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
• Reviews
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

Ever have a song get stuck in your head? That’s sort of like asking “breathe much?” Believe it or not, some brainy dudes study these things. Last week I read an interesting tidbit on this phenomenon in a short article by Cathryn Conroy (special to AOL/Compuserve). Some things you might find interesting:

Which songs get stuck? “When we get a song stuck in our heads, it’s usually the first or last song we heard in a specific situation, such as the song playing on the clock radio alarm or the song on the car radio when we turned off the ignition. Just about anything can get stuck in people’s heads. We each have our personal demonic tunes that get stuck in our heads, I guess.”

But stuck songs, which the Germans call “earworm,” tend to have these features in common:

• They are relatively simple.
• They are repetitive.
• They contain an element that surprises the listener, such as an interrupted pattern or something that violates expectations of what comes next.
• The most common culprits are songs with lyrics.
• They stay stuck in our heads for a few hours on average.

Women are more likely than men to be annoyed, frustrated, or irritated by “earworm,” and this, more than any other aspect of this mental torture, puzzles the researchers the most.

So what do you do to erase the stuck song from your brain? Advises you not to worry about it. (If you take him up on his advice, just don’t listen to Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” or you’re sure to just trade one stuck song for another.) Other tips include listening to different music or distracting yourself with another activity. You can also try singing the entire song–and not just the snippet that’s stuck in your head–even if you can’t quite remember all the lyrics. There’s even a folklore cure: Chew on cinnamon sticks.

The things one learns, eh? Well, as a frequent sufferer of “earworm,” I think I’ll be certain to never again leave the house without a few cinnamon sticks in my pocket…

New Lessons And Articles

We’ve some really great lessons this week that touch on some fundamentals of both blues and jazz. Here’s what’s new at Guitar Noise since our last newsletter:

A Mixolydian Scale Blues Guitar Riff
by Darrin Koltow

The man behind MaixmumMusician gives us a great introduction to the Mixolydian scale – how to find it, how to use it. It’s great for blues, rock and a host of other things and, as always, Darrin makes learning it a joy and not a chore.

Blues Lines In Jazz
by Hans Fahling

Jazz and blues have always been intertwined. Now you can see how simple blues lines can add to your jazz improvisational skills, as well as other styles. Hans is back with the first of a three-part series that will sharpen your playing considerably.

Solo Guitar With Chord Melodies – The Art Of Creating Complete Song Arrangements
by Peter Simms

Please join me in welcoming Guitar Noise’s newest arrival – Peter Simms. Peter walks us through an introduction to the jazz style of “chord melodies.” And he makes it both easy and entertaining.

Guitar Tip

This week I’d like to share with you a website that Forum Moderator Musenfreund (congrats, sir, on your five hundredth post this week, by the bye!). When asked about finger-strengthening exercises, he was kind enough to refer a reader to Guitar Lesson World.

And I think he’s found a great place! Check it out if you’ve a moment and if finger speed is concern for you, give the exercises a try!

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 28

What’s our assignment? I don’t know!!

Last week, I got to surprise Nick (and everyone else) by picking the topic so I thought this week I’d give Nick the advantage by telling him NOT to tell me the topic ahead of time (how do you think we get it in the newsletters anyway?). In other words, I don’t have a clue what he’s going to do. All I know is that it will probably be devious and fun!

Go check out the Sunday Songwriting Group Forum page and look for “Week 28.”

I’ll be looking, too!

As Nick would (and will!) say, “Good luck and good writing.”

Reviews

A-J checks in this week with two more CD reviews:

Pretty Suicide
The independent, self-titled release from a truly rocking band.

Tomas Bodin: Pinup Guru
A definitely different sound heralds the first solo effort by the Flower Kings’ keyboardist.

Thoughts and Feedback

10 Questions with Laura and Dan Lasley (part 2)

Both Dan and Laura Lasley brought in new perspectives when they started writing for Guitar Noise. Dan started both the “Bass for Beginners” and the “Sound Engineering” departments while Laura launched Guitar Noise’s “The Other Side.”

While neither of them write as often as we’d wish they would, they did manage to answer some questions for us. Here’s part two of their Guitar Noise interview:

6) Laura, you’ve done some great interviews with Kelly Richey and Dar Williams. What do you feel is the best advice you’ve gotten from another musician?

Laura: I come back to something Kelly said in her interview. When we first learn, we are dry sponges and can pick up just about anything (with work!). Then as we play longer, we set our styles and play the way that works best for us. It doesn’t mean you can’t grown or learn, but you can relax and be comfortable in your own style of playing.

