Newsletter Vol. 1 # 3 – January 19, 2001

Dear Guitar Player,

Welcome to Guitar Noise News, the weekly update for Guitar Noise. Our identity crisis is almost over. By the beginning of February you should be able to see our newer, cleaner, more organized and faster loading website. We haven’t changed the content, we simply put our best foot forward and have come up with a new layout – based on emails we have received.

Announcement:
Jamie Andreas, creator of The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar, will be having a guitar workshop in the Philadelphia area, as well as one in Washington, D.C., the dates of which have yet to be announced. If you want to remove your obstacles to progress on the guitar, this workshop is for you. For all levels, beginner to advanced, as well as for all styles of playing.

To view highlights from Jamie’s New York workshop, and to find out how to join Jamie in a workshop in your area, visit Guitar Principles.

New Lessons

Singing In A New Year – Guitar Column by David Hodge
Today we are going to take on those always scary “playing and singing at the same time” jitters. Singing requires, in many respects, the same sort of attitude we bring to the guitar. The more realistic we are in our approach, the better our chances of being happy with our performances. Not everyone has a great voice, but just about everyone has the ability to develop a passable one.

Before You Accuse Me – Easy Songs for Beginners by David Hodge
Today we’ll be branching out into three chord songs in a big way. We’ll do this by learning a standard blues song, Before You Accuse Me, written by E. McDaniel, known to the world as Bo Diddley. But we’re also going to be examining the theory behind what is known as “Twelve Bar Blues” so, in essence, you will be able to play almost any blues song (in any key) when we’re finished with these next few lessons.

How To Record An Acoustic Guitar – Acoustic Guitar Workshop by Steve Elliott
Let’s face it, capturing a decent acoustic guitar tone is not an easy task. Here are some tips that will help you cover the basics of this deft art and avoid the pitfalls that will render your efforts a jangly and dolorous cacophony. So if you don’t want your Dreadnought to sound dreadful, read on.

New Reviews

Have your music reviewed on our site and appear in this newsletter for free! Send us a copy of your disc or MP3 and we will review your music for the thousands of musicians that already belong to the Guitar Noise community. Get the details here.

This week we recommend for the young guitarist the following “Play it like it is” guitar book:

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds – Live at Luther College
This book contains note-for-note transcriptions in standard notation and tablature for 12 selections from this exciting live album: Ants Marching, Christmas Song, Crash into Me, Deed Is Done, Granny, Little Thing, Minarets, One Sweet World, Satellite, Seek Up, Stream, and What Would You Say. This book also includes an interview with these two top players from Acoustic Guitar magazine; an article on Dave Matthews’ rhythm style; notes on Dave’s and Tim’s gear preferences; a discography; and many photos.

Email of the Week

We are listing – and responding! Our redesigned Ask the Expert feature is getting a lot of positive attention. So much in fact that we will be reprinting one question and answer each week in this newsletter. Here is this week’s “Email of the Week”.

Your article was very helpful to me.. and I like overall site in general, it’s like opening up a copy of guitar player or something. I have a question for you, though. On sending out demos.. I’ve read articles that say most major labels toss demos into a pile of trash with 1,000 others they are equally interested in. Is there any sure way to avoid this without having to buy a book with a list of labels (major and independent) accepting demos, or better yet is there something on the web you know of perhaps? We’re so hopeful about this music it’s literally scaring the bejeezus out of us and we want to make sure we do it right. Thank you, reply if you can.

Unfortunately, there are no sure-fire ways of avoiding not being listened to or being “tableted” by the record company execs. One thing you could do, though, that would improve your chances is to find an agent. These people are usually better connected and have a better chance of getting your demo listened to by the right people.

Your best resource, in my opinion, would be a book store. They usually carry a yearly guide of who does what in the business. Go to a bookstore and ask a sales person exactly what you need and they should have that resource. Make sure you get the most recent edition, lots of people move or change places. People get fired and resigned. Execs don’t like receiving mail addressed to their predecessors.

I’ll write something more detailed about this particular part of the process in the upcoming weeks.

Hope this helps.

For everyone interested in demos, how to record them and what to do with them check out A-J Charron’s series of lessons on them. Start with Recording Part 1: Why We Do It? and then check out Recording Part 2: Building a Digital Studio. Songwriters and musicians can also look for more help and advice on our Guitar Forums. Check it out.

For hundreds more answers like this see our help pages.

New Sites

Find these new guitar sites on Guitar Noise this week:

  • Tim Sparks Guitar Lesson – Spice up your blues be-bop style with Tim Sparks. If you want to get away from the old pentatonic try this free online lesson for intermediate to advanced players.
  • Recording Connection – Recording Connection: a music industry school with 5,000 students worldwide who train on-site at major recording studios, record labels, radio and TV stations, film studios and video production companies.
  • Song Lyric Pages – Over 30 new bands have been added to the ever-growing collection of song lyric pages. Whether you’re trying to learn lyrics for your band, or are just wondering whether Ricky Martin songs have any deep meaning when read backwards, you’ll find what you’re looking for.
  • TAXI: The Independent A&R Vehicle – connecting unsigned artists, bands and songwriters with major record labels, publishers, and film & TV music supervisors.

Peace,

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer