.

Long story short – I realized that using “Buckets of Rain” to introduce some important fingerstyle stylings, particularly hammer-ons, pull-off and syncopations, would make the lesson on “Don’t Think Twice” regain its focus, since it wouldn’t have the onus of teaching eight million different ideas.

So that’s why your Dylan song to celebrate “Bob Dylan Month” at Guitar Noise, got totally derailed and then replaced. To those of you still waiting on the “Don’t Think Twice” lesson, don’t worry. It’s coming.

In the meantime, though, I truly hope you have a lot of fun with “Buckets” when it hits the website in a few days. And if you find yourself up at three or four in the morning playing it, drop me an email. I’ll probably respond immediately!

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

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 89 – May 1, 2009

David Hodge — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:25:21 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #89 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

Greetings, News and Announcements

A Happy May Day to all! And welcome again to Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com). I hope to enjoy it by watching some Morris Dancing at the May Day Festival at one of our local schools.

Things are busy, even though there’s not a lot of news to report. So let me just get right on to the latest happenings here at Guitar Noise…

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

First off, though, some of you have been astute enough to notice that in addition to our “Topic of the Month,” Paul has been running a “Featured Artist” section each month since the start of the year as well. Usually these consist of a bit of a bio, plus links to Guitar Noise song lessons of that particular artist’s work.

Well, to mark his birthday, not to mention to celebrate the release of his latest studio album this past week, we’re going with Bob Dylan as the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of May.

Topic of the Month

And since today marks the beginning of a new month, we have a new “Topic of the Month” for you, too. The focus for May is “Songwriting” and you will find all sorts of articles here at Guitar Noise on that particular topic, including some gems from the Guitar Noise Forum’s Commander-in-Chief, Nick Torres.

New Lessons and Articles

How To Transition From Your Day Job Into A Successful Music Career
by Tom Hess

Most people in the music business didn’t start in the music business but came into their careers while working their “day job.” After all, it’s important to have some income, right? But the choice of the “day job” can sometimes mean not being able to get into the career you want. Tom Hess looks at typical “safety net” strategies and the problems that can arise from them. Plus, he gives great tips on how to avoid most of the problems of transition by focusing on the end goal from the start.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps
A Finger Style / Chord Melody Arrangement
by David Hodge

Here’s a song arrangement that no one has to sing! Take aspects of “chord melody” arranging and mix them in with fingerstyle playing and you’ve got yourself a version of one of George Harrison’s terrific songs to perform. It’s not all that hard to learn and you can easily adapt it with your own embellishments and style.

Coming Attractions

I can’t promise you what order these will eventually come out in, but here’s the current “short list” of upcoming lessons I’m in the process of finishing up for Guitar Noise:

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

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for May 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 7)

Let’s continue our study of modes in this issue. We’ve been playing the C ionian or C major sound with chords whose melody notes sit on string 1 or string 2. Let’s try out some C Io chords that cover all twelve frets, and whose top notes are on string 3. Keep in mind the following: we’re staying within the key of C major, though we might get into chromatic notes later; maybe not all the chords we’re playing here will be pure C major, but may be a substitute for C major. In other words, they’ll sound similar to C or complementary to C major. Here are my picks:

|------------------------------|
|------------------------------|
|-12--10---9--7--5--4--2--0----|
|-10--10--10--5--5--5--2--2----|
|-12--12--10--7--7--7--3--3----|
|------------------------------|

Remember to play these ascending also, not just descending

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

This arrived in the email-box shortly after Paul posted our lesson of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “All I Can Do Is Write About It” done in DADGAD tuning:

Hi!

Great lesson as usual. I’ve been trying to learn this song in standard tuning but I’m hung up on the rhythm. I’m trying to think beyond “strumming patterns” to gain a more organic sound to my playing. Any advice you have on this song or rhythm playing in general would be appreciated.

Keep up the great work. I’ve probably learned more from the GN site than anywhere else.

Thanks

Hi and thanks for writing.

Things have been very busy around here and I’m way behind on my email correspondence.

Have you ever played “Knocking on Heaven’s Door?” You can use that particular strumming style on “All I Can Do Is Write About It” – sounds great, in fact. I know that one of the Guitar Noise Podcasts goes over this pattern. I’m fairly positive it’s Guitar Noise Podcast #9 (“Adding Fills”). Listening to the beginning of that podcast might help you out with the rhythm for this song.

I hope this helps. Thank you again for writing and I look forward to hearing how things are going with this.

Peace

Event Horizon

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

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

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

I time out I mused about making it over to England and now it turns out there even more of a good reason to do so. Turns out that our own Guitar Noise Moderator Alan Green has got a gig at The Fox Inn on the village green in Finchingfield, Essex, every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday lunchtime until further notice, playing a program of light classics and the occasional movie theme but mostly, as Alan puts it, “stuff by a bunch of dead guys.” No cover and the music starts at 12:30 pm each day. Now I’ve got to go dig out my maps of England for sure!

Also the last time out I mentioned New York guitarist Jason Ennis who is still hanging out here in the Berkshires. He and his quintet (Jason Ennis on guitar, Michael Zsoldos on saxophone, Mike Eckorth on piano, Michael O’Brien on bass and Conor Meehan handling the drums) will be at the Ochards Hotel as part of the Williamstown Jazz Festival Brunch, this coming Sunday, May 3, 11am-2pm. The Gala Restaurant at The Orchards Hotel is at 222 Adams Road Williamstown, Massachusetts and reservations are highly recommended. To reserve a table, call 413.458-9611. Tickets are $18.95.

Random Thoughts

I do have to say that I’m going to miss our “Topic of the Month” from April. Whether you’ve been reading the lessons and newsletters here at Guitar Noise for a while now or even if you’ve just recently found our website (and a big welcome to you, too!), you probably already know that we’re very keen on the idea that music is meant to be played. For others, with others, whatever works. Just don’t keep it to yourself.

Now a lot of folks may wonder when it’s the “right” time to start playing with others, or even perhaps join a band. There’s no one answer for this, but usually it’s safe to say that it’s before you think you’re ready. More often than not, beginners will use their beginner status as a safe haven and not venture out into the musical world. But doing this can actually keep you from getting better as a guitarist and a musician.

If you can make chord changes close to “at speed” when playing with recordings, then you’re ready. If you know at least three or four chords, you’re ready.

This is not to say that it’s going to be easy. That is usually up to you and up to the people with whom you’re playing. Most musicians are very gracious and accommodating to beginners, so hopefully that will be your experience as well.

You should end up learning quite a few things – first, that you can play with others and that doing so is (again, hopefully) a lot of fun. Second, you find out why what you’ve learned is important. And you also will learn just where you need to improve and why.

Not to mention you might learn some new songs, new chords, new ways to strum, new ways to integrate your guitar part with others and maybe you will have made some new friends in the process as well.

So just because it’s no longer “Playing Live” month, don’t make excuses and sit around until it becomes a “Topic of the Month” again. Get out there and play. Play as well as you can and play as often as you can. I know that’s usually the tag of the newsletter, but I think it needs a little push every now and then. After all, I want to one day have the honor and pleasure of hearing you play.

Until our next newsletter, stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 88 – April 15, 2009

David Hodge — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:30:10 +0000

Greetings

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #88 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Tutorial Tip
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts
Subscription / Unsubscription Info

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome again to Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com in case you’d forgotten). In case you’ve totally forgotten, today is April 15 and, if you live in the United States anyway, your taxes need to be mailed (or at least postmarked) today. So you take care of that and we’ll wait for you to come back…

Good to see you again. My thanks to Charley for subbing for me on the April 1 issue. He loves writing the newsletters, you know. Actually, he loves getting me to read his “fan mail” to him, so please allow me to thank the many of you who wrote to Charley in the past two weeks. Even Yvonne, who rescued Charley that rainy night several years ago now, wrote to say how glad she was to see he’s going well.

And thanks to you, too, Paul, for posting his picture up on Facebook. He was positively thrilled about that and we had to make it the new desktop photo for a week or so. And while I don’t think any of this attention goes to his head, I do think that he enjoys it all the same. Wouldn’t be surprised if he asks to sit in for me again in the near future.

Speaking of Facebook, I recently took a look at the listing of close to the two hundred and fifty fans we have on the Guitar Noise Facebook page and it’s amazing just how many places people are from. I know it’s a big world, notwithstanding the Disneyland song and all, but it’s still wild to see someone from my old state of New Hampshire and then to see the next person is from Morocco. Come on by an tell us a bit about your part of the world!

And don’t forget that Paul also posts updates on Twitter and that there’s also a MySpace page too.

I’d also like to thank everyone who’s written with congratulations, encouragement or suggestions (and many combinations of the three) concerning my latest book project for Alpha Books – “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar.” Since the folks at Alpha are planning on putting this book out around the end of this year, it’s going to be a big undertaking on a very short deadline so not only do I appreciate all the encouragement, I’m thanking everyone in advance for your patience as I’m sure I’ll be falling behind on my email correspondence yet again (and after almost getting totally caught up for a change!).

Seriously, though, I hope you all know that none of this would be possible without the incredible support that you’ve given Guitar Noise, and me personally, over the past nine-and-a-half years. And I also hope that I do you all proud with this new book.

Topic of the Month

For April, our Guitar Noise “Topic of the Month” for April is “Getting Up On Stage.” When you visit the Home Page of Guitar Noise during April, you will notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of articles all dealing with the topic of live performance as well as links to some of the many wonderful articles and lessons we have here at Guitar Noise about playing live, written by a wide range of contributing authors. You’re bound to find a lot of interesting and educational material on this topic.

And I find I truly cannot stress this topic enough. A big part of the joy of making music is when you get to share it with others. Some of the best stories we get to hear on Guitar Noise, whether in articles or just as threads on the Forum pages, are those concerning folks who have made the leap to performing in front of others. It’s incredibly inspirational and once you’ve tried it, you might also find it very addictive!

New Lessons and Articles

Nashville – Music City, USA
Our Musical World
by David Hodge

I’m pleased to introduce a new series here at Guitar Noise, spotlighting the many, many musical Meccas in this wonderful world of ours. First stop – Nashville, Tennessee. And if you’re thinking, “That’s only country music,” you’ll soon realize that there’s a whole lot more going on!

Comfortably Numb
Easy Songs for Beginners #39
by David Hodge

If you’re going to play an emotionally charged song, you can’t hide behind a single strumming pattern. In this lesson we take one of the highlight songs from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and arrange it for a single guitar, using many strumming and crosspicking techniques we’ve gone over in our Guitar Noise Podcast series. You’re going to have a lot of fun with this one!

Coming Attractions

I can’t promise you what order these will eventually come out in, but here’s the current “short list” of upcoming lessons I’m in the process of finishing up for Guitar Noise:

Easy Songs for Beginners: Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles,

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

Plus more on the “Turning Scales into Solos” and “Beyond Up and Down” series as well as a return of our “Chord Melody Song Arrangements,” which will deal with pop and rock songs, like Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and the Ventures’ classic surf anthem “Walk Don’t Run” as well as many others.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for April 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 6)

Let’s go further into our mode study in this issue. Last issue we covered diatonic (within a key) C major chords whose melody notes lay on string 1. A natural progression for us this time would be chords for string two. Here they are:

|----------------------------------|
|-13--12--10---8--6--5--3--1--0----|
|-12--12---9---9--5--5--2--0--0----|
|-10--10--10--10--5--5--2--2--2----|
|-------------10--3--3--3--3--3----|
|-12--12---8---8-------------------|

A couple comments here: play the chords descending and ascending. You can also get creative and play leap frog: play the chord with the C melody note, then the A melody, then come back to the B melody, then G, then A, etc.

Note 2: don’t get dogmatic about these chords. There are many other possibilities besides the ones given here. Check out William Leavitt’s “Modern Method for Guitar” for a more intensive workout with chord voicings.

Thanks for reading.

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

Tutorial Tip

Hi David-

I have read a couple of the “Scales into Solos” articles. I have learned from these articles and thank you for the help. But I still have a couple questions:

When you play a solo, do you match the notes from the scale with the notes that make up the chord being played? Also, I have been wondering if I should just make up a solo as I play, or if I should think about it (maybe even write it down) before playing? I was also wondering if you have any other tips on how I can practice to make better solos.

