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
• Forum News
• Sunday Songwriter’s Group
• Reviews
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

I hope that this newsletter finds you in a happy mood this weekend (or Monday, should you happen to check your newsletter at work!).

May is turning into a very busy month, primarily owing to a lot of schedule shifting. I’m trying to make certain all my private students get their full year of lessons before summer comes (we have a few snowdays to make up for) and it’s not easy getting everyone on the same page sometimes.

And, bit by bit, I’m catching up with my work here at Guitar Noise as well. This week we’ll forgo the usual articles and deal with all the reviews that have come my way this past week. It seems like a lot of people are spending a lot of time looking at DVDs.

I still have two spots left for this spring’s Guitar Noise Neil Young Song Seminar. For those of you who don’t know, this is a day of song lessons, taught in the same fashion as those on our Easy Songs For Beginners and Songs For Intermediates pages. It will have some songs from the website and previous seminars (such as Harvest Moon, Old Man, Ohio and Cinnamon Girl) as well as new material. Feel free to drop me a line at my email box, dhodgeguitar@aol.com with any questions you might have, and I’ll be happy to answer as best I can. You can also get more information on this event at my website, www.davidhodge.com (catchy name, no?).

Moving onward:

New Articles And Lessons

This week I got caught up with a slew of reviews, mostly of DVDs, both of concerts and of a tutorial nature. A-J, Nick and new writer Cecil Maranto give you a lot to read about a little further on in our “Review” section.

Email Of The Week

It’s always a pleasure to hear from Sheryl Bailey, jazz guitarist extraordinaire. She was kind enough to drop me a line late last week:

Hi David:

Here’s a link to an article that is amusing and a true story – it’s part of Mel Bay’s website – they are featuring stories from different players from either NYC or LA – this is one of three contributions – I hope you enjoy it:

Peace:

Sheryl Bailey

If you get the chance, do click on this and read it. It’s about Sheryl meeting Larry Coryell at a clinic at Manny’s in New York and it’s the stuff they make movies about! If nothing else, it’ll have you practicing like crazy!

Hot Off The Press (Releases)

I just had to share this one!

Hey There,

WHO doesn’t love songs like Jump by Van Halen, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson, True by Spandau Ballet and It’s My Life by Bon Jovi – just to name a few!!! Well now combine that with the smooth Classic voice of PAUL ANKA!

Now, I know most of you may say WHO? Who is PAUL ANKA?

Well, PAUL ANKA is a legendary singer/songwriter who’s career has spanned 5 decades and has a smooth distinctive voice & musical style like other legends Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and Frank Sinatra. You may not know who PAUL ANKA is (YET), but your mom or grandmother will! In the late 50’s, Paul was one of the biggest teen idols of the time!

Here’s your generation’s chance to find out WHO PAUL ANKA is. Paul has returned with ROCK SWINGS – a collection of cover tunes from your favorite songs of the 80’s and 90’s with a twist of Big Band! Whether you’re young or old, this will appeal to all! From Cigar bars to Jazz clubs to Dance halls to your own party – this one is the new MUST HAVE CD!

In-stores June 7th – this will be just in time for Father’s Day gifts and June Weddings! Brides-to-be, make sure your DJ has this disc! Who else can cover Billy Idol and Soundgarden without offending your wedding guests?

Thank you.

Forum News

In case you weren’t aware of it, Guitar Noise offers promotional space on our Forum Page. It’s called “Outta Site Lesson Links” and there you can find links to all sorts of other guitar sites and guitar lesson pages.

A lot of places not only have “traditional” Internet lessons, but have audio and video lessons as well. You might try one of Dave Waring’s lessons at www.actoguitar.com.

Or check out any number of Little Brother’s lessons (see Nick Torres’ review this week for more on Little Brother) and there are so many more to list that I could easily fill up several newsletters with links.

So the next time you’re sitting at a computer for any length of time, do yourself a favor and learn a little more. That’s what it’s there for!

