Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

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

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

Let me start out this newsletter with a word of apology. Last week I thought I’d sent off the latest issue of Guitar Noise News to Paul to put up on Sunday and in my haste to get out of town (I was moving things into the new house) I neglected to add the newsletter as an attachment. I’m sure many of you know how that goes! Of course, Paul had no way to get in touch with me and so no one got last week’s issue. Totally, totally my screw up.

So this week, like it or not, you’re getting two updates’ worth of stuff. Maybe that’s a good thing as both Paul and I have been pretty busy this week. Let’s begin with me pushing my luck even farther and offering up a completely self-serving, entrepreneurial announcement:

In our last Guitar Noise News, I left you with word of my upcoming move to Massachusetts. My thanks, by the way, to all of you who wrote wishing me luck!

As I mentioned, teaching full time should allow me to free up more time for the site, and I also think that it may allow me to work on other projects as well. And one project I’d like announce is the launch of Guitar Noise Seminars.

During the course of 2004, I will be hosting day-long and half-day tutorial seminars. These will cover various topics and will, initially, cater to guitarists of beginners through intermediate levels.

A typical day-long seminar would be as follows:

9:00 – 9:30 Meet and Mingle (and tune!)
9:30 – 12:00 Session Topic #1
12:00 – 2:00 Lunch
2:00 – 4:30 Session Topic #2
4:30 – 6:30 Supper
6:30 – ??? Jam Session

Half-day seminar participants would have their choice of Session Topic #1 (and lunch!) or Session Topic #2 (with supper) and would also be welcome for the evening jam.

To assure participants of getting as much personal attention as possible, each class will not be larger than ten people. Depending on the topic, some classes may be limited to six or eight participants.

Right now I’m planning seminars on the following topics:

Absolute Beginners – Chords and Strumming
Beginning Fingerstyle
Beginning Theory
Beginning Electric Guitar
Beginning Bass
Chord Voicing – Using Your Open Position Chords to Create Magic Up The Neck
Open and Alternate Tuning
Developing Song Arrangements

And I’d like to do many others. If you’ve got ideas for a seminar you’d like to attend, please write me and we’ll see if there’s enough interest to do so.

When do these start? Well, I’d like to do the first one on Saturday, January 17. Is it too early to start thinking about next year? Right now I’m thinking the third Saturday of every month, but if there’s a demand for more, then we’ll have more.

Where are they? That can be up to you! I’m obviously planning on having the first few at my home (and believe me, there’s plenty of room!) but say there’s a whole group of people in, say, Washington DC or Houston or Anchorage that are interested in a couple of particular topics. I’d come out. Honest. I love traveling. I have this feeling that I could stay in England for a month or so doing these!

Now the bad news: Unlike the material on this site, these seminars will obviously have to cost something. But I think that I’ve come up with a reasonable plan: A half-day seminar would be $65 and a whole day $120. Again, that will include either one meal or two.

So, do you want to come? Pick a date (and an alternate), and let’s say the following dates are currently open:

January 17
January 24
February 21
February 28
March 14
March 21

And pick (or come up with) three or four topics that you’d like to learn about. Write me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and use “seminar” in the topic line and I’ll get back to you with more details.

By the bye, I’ll be living in the southwestern corner of the state, close to both the New York and Connecticut borders. Albany and Hartford are an hour-and-ten-minute drive and both Boston and New York City are slightly more than two hours away. There are a lot of hotels, motels and B&B’s in the area and (given a little time to tidy up!) I might even be able to put up a limited number of folks overnight.

Believe it or not, people are already signing up! Personally, I’m very excited about this and I think these seminars might be just the thing for people who might not need formal lessons every week and also folks who just have a hard time scheduling a regular lesson with a private teacher. Considering you could be getting close to six weeks’ worth of lessons in a single day, I am hoping that those of you attend will find it both a fun, educational and rewarding experience and a bargain all at the same time.

Okay, we’ve also got some new stuff here on site this week. And I’ve got to mention all the stuff that went up the week before as well! Let’s check it out:

New Lessons And Articles

Don’t Give In
by Paul Humphreys

A lot of our Guitar Noise readers have started in on their instruments at that interesting point of life that some might think of as “late.” Reader Paul Humphreys offers us this inspirational piece on how to get through those tough first weeks and months of playing and, personally, I think his advice is great for people of all ages!

