Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

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

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

I know, I know – where has the month of May gone?

Well, before June gets going, you might want to try to win a copy of B. B. King – The Ultimate Collection, a new album out in celebration of BB King’s approaching 80th Birthday. We are taking part in a contest giving away copies of this CD and you can find out all about it here:

The best of luck to you and remember that this contest ends on June 16, which the way things are going will be in the proverbial blink of an eye.

Even if you don’t blink, things just fly by. The Guitar Noise Seminars for the first six months of 2005 are full and there’s only one or two spots left at our Guitar Noise Mini Camp. If you haven’t saved your place yet, drop me a line. You can find out all about this event at my personal home page, www.davidhodge.com and send any questions to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com

The only other bit of news to pass on this week is that I managed to make a digital copy of Waiting For Nancy, an old song of mine that is featured in our first Songcrafters article. This is a copy of a copy of a copy (you get the idea) of a demo tape recorded way back in 1982. Talk about blinking! It’s scary to think that there are songs I’ve written more than twenty years ago! And I still play them!

Anyway, you can listen to this old chestnut (and it’s a long one, so be forewarned) at my Soundclick page, which is www.soundclick.com/davidhodge if you’re in the mood. The incomparable bass work is by Roy Wogelius.

Meanwhile, here at Guitar Noise, we’ve got some great new articles for you. Let’s take a look, shall we?

New Articles And Lessons

How The Pros Practice
by Rob Gravelle

There are a number of differences between professional and amateur musicians and Rob Gravelle gives us some tips from the pros about practicing. You’ll find some great advice here no matter what level you currently play at.

A Giant Guitarist To Note
A Brief Profile of Memphis Minnie
by Colette Dumont

There have been important women guitarists around for about as long as there have been guitars. Colette Dumont gives us a profile of Memphis Minnie, one of the first of the guitar greats at the turn of the century.

Chord Pedal Points
by Chris Korsak

A pedal point, a repeated note in a riff, arpeggio or chord sequence, is a great device to use to spice up your playing. Chris’ latest article gives you an introduction to this technique that crosses all genres of music.

Hot Off The Press (Releases)

I’ve been getting emails from Dave Alexander, the Festival Director of the L’Esprit Manouche Festival, which is held in Moseley Park, which is (conveniently) located in Moseley, England. That’s about two miles out of Birmingham. This year’s dates are July 9th and 10th.

The L’Esprit Manouche Festival is a celebration of gypsy jazz music, a la Django Rhinehardt. Most of the performing groups are bands with a guitar, violin and bass and little more. It sounds like it’s an incredible weekend!

Here’s the latest info on this festival:

Steve Royall from The Django Reinhardt Swing Page is offering a fabulous guitar as the first prize in a raffle due to be drawn at the L’Esprit Manouche festival over the weekend of the 9th and 10th July.

The guitar is another beautiful instrument created by master luthier Rob Aylward and would cost well in excess of £1600 to buy. There are only 200 tickets being sold, (at £10 each), so the odds are the best you’re ever likely to see in a competition.

Only eight weeks to the L’Esprit Manouche festival – the forecast is hot and sunny weather for that weekend – it’s going to be another fabulous weekend of incredible music.

Check out the website at http://www.lespritmanouche.com/ to stay up to date.

Regards,
Dave Alexander
Festival Director
L’Esprit Manouche

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 30

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.

Last week we agreed that the title wasn’t as important as the chorus. The chorus is by far the most important part of the song. Or is it? The verses actually tell the story of the song, describe the emotions of the people involved, the events and circumstances around which the song takes place. Surely they’re the most important part of the song. So for this week I’d like you to write the verses to go along with at least one chorus from last week. Remember to credit the title and chorus writers as you’re not allowed to use your own choruses or titles.

Good Writing

Bob

Reviews

Babicz Guitars
Product Review by A-J Charron

Jeff Babicz has not redesigned the acoustic guitar, he re-invented it. You’ve probably seen photos of these unique guitars in places like Acoustic Guitar Magazine. A-J has managed to get one to try out for the readers of Guitar Noise. Here is his review.

Thoughts & Feedback

This week we’re keeping things short again in an effort to (once and for all) get back onto a reasonable and realistic schedule.

I hope you all have a grand week. If you’re out traveling for the Memorial Day Holiday in the US, drive safely.

And, as always,

Peace

David