Newsletter Vol. 1 # 34 – December 11, 2001

Dear Guitar Player,

Welcome to Guitar Noise News for December 11, 2001.

I am like so many others when it comes to guitar. When I started out on guitar the first song I learned was Stairway to Heaven. But how many of you can remember the second song you learned. I clearly remember learning The Letter by the Box Tops. It was quite a change from the slower tempo fingerpicking of Stairway. There were more chord changes and they were quicker. It was a great song to get into my repertoire early on.

Recently I received an email from Gary Talley, the guitarist from The Box Tops. Naturally I was pleased to find out that he was still active in the music business. He sent us a copy of his instructional guitar video, and this week we have posted a review of it, along with another video we received.

In this newsletter:

  • News
  • Easy Songs for Beginners
  • Guitar Pick
  • Recommended Books
  • CD & Video Reviews
  • New Links
  • Email of the Week

You can recycle this newsletter by passing it on to a friend you think might benefit from Guitar Noise.

This week’s news is more of a plug than anything else. eBay Canada is running a contest where you can win a new monitor. Since they are now sponsoring our Guitar Noise Canada page I thought I’d run the ad for our Canadian visitors.

To have a chance to win The Great eBay.ca Holiday Monitor Giveaway enter this promotional code on the eBay.ca registration page when you register: CA – 11 – FEST.

Good luck!

Recommended Site: Guitar Secrets Revealed
Do you seriously admire guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Kirk Hamett, and Eric Clapton? Have you ever dreamed of playing serious rock and roll? Do you want to improve your music skills? Now you can learn how to play guitar like the greats at GuitarAlliance.com.

Visit the complete What’s New page at Guitar Noise.

Easy Songs for Beginners

Just getting started? No problem! We have lessons for the beginner covering a wide range of topics such as buying a guitar, tuning a guitar, holding a guitar, as well as the popular series Easy Songs For Beginners. If you already have a grasp of guitar guitar basics then the next step is to start building a repetoire of songs. We have a series of lessons that will teach theory and technique by looking at some pretty easy and well known songs.

Riders On The Storm
Beginners Songs # 14
by David Hodge (05 Dec 2001)
Believe it or not, this is a blues song. At least in terms of song structure. It consists of four verses and each one is twelve measures in length.

Visit the complete Easy Songs for Beginners page.

Guitar Noise Interviews

Guitar Picks features interviews with guitarists and other musicians about their songwriting techniques and experiences with independant or major record labels. These frank answers by people who have already made it often deal with songwriting, inspiration, working within the limits of record companies’ wishes, and guitar techniques.

Michelle Young
by A-J Charron (11 Dec 2001)
Michelle Young has a voice which stands out. It’s reminiscent of Kate Bush’s voice, but with an overall sound quite her own. And, she’s a very talented songwriter. Michelle’s new album, Marked for Madness has just been released. For this occasion, Michelle has answered some questions for us.

Recommended Reading

Book and CD
It is getting harder to recommend a new book every week. Obviously I haven’t read, nor do I own everything listed here each week. But I do go a lot on what people tell me and things I read. Recently someone asked me what was a good book and cd combination. After browsing a bit on Amazon I came up with the following. I am familiar with Troy Stetina’s work and the reviews posted on Amazon were all encouraging.

Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar
by Troy Stetina
It makes a lot of sense to get working on the exercises from this book once you have familiarized with scales and are looking for techniques and improvement of agility. Troy has put in a lot of exercises that don’t necessarily go with much of the learning we do with scales.

New Reviews

CD Reviews

Michelle Young – Marked for Madness
An hour long trip through Michelle Young’s universe is a voyage you’ll want to take again and again. Not just an incredible voice, but also a superb songwriter.

Pangea – Welcome to the Theatre
An interesting band name for a great band. Pangea have this distinctive American-Prog sound. A sound we rarely hear anymore.

Peter Sinfield – Stillusion
Although he’s better known for his collaborations with Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), Sinfield has been around for a while and has written some of the best lyrics in the business.

Video Reviews

In addition to CD reviews this week we have two instructional guitar video reviews, including the Gary Talley viseo I mentioned at this beginning of this newsletter.

Beatles To A Tee
What you will get out of “Learn to Play The Beatles To A Tee Instructional Guitar Video” is going to be dependent on you. Oh, I know that this sounds contrived, but let me explain.

Gary Talley’s Guitar Playing For Songwriters
Gary Talley has been around a while. He played lead guitar for the Box Tops back in the sixties and has worked with artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Doctor John. This video is a set of three lessons which also cover a lot of ground.

New Sites

Here are all the new links I have added this week.

  • Hammer To Fall – The Brian May Shrine
  • Gary Talley – Legendary musician / singer / songwriter of The Box Tops and scads of other major artisis, featuring Gary’s #1 video – “GUITAR PLAYIING FOR SONGWRITERS”.
  • The Acoustic Guitar Store – A store dedicated to the promotion and sale of Acoustic Instruments from Canadian Luthiers. We have one of the largest selections in the country of hand-made Canadian guitars and mandolins. We promote and support acoustic music in all it’s forms.

Email of the Week

This week’s email of the week is tied to Laura’s columns in the Other Side.

Guitars for Small Hands
Absolutely great site. Thank you. I’ve only just found you. My question is: I have very small hands. Could you recommend any particular guitars (electric and acoustic). Is this a common problem for women?

Laura’s Response
I’ve size 5 1/2 hands (glove size) so I know what you mean. I do play my beloved red Guild with no difficulty. After some years of practice and lessons, I think I’m just used to it. I love the sound so much, I worked at it. Dar Williams (advertisement for my interview with her) also has small hands and loves her Huss and Dalton. I’m looking into Daisy Guitars for my daughter. They’re made by Schecter, a great company with solid reputation, and they make acoustic and electric. Some of the acoustic Taylors are 3/4 size and the Takamines aren’t bad. I love my Fender Strat and find it much easier to play than the Guild, but I think that’s the nature of electrics.

And yes, it’s a very common problem among women. I’m on a Yahoo group called GuitarWomen and this has been a topic of discussion. Practice, practice, practice does help. I’ve played classical piano and working for that octave plus reach has helped the guitar playing.

Best advice is go out and try a few before you buy. And as my husband would say, don’t forget to look at used instruments; they can be just as good, and much less expensive.

I’m glad you like the site. We have a lot of fun with it!

Regards,

Laura Lasley

That’s all for this newsletter. If you take a look at the home page you will see that I have the Christmas lights on now. For those who have been around I have been using them every year for at least three years now. They are supposed to pretty up the place a bit, and I am in the mood for them as I got my first snowfall of the year here this week.

Have a nice week.

Peace,
(I mean it)

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer