Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

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

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

With your blessing, we’ll get right down to business. Let’s see what’s gone online since we last chatted.

New Lessons And Articles

How To Turn a Christmas Gift Into a Success
by Len Collins

Len brings us a wonderful Christmas gift with his article about what to do with that guitar now that you have it. This is a very inspirational piece which should give you all sorts of resolutions for the upcoming year.

Improvisation for the Fingerstyle Guitarist II
by Gilbert Isbin

Guitar Noise favorite Gilbert Isbin brings us a second lesson in finger-style guitar. In this piece, we use the first phrase of Jimi Hendrix’s classic Little Wing to learn about finger positioning and developing improvisational skills.

Sunday Songwriters Group / Composers

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.

Now in our second year (!), Nick and Bob are continuing to put us all through our paces, giving us weekly assignments to help everyone sharpen their abilities.

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.

The Sunday Composers page is the newly created musical extension of the Sunday Songwriters Group. On this forum page the emphasis is on music writing rather than lyrics. Join us for exercises and discussion on the other half of “lyrics and music”.

And now that you all know what’s going on…

Sunday Songwriters Group – the Second Year!

SSG2 – Week 8:

I have to say that I screwed up on this one! Bob sent me the update (all the way from Australia!) and it caught lost in the mix-up between moving everything from my work computer (where I no longer work as of Friday!) and my home computer (don’t even ask!).

But, he will be putting the latest update on the SSG page sometime today. Perhaps it’s already there!

See you on the boards! Good luck and good writing.

Reviews

The Bernd Brothers: Permanent Solution
Great musicianship, on guitars and bass make for a cozy album of Rock, Jazz and Fusion. With a lot of blending in genres, the Bernd Brothers show their licks in a variety of styles.

Duncan Ferguson: Homeland
Scotland must be smiling thanks to Duncan Ferguson. Luckily, every once in a while, a guy like this comes up with a great album and a different way of doing it.

Thoughts and Feedback

Christmas is upon us this week and this newsletter is a little short owing to all of the things going on in my life, but I’d like to tell you something about Christmas that has always bothered me. It’s how people say “if only every day was like Christmas” without thinking that making that particular wish come true is actually very easy.

Last August, the 2004 Riverside Jam was held in Chicago. Many of my students were very keen on participating and I’d like to tell you of one in particular.

On Saturday night of the weekend-long event, we’d rented a bar and were playing several sets. Each set was geared to either a specific musical genre or skill level; participants selected (in advance) which set or sets they wanted to play in.

The student in question opted to take part in what we called the “beginners” set. It was mostly straightforward rock and roll songs – the idea being to keep things as simple as possible. We played things like Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, Wooly Bully, Jump Jive and Wail, Wild Night and CCR’s Midnight Special.

Long after the show, he made it a point to thank me not only for being able to take part in the Jam but also for having to learn songs that he’d never played before and probably would never have learned otherwise. For the performance he had come up with several simple leads for many of the numbers and the beginners’ group probably got more compliments than any of the others. To him, the greatest part of the night was finding out how much other people enjoyed hearing him play. And, he admitted, they probably wouldn’t have heard him play if they weren’t interested in the songs in the first place.

So what’s all this got to do with Christmas? Well, depending on how you look at things, this holiday (and all the holidays at this time of year) are either about getting or giving. We like to think it’s more about the giving…

When we play music, we often exclusively play things that interest us. This is what brings us happiness. But part of any musician’s joy is a shared emotion involving an audience. So guess what happens when you learn a song for someone else?

Think about how wonderful a gift that is. Caring enough about someone in order to learn and play music especially for them. The beauty of music is that you can make anything incredible personal. Your performance, whether in front of a group of people or on a tape or CD or just between you and one good friend, is an ultimate expression of what life is all about.

When you give gifts like this, here is what you get: the spirit of the holidays each time you play. In other words, Christmas, or whatever you choose to celebrate, can happen every single day of your life. It’s all in your hands.

I hope you all have a grand week. Happy Christmas to you and may you always play one song for someone you love every day!

And, as always,

Peace

David