Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Lessons and Articles
• Forum News / Worth a Look
• Sunday Songwriters Group / Sunday Composers
• Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

And welcome to April and my monthly rhetorical question about time and its ultimate destination! Do you ever wonder, not so much as to where time goes but rather whether or not his kids are whining “Are we there yet?” from the back seat?

So, shall we begin by checking in on Len Collins and the “World’s Largest Guitar Lesson” attempt? Anyone within a stone’s throw of Buckinghamshire in Merry Olde England (and do you have to use the “e” at the end of “olde” because there’s some sort of tax penalty for not doing so?) is going to want to get out to Middleton Hall at the Milton Keynes Shopping Centre on Tuesday, May 11th. That’s little more than a month away, so start checking your schedules! The actual lesson starts at 6:30 (that’s 18:30 to you Brits, no?) but there’s all sorts of fun beginning at 5:00 PM.

The whole point of Len’s trying to establish the world record for the largest collective guitar lesson is to raise money for Diabetes UK. Now, that’s pretty admirable! And not only can you help out, you might also win something!

Last time out I told you about one of the prizes: a new Yamaha EZ-AG guitar. In addition to the Yamaha, Marshall Amps is making a prize of its “Rock-Kit.” That’s right, a whole starter kit – amp, guitar and all the trimmings – will be given away to one lucky person who attends the lesson!

And, not to be left out, Fender has joined in the act. Two Fender Squiers will be up for grabs. One, signed by Status Quo, will be raffled away while the other Squier will go up for auction. Could this auction thing have something to do with the Squier being signed by The Darkness? Possibly…

And remember, anyone can join in this event whether you can play or not! All you need do is grab an acoustic guitar (borrow one from a mate!) and to register (free).

And speaking of Merry Ol’ – there’s a member of our Forum pages who won’t rest ’til we have a Guitar Noise Seminar at her house in Midlands. No lie! So if you’d be up for a learning experience somewhat slightly smaller in scale than Len’s, go on over to the “News” section of the Forum pages and help make this seminar a reality. Rumor has it that our own Alan Green might also host one in Essex.

In case you were sleeping two weeks ago, the April through July schedule of Guitar Noise Seminars is now a reality. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Saturday, April 17 – Beginning Blues Seminar

A day of the blues! In the morning we’ll walk through the basics: structure, rhythm and (a very little) theory, by the end of which you’ll be able to play along with almost any blues song you know.

In the afternoon, we’ll build upon the morning lesson and learn some variations and some basic soloing theory and technique. By the end of the afternoon we’ll (hopefully!) be working on single-guitar instrumental blues songs where you’ll be playing both rhythm and lead at the same time!

Saturday, May 1 – Guitar Noise Song Lesson Seminar #1

The concept of this seminar comes from someone who came to the very first one! And I have to admit it’s a great idea. We’re going to go over, one by one, a number of our song lessons that are posted here at Guitar Noise. For starters, this first seminar will concentrate on songs that work on strumming techniques. Songs that will be covered will be Hurt, Wish You Were Here, Tangled Up In Blue, Nowhere Man, Babylon and Losing My Religion. We will also go over new songs, not covered on our pages, which employ the same techniques. Which ones? Come and see!

Saturday, May 15 – Open D Tuning Song Lesson Seminar

For this seminar, we’re going to explore songs in open D tuning. Of course, we’ll need to learn a few things about playing in open D as well! This should be a lot of fun! Songs will include a handful from Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, such as Shelter From The Storm, Simple Twist of Fate and Buckets of Rain. We’ll also explore how to create arrangements of songs that weren’t originally recorded in open D tuning such as Fleetwood Mac’s Over My Head and the Police classic Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. And if we’re really ambitious, we might tackle Suite: Judy Blue Eyes!

Friday, May 28 and Saturday, May 29 – Guitar Noise In Toronto

We’re going over the border! If you want to have a vacation over Memorial Day Weekend, this might be just the ticket. Venue and topics for this event will be posted soon and there’s rumor of all sorts of distinguished guests attending!

Saturday, June 12 – Neil Young Song Lesson Seminar

So how can I not do a focus on Neil? Come learn a ton of these great songs spanning almost forty years worth of a brilliant career. I’m doing my best to make all the song arrangements playable by anyone who’s been playing for at least six months. If you can play the eight chords in my Absolute Beginners lesson, then you’ll be able to play songs like After The Gold Rush, Heart of Gold, Old Man, Cinnamon Girl, Like A Hurricane, Pocahontas, Rocking in the Free World, Harvest Moon and maybe even a song or two from Greendale, such as Be The Rain. Come build up your personal repertoire and learn a lot of technique and theory at the same time. How can you lose?

Saturday, June 19 – TENTATIVE GN Seminar in or around Philadelphia

We’re still sorting this one out and hopefully we’ll be able to get it all together in the next few weeks. Place is still to be determined and topics likely to be blues and theory. But if you’re in that area and want to see this happen, please make your feelings known by posting on the “News” section of the Forum page.