My guitar teacher gave me the book “Zen Guitar”; the concepts of playing just enough (not too much or too little) when playing with others is great. Also just to play through your funk periods. Wish I could heed that advice more often.

7) What’s it like living in a house where, not only does everyone play an instrument, but everyone plays several?

Dan: Well, we have one room that is very crowded with instruments, a mixer, and amps. And there are music stands and sheet music all over the house. How do kids practice their instruments while watching “Sponge Bob”? However, it’s fun when our daughter says she likes a new song, Laura gets the chords from the Web, and we start playing it 15 minutes later. Sometimes we’ll work things out on the piano, which we all know to some extent.

Laura: Sponge Bob is dead, isn’t he? Well, it’s a bit messy in the house actually. It’s just nice to be able to pick up the acoustic, the electric or sit at the keyboards whenever the whim dictates. Plus the real culprit (our son) of multi instrument playing doesn’t live here anymore. But when he’s around, there’s just more opportunity for family jamming.

A lot of readers are either parents or will one day very likely be parents. Do you have any advice on how to encourage one’s children to be musical without falling into that dreaded “Playing an instrument is good for you” syndrome?

Dan: We’ve always had the “rule” that each child had to play one sport and one instrument. We started both kids on piano, as each key does exactly what it’s supposed to do, no hand strength or lung-power required. In the beginning, when they practiced, we sat next to them, helping them through the rough spots, trying to be encouraging without being over-bearing. When they reached 4th grade, the schools started band and orchestra. Now we are firm believers that fragile fretless stringed instruments should not be placed in the hands of youngsters (and I know a few professional teachers that agree), so we said “pick any band instrument”. I’ll admit that we encouraged woodwinds so they could play along with us, but it was mostly their own choice. After that, we pretty much let them go. We often invited them to jam with us, or vice versa – one year our son learned “When I’m 64″ on the clarinet, and Laura and I learned the song so we could play it together in the talent show. Following in the Hodge tradition, our daughter rewrote the lyrics as “When I Was Just 4″.

Laura: I was of the opinion that they could pick anything (drums included) that they wanted. The instruments were their choice. Actually our daughter wanted to play the alto sax initially. She got great sound, but didn’t have the arm strength in 4th or 5th grade to actually hold it up and play. She is loving the alto now and enjoying the clarinet and piano when she feels like picking it up. The guitar is sitting there for whenever she wants, but she hasn’t taken to it the way our son has. Our son is just disgustingly talented on each instrument he’s picked up (piano, clarinet, tenor sax, flute, acoustic guitar). I applaud each of their ‘performances’, which is every time they practice and try to give friendly feedback about a piece, much as you would with a bandmate that you’re working out a song with. I also don’t talk about the difficulty of a piece, which was very much the way I was taught with classical piano. I just encourage them to play music that they enjoy, whether it’s classical, rock, pop or jazz.

9) I’m hoping this isn’t going to sound too corny, but is playing music together even more special when you’re married?

Dan: Some of you have heard Laura sing. Lead or harmony, that does it for me. In addition, over the years she has become more willing to take risks with her guitar playing (China Grove on the acoustic was a challenge!). Actually, we do several things that let us work “in concert” together: sailing, volleyball, etc.

Laura: I could be even cornier, and say that everything is more special when you’re married. You were there, David, 20 years ago at the blessed event. I had wondered if life would be different. After all, we lived together, played music together, and spent as close to 24/7 together as we could in the college years. But even as early as the day after we were married, the fact that we were indeed married, has infused just simple things like waking up in the morning with an incredibly warm and wonderful feeling. The closeness you get with your bandmates is amplified by the closeness you achieve in marriage. Of course, it amplifies the disagreements as well, but the trick is to manage those in a civilized manner.

10) Dan, as well as playing, you’ve done sound for all sorts of bands and events. What is the most challenging situation you’ve ever faced in this area?

Dan: Well there were some interesting times in college, kicking out the sound guy from one bar, showing up late to a gig to find you’d all (including Laura) been rousted by the cops. Since then, I would say that running the (local) talent shows – putting on 30 acts in 3 hours – has been the most challenging and most rewarding.

Laura: Might I suggest that it’s having to teach a bunch of 6th and 7th graders how to work the mix board, and then let them see if they can hear the “balance” and mix it that way. Or was it the part where you didn’t yell at them and just attempted to teach them instead?

Dan: What she said!

Next week we’ll hopefully meet the gentleman whom I could safely claim single-handedly changed the forum pages. What has Ryan Spencer been up to lately?

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

And, as always,

Peace

David