Newsletter Vol. 2 # 37 – May 18, 2003

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!

Pretty wild the things technology can do, huh?

Moving onward…

New Lessons And Articles

Maybe it’s the new server, but it seems like I’m getting a lot of new articles these days! We’ll keep passing them along as fast as we can! Here are two new pieces that have gone online since we last chatted:

How Young Is Too Young To Play?
by Laura Lasley

Join me in welcoming Laura back to the pages of Guitar Noise! Her latest article discusses children and musical instruments. How young can one start? What things should be taken into consideration? There’s some wonderful tips and advice here.

Blues Lines In Jazz (Part 2)
by Hans Fahling

Jazz and blues have always been intertwined. In part two of this three-part series, Hans explores the relationships between the major and minor blues scales. Definitely a lot of fun!

Guitar Tip

As you probably know by now, Paul has successfully (fingers crossed) moved our Forum pages to a new server. I can only speak for myself, but they are running a lot smoother on my home computer!

One thing you may not know is that there are tons of great tips and ideas and opinions being bandied about on those pages. Sometime last weekend we registered our 1300th user. It’s rare to drop by and not find a half dozen to a dozen folks already online and contributing to the community.

This week I’d like to introduce you to Chris, who’s a fairly recent member to the forums. He’s been kind enough to post up a couple of finger exercises which are a great way for beginners to get working on their dexterity and speed. You can find his first one on the Guitar Noise forums.

If you’ve got a great tip to share, write me or feel free to go and post it online over on the forums.

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 31

This week is a magical week, with smoke and mirrors and misdirection. A week where not all is what it appears to be.

For instance, this week I’m not me, I’m really Pete.

Pete, known as P_Allen on the boards, wrote to me and suggested we take a look at metaphor and symbolism.

From Merriam Webster online:

“Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.”

Here is Pete’s suggestion:

“Write about a feeling or a subject you feel strongly about. When you are clear about your subject matter, think of something totally different to your chosen theme but which is symbolic of it.

For example: Your subject matter may be that your life keeps going on and you don’t seem to be able to take the opportunities that arise.

Your song may be along the lines of you’re driving along the freeway and there are great stops, bars, restaurants etc. but there are no turn offs to get off the road.

See what I’m getting at. The use of metaphor to symbolize what your point is. The trick is, however, only use metaphor throughout the song.”

Thank you for a great idea, Pete.

A wonderful example of this writing style is chapter one of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The entire chapter is a description of a turtle trying to cross a highway. It might seem out of place until you realize that the opening chapter is a metaphor for the rest of the entire book, the story of the migrant family moving across the country. That’s what we are shooting for.

So here is a recap of the assignment:

1. Pick your story and clearly define it before writing. The picture assignment from last week brought up some powerful feelings; that might be a good place to start if you are stuck.
2. Pick your symbolism or metaphors.
3. Use as much rich imagery for your symbolism or metaphor as you can squeeze in.

That’s it.

May the winds of fortune fill your sails on the mighty river of your words (otherwise know as “Good luck and good writing”).

Reviews

Brian Moore Guitar Clinic
I’m always stoked to get a review (or an article – hint hint!) from Bill Cozzo! He recently had the chance to sit in at a clinic hosted by the president of Brian Moore Guitars and was incredibly kind enough to write up a piece about it.

Thoughts and Feedback

5 Questions with Nick Torres

Sometime last summer I started noticing a newcomer to the forum pages who went by the name of “wandoctor.” He (or she) seemed like a nice enough person, obviously new to the boards and anxious to both learn and be helpful. At the time I was pretty involved with last year’s Riverside Jam, where I’d finally get to meet Paul in person and really didn’t have a lot of spare time to check out the forum on a regular basis. I just knew that when I did, Ryan and this “wandoctor” were pretty much covering a lot of ground.

In September, I discovered that “wandoctor” had another name, Nick Torres. We “met” in the way I typically do these days – he sent me a proposal for an article he wanted to write for Guitar Noise. I agreed and in the consequent “chatting,” I realized that, should his inclinations lean that way, that Nick had the potential to bring a lot to our site even though he was (and will tell you “still is”) a relative newbie on the guitar.

And now, close to a year later, I am truly glad that, for whatever reason, Nick happened on our little corner of the internet. While people have written very positively about his articles (with and without dinosaurs), I think he also deserves no small thanks for his running of the Sunday Songwriters’ Group, which he co-founded along with Ryan.

So, hey Nick! You may be the “junior” member of the staff, but I hope you know how appreciated you are!

Time for your interview:

1) When you first visited Guitar Noise, did it ever occur to you that you’d be as involved with the site as you have become?

Ah-Hah, I caught you! You’re assuming I ever think ahead.

No, in hindsight it didn’t occur to me that I’d be contemplating this question then. I mean now. No I mean at that time I didn’t think I’d be thinking that at this time. I think. What was the question again?

I came to Guitar Noise via a search engine query for online guitar lessons. I don’t really want to bad-mouth any other sites in particular, but this is the most positive and giving website on the internet. It’s contagious.

Two things hooked me, first the writing and personality of the incredible Mr. Hodge. How long have I known you now? 15 years? It couldn’t just be 9 months could it?

Second was Ryan’s positive attitude in the Songwriting forum. I spent a lot of my time there initially. Ryan could write positive things about posts that made me go ballistic.

Okay three things, I also get to write articles that include dinosaurs.

2) Both the Guitar Noise Songwriting Club and the Sunday Songwriters Group are incredibly friendly places. What sort of advice would you have to someone who’s always wanted to write a song but perhaps has been a little shy of posting?