Thanks you for the help.

PS. Please write back!!!

Thanks for writing!

Let’s tackle your questions one at a time, shall we?

When you play a solo, do you match the notes from the scale with the notes that make up the chord being played?

A lot of people do, but then you lose out on all sorts of ways to make your solos more interesting. We started covering this topic in the latest
article, which you can find here.

Also, I have been wondering if I should just make up a solo as I play, or if I should think about it (maybe even write it down) before playing?

If you’ve read any number of my articles, you know that I usually answer any “either / or” question with “yes” and this one is certainly the case. Being able to make up a solo as you play is improvising at its best and an important skill to learn, but smart soloists will write down the ideas they came up with so that they can have them again very quickly. You really need to do a bit of both to get the best possible solo.

As for other tips, the best thing I can tell you is to learn to listen and pick out ideas for soloing from just about anywhere. Don’t make the mistake of only listening to guitar solos. Every solo usually has an interesting aspect to it and to be able to find ideas that you like and can transfer to the guitar will help you a lot.

The second thing is to remember most memorable solos are ones that have a good sense of melody. A person can sing along to them. So learn to listen to melody lines as well as to solos. This will give you no end of ideas with which to work on your own solos.

And, of course, practice a lot!

I hope this helps. Thank you again for writing and I look forward to hearing how things are progressing with you.

Peace

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 April (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

On the local scene here in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, I’m thrilled that Marilyn Miller (one of my students) is having her first solo show at the Marketplace Cafe in Sheffield, Massachusetts, this Friday evening from five to seven. I’m definitely planning on going!

And speaking of local, I’ll be playing back-up for Berkshire songwriter Joel Schick this coming Monday night, April 20 at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington as part of their ‘Local Spotlight’ series. It’s a great little venue and there’s no cover, so come on by if you’re in the neighborhood.

Still on the local scene, I happen to catch New York guitarist Jason Ennis on Friday evening in Great Barrington and was totally blown away by some great music. He plays jazz, swing, Latin, and incorporates even more world rhythms into his playing and it’s just incredible.

He’s in the Western Massachusetts / Southern Vermont area the rest of this month. This Saturday, April 18, he’ll be part of the Bill Chapman Quartet, with Mike Fahn (valve trombone),

Mary Ann McSweeney (bass) and Bill Chapman (drums) playing some swinging straight-ahead jazz at the famous Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (right around the corner from where Alice’s Restaurant used to be). Show starts at 9:00PM

The following weekend, Jason will be joining the Samirah Evans Sextet (Samirah Evans, Vocals; Michael Zsoldos, Tenor Saxophone; Jason Ennis, Guitar; Miro Sprague, Keyboards; Michael O’Brien, Electric Bass; Conor Meehan, Drums). Samirah is a wonderful singer from New Orleans who relocated to Vermont in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She is releasing a new CD, ‘My Little Bodhisattva,’ a beautiful recording made in the emotional period just after the catastrophe in 2005 with musicians from New Orleans. To celebrate the release here up north, she has put together a truly slamming band that will be bringing some serious swing, funk, blues, Brazilian and Latin grooves to Vermont. There’ll be two shows on Friday, April 24, at 7:00 and 9:00PM at the Hooker Dunham Theater in Brattleboro, VT. Tickets are $15 and reservations can be made through the Hooker-Dunham box office starting April 17 by calling 802-254-9276.

And for those of you on the other side of the Atlantic, you can catch GN Forum member ‘Almann’s’ band, About Time at the George and Dragon in Barrowford, England. This will be Saturday, April 25. If I can trust Google, I believe the George and Dragon is on Gisburn Road.

Note to self ‘ I should get to England sometime soon. Maybe after this book deadline is met. That would be a great way to celebrate, no?

Random Thoughts

While working out the outlines and lesson ideas for “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” I’ve naturally been reading a lot on the history of rock. “Rock and Roll,” I guess, would be the better phrase, because, to many of us today, “Rock and Roll” refers to one thing, music from Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly or Elvis, while “Rock” is something totally different.

And I can’t help but find that both funny and sad. Rock, like most music, has very deep roots. It’s easy to point to the ones that sprung up from the blues, but a great deal of it came from country, too. If you find that hard to swallow, then you should listen to Carl Perkins and see whether or not you think he might have influenced George Harrison in the slightest.

And then there’s also jazz, gospel and whatever you might want to call “old timey” music or mountain music.

Back then, rock and roll was something that brought many people from many different musical backgrounds together.

And, like pretty much most things it seems, folks are much more intent on dividing and subdividing and the power of music as a way of bringing people together doesn’t seem to matter when there are people who want to argue the difference between, say, rock and grunge, rock and alternative, rock and punk, rock and pop. You get the idea. People can get so into dividing things into “Us and Them” that they seem more intent on making boxes only big enough for “Us” to be themselves.

And, as a culture, we are kind of perpetuating this. How many concerts have you gone to where people aren’t into the music as much as they are into being part of the concert? I went to a show a while back where someone was more interested in recording the event on his cell phone to view later (presumably in private) rather than to enjoy the moment that was there for him.

It’s easy to think this is new, but it’s really not. More than fifteen years ago I was at a show that the artist called the show to an early end because he couldn’t deal with the noise coming from the audience. And these were people who were ardent fans.

You can look back further and see this kind of behavior has been part of sporting events for most of our lives and you can also see it in places you wouldn’t expect it at all, like the theater.

Perhaps it’s that we don’t know how to lose ourselves in the moment, to become part of something that’s a lot bigger. That idea scares a lot of people because they are afraid not so much of losing themselves but of the concept that they are a part of something and not apart from it. We’ve talked about this before, too.

Anyway, I’m having a blast finding all sorts of similarities in widely varied styles of music. And I’m hoping that when all this is done I remember that the reason that I play is to honor that something bigger than all of us.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 87 – April 1, 2009

Charley T. Cat — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:35:12 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #87 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Forum Finding
Forum Finding
Forum Finding
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Mmmmeeorrrwweeow.

For those of you who do not speak Felinese, I’ll kindly translate: “Welcome to the April 1, 2009 edition of Guitar Noise News. My name’s Charley and I’m filling in for David for this newsletter.

Usually David will ask me nicely to substitute for him, but this time out I (politely) told him he needed a break from the newsletter as he’s been very busy with some projects. Well, there was also the fact that he was coming up with all these dreadful ideas for an “April Fool’s Issue” of Guitar Noise News. “Dreadful” doesn’t even begin to cover it. The idea of writing up the newsletter as a stereotypical bit of “scam spam” for instance (“Dear friend, my name is Percival Bogus and as Minister of Music of Upper Fierenziastania I have acquired more than twenty-thousand 1957 Fender Telecasters, all in butterscotch blonde and all in what eBay would describe as “pristine condition.” I am writing you because I would like them to be yours. Send me your credit card information and I will ship them to you, regardless of where you live my dearest, blessed friend, at the mere cost of eighty-nine cents…”) has been done to death, don’t you think?

I did like his ideas for the various “100 Lists” issues of Guitar Noise News. Trouble is that it was hard to make them not sound real, especially to guitarists or other people who read Rolling Stone. I mean, “The Top 100 Guitarists that You Think Are Under-Rated and that No One Besides You Has Ever Heard Of” sounds like one of theirs. Or “The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time Not Counting Anyone Who Plays Any Sort of Classical Music or Jazz or Pop or Anything Our Readers Think is Lame” would have worked if we hadn’t read it in their March 2009 Issue. Personally, I couldn’t decide between “The Top 100 List of Lists To Make You Buy Our Magazine” and “The Top 100 Musicians We Worship Because Their Very Name Makes People Buy Our Magazine” (two versions of this – one with Kurt Cobain at position 3 and one with him at position 11).

Anyway, I told David to work on other things and I’d handle this issue of the newsletter. I even went and got my photo taken so that I’d look more author-like.

Not too bad, is it? Maybe I can get Paul to post it up on the Guitar Noise updates. I think I’d look good on Facebook, don’t you? So maybe you’ll see me on the Guitar Noise Facebook page, which can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Guitar-Noise/34835952685, at some point, along with the regularly updated news about the latest lessons and podcasts. Maybe he’ll even mention this latest issue of Guitar Noise News. Come on by and see!

And don’t forget that Paul also posts updates on Twitter – and that there’s also a MySpace page, too.

Okay, I’ve covered the “Greetings” portion of the newsletter, so I guess it’s time to do the “News and Announcements.” As some of you may already know, David’s been spending a lot of time on some side projects (mostly making pitches to various publishers) and I’m thrilled to announce to the world that he’s just gotten a new assignment from Alpha Books. He’ll be writing a new book for them, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar.” If all goes according to schedule, this book will be out sometime around the end of this year. For more about it, check out this thread on the “News” page of the Guitar Noise Forums.

While this is all very exciting, it also means that I might have to do some more subbing on the newsletters. The folks at Alpha want this book entirely written and an audio CD recorded by the middle of August. That’s a lot of work! But I’m sure he can do it.

And I also want to mention that David would probably spend most of the time writing the book just trying to thank everyone in the Guitar Noise community for their support in making all this possible if I let him! You are all wonderful and have been inspiring him to become a better teacher and writer since he first started writing for Paul, all the way back before I was even born. This is a great way for him to celebrate his upcoming ten-year anniversary with Guitar Noise.

Topic of the Month

And speaking of Guitar Noise, our “Topic of the Month” for April is “Playing Live.” When you visit the Home Page of Guitar Noise during April, you will notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of articles all dealing with the topic of live performance as well as links to some of the many wonderful articles and lessons we have here at Guitar Noise about playing live, written by a wide range of contributing authors. You’re bound to find a lot of interesting and educational material on this topic.

And there’s more new stuff at Guitar Noise as well:

New Lessons and Articles

The Magic Triangle Of Musicianship
by Nick Minnion

Let’s offer a warm “welcome back” to Nick, who brings us a look at the interlocking relationship of three important creative aspects of musicianship – improvising, composing and transcribing – and how you can use them to move up from being someone who just dabbles with the guitar to a serious musician.

How To Instantly Improve Your Guitar Teaching Business By Eliminating These Top Nine Mistakes Guitar Teachers Usually Make
by Tom Hess

Tom discusses the business side of teaching guitar, focusing on nine problem areas in promoting and maintaining your business as a guitar teacher.

Coming Attractions

Even with the book deadlines, David is hoping to put out two to four new articles for Guitar Noise each month. Among the lessons he’s currently working on are:

Easy Songs for Beginners: Comfortably Numb, Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles

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

I know you’ve seen this list before, so it should give you some idea of what’s coming. I know, for instance, that the lessons on “Comfortably Numb,” “Don’t Think Twice” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” should be out before the next newsletter. Don’t worry – I do my best to make sure that David won’t burn out or miss a deadline.

And if you have ideas or suggestions, don’t hesitate to send them along to him. Just try to be considerate of his time and understand that he may not be able to get to things as quickly as either you or he would like.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for April – Practicing Modes (Part 5)

We’ve been exploring modes, the C Ionian mode in particular. So far, we’ve communicated the C Ionian sound through chords, arpeggios and scales. We’ve done all this in one position. Let’s take a look now at moving from one position to another, as we stick to making the C Ionian sound.

We’ll start with C Ionian chords, with melody notes on strings 1 and 2 at least. We might dig a bit deeper and also do up to (down to) strings 3, and maybe 4, too.

Plus, we can break this exploration into two categories: (1) straight diatonic C Ionian chords and (2) chords with melody notes that are chromatic to the C major scale — but that relate to the C major scale, and C Ionian sound.

Let’s dig in. Here are C Ionian chords with the melody note on string 1:

|-13---12--10---8----7--5--3--1--0----|
|-10---12---8---8----8--5--5--3--3----|
|-12---12---9---9----9--5--5--0--0----|
|-10---10--10--10---10--5--5--2--2----|
|-----------------------------3--3----|
|-------------------------------------|

Thanks for reading.

As David has mentioned in past newsletters, Darrin is one of the Internet’s true treasures. You should take the time to visit his website, Maximum Musician, at and you can also read Darrin’s past Guitar Noise articles. Pardon the obvious pun, but he’s a cool cat!

