Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Email of the Week
• Hot off the Press (Releases)
• Sunday Songwriter’s Group
• Reviews
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

I’ve never made much of a secret of my being “old.” At just this side of forty-eight, I like to think of myself at that wonderful stage of life where I’m not concerned with “hip.” Not just “hip” as in “being hip,” which would certainly peg me as either being younger or classlessly ego centric, but also “hip” as something that folks older than me tend to worry about breaking whenever they fall (and being one who falls a lot (have we talked about the new scar smack across my forehead? Kind of like Harry Potter’s but, of course since it’s me we’re talking about here, running more horizontal than vertical), I need less things to worry about!).

Anyway, Paul wrote me the other day to tell me he’s reset my personal webpage (www.davidhodge.com) so that it’s now a “blog” and now I had to find out just what a “blog” was. I’m still not quite certain, but I do now that Paul has made it easier for me to now do most of the updating myself and that’s definitely a good thing.

So if you ever need any of the latest info on any of the seminars or articles and other projects that are going on, drop by the site. Or just write me an email as you’d normally do.

As for the site itself, we’re working on making it a little less “generic.” Give me a little time.

Don’t forget that you can find me on page 78 of the latest (May) issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine (the one with “Terrific Twelve-Strings Reviewed” on the cover), which should be at your favorite newsstand, bookstore or music store right now! There’s also an online copy of my lesson, “Alternate Tunings Made Easy” complete with MP3 files at Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s website, www.acousticguitar.com.

New Articles And Lessons

Making Music – Part 3
Playing Well With Others (and other rules Mom gave you to live by)
by Laura Lasley

Sharing music is what Guitar Noise is all about and what better way to do so than to help give a little encouragement to someone? Here is a cool story and some advice from Laura Lasley, writer for Guitar Noise’s The Other Side.

Email Of The Week

Another week, another bunch of emails about Guitar Noise, advertisers, Neil Young and Heart of Gold in particular:

Hi David,

I would like to ask if you have seen/reviewed the Amazing guitar lesson video that is advertised on Guitar Noise, and to ask your opinion as to its worth for a beginner.

A little background on me: I just started playing three months ago, with an acoustic. I am a little over the hill (58) (grin). I have taken a course at the local community college. It was the instructor’s first time and he taught us a few chords and said just practice. I found Guitar Noise and it has helped me ten times more than the course local here. Your articles are well written and easily understood and easy to follow. Your lessons are the best I have found on the Internet or the books that I have bought. I have been working on Heart Of Gold (one of my favorites). Have just about got it according to my biggest supporter and fan, my wife Rita.

Oh yes, another question! I would like to ask is on your songs for beginners it starts with Harvest Moon I believe but it is song number 20 or 21 I believe. A friend from work who is learning also and I were wondering about this and maybe we are trying to learn songs that may be a little advanced for us.

Anyway I just wanted to also thank you for your support for us beginners at Guitar Noise.

Thanks for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning my lessons at Guitar Noise. I’m glad you find them and I hope they continue to be of help to you as you learn more and more about the guitar.

The listing of the “Songs For Beginners” lessons is in reverse chronological order. The very first ones, Horse With No Name, For What It’s Worth and a few others are two chord songs, there are three that introduce the idea of the blues (Before You Accuse Me, etc.). Once you feel that you have a good comfort level at switching chords, you can pretty much use whatever song lesson you’d like. If you’re handling Heart of Gold pretty well, then Harvest Moon won’t be that much harder. I actually think it’s easier to play than Heart of Gold, it’s just that some people have a harder time with two of the concepts we use in the Harvest Moon lesson (drop D tuning and playing a chord-based riff up the neck).

As for the Amazing Guitar Lessons video, I’m afraid I can’t answer that since I’ve never seen it. Quite a few of our readers have, though! If you go to the Forum page, you will find a section dedicated to reviews of tutorial materials. Feel free to read what others have written about it and definitely ask all the questions you’d like!

I hope that this helps. Write me anytime you’ve a question or even just to say hello and to let me know how things are going with you. I look forward to chatting with you again.

Hi David,

I’m a Guitar Noise reader from New Jersey. I just want to commend you on your Heart Of Gold guitar lesson. Good stuff. I might play it on my own cover gig tonight..

Peace

Thanks for writing and thank you as well for your kind words on my lesson. Where in New Jersey are you? I have friends in the Princeton area that I visit on occasion and maybe I’ll one day have the honor of hearing you play.

Also, for some reason a lot of the people who’ve attended the Guitar Noise Seminars are from New Jersey.

Thanks again and I look forward to hearing how the gig went.

Peace to you, too!

Hot Off The Press (Release)

I got some great news this week from Tom Hess, who’s contributed many articles to us over the past few years and I’d like to pass it along to all of you:

Tom Hess will be on tour this summer with legendary guitarist Joe Stump playing together in a brand new band called, “HOLYHELL”. The band sounds nothing like HESS, it is more in the style of Nightwish (European metal with a female singer). The band is signed with Magic Circle Music / SPV.