Saturday, June 26 – Absolute Beginners Seminar

Summer’s officially here and it’s high time to learn the guitar! Even if you’ve never held one before, you’ll be playing by the time the day is out! Acoustic and electric players are both welcome. We’ll learn basic chords, some very simple music theory and even five or six songs!

Saturday, July 10 – Basics of Finger Style Guitar / Intro To Chord Voicings

Learn to fingerpick! We’ll start with very easy arpeggios and work up to simple two and three finger patterns that can be used in a wide variety of genres. From there we’ll add in bass lines and melody and harmony parts.

And to give you some more fun reasons to practice your finger style lessons, there will be a short but intense discussion on chord voicings. We’ll take the basic open position chords and learn how to use them all up and down the neck to come up with some cool chords that sound terrific, especially when used as finger style patterns.

Saturday, July 24 – Basics of Soloing Seminar #1

We’ll look, step by step, at making a solo, by examining “classic” solos and by creating our own. Again, this is open to both acoustic and electric players. Or bring both! We’ll look at scales, modes, chord shapes, standard riffs and more as we give ourselves both the knowledge and the confidence to play guitar solos.

All these seminars, with the obvious exception of the one in Toronto, will be held at my home just outside of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It’s a big tourist area and there’s plenty to do if you want to bring your family and make a weekend out of it. Each seminar is $100 for the day’s lessons and includes food and (non-alcoholic) drinks. And you can always stay and jam the evening away!

I have to tell you that demand for the June 12th Neil Young Seminar is high. If you find you can’t make it (or if it fills up before you reserve your space!), take heart. I’ll probably have to offer this one again in the very near future.

If you’re interested, please email me and include “Seminar” in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you.

Did we get everything? Probably not! That why we have…

New Lessons And Articles

Augmented Diminished Dementia
by David Hodge

Just the words “augmented” and “diminished” give us pause. Do we need a special degree or extra study to employ one of these chords? Not at all! Let’s examine these chords, how they’re formed and the functions they can serve. If you’re capable of counting to twelve, you’re capable of understanding and using these marvelous chords.

Nowhere Man
Easy Songs for Beginners #28
by David Hodge

You’ll learn the basics of this song so quickly that I had to throw in a lot of fun and challenging stuff. Let’s put your chord melody training to good use and create an instrumental to include in this easy arrangement. Plus, pick up some new chords and a bit of theory while you’re at it!

Forum News / Worth A Look

We’ve started a new thread on the Guitar Noise Lessons page. It’s a discussion on the lesson I Shot The Sheriff. Why that one? Well, it is one of our more popular lessons. And it is a great way for beginners to try out a new way of strumming. And, hey, it is a very cool song. But I think the real reason is probably because I finally got ’round to making MP3 files for it! Give it a look and a listen here.

See you on the boards!

Sunday Songwriters Group / Sunday 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!

Week 23

I’ve not yet heard from Bob concerning this week’s topic, but that’s probably because he’s having as crazy a week as I am. So it goes!

But if you’ve been missing out on the last month of “genre” assignments, then you should go and check some of them out. There are blues songs, rock songs, love songs and now, this past week, folk songs and the folks who’ve been participating have come up with some stellar lyrics. I may even take a stab at putting on to music if I’m up in the wee hours off the weekend (and I don’t even know why I said “if!”) and shipping it off to Adam’s page for download.

Whatever Bob chooses for this week, I know he’ll wish us “Good writing!”

Thoughts & Feedback

Last Friday night I had the pleasure, the honor really, of playing with three Guitar Noise readers at The Studio in New York City. Originally there were going to be a few more, but you know how it goes when you’re making, or trying to make, plans. One of the folks was actually there rehearsing with her band and she was kind enough to drop in after her practice and before taking off for a birthday party.

It was a lot of fun and I hope that everyone involved had a great time. And I’m very much looking forward to doing this sort of thing again. The Studio is an incredibly friendly place and the staff members are wonderfully attentive and informative. They have open jams every Saturday night, so do keep that in mind if you’re ever in the mood to play in New York some weekend.

One of my friends mentioned to me that, to the best of her recollection, I’d never played in New York before. One more state checked off the list, I guess! If I ever had to list all the places I hadn’t played, I’d be going on for ages!

Sometimes, the thought of all that I haven’t done, that I may never get to do, is enough to make me not want to do anything. I don’t know if that’s sad or typical. Or both, for that matter…

But it never lasts long. After all, with all sorts of music to learn, people to meet and play with and play for, who wants to do nothing?

Get out this week, if you can, and celebrate April by playing or hearing some music. If you’re not up for celebrating April, then celebrate any month of your choice. If you’re not into months, then pick a day. An event. Whatever tickles your fancy.

And do try to have a grand week. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace

David