The first thing is summon up the courage and just post it. The hardest thing about writing a lyric is putting pencil to paper, or fingers to keyboard.

If you are a little reluctant to post your lyric right off the bat, come to the Sunday Songwriters forum and try your hand at a topic or two to warm up. Once you get a bit more comfy you can post your lyric in the general forum.

Don’t self edit and tell yourself you suck. That’s my job. I’ll be happy to tell you you suck, but in over 1600 posts I have yet to utter those words in critique. Everybody has something to offer. Every lyric comes from some inner desire to be heard. Every lyric has an element of truth and beauty or horror. What I try to do is to bring those qualities forward and strip away the excess.

Also, the beauty of being on the internet is you can be completely anonymous. No one will come knocking on the door to humiliate you.

I can see it now:

(knock knock)

-Open the door Mr. Smith. We know you’re in there!

-Uhh, who is it?

-Mr. Smith, we are from News Channel Four investigating a report that you posted lyrics containing references to your heart breaking. Is that true?

-Uhh, is that a TV camera? And absolutely no that wasn’t me.

-Mr. Smith do you go by the internet handle Love-Machine_?

I guarantee the News 4 team will not show up at your door.

3) How do you split your time between writing, singing and playing?

I write every week for an hour or two or three. I force myself to take the time to write or writing would get lost in the shuffle. This is where the little ideas come from and the lines I want to use in the future. So many amazing, terrible and wonderful things happen every day that it’s a shame not to take a little time to write them down. I think of my lyrics as little snippets of my own personal history.

The benefit to scheduling a time and making a habit out of writing is that when inspiration occurs, you know where to go, you have supplies ready, and a guitar by your side. You also have created a space where you are used to being creative.

I sing in a choir every week, with a solo about once a month. To rehearse I record the music onto CD and sing it over and over again while I commute. I also approach singing very logically, dissecting pieces into how I want to sing them, and I mark up my scores accordingly. This saves a tremendous amount of time.

I have a play date, every Tuesday from 8.00 -10:00, no exceptions. I go to the occasional open mic, jam with friends on the weekend every so often, and I go to a really good coffeehouse here in Alexandria on the second Sunday of every month. I haven’t been out playing in a band for several years. I find if I schedule things in, I can make them fit.

I practice every day. I just made a decision to do it. I don’t care if it’s five minutes or 5 hours, but everyday I pick up my guitar. Besides if I didn’t my guitars would get all pissed off at me. Sometimes I record myself playing and jam along on blues harp, melodica, banjo or spoons, ok I don’t play spoons. I believe that if you are doing something musical, something that makes you think or keep a rhythm, you are gaining ground.

The other 15 hours of the day I spend at Guitar Noise. Eight of those I also pretend to work.

I just try to shuffle music into my everyday routine and keep the best balance I can.

The medication really helps.

4) Your article, Songwriting For Beginners, contains a lot of good advice. If you were to write something for the fledgling guitarist, what sort of advice would you offer?

Well, thank you.

About that Songwriting for Beginners article, even though it has my name on it, it really is a cheat sheet of almost 30 weeks of critiquing by everybody who ever posted at Guitar Noise. I read it myself from time to time when I get stuck writing. I like to use it like a pre-post check list.

You want me to give advice for the fledgling guitarist? I still can’t snatch the pebble from your hand.

Okay, here goes:

1. Figure out what you want to do so you know when you have achieved it.

2. Do not dip your toes in, dive in. Cannonball. Go whole hog. Revel in it.

3. Commit to finishing what you start.

4. Learn from everybody you can.

5. Teach everybody you can.

I know that’s a pretty generic list. I think number three is really important. I can’t tell you how many times in my early years of playing someone would say:

- Hey do you know The Wind Cries Mary?

- I know the chorus and the solo, but not the verse

And that conversation would get repeated for hours. It really builds confidence when you can launch in and play all the way through.

I have two suggestions technique wise:

1. Anchor your thumb. It is soooo much easier to change chords when you pivot your hand around a stationary thumb.

2. Relax that grip. I learned this tip from my golf coach, but I think it holds true for guitar. Hold the neck of the guitar like an open tube of toothpaste. You don’t want to drop it, but you don’t want the toothpaste squirting out either. Experiment with how lightly you can fret chords and still get a clear note. Any pressure in excess of that amount is overkill.

5) Have you any future articles of projects that you’d like to give us a little preview of?

Hmmm, in the hopper currently:

- Heh-heh, he said wood – an article on how the types of wood affect sound.

And I’m thinking of several articles for the absolute scratch beginner.

I have a couple of interviews with up and coming artists.

Perhaps you’ll see a personal web page that acts as a compliment to my stuff here on Guitar Noise, but goes more in depth into things that pique my interest.

I’ve been contemplating a book on songwriting, complete with exercises. Maybe this year is the year.

I have almost completed a piece I’m writing for choir and orchestra. I hope to have that complete and the debut sometime this year.

And I’m going to hit the road this summer, playing open mics and coffeehouses.

Well, that wraps up our little series of “interviews” with our staff. Sort of… I hope to be getting some of our regular contributing writers, such as Hans Fahling, Bill Cozzo, Chris Juergensen, and more, to do some short interviews on specific topics for our sister site, MusicCareers.net. That should be very educational.

But today I’d like to thank each of our staffers that took the time these past weeks to answer questions for the newsletter. And to also thank our readers for their comments and questions.

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

And, as always,

Peace

David