Forum Finding

Speaking of cool, have you ever read or watched the “Beginners’ Videos” thread on the “Hear Here” page of the Guitar Noise Forums? Still going strong at fifty-seven pages and turning eighteen months old this week!

If there was one thread that summed up the heart and soul of all that Guitar Noise is about, this would be the one. People learning guitar and sharing what they’ve learned to help encourage beginners like themselves to play and not be afraid of making mistakes.

People, for some reason, sometimes like to believe that there’s this magic answer that will allow them to not have to learn things, to not have to go through the wonderful process of acquiring knowledge and skills that help you along. Any cat could tell you that the learning process itself is often more important than what you learn.

This people who have contributed to the “Beginners’ Video” thread, as well as those who have been offering advice and encouragement, totally get it. Here’s to looking at another fifty-seven pages of learning and wonder!

Emails? We Get Emails!

One of the many pleasures of living here with David is that he shares his emails with me, and I’d like to share a few with you:

Hello, David!

I have no musical talent whatsoever. In fact, I can’t play music without the written notes even after years of practice, although my fingers do have a memory even if my brain doesn’t.

Consequently, I compensated by buying all types of books, videos and DVDs to see if could overcome my limitations. In this regard, I consider myself almost an expert on the learning tools for guitar.

I stumbled across your sessions at Guitar Noise a few weeks ago and I am must tell your presentation is the best I have ever encountered both in terms of interest and effectiveness. I am completely amazed, although grateful, that you provide everything for free.

Your work has definitely made the world much richer.

….

David,

As an aspiring guitarist I want to thank you for the lessons that you have posted on the Internet, especially “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.” Your teaching style is clear and straight forward, and very much complements the type of guitar playing that I am enjoy.

Thank you for make your work available to us faceless masses who are learning from you on the Internet. Nice work!

Speaking for David, I would like to extend you thanks for what he would undoubtedly call your “very kind words” about his lessons. He spends a lot of time working on them, more than he’s probably ever admit, and I can also tell you in confidence that he truly enjoys writing the lessons for Guitar Noise probably more than anything else besides just simply spending time playing music with friends or just sitting and relaxing with me, Lily and whoever happens to be hanging out here at the house.

Event Horizon

(Note – I’ve “cut and pasted” the introduction to this section because I think it says what it should!)

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 April (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

And while this isn’t a “gig alert” per se, it is certainly about a gig. My thanks to Pancho and Lefty Reichert for sending it to my attention.

I don’t know about you, but Lily and I are hoping to catch this act sometime soon!

Random Thoughts

I’ve mentioned Lily a few times and if you are not familiar with our story, this may be a good time to fill you in. First, let me show you my companion.

Lily and I first met in foster care at Animal D.R.E.A.M.S – a cat rescue organization in Berkshire County, Massachusetts (find out more about them at http://berkshireanimaldreams.org/). She was born a feral cat while I was a pet that somehow was abandoned. Yvonne Borsody, who founded the organization interviewed David and Karen and determined that both Lily and I might be very happy living with them. And she couldn’t have been more right about anything. We love it here.

So while reading the Guitar Noise Forums over David’s shoulder the other day, I noticed a thread titled “Gave One Away” and nudged David into clicking on it so that we could read it. You can find it here.

Even though this ended up not being at all about cats, it still made me very happy to see a person doing something so nice for another person. Earlier I mentioned that people seem to think that there is a “magic” way to learn guitar and I don’t want to give you the impression that I don’t believe in magic. Rather I would like you to understand that the magic comes from what you do with music, what you do with the tools and gifts you have. All the practice and preparation is part of that wonderful journey of learning that I wrote about and it is incredibly important. But what you have in your heart is what makes the whole thing magical.

Some people go through their lives without giving and sometimes that’s a conscious choice. But often it’s because of a misguided notion that they’ve nothing to give. And nothing could be further from the truth. You may not have money, you may not have time, but you do have hearts. And your heart will help you find the time and effort if you will let it.

Even if all you can give is a smile, know that that is a wonderful start. And that’s what makes life magical.

As David tells Lily and me, “Thanks for being here.”

Oh, and if you’d like to write me, just send a note in care of David (dhodgeguitar@aol.com). I keep nudging him about getting me an email account. Maybe one day soon!

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 86 – March 15, 2009

David Hodge — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:32:41 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #86 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Emails? We Get Emails!
Forum Finding / Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Yes, it’s always tempting to open this particular newsletter with “Beware the Ides of March” (especially as I like many of their songs), but I am trying to give up on obvious seasonal opening lines…

So, instead I welcome you to the March 15, 2009 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise.

Did you note something different when you last visited Guitar Noise? You may have noticed we recently updated our site with a snazzy new logo. Do you like it? We love it !

And to celebrate, beginning March 15th (that’s today) we’re going to start selling T-shirts with the new logo. We know times can be tough, so for a limited time, we’re offering a special $10 T-shirt. This will let you show your love for Guitar Noise without breaking the bank.

The Guitar Noise $10 T-shirt is made of cool, mid-weight 100% cotton and is perfect for summer weather. Click here to see what it looks like and get yours.

And before anyone asks, Paul informs me that golf shirts with the new logo are probably going to be available, too, possibly as early as April. These will (obviously) be more expensive than the T-shirts, but not outrageous.

Speaking of Paul, he’s been very busy of late. The logo and shirts are just the newest facets of the ever-expanding Guitar Noise universe. In the March 1 issue of Guitar Noise News, we also mentioned our Guitar Noise Facebook page, which can be found here. It is updated regularly with links for our latest lessons and podcasts and even the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

And judging by the big jump in “fans” on that page, some of you must have come by and signed in! Our thanks for that.

And you can also keep up with the latest at Guitar Noise through our MySpace page or via Paul’s Twitter posts. You can sign on to follow Paul’s Twittering (is that the right word? Can you tell this is all new to me?).

Finally, for those of you who might have missed it last time out, we’re giving away three copies of Len Collins’ Guitar Breakthrough. What is that, you ask? Guitar Breakthrough is a two DVD set of guitar lessons unlike anything else you have ever seen. We’ve already reviewed Guitar Breakthrough on here at Guitar Noise and we have three 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. That’s this coming Wednesday, so good luck!

Topic of the Month

In case you’ve not been on the Guitar Noise home page of late, and in case you’ve managed to miss all the other notices here in our newsletter, 2009 saw the return of this timeless Guitar Noise feature.

Our “Topic of the Month” for March is “How to Buy a Guitar.” On the Guitar Noise Home Page, you will notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of articles all to do with guitars themselves, specifically buying them and getting gear such as amplifiers and effects.

You’ll find links to some of the many wonderful articles and lessons we have here at Guitar Noise about practicing, written by a wide range of contributing authors. You’re bound to find a lot of interesting and educational material on this topic.

New Lessons and Articles

This is (another) one of those times where I’m racing to get six things done at once and it’s still, at this point anyhow, a coin toss as to what’s going to get done first. So if these two lessons are not online by the time you get this newsletter, don’t fret! They will be up for you to read and to listen to within the next twenty-four hours.

Sustaining Interest in a Target
Turning Scales into Solos (Part 7)
by David Hodge

Before moving onward with modes, it’s important to grasp the concept of “target” notes as well as to understand that a target note doesn’t have to be a part of the chord in a chord progression. Here we’ll look at how single notes can used to create far more interesting solos than simply using “safe” notes.

Lynyrd Meets DADGAD
A Celtic Arrangement of “All I Can Do Is Write About It”
by David Hodge

Since Saint Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, here’s a Celtic arrangement of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “All I Can Do Is Write About It” done in DADGAD tuning. A wonderful way to remember your home, whether home is in Alabama or Caledonia.

Coming Attractions

I can’t promise you what order these will eventually come out in, but here’s the current “short list” of upcoming lessons I’m in the process of finishing up for Guitar Noise:

Easy Songs for Beginners: Comfortably Numb, Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles, Suzanne, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away

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

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for March 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 4)

We’re going to continue exploring modes in this issue, the C Ionian mode in particular. We’ve used chords and arpeggios to convey the C Ionian sound, and have started on using scales to convey that sound.

The first scale to choose in giving the C Ionian sound is the C major scale, which we played in a couple of different ways last issue. Now let’s try yet another scale that’s not the C major, but that still gives the C major/C Ionian sound:

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

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

This is the C Lydian scale, which can often substitute for the C Ionian sound, or convey the same basic feeling or mood as C Ionian. C Lydian is played with the G major scale, which has six out of seven notes in common with the C major scale — that’s why we can use G major to give a C major sound. The key is to start and end the scale on the C note. If you start the G major scale on a note besides C, you’ll be conveying some other mood besides C Ionian /C Lydian.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails!

David,

Just wanted to say thanks for this great website with loads of helpful information. I started taking lesions in December and found your site on the internet and it has made huge difference in my playing and knowledge of the six string.

I like the way you approach the easy songs and make the reader think of different ways of playing. Especially since we often are not going to have a band or group to back ourselves up.

I am finally starting to get the hang of changing chords in a timely manner. Just really starting to work on the strumming and a little finger style and of course the songs.

My reason for writing today is related to tempo? Is there a standard number of 4/4 time would generally related to in BPM (beats per minute)? When using a metronome for example and playing “Margaritaville” or “Horse with No Name.” Would that be played a 120 BPM? Fast or slower? Is there a way to determine this without having the sheet music?

Thanks in advance,

Thanks for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning Guitar Noise. We’re glad you found our website and hope that it continues to be a source of education and inspiration to you as you learn more and more about the guitar.

Concerning timing and tempo, there are no hard guidelines. That’s to be expected as tempo is a very relative subject and everyone has a different idea as to what constitutes “fast,” “slow,” medium” or “faster than an SST but slightly slower than the Ramones.”

In general, songs tend to fall into three tempo categories – slow, moderate and fast. Classical pieces break this down further, using descriptive names like Largo (very slow), Andante (literally, “at a walking pace”), Moderato, Allegro (fast but not the Ramones) and Presto (even faster but still not the Ramones), not to mention a host of others.

But even these classical terms do not come with specific BPM (beats per measure) numbers. Rather, if you look at a metronome, you’ll usually see a range of BPMs that cover a general discriptive tempo marking. To make matters more interesting, not everyone even agrees on the ranges of BPMs sometimes. Some folks will say, for example, that “Andante” is between 76 and 108 BPM. Others might say that it’s really between 80 and 112.

Most sheet music will not have BPM markings. Generally “note for note transcriptions” will, but not always.

So, what’s a person to do? Here is one of those situations that your fifth or sixth grade math teacher would delightfully say “This is why you need math!” Listen to a recording of whatever song you’re trying to get a tempo for and have a watch with a second hand handy. When you are certain that you are tapping along precisely with the beat, count the number of beats for as close to ten seconds as you can. Then multiply that number by six. This should give you the BPM of that particular song.

Is this foolproof? No. For example, I just tried it out on “Horse With No Name” and counted twenty beats in ten seconds, which gives me a BPM of 120. According to a transcribed version of the song I have, it’s supposed to be 122 BPM. That’s certainly close enough to make me feel that I’ve got it.

And also don’t forget different versions of songs, even by the same artist, can be at different tempos.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to write again if you have further questions.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress,

Peace

Forum Findings / 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 April (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

In addition to finding out about gigs by GN folks here, you can often read about them on the “News” page of the Guitar Noise Forums. Recently GN Forum member “almann1979″ posted a wonderful story about an interesting thing that happened to his band.

It’s not every day that you lose a gig to yourselves!

Al’s group, About Time, will be playing this Friday, March 20, at Cross Keys in Skipton (UK) and then the following Saturday, March 28, at the Bay Horse in Baxenden. Check them out if you’re in the area.

Random Thoughts

So I got a note from Ava, the wonderful woman who runs the Community Blog at Jemsite, asking me if I’d like to be interviewed as part of their “Guitar Hero series.” These are interviews with guitarists, performers, writers and teachers that are simply regular folks doing their best to bring music to the rest of the world.

Needless to say, I was (and still am) very uncomfortable with the idea of me being a “Guitar Hero,” let alone anyone’s hero. But I did do the interview and if you’ve absolutely nothing better to do, you can read it here.

