Newsletter Vol. 2 # 71 – February 15, 2004
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Lessons and Articles
- Worth a Look
- Email of the Week
- Forum News
- Sunday Songwriters Group / Sunday Composers
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
And, for what it’s worth, a belated Happy Saint Valentine’s Day to all of you. I may be thinking of something else completely, but it seems to me that Paul once told me about it being a big holiday in China.
If you happen to be planning on being anywhere near western Massachusetts next Saturday and you’re wondering, “what can I do besides skiing?” then you might want to drop in on the first Guitar Noise seminar. It’ll be on the topics of Strumming and Basic Theory.
Also it looks as if we’ve got a lock on the date of our first International Guitar Noise Seminar! Mark your calendars for May 28th and 29th and be sure to be in beautiful Toronto for the weekend. Many thanks go to the Guitar Noise readers of the greater Toronto area for getting together to make this happen. If you think you’d want to attend, even if you’re not from Toronto, drop a note on the “Seminars In Toronto” thread in the “News” section of the Forum page.
And if you’re wondering how to get a Guitar Noise seminar in your town, all it takes is getting people together! Post up a thread in the “News” section of the Forum page and lets work together on getting something going. We’re currently working on figuring out the logistics for bringing a seminar to the Cincinnati / Southwest Ohio region.
An important note to mention here is that, depending on how many people decide to attend, it’s certainly possible to have sessions on multiple topics. So if you’re thinking, “I really wanted that strumming seminar, but it’s come and gone…” think again!
(Note to self: perhaps talking Paul into the idea of a “Guitar Noisemobile” may not be as crazy after all!)
In the meantime, I still want to caution you all that it’s (still) taking me a while to reply to your most recent emails. Hang in there! Please remember that my old address is defunct and that you should be sending things to me at “[email protected]” and, again (and always!), my apologies for the inconvenience.
There are a lot of things happening at Guitar Noise this week, so let’s get to it, shall we? Here’s what’s gone up online since we last chatted:
New Lessons And Articles
Legato Playing
Step-by-Step Technique Vol.I
by Hans Fahling
Ask any instructor and chances are you will be told that all speed comes through practice and repetition, and from starting with good technique when you’re playing regardless of tempo. Hans returns with the first of a series of three articles, each designed to help you get better on playing faster by means of starting slowly. This is a great read (and terrific exercises!) for all guitarists, whatever style you play and whatever speed you aspire to!
Stress, Aggravation And The Guitar Player
by Len Collins
The guitar player in question is Len Collins, creator of Guitar Breakthrough and world-renowned teacher (not to mention a frequent contributor to our pages!). The stress and aggravation, in this instance, comes from being asked to give a live radio interview the very next day. Oh, and did we add that Len will have to give a live, on-air lesson to a radio host who’s never even held a guitar before? How did our hero make out? Read on and see…
Something To Sleep On
(An Introduction to Song Arrangement – Part 2)
by David Hodge
Here’s something especially for those of you who think that having small children gives you an excuse not to practice – you can play this arrangement of Brahms’ Lullaby at least several times each day! And we’ve turned it into a fairly decent lesson so that those of us without children can learn a few things as well.
Worth A Look
Hans’ latest article is a great example of how a technique or exercise can be helpful to someone regardless of what style of guitar he or she plays. Fact is that most of the articles here at Guitar Noise cut across genres. So never pass up a look at one of our genre pages simply because it’s “not your style!” All you’re doing when you do that is cutting yourself off from the chance to learn something! Take a look at the cool articles by Hans, Bill Cozzo and many others on our Jazz page.
I dare you to not find something useful! Of special interest to some of you will be Hans’ first two articles, Chromaticism and Pattern Playing in Bebop Scales.
Email Of The Week
This week’s “email” was actually sent to me via the Forum Page’s “Instant Message” system. If you’ve ever wondered whether or not anyone uses it or responds to the messages one gets, now you know!
Hello David!
I will go directly to the source this time, as I did not get a satisfying answer on the forum.
I recently read your article Arranging Things, and I think it its great. This is exactly what I want to do, taking a melody and making arrangement, and your article got me far. But…
In your article example, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, all the notes of the melody are notes of the chords, so everything fits nicely. You can fret the chords, and play the melody and ornamentation easily, without moving the left hand.
