Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Lessons and Articles
• Guitar Tip
• Sunday Songwriters Sessions
• Forum Pages
• Reviews
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

Alright – I’ll swear to you that this issue is 100% poetry-free…

As promised last week, let me announce a new service being brought to you through the Guitar Noise website.

A-J Charron is offering to provide in-depth reviews of your songs. Get a detailed personal critique of your material from our Songwriting Columnist. Feel free to write A-J directly if you have questions about this. I’m certain he’ll be more than happy to answer any that you might have. If some of his answers in this newsletter don’t already answer them.

And yes, that’s my less than sneaky way of saying that A-J is also the subject of this week’s “Meet The Staff.”

New Lessons And Articles

Both Nick and Chris return this week with some very interesting articles. Here’s what’s new at Guitar Noise this past week:

The Spirit Of The Guitar
by Chris Juergensen

Our man in Tokyo reminds us that it’s important to understand the history and the life’s blood of the guitar in order to have a better appreciation of this beautiful instrument. Let yourself become part of the guitar by learning about where it came from.

An Interview (And Tour) With Jeff Huss
by Nick Torres

When Nick told me he had arranged a tour of the Huss & Dalton guitar factory, I had two thoughts: first, make certain he wasn’t playing an April Fool’s joke on me and second, tell him to see if there were any left handed guitars just lying around unattended! Read this fascinating exchange and learn more about how guitars are made.

Guitar Tip

This week’s tip comes from yours truly.

Here is a website where you can find a free metronome.

http://www.metronomeonline.com/metronomeonline/Default.asp?bhcp=1

If nothing else, you should give it a go and see what people mean when they are talking about songs being set at a certain BPM (beats per minute) speed. Also, it’ll give you a grand idea as to what people mean be “slow,” “moderate” and “fast” paced songs.

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…

Sunday Songwriter’s Group Week 26

“Before you accuse me” of being unoriginal, let me just say this week we’re going to do something old, something new, something borrowed, something Blues. 12 Bar Blues to be exact.

This week is Blues week here at the SSG.

Write about any topic you wish, but it must fit into the 12 Bar Blues genre.

Before you start putting pen to paper, you may want to refresh your memory and take a look at David’s Easy Songs for Beginner’s, Before You Accuse Me.

Good luck and good writing.

Forum Pages

Okay, this isn’t new! But it’s really worth repeating and making certain you know all about it!

Paul’s put in a whole new Forum section. It’s called, appropriately enough, Your Opinions.

In this new Forum area, we currently have three separate pages:

Reviews of Instructional Material – great to check out if a certain book / video / writer / teacher is what you want. Help the newbies in the Guitar Noise community by sharing your learning experiences!

Opinions and Polls – Acoustic or Electric? Left or right-handed? John, Paul, George or Ringo? A great way to exchange your thoughts on a number of ideas and issues.

Your Suggestions for Guitar Noise – Our very own Suggestion Box! I’ll probably use this one myself!

I always look forward to hearing your opinions on various topics and now, thanks to Paul, you don’t even have to email me if you don’t want to! And you can also hear what other readers think about your suggestions.

Reviews

Unfold The Future
Even though he says no Flower Kings CD needs a review, A-J gives us his thoughts on their latest double album release.

The Second Coming
An incredible guitar album by Neal Nagaoka which shows both his stunning skills and unerring sensibilities as a player.

Thoughts and Feedback

A-J Charron’s first songwriting column for Guitar Noise debuted in January of 2000. Since then he’s been a very busy man, writing scores of articles and also reviews of CDs, concerts and software. Not to mention the occasional interview!

In light of his recent endeavor, I’ve given him six questions instead of the usual five!

1) So how’s your CD coming along?

A: It’s been plagued mostly by financial problems, but those should be fixed quite soon. At this point, vocals need to be finished, then I’ll get the drummer in. After that, there’s this incredible flute player I found. I originally wanted him on only three tracks, but he liked the whole thing and asked if he could play on all the tracks. Once you hear him, you’ll understand why I said yes!

After that, it’s just a few finalizations: violin, trumpet and cello on one track, then off to mixing. I hope to have it all done by summer. You see, the second album – a double-length concept album – is already 95% written and arranged…

2) One would imagine that the whole process of this CD project has been an education. Do you foresee writing any columns about it that might be of benefit to aspiring recording musicians?

A: Actually, I’ve already posted a couple of lessons on the subject, but there will be more. It’s an incredibly long and arduous thing to do, and I think you have to be either a bit crazy or totally ignorant of what’s involved to do this by yourself. I’m probably a bit of both…

3) You’ve managed to get quite a few outstanding interviews with various musicians for Guitar Noise. Do you have any new ones in the works?

A: Currently I need to write up a superb Robert Berry interview I did; incredible guy! There’s also one I did with DC Cooper. In the works is Greg Lake. It’s been confirmed, we’re just trying to settle on a date. This should be a bit like talking to God.

One thing I should mention about these interviews is that almost everyone I speak to is incredibly nice. In most cases, it’s just like talking to friends. Actually, some have become friends.

4) What do you consider your favorite Guitar Noise related moment to date?

A: There are so many. All the people who take the time to write in. I know I don’t always write back. It’s easy to say that it’s due to time constraints, but it really is. All those emails are appreciated. Then, there’s the time when, through Guitar Noise, I got to meet Steve Hackett after his show in Trois-Rivieres. Getting to speak with a legend like that… Incredibly nice man too.

5) When you’re not working on the CD or writing for the site, what do you like to do?

A: I also never miss a Formula 1 race and I’m not a fan of Michael Shumacher. I love to just walk around Montreal, she’s a fabulous lady, go to parks or coffee shops or just walk through the streets, talk to people. In the summer, I bike around everywhere. But then again, I also enjoy my moments of solitude. I’ve just been writing so many songs lately.

6) What can you tell us about your new venture – the Song Review Service?

I’ve been looking at other services such as Taxi who will review a song for $35. There are many more and their rates are about the same. I don’t want to put these services down, but they are rated by people who can’t give more than a quick listen. I’d like to offer more than that; a good solid listen and analysis; tips and ideas to help the person improve their writing.

A lot of people write to me and ask me to review their material in order to help them improve. I love to do it, but one of the realities of life is that this takes time to do; I have to listen to the songs several times and analyze every part of them. This can easily take an hour per song.

I’m not aiming this at making it into a huge money-making venture, but just to get a reasonable rate for the work involved.

Next week we meet the man of many hats – Dan Lasley – and hear what he’s been up to.

I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace

David