Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Lessons and Articles
• Sunday Songwriters Sessions
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

‘Tis been a strange week. As I write this (Thursday noon in Chicago), my email account has just come back to life. It’s been pretty much on the fritz since late Monday or early Tuesday; I don’t know when exactly. So (sigh), yet again I offer my apologies to anyone who’s waiting for a reply. They are coming.

But we’ve also got some big computer news! I think I’ll let Paul fill you in on this…

Here is a Japanese Haiku for regular users of our forums:

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

This week I had the painful but necessary task of moving the Guitar Noise site to a new server. The really hard part was moving the Guitar Noise forums. To avoid having people posting messages on the old server I had to turn off the forums until everything was moved to the new server.

If it sounds simple it was not. Imagine downloading over 10,000 files from one place and then uploading them to another using a dialup connection. Of course, a few things went wrong along the way and I spent a couple days more than planned tinkering. But things are more or less working now. The only noticeable difference is a new shorter address for the forum: http://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/.

This week you may run across some errors that I’ve missed. If you notice something wrong with the forums please send me a quick message.

And if the newsletter or site update seems a bit late this week it is because we have been waiting for something called server propagation to take place.When moving to a new server it takes between 24-72 hours for all computers on the Internet to update their records to reflect the new IP address.

New Lessons And Articles

In order to help Paul out this week by not swamping him with new stuff, I’ve only added one new lesson this week. But I think that you’ll find it to be a good one!

Heart Of Gold
Easy Songs for Beginners #22
by David Hodge

Neil Young’s back! Take a four chord song and add a few simple touches and amaze yourself at how cool you sound!

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 29

It’s deja-vu all over again, again.

We have so many new writers aboard that it’s time to dig back into that bag of golden oldies. Let’s see what you missed.

Take a look at the Topic Archive post in the SSG forum. All of the old assignments are in there. Pick anyone you like. That’s more than 20 topics to choose from. I’m afraid I’m going to have to make parts one and two of our three-parters off limits. Yes I know, I hear the groaning, but I’d have to assume you are abusing my good nature if you come to next week with just three opening lines.

If you’re an old hand at this, you can either write one you missed, or have another go at one you already did. It might be interesting to see how you’ve progressed.

Good luck and good writing

Thoughts and Feedback

5 Questions with Ryan Spencer

It’s impossible to speak of, or even think of, the Guitar Noise Forum pages without bringing Ryan Spencer to mind. I think it’s safe to say that without Ryan, the forums would not be the place they are today. He pretty much took it upon himself, long before Paul or I even knew who he was, to make certain that everyone who visited the pages was treated with civility and respect. Every question was seriously answered, even if that answer was an “I don’t know.”

What many people may not have known was that Ryan is still in school, and in addition to that, is getting his band together and also doing guitar work on the side. He makes my day look like a lazy Sunday afternoon!

Even though he’s not around as much as he has been in the past, Ryan’s ideals and spirit still lives. Some people have lately asked about him in the boards and rather than answer for him, I thought it’d be good to hear from the man himself!

1) So what are you up to these days?

A lot. Considering between school, Void (our band, which we are working on our second demo CD and performing paying gigs), and etc. I’ve been extremely busy, thus why there is the absence of my self on the boards. From what I have heard the boards are still a good place to be. Just remember, if the boards ever fall out of shape, I’ll be back to whip them into condition

Because of my busy-ness, working on my articles has also been postponed, so, I grant to all of you that I might hopefully finish some of the articles that I promised to complete this year in next years timeframe. Also, if any extensions to the FAQ wished to be made, just drop me a line (my e-mail address is further below.)

2) How are things going with your band? Are you still doing custom guitar work?

Good and Yes. The band has been doing quite well with gigging and our demo CD is rolling along nicely, although I would prefer if we speed things up a bit. We have recently been trying to earn chump change in whatever fashion we could to purchase more equipment. It just became our light of hope that some bands have wanted to recruit our equipment and knowledge of recording to helping them record songs cheaper than the standard studio time – per hour as opposed to us charging per song.

3) How did you first get involved with Guitar Noise?

When I first came to Guitar Noise, I was actually just starting playing. I hadn’t realized until about a year or two later that Guitar Noise had a forum. It was from that day and on that I religiously posted. I enjoyed it because it wasn’t the extreme flame wars and senseless conversations such as I had experienced at other guitar sites.

Just a while back I have cut down on my posting because of my labored life outside of the internet. I still don’t guarantee that I’ll come back at one point with the same multitude of posting as I used to, but I will come back now and again to check in on everyone. It’s just that talking through e-mail is easier for me now, and if any of you have questions that you wish to ask me or just drop a line to say “Hi!”, please contact me through my e-mail (I know I shouldn’t be giving this out, but it’s the only way people can contact me, and I get enough spam as it is, so having a little bit more won’t matter.)

jeder@earthlink.net

Whether it be about luthiery, repair, or whatever else the topic may coincide, at least I get some contact outside of my little space in front of this glowing tube

4) Do you have a favorite Guitar Noise story or memory?

Hmm, let me think about that one, there are actually a few. I must say that every moment I have spent on Guitar Noise has been a pleasurable one. The boards are, as David consistently informs me (and I return with a smile to hearing this good news) “…still a happening place”

I enjoy the full staff and those who are in the forums!

Dan’s corrections to my horrible sound engineering knowledge

Laura’s efforts and enthusiasm towards the “Other Side” section of our site along with other things

A-J’s lyrical and copyright information and allowance of me reviewing material when I can for the site

David’s constant help and support, as well as his help to get me into the Guitar Noise by letting me write my first article

Paul’s ever-flowing drive to “…finish another project for the site.”

And to everyone else, especially including those in the boards, your presence and friendliness have been quite an experience over these years that I have attended.

But now I’m sounding like I’m retiring, “I’ll be on the boards next week!” I must say. Oh, wait! I have that final exam due…”Maybe next week”

5) Any future plans you’d like us to be aware of?

Void’s new demo CD will probably be coming out sometime within this year, we will also probably be open to international sales if a copy is wanted from afar (even if it is just outside California.) Information on ordering will be on our new site, yet, that is also a work in progress and hopefully will be done some day soon.

If you’re in California by any chance, and there is a show, I want to encourage anyone that likes our music, willing to try listening to some other stuff, or just wants to come hear us (our music will be on www.mp3.com at one point, I’ll have David tell all of you of it through whichever medium he chooses) to come to our shows. All shows booked will be updated on our upcoming site.

Rock on everyone!

Aside from dotting our “i’s” and crossing our “t’s,” Darrin Koltow is someone who has helped make the Internet a great place for guitar players of all levels of experience. Next week we’ll try to get him to take time out from his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.

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

And, as always,

Peace

David