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 28

Okay we’ve focused on different aspects of our song writing over the last twenty-five weeks (I can’t believe we’re half way through this third year!), aspects such as inspiration, imagery, structure, rhyming schemes etc. But we all approach writing songs in different ways which become more complicated when we collaborate. Over the next two weeks we’re going to write some songs as if we were collaborating. The way to imagine this is to see yourself as the major songwriting partner but someone else, in this case me, is going to feed you ideas and streams of consciousness, lines to be included and possibly even subjects to write about. After that we’ll bounce ideas of each other. It’s up to you to then write a song retaining the SSG principles of song writing. I hope that makes sense for you.

Consider the humble title – this is the part of the song the listener latches onto when they first hear it – usually it’s repeated in the song and, therefore, it forms an important part of the song. Sometimes the title is what we come up with last but this week I want us to come up with it first. All I want you to do this week is submit a number of titles. Try to submit at least three.

Good Writing

Reviews

Asia – The Rock Vaults
DVD Review by A-J Charron

Asia, in a 1990 concert, brought to you courtesy of Classic Rock Legends, who have managed to get their hands on some great footage. With three quarters of the original lineup: John Wetton, Geoff Downes and Carl Palmer and Pat Thrall on guitars.

Blue Oyster Cult – A Long Day’s Night
DVD Review by A-J Charron

Blue Oyster Cult performs in Chicago in 2002, playing Godzilla, (Don’t Fear) The Reaper and many other favourites. The DVD also includes bonus band interviews, fan interviews and behind the scenes footage.

Bill Bruford – Feels Good To Me
CD Review by A-J Charron

The reissue of the first solo album from a drummer who’s played around quite a bit, plus a bonus CD from Bill’s other label, Summerfold. This is a great way to hear not only some of Bill’s past, but to hear what he’s been up to lately.

Guitar Legends – The Ultimate Anthology
DVD Review by A-J Charron

Now here is a DVD you absolutely want. For anyone who enjoys guitar or Classic Rock here is a great item. Some of the greatest guitarists performing with their original bands. All in concert and all incredible!

Gerhard Graf-Martinez – Flamenco Guitar Method
DVD Review by Cecil Maranto

This tutorial DVD, by Gerhard Graf-Martinez, has everything the beginning flamenco guitarist could ask for. Also, it comes in a complete 2 DVD set, and you can also purchase his two books at a discount.

Lazy Lefty Blues and Little Brother’s Lessons Volume One
DVD Review by Nick Torres

You may have seen Little Brother, (aka Doug Jones) posting links to his video lessons on the forums here at Guitar Noise. Here’s your chance to own some of his fantastic video lessons! The Lazy Lefty lesson is based on Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Johnson’s style and Doug’s teaching style is just sitting down with him in the living room jamming and learning.

Thoughts & Feedback

While everyone else seems to be watching DVDs, I’ve been reading a book. Several books, truth be told. For whatever reason, I still find books to be my preferred method of learning things.

In an old column of mine called Common Sensei, as well as in the many articles we have here at Guitar Noise concerning teaching and learning, it’s easy to see that there are so many different ways to go about learning the guitar. Are any of them better than any other?

I spend a lot of time in discussions with other teachers on how people learn and what motivates them and I have to say that I’m of the opinion that so much of this depends on the student more than it does on the method. If someone truly wants to “learn,” he or she will find a way to do so.

And I put the word learn in quotation marks because there are a lot of people who say they want to learn something, whether an instrument or a course of study or what have you, but what they really want is to magically be endowed with the ability and knowledge they covet without putting much or any effort into attaining it. That’s not learning.

It’s easy to get frustrated with learning the guitar (or learning anything, as we’ve mentioned) if you are only concerned with a goal and not a process. Even when I was a student, I often worried about what I call “tape recorder education,” that is, memorizing facts without thinking about what they mean. Yes, there is a need to do this, but it is little compared to the need people have to learn to think.

And I think that this is why so many of our lessons here at Guitar Noise are so popular. I get a thrill out of reading something like this forum post, which refers to our song lesson on House Of The Rising Sun:

“The best thing about this lesson is that I learned how to use bass notes as a way of transferring to the next chord. As a result of this lesson I actually wrote my first fingerpicking song.”

To me, this is about as cool as things get. And it’s what I perceive music and art to be about. And education, too, for that matter.

So while I hope you all have a grand week and that you stay safe, get out there and learn something. Better yet, create something new with whatever you learn.

And, as always,

Peace

David