Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Lessons and Articles
• Email of the week
• Sunday Songwriters Sessions
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

A year ago today, the first newsletter for Guitar Noise that I wrote went online. Silly me! I figured that “issue #52″ would be my anniversary, and here it is only #50. That’s what I get for taking time off!

And while it’s been a fun, eventful year, I can’t help thinking that the real adventures are still ahead. Paul mentioned last week about new design in progress for Guitar Noise (and if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for? Just let us know what you think!), and I think that this is a great time to point out a lot of areas of Guitar Noise with which you may not be all that familiar. Two places in particular are our “site tour” and the “about us” page.

I have to tell you that the “site tour” has changed immensely since the day I first took it! At the risk of sounding like a total cliché, imagine going back to the house that you grew up in and finding out that they’ve “added” a skyscraper to it! I like to make jokes about Guitar Noise being the center of the universe, but it’s more like the universe itself in that it’s constantly expanding and evolving. So even if you’ve been visiting here for years, do yourself a favor – take the tour and see all the places you don’t know about!

Linked very closely to the tour page is the “about us” page. What I particularly like about this is that you learn about the site as well as the people. You can read the core philosophy of Guitar Noise and then read in the interviews of the staff just where that philosophy comes from. It’s no secret that none of us who volunteer here consider ourselves the final authority on anything. But we are truly committed to providing help and encouragement to all who visit. When someone asks me to briefly describe what Guitar Noise is all about, I say “Bringing music to everyone who wants to try to play.”

I’ll be pointing out other sites throughout the fall, so please come along with me and explore everything Guitar Noise has to offer.

And speaking of which, here are our latest offerings:

New Lessons And Articles

Originality
by Tom Hess

Whenever I receive a new article from Tom Hess, I know that I am in for a treat. He has a great way of making me rethink things that I initial wouldn’t think twice about. Take this piece on originality. By questioning the importance of innovation and then putting it into perspective, Tom brings a new appreciation to an age-old topic. Read and think and enjoy!

Can You Hear Me Now
by Dan Lasley

Believe it or not, the world of music can be very dangerous! Particularly to one’s ears. Dan Lasley brings us some important tips on how to be proactive in safeguarding your hearing. After all, we want you to be able to listen to music for the rest of your life!

MP3 Update: Margaritaville
Easy Songs for Beginners #9

Maybe it is my own damn fault, but I prefer to blame it on the spongecake. Now you can finally listen to the alternating bass notes and have some fun before the summer officially comes to an end.

Email Of The Week

This week’s email isn’t a question! What an idea!

I have a story for you. I have been involved in music in one way or another since I was a little kid (I’m 41 now) and I played “a little acoustic guitar” for 25 years, took lessons, but never could quite get into it. Then I started dating a musician who has played bass for 20 years and he heard me play and said that I should try the bass. I was like “Yeah, sure…” but I let him talk me into coming into the studio. He plugged his vintage G&L into the stack of amps and turned it ALL the way up. I hit the E string. I felt the floor shake and the guitar vibrate into my torso and I think I even heard angels singing. It was truly a conversion experience. That was December 1, 2002.

I ran out and bought a Mexican Fender Jazz bass with flat wound strings which placated me for the past eight months as I was learning the basics, but as I got better I started to crave a punchier sound. I went shopping 3 weeks ago with the intension of buying a Fender P bass (because of the wider neck and passive electronics) and ended up coming home with an Ibanez SR400 – with about the thinnest neck and most active electronics you can get! And round wound strings. (Oh the fret noise! But it’s getting better). I suppose it is just what speaks to you and this bass definitely spoke to me. Now I don’t want to put it down. Thankfully my boyfriend has a lot of friends that were between bands so we have a project together and we’re probably 3-4 months from our first gig, and I’ll be ready, because now I know the truth. I’m not a guitarist, I’m a bassist! And I must play….

I wonder how many of your other readers are really bassists that think they are guitarists?

Anyway, I thought you would get a kick out of this story.

I certainly did! And I hope that all of you did, too!

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 47

For the past several weeks you may have noticed we have been collecting random thoughts, ideas, and things we overheard. Believe it or not, this is where most songs originate. You may think you only get inspiration once in a blue moon, but if you did write these things down you probably saw that good ideas happen a lot more frequently then you thought. Keep on jotting down ideas for next week.

