Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

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In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Lessons and Articles
• Email of the Week
• Sunday Songwriters Sessions
• Reviews
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in last month’s pledge drive. Not only were your donations very much appreciated, so were all the comments and suggestions!

And while many people suggested making the pledge drive a year-round thing, it is not something that we want to do. So if you didn’t make a pledge but still want to, your time is about out. We will stop taking donations at the end of this month. Visit here for details.

Your response to reviewing products for the site has been great! This week marks the first of what I suspect will be many “by the readers” reviews. If you’ve got a review for us, just send me an email with the word “review” in the subject line. All of us appreciate your effort in sharing your thoughts about various guitar products.

I’m thrilled this week to welcome back many writers to these pages. I especially am happy to present two great articles on of quartal harmony. Both Bill Cozzo and Hans Fahling give us thoughtful and practical takes on this on fascinating subject.

So let’s take a look, shall we?

New Lessons And Articles

It’s like homecoming week – Dan, Jamie, Hans and Bill are back with great pieces for you to study and enjoy! Here’s what’s gone online since we last chatted:

Sound Engineering Schools – Thoughts And A List
by Dan Lasley

In case you missed it in last week’s newsletter, Dan has been kind enough to find a good comprehensive list of sound/engineering schools on the web. He also offers a few thoughts about choosing a school that’s right for you.

Guitar Practice Organization And Procedure
by Jamie Andreas

When we think about what makes a good guitarist/musician, we think about dexterity, good ear skills, or even a comprehensive grasp of theory. How about simply being organized? Jamie Andreas points out how organizing is essential to the guitarist. This is a great read for all guitarists regardless of skill level.

Jazz Comping V: Quartal Shapes
by Hans Fahling

Hans concludes his series on jazz comping with a lesson in quartal harmony. There’s a great exercise with the \song “Autumn Leaves,” in which Hans starts you out and then lets you finish the arrangement of the song. Bring your guitars and pencils!

Comping With Fourths (part 2)
by Bill Cozzo

And while you have your guitar out, join Bill Cozzo as he returns with the second installment of his lesson on quartal harmony. This piece includes a practical demonstration, showing how one can use these chord voicings on “All Along The Watchtower.”

MORE READING ON THIS SUBJECT:

If you need to refresh yourself on the subject of quartal harmony, take a read of Bill’s first article: Comping With Fourths.

EMAIL OF THE WEEK

Question : I know some chords like C, D, G and A, as well as the notes on the guitar finger board. Could you tell me what else should I learn and how I can get better at playing in my practice time?

If you know some chords and where the notes are on the fingerboard, then you have to ask yourself, what you want to do? You already know enough to strum a lot of songs and even play song simple leads and riffs. You also know enough to start writing and playing some of your own songs. So there are a lot of choices and it’s really up to you. When my students reach a point where they have a lot of the basics down, I am often surprised by their next choices. One student of mine has recently decided that the next step is to learn how to read music so she can play classical and Spanish pieces. Another has decided to specifically target in on soloing while yet another is working on incorporating riffs into his rhythm playing.

I know that this may not be the answer that you seek, but without knowing what your purpose for playing is, I truly can’t tell you what to play next. I can tell you that there are TONS of things to learn! Take some time and think about what you want to do.

And then you might want to check out our articles on practice and focusing, such as Jimmy Hudson’s Getting The Most of Your Practice, my own piece, A Question of Balance on the Guitar Columns page and the new article coming out this week by Jamie Andreas, Guitar Practice Organization and Procedure.

If you have a question for us please remember that many questions have been asked in different ways, and the answer may already appear somewhere on Guitar Noise. If you have a question please check the help pages.

Sunday Songwriters Group

Think about breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Consider for a moment carry-out/take-away, drive through, delivery, eating out or making a meal yourself.

This week you have two options:

1. Make the meal of your choice the subject/theme of your song

2. Make your song about anything, but all the imagery must be food/cooking related.

Create an “Ode to Domino’s” or chill out with a “Shrimp Cocktail” blues. Blend together a spicy “Cajun Crawdad” Zydeco number. Stew on this one for a while and see what you can cook up.

As Nick says, write well.

Reviews

Love Tones

Take one Canadian woman with a beautiful voice, give her exceptional musical and interpretive talent, fantastic musicians and production and place her in Nashville and what do you get? How about Billie Joyce’s latest CD…

Guitar Picks – Big Rock Engineering

The folks at Big Rock Engineering have created a wide array of guitar picks, including some “make it yourself” kits. They are pretty wild, and Guitar Noise reader (and active Forum page correspondent) Dennis Corbin shares his experiences using them with us.

Remember – if you to review a guitar item or tutorial aid for Guitar Noise, send me an email with “review” in the subject. We’ve got two interesting books to review next week!

Thoughts and Feedback

Believe it or not, I’ve practically caught up with the holiday deluge of email. And, no, this is not a signal to launch another all out assault!

But it does raise a question. We at Guitar Noise pride ourselves in answering emails. I know that we don’t answer every one, mostly because I know I’ve lost some! But I would safely bet that we do respond to over 98% of the ones we get. At least I do! But if I’m spending all this time answering email, when do I get the chance to write the next lesson, to record an MP3 for an old “Easy Songs for Beginners” piece or even (gasp) to write the newsletter.

I am thankful for the friendly community that we’ve established on our various forum pages. Without them, I think I’d probably get two to three times the amount of mail I currently do. That would be frightening!

In typical Hodge fashion, I’m asking you to help me in this email question by sending me more email! Should we replace our current “Ask The Expert” format with an open forum. This would be for the general questions (”how do I tune down a half step?” or the eternal “acoustic vs. electric” quandary). One thing we’d like to do is come up with a comprehensive FAQ page. My question to you is this: how to best direct someone to find (or at least look for) answers to general questions while still remaining the supportive group we are? All your thoughts would be appreciated in this. I’ll be presenting some of the answers you come up with in about two weeks.

And that brings up another point – do you (all of you) feel comfortable with me including you in on all these ideas. I could just decide something and do it, but, as I’ve mentioned many times before, I think of Guitar Noise as a group effort. And you, our readers, are part of the group. See what you’ve gotten into!

I think that’s enough to mull over for now. I hope that each of you has a great week. I look forward to hearing from you.

As always,

Peace

David