Scales, Who Needs Them? Why And What For, Anyway?!
by Jamie Andreas

Trust Guitar Principles’ Jamie Andreas to provide a thoughtful, sensible way to look at the daunting subject of scales. Learn about what scales are, what they can actually do for you as a guitarist, which ones are important to you and how you should go about practicing them.

Additional Reading:

In addition to Jamie’s excellent article, you might find these old columns to be of help when it comes to this subject:

Scaling the Heights – A introductory guide to the major and pentatonic scales in moveable form

Scales Within Scales – A primer which introduces you to minor scales as well as modes

The Mystery of the Modal Scales – A wonderful guide which easily demonstrates how modes are formed

An Introduction To Guitar and Bass
by David Hodge and Brian Piggott

It’s always a pleasure to introduce you to new people and places on the web. Brian Piggott, creator and owner of Guitar and Bass has kindly written up a free lesson for the readers of Guitar Noise. It’s the introduction to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under the Bridge and you get text, audio, video and a whole lot more. Learn more about Brian and his site and have fun with his lesson.

Driver Eight
Songs for Intermediates #12
by David Hodge

Just because you have one major rhythm pattern, don’t have to feel compelled to stick with it throughout an entire song! With a little practice, patience and perseverance, you can start shifting gears with ease, going from full chords to arpeggios without a second thought and even add in a few riffs! Come learn another single-guitar arrangement that will not only teach you some things but also be a lot of fun to play.

Forum News

Guitar Noise Lessons

This week I’m launching our third beginners’ lesson discussion and it’s not on the third beginners’ song! I can be sneaky that way sometimes! Let’s take a logical step, building on our skills developed during the first two discussions with a study of Easy Songs for Beginners’ Lesson #5 – Three Marlenas. So please feel free to join in on the discussion of chord changes, percussive strumming and anticipations!

See you on the boards!

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 52

This week marks the end of SSG’s first year, so I’m going to let myself be surprised along with the rest of you by popping in on the Sunday Songwriters’ Group Forum page on Sunday and finding out our next assignment.

But I’d like to take a moment and thank Nick as well as everyone who has contributed over this past year. Speaking strictly for myself, I can honestly say that my own songwriting has definitely seen some marked improvements. Not only that, but I can also say I’m writing more often than I have in ages! Not only do I thank you, but I suspect the people that like to listen to my songs also thank you.

Good luck and good writing.

Thoughts and Feedback

I had no sooner written and shipped off the last newsletter to Paul when I heard that Robert Palmer had passed away. While the name may not be familiar to everyone, he made a lot of wonderful music. Most may recall his commercial successes, particularly Addicted To Love and Simply Irresistible, while others will remember his older albums such as Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley, Pressure Drop, Secrets and the stunning Clues.

As much as it saddened me to hear this news, I was even sadder when a forum member posted a notice Sunday (September 28th) on the passing of Shawn Lane. Now I’m willing to bet that even fewer of you can place that name unless you’re from the Memphis area, where’s he’s a bit of a cult icon. But I’m certain you’ll recognize some of the people he’s played with and for: The Highwaymen, Ringo Starr, Chris LeDoux, Joe Walsh, Calvin Russell, John Entwhistle and even Alex Chilton. And that’s only a few names out of the list! I have to say that while I’d read an interview of his somewhere (I can’t even place the magazine!), I was astonished at what a career, no, what a life this man had. And that, of course, made me wonder how many other guitarists I knew nothing about, how many musicians that are out there that I’ll never hear.

The answer to that is probably some number I can’t even imagine. But I don’t think that’s the point. This fall Guitar Noise News has become a bit of an obituary column. That’s part of life sometimes. Still I can’t help but think sometimes that each time someone dies, some of the music of the world disappears, never to be heard again. And probably more than ninety-nine percent of that music will never come your way unless you go looking for it.

I guess that’s one reason why I think it’s so important to have not only a place for music in your life, but a place for all kinds of music. You should know my spiel by heart by now – share your music with everyone you can and listen even more than you give.

It doesn’t really matter if you won a Grammy, or if your video created a whole new style, or if people sought you out to play on their records or even if your claim to fame was playing in a tent in the rain in front of seven people and two terriers. If someone thinks about you and smiles or, better yet, starts to sing, then you’ve made it.

I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe. Listen for all the music you can. Listen to all the music you can.

And, as always,

Peace

David