What are we doing this week? I have collected all of the random ideas and posted them in the Sunday Songwriters forum.

Take any two of those ideas, only one can be your own, and combine them into a lyric idea. What do I mean by that?

Well you might want to use:

“Walking around Chicago with a guitar in my hand”

and

“Don’t get too close to people who shout at the sky”

and combine them into this idea for a lyric:

You walk around Chicago with a guitar and people look at you like you are different. “Who is he?” they wonder. When you see street people talking to themselves or shouting at the sky you look at them like they are different. Are we really all that different? What would happen if you just stopped and started shouting at the sky too?

That’s it. All you have to do for next week is write a paragraph with an idea for a lyric.

Good luck and good writing.

Reviews

A-J’s been churning out a ton of reviews. I don’t even know where to begin! My advice would be to check out the reviews every day, since there seems to be a new one out all the time. Here’s what’s new this week:

Derek Sherinian: Black Utopia
Planet X’s Derek Sherinian is back with a new solo album proving once more why he’s at the top of his art.

Conspiracy: The Unknown
This is probably the most anticipated album of the year. For those not in the know, Conspiracy is made up of ex-Yes and World Trade keyboardist, guitarist, producer, Billy Sherwood and Yes bass player Chris Squire.

Donal Hinley: We Built A Fire
Country-rock artist Donal Hinley’s latest effort is certainly a good one. Although it doesn’t really break any new ground, it is nevertheless a great effort.

Katy Pfaffl: As She Stands
Katy’s newest effort is an extreme pleasure for the soul and for the ears! I really enjoyed Katy’s previous album, it was well done and contained very good material. But this one is a cut above.

Gilbert Isbin: Red Wine
Ah, it’s nice to have Gilbert Isbin grace these pages again. Gilbert is one of those guitarists I truly appreciate. He has a style all his own. His artistry tends to draw you right in to the music and, almost hypnotically, keep you there.

Jadis: Fanatic
Long time Classic Progressive band are back in force. Fanatic is a great album for both long-time fans and newcomers to the band. A free-spirited album which takes you on a trip.

The Great Kat: Wagner’s War
Official endorser of the Burns Scorpion guitar, the Great Kat certainly knows what to do with a six string. The way this lady plays, she probably goes through several a day.

Steve Hackett: To Watch the Storms
This is a return for Steve Hackett into his older seventies and eighties solo albums, but sounding much more 21st century.

Thoughts and Feedback

For many people, September (fall, autumn), is synonymous with “back to school.” I’ve gotten numerous emails from folks who’ve been on vacation or are going back to university or high school.

Old joke: There are two kinds of people – those who believe that there are two kinds of people and those who don’t.

I always think of this joke when September rolls around because, usually, people are very eager to get back to school or absolutely dreading it. And since I’ve already once performed my “reasons to want to appreciate every day” routine, I’ll spare you that!

But I do want to tell you something that I’ve touched upon many times. Maybe I should start with this: When I approached Dan Lasley ages ago about writing our “Bass For Beginners” articles, he replied “I should be able to do that. I’ve been a beginning bassist for years!”

And as funny as that is, there’s a lot of truth to it in my life as well. Even if I didn’t have a job and didn’t teach and didn’t write for the site and spent every moment of my life learning more about the guitar and music, I know that I would still have more to learn. There’s always something to learn.

With some people, that statement would be said with a sigh of resignation. I say it with joy and anticipation. The cliché “learn something new every day” should truly be “learn a DOZEN new things every day!” It’s important to be open to learning, to thinking like a beginner, in order to face each day with a thrill for the prospect of discovery. Or, to put it in terms of another cliché, it’s important to enjoy the trip as much as you can before you reach your destination.

And I hope that all of your destinations turn out to be more stops along the way. Enjoy the fall. Enjoy school, work, home, family, friends. Take your music everywhere you go and listen to everyone else’s.

And I promise not to make every newsletter a “pep talk!”

Don’t forget that you can now reach me at my new email @ddress:

dhodgeguitar@aol.com

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

And, as always,

Peace

David