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
• Guitar Tip
• Forum News
• Sunday Songwriters Sessions
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

It goes without saying that, as a source of information, the internet should usually be looked at with a bit of healthy skepticism. While you will find a lot of value, you will certainly also find the latest in misinformation. Not to mention disinformation.

But when someone at work told me about reading the following tidbit on some health site, I thought I would be wrong not to share it with all of you. Guess what? According to some health study somewhere, singing along with music apparently produces antibodies in the bloodstream that promote a feeling of well being. Well, DUH! Of course it does!!!

So go out there and start singing!

And to give you something to sing about, let’s take a look at what’s new this week!

New Lessons And Articles

Mastering The Neck Of The 5 String Banjo
by Russ Sprouse

Bluegrass banjo man Russ Sprouse is back with the latest installment of his series of lessons. Here you’ll learn three different movable chords which will allow you to play any major chord at any place on the fretboard. Russ has been kind enough to provide both pictures and MP3 files. And, as always, his writing style makes learning a breeze.

Hurt
Easy Songs for Beginners #24
by David Hodge

Johnny Cash had an incredible gift for arranging and performing other people’s songs. And today’s lesson, a powerful, yet sparse take of Hurt by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails will give you more than enough proof of this. Sometimes you find that the simplest arrangements provide the most intense results.

Email Of The Week

Hi David!

I heard that you’ve changed your email address. Would you mind giving it to all of us one more time? Thanks a lot!

David.

Hi David!

Thanks for writing (although it’s a real mystery as to how I got this…) and I’d be more than happy to post it again. You can reach me at:

dhodgeguitar@aol.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Peace

David

Guitar Tip

Believe it or not, Guitar Noise is not the only guitar website on the internet! Seriously!

In my wanderings this past week, I stumbled across a website that I’d visited quite some time ago and so I took the time to reacquaint myself with it. Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Tips is loaded with all kind of friendly advice as well as some other nifty things like online tuners (6 string, 12 string (yay!) and bass) and metronomes and printable TAB paper.

Be sure to browse through all the various tips! So if you ever want to know how to tell a laminate top from a solid wood one, or if you want advice on barre chords or almost anything, drop on in.

Forum News

Someone this past week suggested starting a “best of…” the forum thread. The “humor” category alone would probably be a dozen pages! Me, I’d have a hard time not voting for Heelsy’s “Operation New Amp!”

Last week I announced the launch of three new forum pages. For those of you who may have missed it, here they are again:

GUITAR NOISE LESSONS
Got a question on a lesson? Don’t quite understand what or how or why? Just want some company as you learn? Come join the gang in the lesson forum and be sure to keep an eye out for important announcements on this page!

GUITAR AND MUSIC THEORY
Well, who doesn’t have a question about theory? Come on in and get them answered here. Beginning to advanced theory questions are welcome.

SWAP MEET FORUM
Do you have GAS? Do you need to sell your old Strat for a new Les Paul? Post your WTB and NTS requests here, along with your contact information. These posts will be locked after one week, and deleted after one month.

I hope that you take the time to visit these new pages and take advantage of each other’s knowledge and experience. Look forward to seeing you there!

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 49

At the time of this writing, Nick was rushing about hither and yon to get things done in order to be prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Isabel along the Atlantic coast. I may not have gotten his whole survival plan down because I think it involved garden gnomes and a giant omelette. Sounds like Nick, no? Anyway, and needless to say, this may be corrected:

Let’s take what you’ve got so far and put together the chorus. Write a four line chorus, not three, not five and not eight. I’ll even do half of it for you – Lines 1 and 3 have to be the same! Don’t say I’m not helpful!

You get several thousand bonus points if you can tie that repeated line directly into your original idea.

Taking Nick’s own choices as an example, he might write:

Shouting at the sky
Words he hasn’t picked yet will go here
Shouting at the sky
and something really clever goes here.

That’s kinda catchy, huh? Bet I’ll look really clever if that’s what Nick does! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get going on my own chorus!

Good luck and good writing.

Reviews

A-J Charron has been listening to all sorts of CDs all summer long! Luckily for us, he lets us know what he likes! Here are the latest of his CD reviews:

Pinkeye d’Gekko: Rhythm & Western
With a name like Pinkeye d’Gekko, you have to expect something strange. They don’t let us down.

Threshold: Wireless
Threshold offer us a very different look at what they do so well; but here the guitars aren’t pounding with force, they are delicate and sensitive.

Steve Cunningham: Dubious Tones
Jazz guitarist Steve Cunningham offers us his prowess on slide dobro, lap steel and electric guitars, accompanied by drums, upright bass, keys and an assortment of brass.

The California Guitar Trio: The First Decade
The good old trio of guitarists, created following Robert Fripp’s advice, is already ten years old! And to celebrate, they’re offering us a collection of pieces from this first decade.

Lux Eterna
Russia rocks! Eternal Light, or Lux Eterna demonstrate this quite well with their self-titled debut album.

Ritual: Think like a mountain
Ritual, certainly a band worth knowing, Think Like a Mountain, certainly an album worth owning. This album changes moods often and takes you right along with it.

Thoughts and Feedback

The passing of Johnny Cash, like that of Warren Zevon’s last week, has been expected for a while now. But that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

When Nick asked me if I might “whip up” a quick lesson, a tribute of sorts to this legend, my initial reaction was, “No way.” Don’t get me wrong. It had nothing to do with Cash or Zevon as much as it had to do with me being tired and wanting to distance myself from cancer and death and a horde of other things.

But (very) early Sunday morning I sat and listened to his last album, American IV: The Man Comes Round, and then listened again. And then once more. Then closing song, if you don’t know, is that old standard, We’ll Meet Again (yes, the one done by Vera Lynn, among others). And I found myself singing along at four in the morning:

Tell the folks that I know that I said hello
And that I won’t be very long
They’ll be happy to know that when you were watching me go
I was singing this song:
We’ll meet again
Don’t know where don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day

Undoubtedly, it was the antibodies I was producing while singing that brought me a sense of calm and peace. So, between the four private lessons I gave that day, I managed to record the MP3s and write up the lesson on Hurt.

I can give you all sorts of reasons, from metaphysical to mundane, for choosing that particular song. In the end, I guess, it was a matter of simplicity. The chords, while interesting, weren’t all that hard and the strumming pattern is by far the easiest thing I’ve ever done for any lesson (and that includes the infamous “Horse!”).

And maybe that is the point. You don’t have to be the greatest player or the most gifted musician in order to create something of power and beauty. You just have to be true to yourself and the gifts you do have.

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

And, as always,

Peace

David