Holyhell will be the opening band on the Manowar / Rhapsody 2005/2006 tour. The following are the confirmed tour dates for the Manowar, Rhapsody & Holyhell 2005 tour:

Thursday, June 2nd 2005
Cleveland, OH, USA – House Of Blues

Friday, June 3rd 2005
Winston Salem, NC, USA – Ziggy’s

Saturday, June 4th 2005
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA – The Culture Room

Sunday, June 5th 2005
Orlando, FL, USA – House of Blues

Tuesday, June 7th 2005
Atlanta, GA, USA – The Masquerade

Wednesday, June 8th 2005
Charleston, SC, USA – The Music Farm

Thursday, June 9th 2005
Baltimore, MD, USA – Sonar

Saturday, June 11th 2005
Buffalo, NY, USA – The Icon

Sunday, June 12th 2005
Toronto, ON, Canada – Opera House

Monday, June 13th 2005
Quebec City, QU, Canada – Albert-Rousseau

Tuesday, June 14th 2005
Montreal, QU, Canada – Metropolis

Thursday, June 16th 2005
Philadelphia, PA, USA – Theatre Of Living Arts

Saturday, June 18th 2005
Worcester, MA, USA – The Palladium

Sunday, June 19th 2005
New York, NY, USA – B.B. King’s

Friday, July 15 2005
Zlin, Czech Republic – Masters Of Rock Festival.

Saturday, July 16 2005
Zlin, Czech Republic – Masters Of Rock Festival.

Sunday, July 17 2005
Zlin, Czech Republic – Masters Of Rock Festival.

Thursday, July 21 2005
Nuremburg, Germany- EARTHSHAKER FEST 2005.

Friday, July 22 2005
Nuremburg, Germany – EARTHSHAKER FEST 2005.

Saturday, July 23 2005
Nuremburg, Germany – EARTHSHAKER FEST 2005.

The Concerts in Europe are huge heavy metal outdoor festivals (huge like OZ-fest). Some of the other bands we’ll be playing with in Europe include: Manowar, Rhapsody, Nightwish, Hammerfall, Children of Bodem, Testament, J.B,O, Overkill, Master Plan, Grave Digger, After Forever and many more.

In other news: Mike Walsh and Tom Hess are featured in the new 2005 Randall Amplifiers product catalog as endorsees. Mike and Tom may do clinics for Randall/Washburn later this year. The Randall promo photos can be seen in the new Randal catalog and on the Hess web site’s photo gallery page.

New instructional DVD series: Tom and Mike are scheduled (next month) to begin filming a new series of guitar instructional DVDs due out later this year.

HESS ~ Opus 3 CD writing progress: Because of the upcoming Holyhell tour, and writing for that band’s debut CD, work on HESS Opus 3 has (unfortunately) been delayed, at least until after the summer Holyhell tour. The HESS band is still together and will continue to move forward. Some speculation has occurred in the music press that the HESS band would break up now that Tom is playing with Joe Stump in Holyhell. This is not true, Tom will remain in both bands.

New interviews and reviews: There are some new interviews and CD reviews for Opus 2 on the HESS web site http://hess.4t.com

Mike Walsh to teach NGW (National Guitar Workshop): Tom Hess was scheduled to teach at NGW in Nashville and Chicago, including a brand new week long seminar that Tom designed himself for NGW in Chicago called, “Can You Hear Me Now?” Unfortunately the NGW seminars are at the same time as the European part of the Holyhell tour, so Tom couldn’t teach for NGW this year. HOWEVER, NGW has since asked Mike Walsh to teach the seminar in Chicago, it will be a great experience for all students who attend this seminar!!

Sunday Songwriters Group

The Sunday Songwriters Group is a Guitar Noise exclusive. Conceived by Ryan Spencer and Nick Torres, the idea is to give songwriters a weekly exercise in order to help develop their lyric-writing skills.

Now in our third year (!), Bob continues to put us all through our paces, giving us weekly assignments to help everyone sharpen their abilities.

It’s open to everyone. Got an itch to write? Jump on in! Even if you don’t write, you should feel free to critique. After all, you probably have experience listening to songs, no?

For more info, visit the SSG FAQ.

Year Three, Week 23

It’s All Elemental (part 2)

It’s still all in the imagery, but now we’ve got a little twist. In the first year of the SSG, we had a week where we used the four “basic elements,” as they were called – Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In SSG Year 3, we’re going to give each element its own week!

Following on from last week, the imagery theme our song should contain for this week is that of wind – You are like a hurricaine etc.

Good writing

Bob

Reviews

Gary Moore – Live At Montreux
DVD / CD Review by A-J Charron

This DVD from Eagle Rock Entertainment features Gary Moore’s 1990 appearance, with the Midnight Blues Band and special guest Albert Collins. In addition, there are three tracks from his 1997 appearance.

Thoughts & Feedback

Seems like I spend a lot of my time on the computer these days, which is not necessarily a bad thing, I guess.

One of the many things I’m trying to do these days is to spend more time working on my own music. Those of you who’ve been reading my material here at Guitar Noise for a long time might recall that I prefer to think of myself as a songwriter before anything else, even though my schedule seems to say otherwise!

So one way of making myself do more songwriting is to get some of my songs into good enough shape for the general public to hear. Now, in addition to hearing me on the MP3 lesson files here at Guitar Noise and at Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s webpage (www.acousticguitar.com), you can check out some of my music at my own “band” page at Sound Click.com. The URL is: http://www.soundclick.com/davidhodge.

As of this writing, I’ve two songs up online that you can listen to – One By One, which I cowrote with our own Nick Torres (his lyrics, my music) and Strangers On This Train, which is a bit of a “rough sketch” of a song (just guitar and vocals). With a little luck and time, I hope to get more of both my older material up on line as well as some new songs. Feel free to drop me a line and tell me what you think.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace

David