I’d like to thank those of you who’ve already read it and also I’d like to dispel any rumors that I’ve going to appear in any upcoming versions of either “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band.” Sorry if that ruins anyone’s day!

But I would like to also take this moment to announce that, if things work out the way they look like they’re going to, we’re going to be making a couple of very, very big announcements at Guitar Noise very soon. I know that’s a really big tease, but sometimes I just can’t help myself!

And, no, those particular announcements are not going to be April Fool’s jokes.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 85 – March 1, 2009

David Hodge — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:39:30 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #85 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Forum Finding
Tutorial Tip – Acoustic or Electric?
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greeetings, News and Announcements

Greetings!

The calendar says that (yet) another month has passed by, so here (right on schedule) is the March 1, 2009 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com in case you’d forgotten). We’ve more than our usual bits of news to give you, so let’s get right to it:

For starters, it’s contest time once again at Guitar Noise. We’re giving away three copies of Len Collins’ Guitar Breakthrough. What is that, you ask? Guitar Breakthrough is a two DVD set of guitar lessons unlike anything else you have ever seen. We’ve already reviewed Guitar Breakthrough on here at Guitar Noise and we have three 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.

And speaking of Len Collins,

You can read all about that on the Guitar Breakthrough pages as well. The URL, in case the internal links aren’t working, is http://www.guitarbreakthrough.com/

Sometimes it seems there’s so much going on with Guitar Noise that I can’t even keep up with it all. Fortunately, Paul is posting updates on Twitter – and that makes things a little easier. For instance, if it wasn’t for Twitter, I wouldn’t have even known that Guitar Noise now has both a Facebook and a MySpace page!

Our Guitar Noise Facebook page, which can be found here, is updated regularly with links for our latest lessons and podcasts and even the latest issue of Guitar Noise News. Come on by and sign in as a fan!

And while our MySpace page is not as new, it’s still a cool place to visit and to catch up with friends from the GN Forums as well as many of the contributing writers. So please come visit when you’ve the chance.

Last time out, I also mentioned the Community Blog at Jemsite and what a very cool place it is, full of lots of short pieces by quite a number of writers, from guitar teachers to performing musicians to everyday guitar enthusiasts. They’ve recently started posting “the Guitar Hero series,” a number of interviews with guitarists, performers, writers and teachers that are simply regular folks doing their best to bring music to the rest of the world. Ava always manages to find very interesting subjects for her interviews and the stories of these “heroes” are often very inspirational. They are definitely worthy of your time.

Topic of the Month

In case you’ve not been on the Guitar Noise home page of late. And in case you’ve managed to miss the notices here in our newsletter, 2009 saw the return of this timeless Guitar Noise feature. If you happen to visit the Home Page of Guitar Noise during March, you will notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of articles all to do with guitars themselves, specifically buying them and getting gear such as amplifiers and effects.

And speaking of educational and interesting material – let’s take a look at the new lessons and articles that have gone up online since we last chatted…

New Lessons and Articles

The Gear (and How to Keep It)
by Mark Mills

Here’s a very useful article from Mark detailing how easy it is to keep all your gear under control, especially if you play gigs. Wish I’d read this thirty years ago!

Play With Fire
Easy Songs for Beginners Lesson #38
by David Hodge

Here’s an easy, yet slightly challenging take on a familiar strumming / picking pattern featuring a fun Rolling Stones’ song that you’ll be playing well in no time at all.

Coming Attractions

I can’t promise you what order these will eventually come out in, but here’s the current “short list” of upcoming lessons I’m in the process of finishing up for Guitar Noise:

Easy Songs for Beginners: Comfortably Numb, Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust, Mister Bojangles

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

EXPLORING MUSIC WITH DARRIN KOLTOW

Tip for March 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 3)

We’re going to continue with our mode study in this issue. We’ve been looking specifically at how to convey the C Ionian or C major sound. So far, we’ve achieved that sound through arpeggios and chords. Let’s look at different ways of using scales to convey C major/C Ionian.

As usual, we work this out at position V, but remember to practice in all positions. Here’s your basic C Ionian sound in scale form.

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

Notice when you play this that the second time you hit a C note, it’s on the off beat. Generally, when you’re thinking in terms of modes, you want the root of the mode, C in this case, to be on the beat, not off it. You also want notes 3 and 5 of the mode on the beat, in this case E, and G. Putting the important notes of a mode on the beat ensures the mode’s mood doesn’t get diluted. But, because we’re so used to hearing the C major scale played straight up and down, we’re not fully hit with the mood. Toward restoring the mood of the C Ionian mode, try this alternative take on the scale:

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

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

The next time out, we’ll play through other ways of using a scale to produce the C Ionian sound.

Thanks for reading.

Forum Finding

On one of the threads posted on the “Repairs and Maintenance” page of the Guitar Noise Forums, someone was looking for a place to repair guitars in New York City. One poster put up a link to a “guitar repair search site” with this URL:

http://www.repairmyguitar.com

This is a good news / bad news sort of situation where, fortunately, the bad news isn’t all that bad. Because the guitar techs / music shops / luthiers / etc., have to register to be part of this search, you won’t find every possible repair person in your area. The good news, though, is that you’ll find a lot and having to go through a registration process, not to mention that there’s a place for customers to place reviews and opinions, you’re less likely to find a disreputable place.

Tutorial Tip – Acoustic or Electric

One of the many questions asked on the Guitar Noise Forums goes something like this:

“I’m just starting out on guitar. Do I buy and acoustic or electric (or classical) guitar?”

Most guitar teachers, not “all” but “most,” will recommend starting on acoustic. For all sorts of reasons. So will many folks around my age (and in case you don’t know, I’ll be turning fifty-two at some point in June), but for different reasons. You see, back when I was growing up – and yes, we walked fifteen miles to school each day in the snow (and it was always snowing because it was the ice age) carrying my younger brother and a saxophone – even the cheapest electric guitars cost a lot of money. And, just like now, parents would look to buy guitars not from guitar stores but rather from Sears or Woolworths – that era’s equivalent of WalMart and Costco. So when I saw guitars and drums being sold around the holidays at a local grocery store, I had to smile because some things never change, we just don’t remember them correctly.

Nowadays, though, there’s not a lot of cost difference between what one might consider as a “beginner” or “starter” electric and lower end acoustic guitars. So cost doesn’t enter into the equation as much as it once might have. And there are no end to the deals for an “electric starter kit,” which packages the guitar together with a small practice amp and other useful accessories. Even most mom and pop place will often put together a deal of this sort for a customer.

The “teacher reasons” for starting on an acoustic are still sound. It takes more effort to play an acoustic or classical than an electric. As a student you learn the importance of accuracy and subtlety when playing. You don’t find yourself being distracted by all the dials and settings and spend more time learning your instrument instead of tinkering with your sound.

But there are compelling reasons to go electric, too. The strings are easier to fret. And barre chords will be easier to learn at the start. And if you’re able to distinguish between “fast” and “sloppy,” you’ll also very quickly learn the importance of playing with finesse.

And let’s not forget that It’s easy for the classical guitar to get lost in the list of possible first guitars, and that’s a bit of a shame. The nylon strings seem less intimidating, the wider fingerboard often helps to cleanly fret notes, and the smaller body size usually allows most players to develop better posture and positioning.

Eventually you want your choice to be not what type of guitar do you want to learn on, but what type of guitar do you want to play. After all, the whole point of getting one is to play it. The guitar is a highly personal instrument. One can learn the basics on any type of guitar, but a student who loves his or her instrument will usually play (and practice) more than one who’s hoping for a different guitar. As teachers and guitarists, we know that the first guitar is simply that – a first guitar, one of many more to come. People take pride in their instruments as well as in their achievements as guitarists. So by choosing a guitar that you will want to play, you’re helping yourself to get on a lifetime’s adventure on a very positive note.

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 April (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

GN Forum member “Moonrider” and his band, the Southsidas, have gotten a slew of gigs that will be happening in the next two months. If you’re in the Richmond, Virginia area, you can find them at the following dates, places and times:

Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 9:00 PM – Benny’s Tavern
3631 Boulevard
Colonial Heights, Virginia 23834
US
Cost:$5
Description: The Southsidas will appear with Special Guest Houston Scott on Harmonica at this well known venue south of Richmond..

Random Thoughts

You may have noticed in our “Tutorial Tip” that I did something I often do – pose an “either / or” question and then totally ignore it. As I’ve mentioned in many of the articles and lessons here at Guitar Noise, I’m not much of a believer in “either / or” choices.

If someone asks “electric or acoustic?” or “play with a pick or fingers?” or “learn to read music notation or tablature?” my answer will inevitably be “yes.”

Nor do I care much for superlatives. If someone says to me, “this is the best day of my life,” I can’t help but feel sad for the person because every day to come won’t be the best one. Conversely, I feel terrific about someone having “the worst day of his life” because that means every day coming cannot be worse. That’s certainly cause for joy!

None of this is meant to be sarcastic or ironic or even the rambling of a smart-aleck. I simply believe that one can severely limit oneself by believing that there are only two options available to choose from. Worse, he or she can miss out on all the wonder of mixing the two things together.

Of course, it’s hard to argue with the old joke:

There are two kinds of people – those who believe there are two kinds of people and those who don’t.

Finally, a very random thought – Charley my cat has been clamoring to write another newsletter, so don’t be surprised if he shows up again. I think he want to do the first one in April.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 84 – February 15, 2009

David Hodge — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:49:53 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #84 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Email? We Get Emails!
Tutorial Tip
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

So…

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Actually, today, that is the day I’m writing and putting together all the items for this issue of Guitar Noise News, is Valentine’s Day. February is half-over and it’s hard to remember that, as much as I might like, spring is not quite around the corner. There’s still most of March to enjoy before the Vernal Equinox does arrive.

Two things I’m trying to get a lot better at this year are keeping up with my email correspondence and being better at juggling all the different tasks that seem to need to get done. I’m currently closing in on being less than two weeks behind with the email, and that in itself is quite the accomplishment!

For whatever reason, it seems the busier I am, the more I actually get accomplished. Not really sure why that works, and it’s certainly not always pretty (as those of you who found MP3 files for my Dust in the Wind lesson in the new Hey There Delilah lesson at Guitar Noise can attest!), but it seems to work.

So when Ava, the coordinator of the Community Blog at Jemsite recently asked if I might write a short piece for them, I said sure! And though it took me longer than planned, I did manage to put together Two Tenets to Live By, a short musing on the importance of going out to listen to music as well as the importance of playing with others whenever you can.

The Community Blog at Jemsite is a very cool place, full of lots of short pieces by quite a number of writers, from guitar teachers to performing musicians to everyday guitar enthusiasts. The rest of Jemsite is worth the visit, too.

And writing up a quick piece for them has gotten me going on a lot more here, as you’ll be pleased to see in the remaining two weeks of February. Not to mention through March and April as well. So let’s get going on the latest here at Guitar Noise. But first, a quick visit to:

Topic of the Month

In case you’ve not been on the Guitar Noise home page of late. And in case you’ve managed to miss the notices here in our newsletter, 2009 saw the return of this timeless Guitar Noise feature. If you happen to visit the Home Page of Guitar Noise, you will notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of lessons under the header, “Practicing,” which is the “Topic of the Month” for February.

Under the “Practicing” header, you’ll find links to some of the many wonderful articles and lessons we have here at Guitar Noise about practicing, written by a wide range of contributing authors. You’re bound to find a lot of interesting and educational material.

In keeping with our theme, Darrin has the second on his series dealing with the practicing of modes and I’m adding an old-but-still-useful Tutorial Tip that I first published in Play Guitar Magazine, back when that magazine was still around…

And if you’ve any requests for future “Topics of the Month,” feel free to drop me an email about it. My Internet address, as I’m sure you know, is dhodgeguitar@aol.com and please try to put “Topic of the Month” in the subject line of your email.

And now let’s take a look at what’s new since the first of February here at Guitar Noise:

New Lessons and Articles

Funky Monkey Blues
by Peter Simms

Here’s a catchy little number written for you especially by Peter Simms, integrating a funky rhythm with some tasty blues lines.
Enjoy!

