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!

Depending upon where in the world you happen to reside, let me wish you a good last week of winter or summer. I’m not sure why we look on it this way, but spring and fall (or autumn, if you will) tend to be thought of as “transitional” seasons. To me, living for summer is kind of like the “Thank God (or whatever) it’s Friday” philosophy so prevalent these days. Do the math and think about it. If all you enjoy in life is Friday night, all day Saturday and half of Sunday (I’m assuming here that Sunday night is a bit of a downer owing to the realization that Monday is hours away!), then you aren’t enjoying 5/7 (71 percent) of your life.

(Big Public Address Announcer-type voiceover): DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

I could be truly coy and say, “One way to get more out of life would be to spend more time playing the guitar…” This could lead me to say that whenever you find yourself with a question that you’d like answered, just hop on over to our all new FAQ page.

You can see why my ideas about advertising and marketing are never taken seriously, can’t you?

Ah well, shall we instead move on to the fun stuff, then:

New Lessons And Articles

It’s getting to the point where I’m introducing a new writer every week. Here’s what’s new on the site since we last chatted:

Circle Progressions
by Rich Scott

Rich Scott, webmaster at Moneychords.com (and long time Guitar Noise reader) has graciously given us permission to use this excerpt from his recently published book, Chord Progressions For Songwriters. I think you’ll find this a wonderfully detailed piece, complete with a lot of examples to demonstrate the progressions Rich walks you through.

Absolute Pitch Power (Part 1)
by Graham English

Some of you may have noticed a new sponsor on our pages – Absolute Pitch Power. Since we’ve gotten a few emails about them, we’re giving them the chance to introduce themselves to you personally. Learn more about them and their product as Graham English details the virtues of having perfect pitch. He even throws in a fun exercise to help get you started.

(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay
Easy Songs for Beginners #21
by David Hodge

Let’s combine some strumming techniques with our on-going lessons on developing bass lines. There’s a lot of fun to be had with this one as we work through straight strumming, a little bass-and-chord work and even toss in some arpeggio playing.

Email Of The Week

This week’s featured email is, again, part of a longer email. Unlike our epic piece by Darrin last week, this is just a short note that I found very inspiring:

Hey David,

I have been reading your columns at Guitar Noise and I really enjoy them. I see that you have been doing them at least a couple of years. I only discovered them recently. One thing I want to do is just let you know that the effort you put into them is appreciated. It must be cool to have people continue to see your writings. If you want to get cosmic about it all musicians are part of a chain. The things we learn and teach can be taught to countless other people.

I teach a free class at my local library, for several reasons. I tried teaching groups before and it didn’t really work. It was all teenagers and they were all at different levels and wanted different things. So one reason I am doing this is to get more experience. I have learned a lot doing this for almost a year now. As you mention in one of your columns, students can challenge and really let you grow. Another reason I do it is because I love music and I want to make an effort to pay back some of benefits I have gotten from listening to and playing music. This past week the beginners were able to play a basic blues shuffle, that old A5-A5-A6-A6 etc. thing, on the one after I counted one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and_ and that was really cool.

Very cool, indeed.

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 out the help pages.

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.

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.

And now that you all know what’s going on…

SSG – Week 22

Is this Deja Vu or just a glitch in the Matrix? The first line of a song is almost as important as the chorus and title. It’s the jumping off point, the flypaper that traps the listener; it sets the tone for the rest of the song and more.

This week’s assignment is to come up with three or four killer first lines. And you know not to write the rest of the song already, right?

Don’t take that first line lightly, put some thought into it and give us some hum-dingers. Good luck and good writing.

Reviews

Guitar Pro 4
A-J Charron gives us the lowdown on the latest version of this multitrack tablature editing software – an incredible tool for writing and recording, as well as for learning and practicing.

Thoughts and Feedback

My opening rant, no pun intended, springs to mind, perhaps, because I think sometimes we (hopefully unintentionally) wish our life away. Whether this involves wishing it was Friday already or simply hoping that we can instantly become better guitar players with the snap of a finger, it’s still not a good idea.

Maybe I’m just trying to play the wise village elder here, but appreciate the time you spend learning things. One of the great appealing things about playing, that single moment when everything just clicks, can also be one of the frustrations. Moments, as I’ve mentioned before, don’t tend to hang ’round too long.

Darrin wrote a great article last fall about “loving your mistakes.” I’d like to expand that to enjoying whatever happens. All of us have our individual reasons for playing, but I’m willing to bet that one of those “individual” reasons is a universal feeling of joy and wonder – a high, if you will – that we get when playing.

When you get frustrated with your progress, which is too often perceived as lack of progress, take a breath and relax. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s easy to wish your life away without even realizing that you are doing so. Don’t start thinking it’d be great to already be where you hope to be one day. Let me wish for you that you never get there!

I hope that each of you has a great, full, week – seven complete days. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay safe.

As always,

Peace

David