But when I look at songs in books, with chord and melody, I often find out that the melody often contains notes not part of the chords. What can I do with those? Should I fret them separately, or should I make transition chords, or what? I feel a bit lost here. Please could you help because I am stuck!
I knew there was a good reason to pick Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as our first exercise in arranging songs! Hopefully you’ll find that we begin to address the many aspects of this in our latest arrangement piece, Brahms’ Lullaby, which you’ll find in the newest lesson.
But, like other emails, this brings up an interesting point and we’ll take it “downstairs” to the “Thoughts and Feedback”section for further discussion.
Forum News
I have to admire the thoughtfulness of some of our forum members. “Jazzarati,” a long time member, took it upon himself to set up a “goal thread” – a place where people could write out their weekly or monthly goals as pertaining to their guitar learning. What a great way to give yourself a meaningful measurable task to complete! See what other people are trying to accomplish in the Guitar Noise Forums and give yourself something to strive for as well! Check it out.
See you on the boards!
Sunday Songwriters Group / Sunday Composers
Week 16
Illusion – this week we’re going to base our songs around illusion. Whether you wish to use illusion as the title (although you must also use it somewhere else in the song), or base the imagery around illusion (magician, sleight of hand, etc.) or use illusion (mirages, etc.) more straightforwardly that’s fine.
As usual take any style and form and see where it takes you.
Good Writing
Bob
Thoughts & Feedback
I think I’ve brought this up before (I’m getting to be old, you know!), but I do have this “good guy/bad guy” thing going when it comes to the internet. On the plus side, it’s a wonderful tool for learning. Provided, of course, that you don’t believe everything you read! Some people will tout that it’s free, which (of course) it’s not, but that’s not the point of discussion today.
I think that the internet can easily be frustrating for both students and teachers in that it gives the illusion of being interactive. We click on this or that and we get a lesson, an MP3 music example, a piece of TAB or notation. And the computer, because of the way it works, offers the impression that this is all instantaneous.
Which, and I think we all know in our heads, is far from the truth. The computer, and consequently the internet, can only give us what’s been put into it. Even in a “live” chat, you’re busy typing away where as you’d usually be simply talking, making gestures, giving inflections to your voice that can never be perfectly conveyed via a computer screen.
So when I (or any of our staff or contributors) write a lesson, we know that it has to have a focus. Otherwise it could go on and on and on and on and on and I’m sure you get my drift. Dan Lasley used to (jokingly) give me grief for the lengths of some of my articles and I do understand that. But at the same time I can write something that I think covers every aspect of a topic and still find out that I’ve not begun to scratch the surface. It’s that thing about the half million students again!
If you’ve made the decision to learn from the internet, remember that patience has got to be part of your game plan. After all, unless you have your own personal on-line mentor, you have to be able to work with whatever you find. I keep joking that maybe the solution is to have the Guitar Noise readers get together and pay me a salary, then you’d be able to have an instructor “on call” to write up whatever you’d like. If everyone (and I do mean everyone, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair) pitched in a dime, I’d sincerely feel obligated to do so. You’d be my employers.
But it’s easy to joke about that sort of thing because it could never happen! But the point is this is how the internet works. Or currently works. We give you what we can when we can. And we (or at least I) sit back and sigh and wish it was more.
I got this great compliment this week. Someone started a thread on the Beginners’ Q&A Forum called “What’s Up With D Hodge?” I was, as you might imagine, at first dubious as to whether or not I should even check it out. I figured I’d made another glaringly obvious mistake on my last lesson (and what’s up with that? How on earth did a lesson on an Elton John song manage to get into the “Guitar Noise Top Five” in less than a week? Are you all closet romantics? ; – ) ) or something of that nature. Turns out that people were amazed that I was churning out lesson after lesson. I can easily do this. It’s really a matter of making the time. Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can’t. Pretty simple, really.
But in that thread someone wrote that he showed one of my lessons to a friend (who’s been playing even longer than I have) who commented that reading my lesson is like having me right there with you, guiding you along step by step as a teacher would. While I can only hope that’s the case (I read these and still see too many places that I could do a better job!), it was nice to hear. I guess I kind of think that’s what I try to do.
But remeber, even though I’m not there, you can always feel free to write and ask questions. Or ask questions of each other. At the risk of bringing Nick’s “Cliche Police” to my door, we’re all in this together and I myself am still learning, very much as you are. And I very much hope to spend the rest of my life doing so.
I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe. Write me!
And, as always,
Peace
David