Hey There Delilah
Easy Songs for Beginners Lesson #37

by David Hodge

Here’s a great example of how a simple pop song can help you to build up some solid technique in using partial chords, playing with finger-style or pick, and making some interesting chord changes on the fly. And to top it off, it’s even got some very easy (and short!) walking bass lines. Not to mention it’s a great work out for your basic rhythm…

Coming Attractions

I can’t promise you what order these will eventually come out in, but here’s the current “short list” of upcoming lessons I’m in the process of finishing up for Guitar Noise:

Easy Songs for Beginners: Play With Fire, Comfortably Numb, Sweet Home Alabama, Ziggy Stardust

Songs for Intermediates: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, If I Had A Boat, Homeward Bound, Hello In There

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for February 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 2)

This is the second in a series of articles on modes. Specifically, we’re building exercises that focus on getting the Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian, and Phyrgian sounds into our ear and under our fingers.

We worked out C Ionian sounds last time, via chords in the fifth position. Let’s keep with the harmonic theme by presenting some C Io arpeggios this time out. Here’s C major 7, position V.

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

Let’s do C pentatonic and C6 while we’re at it.

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

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

All these sounds convey C Ionian.

Here are some ideas for mixing up this routine once you get the patterns down: descend from string 1 to 6 6 on C major 7, then come back to string 1 through C pentatonic. Or descend on C6 and ascend on C major 7. Mix it up. The goal is to convey the same C ionian or C Major sound in different ways.

Next time, maybe some scalework.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails

David,

As an ancient (late 50s) novice guitar player from across the pond in England I must compliment you on the quality of your lessons in the Guitar Noise web site. They are without a doubt the best around, and through them, my playing has improved considerably. Please keep up the good work.

Also, how about doing the James Taylor version of “You’ve Got a Friend?”

Kind Regards,

Hello and thank you for writing!

And a hearty “thank you” as well for your kind words concerning our lessons here at Guitar Noise. We also like to think they’re among the better lessons the Internet has to offer, but we tend to be a little biased in that area!

Although I didn’t include “You’ve Got a Friend” in the “short list” of the Coming Attractions section, there’s a very good chance that there will be a James Taylor lesson (or two or three) out sometime this year. If things go well, I’m hoping to have “Sweet Baby James” for the “Easy Songs for Beginners” while I’m still deciding between “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Fire and Rain” for the Intermediates. Usually when I can’t decide, both songs end up becoming lessons, so it’s just a matter as to when. Also, even though these last two songs may become Intermediate lessons, they are not hard for a beginner to handle. It’ll just be a matter of being comfortable with some finger picking work, so use “Dust in the Wind” or the upcoming “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” lessons as a warm-up!

I hope this will work for you and I appreciate your patience, not to mention that I also appreciate you making time to write and say hello.

Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Tutorial Tip

You may not be able to practice guitar as much as you’d like, but don’t think you can’t be improving your skills just because you don’t have a guitar in hand. Here are four easy things you can practice when you’re away from your guitar:

Rhythm. Do you tap your foot along with the beat of a song? Take that a step further and use your strumming hand. Tap out a strumming pattern on a desk or table, or use a pick to strum on your leg. It’s a great way to get a rhythm into your hands before you try it out on your guitar.

Ear Training. Chances are you listen to music pretty often. Take a little time to concentrate on what you’re hearing. You can do this in a general way, such as trying to pick out major or minor chords, or in a more specific way, trying to figure out what the guitarist is doing. Are they chugging out power chords, fingerpicking, or playing a riff to help out the rhythm? As you learn more about intervals and chords, you might even find that listening in this way helps you learn songs by ear.

Chord Makeup. What’s six times four? Twenty-four, of course. What notes are in a G major chord? If you couldn’t automatically answer “G, B, and D,” then you might make it a point to learn three or four chords a week. Soon, you’ll know your chords as well as your multiplication tables. You’ll find this very handy when you’re trying to come up with different chord voicings (alternate ways to play chords). Combining chord knowledge and ear training makes it easier to let the music you hear in your head come out in your playing.

Sight Reading. Reading music notation is another thing that gets incredibly easier with a little practice. When you know you’ll have time to read, carry a piece or two of sheet music along with – or even instead of – your newspaper, book, or favorite guitar magazine, and try to listen to the music in your head while reading it. If you can’t read the notes, tap out the rhythms, which brings us back to step one again!

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 January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

Saturday, February 28 at 9:00 PM – Breakers West Broad
9127 West Broad Street,
Richmond, Virginia 23294
US
Cost:$5
Description: Come join the Southsidas at this west end hotspot, located in the TJ Maxx shopping center, across from Sam Ash Music and Guitar Center.

And if you’re in my neck of the woods, I’ll be playing another solo performance at the Marketplace Cafe, located at 18 Elm Court in Sheffield, Massachusetts on Friday, February 20. Should be from 5:30 or 6 until 8:30. Come on by, have some great food and say hello.

Random Thoughts

One thing I’ve not been doing a lot of late is reading. I love to read books of all sorts – fiction, nonfiction, almost anything I can get my hands on.

When life gets so rushed and hectic that I don’t make time for a little reading, then I know I’ve let things slip away too much. It means I’m spending way too much time at a computer screen and too little time doing the things that give me pleasure, like reading, or practicing, or cooking. Or simply talking to friends. Notice the word “talking,” and not “emailing” or “texting.”

It sounds incredibly simple and naive, but taking time to make yourself happy usually results in your treating others well, too. When you’re worried and agitated and irritable, you tend to respond to others in that mindset, often without even realizing that you’re doing so.

Not surprisingly, you find all sorts of wonderful little philosophical bits in the strangest places. A book I’m often lending out to friends is “Mike Nelson’s Death Rat,” by Michael J. Nelson, whom some of you may know as a writer and actor who was on the cable show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s a laughing out load book about publishing, marketing, writing and Minnesota, that also gives an important philosophy on dealing with the craziness of life, as related in this passage:

“You allow events to influence you too much, Mr. Bromstad. Evenness is the key. We Danish have long understood that. In fact, there is an oft-cited Danish proverb, Ingen ko pa isen, which means, “No cow on the ice.” He shook his head meaningfully.

” ‘No cow on the ice’?”

“Ja. Ingen ko pa isen,” Stig repeated.

The men looked at each other. “Perhaps you hadn’t noticed that I was waiting for you to explain that,” said Bromstad.

“It means that there is no problem. If one of our cows was out on the ice, that would be something to worry about. As it is, our cows are safe on land. No problems. Do not become agitated until your cows are out on the ice.”

Yes, it’s silly. But it’s also true. We make a big deal about way too much stuff that, at the heart of it all, isn’t that big of a deal. Putting things into focus helps immensely and the best way to do that is to be in a calm and reasonable frame of mind yourself.

So read a book. Sing a song. Play music with others. You knew I was going to get here eventually, right?

And if you did manage to forget Valentine’s Day, then make tomorrow better than Valentine’s Day. That’s not that hard.

And until that next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And thanks for putting up with my moods…

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 83 – February 1, 2009

David Hodge — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:32:18 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #83 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Topic of the Month
New Lessons and Articles
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Email? We Get Emails!
Tutorial Tips
Blog Bulletin
Event Horizon
Reviews
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the February 1, 2009 issue of Guitar Noise News. A belated Happy “Year of the Ox,” to you!

The two major announcements of this newsletter both concern Len Collins, who some of you might remember for hosting the “World’s Largest Guitar Lesson,” back in 2004 over in merry old England. I’m sure I should have written that as “olde,” but living in New England I see way too much of that. Kind of surprised the state of Massachusetts doesn’t tax business for the extra “e.”

Anyway, Len’s been incredibly busy these past two years putting together the “Guitar Breakthough DVD,” which you’ll be reading about down in the “Reviews” section of the newsletter. Or you can simply click yourself over to the Guitar Noise review of Len’s DVD.

Len’s other bit of news is just as exciting. This coming Friday evening, February 6, at the Dolphin Café, located right on the market square in Towcester, Northamptonshire, Len invites you to his “First.Stop.for.Musicians.” Basically, it’s a huge “meet and greet” where musicians can come and find potential bandmates and music collaborators.

Let me quote directly from the press release:

Guitar Breakthrough, publishers of a popular DVD that helps guitarists improve their playing skills, has announced the launch of First.Stop.for.Musicians, a new concept in face-to-face networking that allows musicians to meet and socialise in a relaxed, non-playing environment. The venue for the launch of this ground-breaking idea is the Dolphin Café, situated on the market square in Towcester, Northamptonshire: the organisers hope that the idea will soon roll out to other venues across the UK and then across the world. The first meeting will take place on Friday 6 February 2009 from 6pm, and meetings will continue on a monthly basis thereafter.

Many musicians – young and old, beginners or experienced – would love to join a band but don’t know where to start in their search for other musicians. It is very important for them have meeting places where they can feel comfortable and find others to talk to, share experiences with and form bands.

“Answering advertisements can be intimidating, and there’s no way of knowing from an ad whether the chemistry will be right,” says Len Collins, founder and MD of Guitar Breakthrough. “We’re hoping that a forum where local musicians can meet in a relaxed environment and exchange ideas about their music will naturally lead to playing relationships developing, and ultimately to bands being created.”

There will be no charge either for membership of First.Stop.for.Musicians or for attending the sessions, which will be open to singers, songwriters, bass players, drummers and other musicians as well as guitarists. Guest speakers with a genuine interest in meeting musicians will be invited to share their experiences.

“We’ll split the meeting into sessions of an hour or so for young musicians aged 13 and under, and those aged 17 and under, prior to the start of the adult session,” added Len. “For the price of a cup of tea or coffee they can chat with other musicians and find people that they would like to play with.”

The meeting will begin at 6pm with a session for young musicians aged 13 and under, with those aged 14 – 17 meeting at 7pm and over 18s at 8pm.

For more information, plus people to contact with questions, click right on over to the Guitar Breakthrough website page at this URL: http://www.guitarbreakthrough.com/cafe.html

And if you do manage to make one of the three sessions this Friday, tell Len I say “hi!”

Topic of the Month

Since today is the start of a new month, it’s time to update our “Topic of the Month.” In case you missed it here in the last newsletter, 2009 saw the return of this timeless Guitar Noise feature. If you happen to visit the Home Page of Guitar Noise, you will notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of lessons under the header, “Practicing,” which is the “Topic of the Month” for February.

You’ll also notice that Darrin’s newsletter tip today concerns the practicing of modes. Couldn’t have planned this better if we tried!

Moving on to other new material:

New Lessons and Articles

As I seem to be doing a lot lately, I’m in the middle of putting the finishing touches on a new article while trying to get the newsletter and new podcasts done at the same time. So if “Dust in the Wind” is not up online when you get this issue of Guitar Noise News, don’t panic! It should be up online very, very shortly.

How to Make the Right Contacts in the Record Industry
by Tom Hess

You often hear that success in the music business is not about what you know as much as it is about who you know. So how does one go about getting to know the “whos?” How do we make contact and who are the right people to make contact with? Tom Hess gives some very valuable tips in this article.

Frame by Frame
(Writing a Film Score)
by Ian Hand

Guitar Noise would like to introduce you to another student of Tom Hess, Ian Hand of Bristol, UK, who tells us of his experiences in putting together his first film score.

Dust In The Wind
Songs for Intermediates #26
by David Hodge

This is another one of those songs that could easily have gotten onto the “Easy Songs for Beginners” page, especially if you’ve already worked on the two Guitar Noise Lessons on Travis style finger picking. While you’ll have to work at this one a bit, it’s not beyond the grasp of a beginner who’s ready to practice!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for February 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 1)

This is the start of a series of articles on practicing modes. We’ll cover a routine you can use to explore, understand and apply modal thinking to your music.

We’ll start with the C ionic or C major sound. We’ll cover chords, scales and arpeggios that convey that basic sound. Let’s look at some ways of playing C ionic with chords, around the fifth fret.

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

A few notes on this: many different chords are possible for each melody note. I chose the ones I did because they sounded good, had more than a tinge of the ionic sound, and felt right under my fingers.

I used chord substitutions for some of the melody notes: you’ll see and hear E minor and E minor 9. I included the F# as a melody note even though it’s not part of the C major scale — again, it sounds cool.

Next time out we may go into melodic work that conveys the C ionic sound.

Thanks for reading.

Emails? We Get Emails

Hi there

Just a note to say thanks for the great lessons at Guitar Noise. You’re always so clear and funny. That’s what I need, I think, when I’m struggling with chord changes and bleeding fingertips: clear and funny.

Well, I’m just a beginner but I’m getting there. Working on your REM “Losing My Religion” lesson now.

Thanks again.

Thank you for writing and thank you as well for your kind words, although I’m not sure it’s a good thing to be associated with bleeding fingertips! And as long as we’re not headed for the “you’re funny” conversation between Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci in “Good Fellas!”

Please feel free to write anytime, whether with questions or suggestions or just to say hi and keep us updated on how things are going.

I look forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

Tutorial Tip

David,

Let me start by saying I am thoroughly enjoying your lessons. I have downloaded up to Podcast #22 (although I have only completed up to 8!). My wife bought me an electric guitar for Christmas of 2008 and a friend gave me an Ibanez acoustic guitar a few months ago. My busy schedule only affords a little time for practice, but I do practice.

I have a question that no one has been able to explain to me. I have tried to figure this one out on my own and can’t come up with the answer. On “Knocking on Heavens door, tricks of the trade”, you show a D chord and then Dsus4 or Dadd9. What are we sussing 4 from and/or adding 9 to?

Thanks,

Thank you for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning my work at Guitar Noise. It’s great that you’re getting into the guitar and I think a lot of us are in the same boat when it comes to finding time to practice. Myself included!

In regard to the Dsus4 and Dadd9, let me direct you to an old Guitar Column of mine at Guitar Noise called Building Additions (and Suspensions), which you can find here.

I’m assuming that you already know the basics of making a D chord (and if not, don’t worry, we’ll deal with that in a moment). And let’s start with the Dsus4. The notes of a regular D major chord are D (the root), F# (the third) and A (the fifth). When we replace the third with another note, it’s called a suspended chord. “Dsus4″ means that we replace the F# with the “4″ or the fourth note in the D major scale, which is G (third fret of the high E string).

We could also replace the F# with the E note (the open high E (first) string). Most guitarists will call this “Dsus2,” meaning that we’ve suspended the third (F# in this case) and replaced it with the second note of the D major scale, which is E.

Scholars of music theory tend to frown and say there’s no such thing as a “sus2″ chord, and they do have their reasons for saying so. It’s slightly complicated and not worth getting into at the moment. But to keep them happy, it’s just as easy to call the “Dsus2″ a “Dadd9″ when playing it on the guitar. Making an “add9″ chord simply means to add the ninth note of the major scale to the existing chord. The ninth note is the same as the second note.

Because of fingering concerns, we don’t always get every note of a chord on a guitar, especially on complicated chords. So we could make the argument that the Dadd9 chord is composed of D, F#, A and E (E being the ninth) and that we’re simply not playing the F#. While it’s not technically correct, a guitarist can usually get away with using these terms interchangeably.

If you’re not sure how chords are formed, check out the first two Guitar Columns of this particular series:

And I hope this helped and didn’t simply make things more confusing. Please feel free to write with more questions,

Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Peace

David

Blog Bulletin

Also in case you missed it last time out, I’ve made the decision to use my own blog page, as a kind of musical Q & A forum. We’ve just gotten done with a discussion on determining the key of songs. Next up will be a brief review of using a capo, with a focus on its use in group jamming and arrangements.

As always, please feel free to drop me a line if there’s anything of particular interest you’d like to discuss. I look forward to chatting with you there.

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 January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

Saturday, February 7, 2009 09:00 PM – The Triple
3306 W. Broad St.
Richmond, Virginia 23224
US
Cost:$5
Description: Rockin’ out at a classic Richmond hangout

Saturday, February 14, 2009 09:00 PM – Benny’s Tavern
3631 Boulevard
Colonial Heights, Virginia 23834
US
Cost:$5
Description: The Southsidas will appear with Special Guest Houston Scott on Harmonica at this well known venue south of Richmond. Come have a great Valentines’ Day dance!

Reviews

Len Collins’ Guitar Breakthrough DVD
Tutorial DVD Review by David Hodge

The Guitar Breakthough DVD by Len Collins is a breath of fresh air. This DVD lets you sit in on seven lessons spread out over the course of three hours on two discs.

Random Thoughts

I know I’ve mentioned this on numerous occasions, but since when am I above repeating things? This is especially true when this advice should be part of anyone’s everyday life. Two good rules to follow: Never turn down a chance to play music with others and never turn down a chance to go listen to music.

Last night (Friday, January 30), a friend invited me to see what was being billed as “An Evening of Blues Guitar.” The performers were Robben Ford, Jorma Kaukonen, and Ruthie Foster. This was a treat as I’d never seen any of these players in a live setting before.

And I’d never even heard of Ruthie Foster. She was sensational! Opening up the show solo, with just her acoustic guitar and voice, she brought an energy and urgency with her mix of gospel and blues. If you ever have the chance to see her, by all means please do.

This night was the first of a six week tour, I think, so if it comes to your town, give it your attention. Bring a friend.

Or just go out there and listed to a local band. Make it a point to go hear some music this month. What better way to enjoy February.

And before I forget, remember that Valentine’s Day comes the day before our next newsletter. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

And until that next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 82 – January 16, 2009

David Hodge — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:48:29 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #82 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Email of the Moment
Topic of the Month
Another Email of the Moment
New Lessons and Articles
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Podcast Postings
Email? We Get Emails!
Tutorial Tips / Blog Bulletin!
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Greetings!

If you didn’t get (or didn’t read) our last issue of Guitar Noise News, then let me wish you a belated “Happy New Year!” May 2009 be good to each and every one of you.

And, while I’m thinking of it, let me wish you a Happy “Year of the Ox,” as Chinese New Year falls on January 26. If you’re 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 or 84, then this is your year! Have a great one!

Email of the Moment

David,

First I want to tell you that I love your lessons on Guitar Noise. I am teaching myself to play guitar as my work schedule does not let me set up regular lessons in person. I have tried DVD lessons and they work fine but do not give me the ability to play songs that I like as quickly as your lessons have let me. I am up to about lesson #10 in the Easy Songs for Beginners series and love it. I have a couple of questions though. First I want to ask if the intent is to follow along lesson by lesson as it is numbered on the website. That is what I have been doing so far but wanted to make sure. I have noticed you mention other articles that are not about a song that are more general in nature (like Picking Your Poison). I only know to look at these articles when they are referenced in the song lessons. I want to make sure I am following along in the way it was intended. I have also looked to skip ahead to songs I like but do not want to get “lost” and not know the background of a lesson. Is this OK or should I follow along by lesson number to make sure I know what is going on.

The other question I have is on “Three Marlenas – The Wallflowers – Easy Songs for Beginners # 5.” I like this song a lot but have one problem. I can play the song melody well based on the instructions but I can not match up the words with music. I noticed that on most of the following lessons you write out the chords in measure form with the words. I would love to have it this way for this lesson so that I can sing along. I am struggling matching the music and words up.

Thank you so much for writing this site it has been a huge inspiration to continue in learning guitar.

Thank you…

….

Hi!

Thanks for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning my work at Guitar Noise. I’m more than provide what help I can when it comes to getting someone to put some music into his or her life.

Something that I should let you know right from the start, though, is that there is no set order or “lesson plan” when it comes to the articles and lessons at Guitar Noise. You see, the odd thing (or one of the odd things) about our website is that it didn’t start out to be a tutorial site. Just kind of grew into one. When I first started writing here (back in 1999), the object was to write about what people asked for or seemed interested in.

Because of this, we don’t have a “lesson plan,” and yes, we know that makes things a little difficult. Problem is, with over two million readers a month, it’s hard to write for everyone’s specific desires.

The “Easy Songs for Beginners” are numbered, but that’s strictly chronological. And I’ve been adding new lessons, such as Eleanor Rigby and Folsum Prison Blues/Your Cheatin’ Heart, that can easily fit in between some of the very earliest lessons.

I do try, whenever and wherever possible, to add other lessons for “cross referencing.” but you should always feel free to write and ask if it seems like you’ve missed a page in the discussion at hand.

As for matching up the words with the chords, you don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking that chords change on specific words. It’s about the beats and the timing of the song. Often times singers will not sing in perfect timing and words can fall on or off any given beat. That’s part of an artist’s interpretation of a song. Sometimes the chord changes come on a beat where nothing is being sung. So if you get in the habit of changing on a specific word instead of a specific beat, you’re setting yourself up for not being able to keep time well. And guitar, any musical instrument for that matter, is all about timing. You have to remember, too, that quite often when a song is recorded, the vocals are added separately from the playing. A lot of professionals have trouble playing and singing at the same time.

I can certainly write out a sheet for you (and would be more than happy to do so), but I can’t stress enough that keeping the beat first and foremost is the important part. Also, and this is purely coincidental, Paul is featuring all our Guitar Noise articles on “singing and playing at the same time” on the home page of the website. You’ll find a little box at the top left called Singing in the New Year with links to all of these lessons. Plus, with luck, we’re expecting a few more new lessons on this very topic to go up online later this month.

I hope this helps. Thank you again for the email and please feel free to write anytime, whether with more questions, suggestions or simply to update us on how things are going. We look forward to hearing about it.

And I also hope that you, your family and friends are off to a great start this New Year.

Peace

David

Topic of the Month

Here at Guitar Noise, the start of the New Year also saw the return of an old friend of sorts. If you happen to visit the Home Page of Guitar Noise, you may notice, up on the left hand side, close to the top, a list of lessons under the header, Singing in a New Year. Yes, Paul has resurrected the old “Topic of the Month” and we’ll be seeing a new one each month of 2009.

Under the “Singing in a New Year” header, you’ll find links to some of the many wonderful articles and lessons we have about singing and playing at the same time. And in addition to these pieces, we’ll probably be adding one or two more before January is out. Plus, the next two Guitar Noise Podcasts are also going to be devoted to discussing this important topic.

February’s topic of the month is scheduled to be “Practicing,” and again, you’ll find us highlighting the numerous articles and lessons Guitar Noise has on practicing as well as bringing you new lessons on this subject.

If you’ve any requests for future “Topics of the Month,” feel free to drop me an email about it. My Internet address, as I’m sure you know, is dhodgeguitar@aol.com and please try to put “Topic of the Month” in the subject line of your email.

Alright then, shall we move along and see what else is new here at Guitar Noise since the first of the year? But first…

Another Email of the Moment

Hi David.

Love Guitar Noise, your lessons and podcasts. Didn’t you mention awhile back that there would be a lesson on “Behind Blue Eyes?” Is that still in the works?
Thanks…

Indeed it is! And you’ll read all about it in a moment. First though, I’d just like to say that I’m putting the finishing touches on the text and then double and triple checking the lesson and music notation / guitar tablature files. And I’m doing this while also trying to get the newsletter done! So if “Behind Blue Eyes” is not up online when you get this issue of Guitar Noise News, don’t panic! It will be available within hours.

New Lessons and Articles

Behind Blue Eyes
Songs for Intermediates #25
by David Hodge

Don’t be put off by the “Intermediate” tag as beginners should have little problems putting this classic Who song into their repertoires. This is a great lesson on why playing strictly “by the record” can tie you up in knots and how important it is to simply have a good feel for the overall flavor of the song.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for January 15 – Up and Down

Here’s a melodic idea you might enjoy exploring. You might want to brush up on your arpeggios before working on this tab:

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

The idea behind this fragment is pretty simple: go up with one kind of arpeggio, and come back down with a different but related one. As ever with melodic work, we’re interested in giving our ears something intriguing to hook into, but not something totally foreign.

In this particular case, we go up with a Bbm arp and come down with an arp built on Bb’s fifth, which is F minor, or F minor 7. The two arps share only 1 note in common, the F, but they’re related by both being in the same key: Ab major.

There’s a ton you can do with this idea to create some colorful lines. Instead of subbing an arp with its fifth, try is third or 6th or 7th. Or go up with an arp and come down with a scale or mode. Descend with a pentatonic and ascend with an arpeggio. The ideas are endless.

Thanks for reading.

Podcast Postings

With many apologies for it taking so long, let me say with a huge sigh of relief that Guitar Noise Podcast #22 is finally up online. In this latest Guitar Noise Podcast, the second part of our look at the old Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down,” we’ll make an arrangement for the last half of the verse and also do something fun with the chorus. When you’ve finished with this podcast, you’ll have a complete song for your repertoire.

As always, I’ll be walking you through each step, so come on along and join in the fun. And, again as always, please let us know what you think.So come on along and join in the fun.

And, as mentioned in the last newsletter, it’s our hope that we’ll be posting new Guitar Noise Podcasts on a weekly basis through March! All recording systems are go and we’re fairly certain that all the potential snags have been cleared. So get ready to have some fun with strumming and rhythm, as well as a more in-depth look into chord voicings and other topics, such as “singing and playing at the same time,” which we’ll start looking at on Monday, January 19.

And, in case you’re interested, you can find all our Guitar Noise Podcasts (the current one as well as the first twenty-one) up online at the Guitar Noise Blog. Or you can also click on the Podcast Link located at the top of any page on Guitar Noise. As always, feel free to give us your feedback. You can post your thoughts here, at the Blog, or even PM or write me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com

Emails? We Get Emails / Blog Bulletin!

Hello David and the rest of the team.

I’m sending you a big THANK YOU.

We sat around the fire on the weekend while down at the farm and I played the guitar and my wife played the ukulele and with the kids and all.

We had a great time. It’s just what I have been working towards, and thanks to your podcasts and lessons we are doing it. A little bit of Horse with no name, and Feeling groovy, and just strumming along. It was great.

Thanks.

And thank you for making my day! It sounds like all of you had a lot of fun and I hope that it’s the first of many, many, many such weekends for you and your family and friends.

Thanks for writing and thank you as well for your kind words. And thank you for sharing your music with your family! That’s how it’s supposed to be. This is the greatest news I ever get!

Peace

Tutorial Tips / Blog Bulletin!

Hello David;

I have a question for you, how can you tell what key a song is in? I thought that it was in the key of the first note or chord of the song, but that does not seem to hold true. I have a Fender GDEC Amp that has drum and bass background and there is a key switch to set what key the song is in. At times if I set it to the first chord the bass sounds fine, but at other times the bass notes seem not to match the chord I would be playing, so I am wondering if I am wrong for how to tell what key the song is in. I also have a song book that all the songs are suppose to be in the key of C, but some songs start with an Am chord or an F chord, etc.

Hope you can help me with this question. I really enjoy the Newsletter and the Pods that you and the people at Guitar Noise put out. Keep up the good work – it has helped me and I am sure many others.

Thank You

Hello and thank you for writing.

This is a question that requires a bit more than a quick explanation, so I’ve taken the liberty of making it the first “featured question” at my own blog, www.davidhodge.com. At the time of writing this newsletter, I still need to add a bit about songs in minor keys, but I hope that you find the discussion helpful. I’ve also included numerous links to articles here at Guitar Noise that can help explain more about the various aspects to this topic.

If you’ve only been playing for two months and can already move between the basic chords with relative ease, you’re doing fairly well. But now it’s time to ask yourself a question – why do you want to play the guitar? What do you want to do with it?

This may seem a simple question and, for most people, there is a simple answer; they want to play songs. With the skills you already have, there is no reason not to be starting in on songs. And there’s an even more important reason. Learning chords is how beginners, most beginners anyway, start out. But there is a bit of a danger in learning just chords. Rarely will you come across a song where you where you don’t change chords. It’s easy, starting out, to think of chords themselves as being static, but when you play music you want to move fluidly from one chord to another. Plus you want to do it rhythmically, fitting into the tempo of a song. Plus you might want to throw in various flourishes, riffs and fills if you will, while both playing and changing chords.

This is one reason many teachers get their students into songs immediately. There are always going to be more chords, not to mention various voicings and embellished chords, to learn. The sooner you get working on integrating the chords into music, into songs, the better. You will develop all these skills – changing chords, developing rhythm and hand strength while playing songs. It’s not an either / or situation. It’s putting things to practice and learning as you go. And, again for most people, it’s the best way to go. You don’t know how many people that say they play an instrument and can’t play any songs. It’s kind of frightening, actually.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to write anytime if you’ve more questions. I look forward to hearing how things are going with you.

Peace

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 January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

Friday – 01/16/2009 08:00 PM – The Triple
3306 W. Broad St.
Richmond, Virginia 23230
Cost:$5
Description: The Southsidas with Special Guest Houston Scott will rock the Triple.

Saturday – 01/17/2009 09:00 PM – Benny’s Tavern
3631 Boulevard
Colonial Heights, Virginia 23834
Cost:$5
Description: The Southsidas appearing with Special Guest Houston Scott on Harmonica at this well known venue south of Richmond.

Wednesday – 01/21/2009 09:00 PM – Emilio’s Tapas Bar
1847 W Broad St
Richmond, Virginia 23220
Cost:$5
Description: Join the Southsidas for a night of RockaFunkaBluesabilly good times!

Saturday – 01/31/2009 08:00 PM – Plaza Bowl
521 E. Southside Plaza
Richmond, Virginia 23224
Cost:$5
Description: Duckpin Bowling and Rockafunkabluesabilly!

And if you’re in my neck of the woods, I’ll be playing an increasingly rare solo performance at the Marketplace Cafe, located at 18 Elm Court in Sheffield, Massachusetts on Friday, January 23. Should be from 5:30 or 6 until 8:30. Come on by, have some great food and say hello.

Random Thoughts

As mentioned earlier, I’m still in the finishing stages for the new lesson on “Behind Blue Eyes,” so I’m going to get back to making sure that it makes in online before you get this newsletter!

So, until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 81 – January 1, 2009

David Hodge — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:29:03 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #81 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
New Lessons and Articles
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Podcast Postings
Email? We Get Emails!
Tutorial Tips
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello!

And a “Happy New Year” to one and all! Welcome to the first issue of Guitar Noise News, the free twice-a-month newsletter of the Guitar Noise website, for the calendar year 2009! I hope that everyone had a pleasant holiday season and I also wish you all the best in this upcoming New Year.

It’s been a little hectic, as holiday seasons tend to be, but we did manage to put together two final song lessons to wrap up our 2008 selection. Let’s take a look:

New Lessons and Articles

Joy To The World
by David Hodge

It all started with being in Double Drop D tuning! Here’s a very easy chord melody arrangement of this popular Christmas carol.

Auld Lang Syne
by David Hodge

Say goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009 in style with this beautiful chord melody arrangement in Drop D tuning.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for January 1

Last time out we looked at a three note arpeggio that substituted for the Bb7 four note arp. I had you practice this with a repeated note, so it _felt_ like you were playing a four note arpeggio. In other words, this repeated note made it easier to practice, because each note of the pattern, as you move from one octave to the next, is played solely on the upbeat or the downbeat.

It’s a mental thing. When you hear the F note, for example, falling on the downbeat in the first octave, you expect to hear it on the downbeat in the next octave. It’s easier to learn that way.

But it’s also more monotonous that way. Let’s take out the repeated note and play the three note arp now as a true, three note arp.

|-----------------|-10-13-13-10---------|------------|
|-------------6-9-|-------------9-6-----|------------|
|-----------7-----|-----------------7---|------------|
|-------3-6-------|-------------------6-|-3----------|
|-----5-----------|---------------------|---5--------|
|-1-4-------------|---------------------|-----4-1----|

Once you can play this smoothly, play the version with the repeated note first, and then play this version again. Which do you think sounds more varied and interesting?

Thanks for reading.

Podcast Postings

Good news and better news!

We’ll be kicking off the 2009 series of Guitar Noise Podcasts starting Monday, January 12. That’s obviously the good news!

We’ll pick things up with the long-awaited arrival of Guitar Noise Podcast #22, which continues our study of the traditional Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.” This time out we’ll get through the rest of the verse and start to address the chorus. Plus, a long overdue look at the importance of “playing loosely.”

As always, I’ll be walking you through each step, so come on along and join in the fun.

The better news is, barring any incredible disasters, we’ll be posting new Guitar Noise Podcasts on a weekly basis through March! All recording systems are go and we’re fairly certain that all the potential snags have been cleared. So get ready to have some fun with strumming and rhythm, as well as a more in-depth look into chord voicings and other topics.

Emails? We Get Emails

Hi Dave

Just wanted to say that with the sea of information I found on the web about guitar, I was very fortunate to stumble upon your beginner lessons. I have learned allot of information. I tried, but I could not learn very well from playing with tabs. Your instructions are always clear and most times I can figure them out with a little patience and lots of practice. A person always wishes they could progress faster, like the Kid in the movie August Rush. But no such luck. I would like your opinion on ways to measure progress. I am 46 years old and started to play in April 08. I do have a high school back round in music clarinet for 6 years, a year of piano, but at that time lacked the discipline I needed. I devote about 30 minutes each day to go guitar, more on the weekends. I just finished “help” lesson by the beetles, not up to speed yet still getting chord changes down. I havent always studied your lessons in order, maybe that could make progress easier.

Thanks again Dave

Thanks for writing and thank you as well for your kind words. We’re glad you stumbled upon our lessons here at Guitar Noise, too!

As for my opinion on ways to measure progress, well, not to make light of it, but it’s kind of a measured opinion. Not to mention one many readers of this newsletter have heard more often than they probably care to admit!

First off, learning to play an instrument is not something that happens by magic. More importantly, it’s not a competition. Measuring progress by how others progress, or more often how others seem to progress, is close to pointless. This isn’t to say that it’s not important to measure progress – most people find it encouraging to know that there is improvement taking place.

But what that means is that one has to come up with a personal, individual measure. This is one advantage to having a teacher – the student and teacher can work together to set out specific, measurable and accomplishable (I know that’s not a word) goals.

You can do the same thing on your own, but it’s incredibly important to set out reasonable goals and most beginners aren’t really good at being reasonable with themselves. They might set goals that are too far out of their (current) reach or they may set goals so low that there’s no challenge or satisfaction in accomplishing them.

Adult students tend to be very unreasonable with goals, owing to their thinking that age and experience will carry them through. I’ve used this example many times but it bears repeating – if you are forty-six, that means that you’ve spent forty-five forty sixths of your life not playing guitar. That’s more than ninety-eight percent of your life and that’s what you’re up against.

On top of that, it’s safe to assume that you have a life. As a forty-six year old adult, you’re probably not going to have the luxury of shutting yourself up in your bedroom and practicing for hours at a time. So you’re going to have to practice when you can. It does sound like you’re doing well at this. Most folks I know can’t find thirty minutes a day to devote to practice.

The next step is that you want to maximize the effectiveness of your practice. We’ve a number of articles at Guitar Noise devoted to this, which you can find here: Practice Tips.

Regardless of how you decide to measure your progress, there are some important things you can do to help yourself – first, record yourself every now and then. Yes, you’ll have to deal with the “I sound dreadful” phase that we’ve all gone through. But then record the same song or chord progression a month, two months, six months down the line and notice the improvements. They will be there, I promise you. Having a tangible idea of how you improve (notice the “how” and not “how quickly”) will help you to set new goals.

The second thing you can do to help yourself is to always remember that this is going to be a lifelong journey. Yes, it’s a cliche, but it’s still true. People all learn and progress at different rates. Some techniques will come faster than others. Some will require more work. One thing that you should find true is that your learning curve will get less steep. Learning new chords will take less time. Changing between chords will get smoother and more rhythmic.

Also, don’t forget to look back realistically in order to see how far you’ve come. In less than a year you’ve managed to make some tricky chord changes (as evidenced by your playing of “Help!”) – that takes some doing!

And finally, never pass up the opportunity to play, especially to play along with others. This is not about comparing yourself with other players (although everyone does that) but rather to set yourself up realistic goals and to learn how other people progress. There is no better way to gauge what progress you’ve made and to plot out what you want to learn next than to see how well you hold up your end of the musical chores of playing in a group.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to write anytime.

Wishing you, your family and friends a wonderful and Happy New Year!

Peace

Tutorial Tips

Hello–

Your website is wonderful. I am new to guitar and I am 26 and a former college athlete. My hands took a pounding as a college basketball player so this is something I am learning really from scratch and teaching my brain new skills. I am taking the approach of learning chords first, being as I do not really know w here to start. I have been playing roughly two months, and I can move between the C, D. A, G. F, E, Em, Dm, Am and D7 chord with relative ease. I have begun working away at the Bm chord, my first barre chord and it is quite the challenge.

I just want to know, where do you feel a new guitarist should start? I do not have the time to take personal lessons, so I am teaching myself. I want to learn as many chords as I can by June or July, at which point I want to start learning songs. But I believe that the basics, the chords, the ability to move my hands, and hand strength are more important right now than playing songs. What do you think?

Thanks

Hello and thank you for writing.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to write anytime if you’ve more questions. I look forward to hearing how things are going with you.

Peace

Random Thoughts

As John Lennon wrote (and sang), “…another year over…a new one just begun…”

“…and what have I done?”

Looking back at the past year in my mind, I’m finding myself listening to it more than looking at it. I got to play a lot of music with my friends, got to meet new people, got to see old friends again.

I can switch from Lennon to Dylan: “…I know every scene by heart…they all went by so fast…”

There was meeting Nick (not Torres, but “Clazon” as he calls himself on the GN Forum) and his friends and bandmates and having them as houseguests for an evening in March. They honored us by playing some of their original music and it was a lot of fun sitting in with them.

And GN Moderator Alan Green spent a few days in September, even performing for some of my friends and students at a local open mic. You couldn’t meet a nicer guy.

Well, there is our Nick Torres… We got together, what, five or six times this year?

The memories and many and I can hear them constantly – Mike Roberto’s arrangement of Something at the Riverside Jam in July, Dan and Laura making my jazz version of Takin’ Care of Business something the whole bar was dancing to, getting to play bass for a whole show of Kathy Reichert’s in May, hearing all of my songwriting workshop students perform their original material at an open mic just three weeks ago.

I hope that all of you have a safe and wonderful New Year. And I hope that you fill 2009 with magical, musical moments of your own making. I look forward to sharing them.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace

Newsletter Vol. 3 # 80 – December 16, 2008

David Hodge — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:43:36 +0000

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #80 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
New Lessons and Articles
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Podcast Postings
Email? We Get Emails!
Event Horizon
Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello!

And welcome to the last 2008 issue of Guitar Noise News, the free twice-a-month newsletter of the Guitar Noise website. I know I so often say, “Where does the time go?” while writing these newsletters, but really, where does the time go?

Let me take this moment to thank all of you for making this past year so wonderful and also to pass along my best wishes to you, your families and friends for a safe and joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year.

New Lessons and Articles

Il est né (He Is Born)
By Doug Sparling

Guitar Noise continues its 2008 series of holiday song arrangements with the welcome return of Doug Sparling, who’s written a beautiful DADGAD arrangement of this traditional French Christmas Carol.

Angels We Have Heard on High
by David Hodge

Here’s another traditional French carol, arranged so we can review some of the lessons we’ve recently had on both bass lines and Travis style finger picking.

Targeting in on a Mode
Turning Scales into Solos – Part 6
by David Hodge

Knowing a single major scale opens the world of modal soloing to you, if you know how to read the signs. We’ll take a look at how to recognize when to use the Dorian scale, and also take a moment or two to compare and contrast it with the minor pentatonic scale.

Coming Attractions:

We’re constantly working on new lessons here at Guitar Noise. Sometimes we even get them up when we think we will! Here are some you’ll get to read (and listen to) very, very soon:

How To Make The Right Contacts In The Record Industry
by Tom Hess

Frame by Frame - Writing a Film Score
by Ian Hand

Guitar Noise would like to introduce you to another student of Tom Hess, Ian Hand of Bristol, UK, who tells us of his experiences in putting together his first film score.

Getting Past ”Up and Down”
Part 2 – Trickier Timings
by David Hodge

In the second installment of this series on strumming, we’ll look at rhythms that are slightly more complicated and involved than simple quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes. In addition to dotted notes and triplets, we’ll also take a look as “swing rhythms.”

PLUS: Even more holiday song arrangements, including a new chord melody arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne” in Drop D tuning and, keep your fingers crossed, new lessons in both the Easy Songs for Beginners and Songs for Intermediates pages!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for December 15

This tip concerns a Bb 7 arpeggio without the Bb. I wanted to show you an alternative to the standard 4-note arpeggio with the root, which can get kind of boring to play and listen to after a while. What you get when you take away the root of a dom 7 chord is a diminished chord — or arpeggio in this case.

You can play this with just fingers 2 and 3. The following notes are all eighth notes.

|---------------------10-10--13-13-|-10-10--------------------------|
|-----------------6-9--------------|-------9-6----------------------|
|-------------7-7------------------|------------7-7-----------------|
|---------3-6----------------------|----------------6-3-------------|
|-----5-5--------------------------|--------------------5-5---------|
|-1-4------------------------------|-------------------------4-1----|

This isn’t the end of the exercise. Practice this above tab and in the next letter we’ll build on the exercise by subtracting from it.

Thanks for reading.

Podcast Postings

Man, when things go wrong…

Suffice it to say that I totally screwed up the recording of Podcast #22, so much so that I ended up starting it over again from scratch twice! So, and feel free to wish on a star with me, said Guitar Noise Podcast is going up online today. Guitar Noise Podcast #22 continues our study of the traditional Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.” This time out we’ll get through the rest of the verse and start to address the chorus. Plus, a long overdue look at the importance of “playing loosely.”

As always, I’ll be walking you through each step, so come on along and join in the fun.

As has been mentioned numerous times before, our first series of Guitar Noise Podcasts has been covering various techniques on strumming – moving step by step from the very basics to alternate bass picking, to adding hammer-ons and pull-offs to spice up simple patterns to crosspicking and partial chord playing to incorporating other playing techniques, such as palm muting and choking, to bring even more excitement to our strumming. I try to do my best to walk you through things step by step, just as we do in the many song lessons at Guitar Noise. I hope that you find them as educational (and as fun!) as our online lessons here at our website.

Paul and I try to post a new Guitar Noise Podcast every other Monday, and hopefully we’re (finally) back on schedule. Look for the next one in two weeks on Monday, December 1, 2008. There should be a new newsletter that day, too!
And, in case you’re interested, you can find all our Guitar Noise Podcasts (the current one as well as the first twenty-one) up online at the Guitar Noise Blog. Or you can also click on the “Podcast Link” located at the top of any page on Guitar Noise. As always, feel free to give us your feedback. You can post your thoughts here, at the Blog, or even PM or write me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com

Emails? We Get Emails

Hi David,

I was reading your articles on Guitar Noise, the Scales within Scales, and found them very informative. I have a question on the Beatles song, Across the Universe. In the lyrics there is the following:
Em7            Gm
Possessing and caressing me.
The song appears to be in the key of D. Judging by your articles, the Gm would appear to be a “borg chord.” Can you explain how this chord is being used/derived?

I have seen sheet music for the song and the key signature, 2 sharps(D), doesn’t change in the notation, so this is why I am a bit confused.

Thanks

Hi and thanks for writing!

And thank you as well for being patient about getting a reply. Things have been more hectic than I’d planned since Thanksgiving weekend and I’m still very far behind when it comes to catching up with all my emails.

The use of Gm in the key of D is a lot more common than you might think, but let’s backtrack slightly for a moment. First off, while it would appear that Gm should be what I jokingly called a “Borg chord” in one of my old guitar columns, it’s actually simpler and slightly more complicated than that.

If you get the chance, read the Guitar Noise Guitar Column titled, You Say You Want a Resolution, which you can find here.

One of the topics covered in this column is the idea of cadences, which are short chord progressions that create resolution. In the section on “plagal cadences,” which are IV-I chord progressions, you’ll note the following passage:

Another use of the plagal cadence (which is not as prevalent these days as it used to be) is the transition from IV (minor) to I. In the key of A major, this would be a cadence from Dm to A. I think the reason I find this particular cadence enchanting is that, much like V7 to I, it takes advantage of two half step resolutions.

In the key of D, Gm is the minor IV chord and, if my memory serves me correctly, the chord following the Gm in Across the Universe is D. Therefore, you’ve got a minor plagal cadence going. Yes, you are going outside of the key of D for a moment, but it’s a brief one and doesn’t truly herald a change of key or temporary modulation.

Another interesting thing, just as an aside, is that John Lennon was very fond of the minor IV to I resolution. You’ll find them popping up a lot in his music.

Hope this helps.

Peace

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 January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2009, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

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

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

Random Thoughts

Ages ago, or so it seems now, my friend Laura wanted to talk with me about Christmas. Not so much about the holiday itself, but about the giving of presents. Specifically, about the two of us giving each other presents.

She had this idea. Since neither of us really wanted or needed anything, wouldn’t it be great if instead of buying a gift, we gave a donation to a charity in each other’s name? I readily agreed and we’ve continued doing so for more than ten years now.

Not only that, but I’ve also made the same arrangements with quite a few friends and family members. This isn’t to say I don’t like giving (or getting!) gifts. Quite the contrary! My feeling has always been that if I see something that I either think or know that one of my friends or family might appreciate or need, I just get it. Why wait for a holiday or birthday?

Call me silly or idealistic or whatever you’d like. But how many years does we have to hear “Why can’t people treat each other every day like they treat each other at holidays?” before it dawns on us that we can? I mean, what’s stopping us? Really?

I cannot tell you how many people tell me how great it must be to “live my dream.” And I’m sure I’ve written before about this. Truth be told, I’m not living a dream – I’m simply living my life, just as each of us has his or her life to live. It’s a matter of getting up each day and showing up and picking up in the footprints I left there yesterday. That’s all it is.

Last time out, I told you the story of my first employer and how she helped me realize that the word “work” didn’t have to carry ominous connotations. Work could be enjoyable and could be a welcome part of life.

Call me slow on the uptake, but it took almost twenty-five more years of my life to figure out that the same outlook she gave me about work could also be applied to life.

Most people spend most of their lives not being involved in life. We don’t like our jobs, meaning that if you’re like most folk in the “civilized” world, a forty-hour work week is one-third of a Monday through Friday stretch. We sleep a quarter to a third of our live away during this time as well and then fill the remainder of the time with what we can.

Perhaps it’s our nature. We want our lives to have meaning. We want to be creative, to contribute, and to know that we make a difference somehow. Or we simply want to be “ourselves,” whoever that idealized version of our imagination happens to be.

But we also fool ourselves, because when we say we want to be “a part of life,” we often mean that we want to be “apart” from it. It’s easy to want things, say like people to treat each other well, with respect and common courtesy each day, because we mean we want other people to do it. We don’t include ourselves in the solutions. And we may have dreams, but we call them dreams and, in doing so, separate our dreams from reality.

Somewhere between the ages of thirty-five and forty, I discovered something very important – there was absolutely no reason for me to be unhappy. This simple realization led straight to another, the reason that I had been unhappy up to that point was always about me. It had nothing to do with life except for the fact that I thought that life was all about me.

Strange as this may sound, I got this from practicing guitar. To get better, you have to be ready and willing to do the little things over and over to distraction. Work on the hammer-ons. Memorize the song arrangement. Coordinate the finger movement between the picking hand and fretting hand. Some things came easily and some did not. It wasn’t magic. It was work.

And, fortunately for me, work was not a word that filled me with distaste.

Likewise with life. It’s not easy and it’s far from perfect and there are so many things I want to do and learn and to get much, much better at. There are habits I need to take up and habits I need to break. There are people with whom I need to communicate better. There are situations that I should simply avoid.

And there is a world to be a part of. Not apart from. So much of our thinking, of our vocabulary, of our words written out here on the Internet are only about being separate, individual.

But as much as we are individuals, we are also community. Just as the ideal band makes every player better and creates a music that we could never create as individuals, we all make each other better when we take part in life.

Yeah, I kind of get this way over the holidays. And, as I’ve mentioned, I kind of treat every day as a holiday.

Again, let me wish each and every one of you, your family and friends has a wonderful New Year. Every single day of it.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace