Guitar Noise

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!

This week I’m going to be more self-indulgent than usual because I’ve got some news that I’d like to share. Now I know that the chances of any of you even being able to take part are, to use my natural gift of understatement, rather slim, but who knows?

As most of you know, I moved to western Massachusetts on New Year’s Day. This area of the state is called the “Berkshires,” after the Berkshire Mountains, which are, not surprisingly, plentiful around here. It’s a fairly seasonal sort of place – skiing in the winter, summer camps and such in the summer, lots of foliage in the fall.

But it also has many of the sorts of things you might associate more with urban areas – lots of artists, too many restaurants to be believed, even more antique places. There are many summer (and winter) homes here.

And there’s also the Berkshire Community College, which has a main campus in nearby Pittsfield, as well as a “south campus center” in even nearer by Great Barrington.

Well, I’m pleased as punch to announce that the Berkshire Community College will be offering two new summer courses in the guitar, taught by yours truly! Yes, I’ll be teaching two eight-week classes on Tuesday afternoons, starting June 8th. Classes will be held at the South County Center, located at 343 Main Street in Great Barrington.

BEGINNING BLUES GUITAR

The Blues shaped much of the music we listen to today, from rock and country to R&B and soul. We’ll work our way through the roots of blues, learning the basic forms and rhythms, and graduate to single guitar finger style blues pieces. Along the way we’ll also explore other aspects of the blues, such as open tuning and slide guitar and cover the basics of blues soloing. Acoustic or electric guitars welcome.

Class meets every Tuesday (from 6/8 through 7/27) from 1:00 to 2:30 PM.

BEATLES IN THE BERKSHIRES

Get music lessons from the Fab Four! This workshop will cover songs from the Beatles’ extensive catalog of music, using each song as a lesson on various guitar techniques from scales to finger picking to chord construction and voicing. We’ll start out with easy songs, such as A Hard Day’s Night and Nowhere Man and graduate to more complex pieces like Julia and Here Comes The Sun. You’ll be able to add considerably to your own repertoire of songs and learn techniques that will make the songs you already know even better!

Class meets every Tuesday (from 6/8 through 7/27) from 1:00 to 2:30 PM.

For more information on registering, you can go to the Berkshire Community College website.

Or you can also find out more about it on my web page, www.davidhodge.com, or email me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com

Should you happen to find yourself in my literal neck of the woods this summer, you might want to drop on by!

Don’t forget that it’s only a month until Len Collins’ “World’s Largest Guitar Lesson” at Middleton Hall at the Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. That’s Tuesday, May 11th. As we’ve mentioned, there’ll be all sorts of prizes and all the proceeds are going to Diabetes UK. I’m expecting that this is going to be a grand time!

All you need do is an acoustic guitar and to register (free).

We’re also counting down to our Guitar Noise Seminar in Toronto! That will be on the last Friday and Saturday of May, should you happen to be in the area.

For the moment, though, we’re all right here. So let’s take a look at what’s new this week, right after…

New Lessons And Articles

Plectra / Plectrums
by Graham Merry

Ol’ Greybeard has done it again! In this article he has managed to condense volumes of information and opinions on guitar picks, all culled for our readers and visitors to our Forum pages. Here’s pretty much anything you could possibly want to know about this subject in one convenient place!

Worth A Look

Did you know that we have a FAQ page? Actually, to call it a “page” is a gross injustice! Graham’s latest article is a fine example of what you can find on our FAQ pages. And we’re be adding on even more as the year progresses. Find out all sorts of things from tuning down to printing articles from the Guitar Noise site right here: Help Pages.

Email Of The Week

When I goof up, I usually do so in a big way! Remember the Eb Mixolydian / Lydian incident?

Well, I’m very fortunate that when I do go astray, one (or more!) of our readers is more than happy to nudge me back onto the straight and narrow. Case in point:

First, Dave, I would like to say that I enjoyed your article, especially the voice leading on how to use the augs and dims as transition chords.

Sorry, Dave, but a diminished triad is not a half diminished. It is just a diminished triad no matter how many times you stack up the notes. A “half” diminished is a 7th chord. It is the classical name for m7b5 (jazz term).

So that we’re all on the same page a Major 7th would be 1 3 5 7 out of the major scale. A “fully” diminished 7th chord would be 1 b3 b5 bb7 and a “half” diminished would be 1 b3 b5 7. Compare this to the m7 and you’ll see why jazzers use their name — 1 b3 5 b7. Actually, I found that using the jazzer name makes it quicker for me to find the half diminished chord on both piano and guitar, since my hand naturally gravitates toward m7 chords anyway.

And there you have it! I’ll be working to redo the text on the article Augmented Diminished Dementia over the weekend and this will hopefully make better sense to everyone soon. My thanks go to everyone who’s written me about this.

Forum News

At some point this week, and I’m not quite sure when, Nick Torres took it upon himself to create a new Forum page dedicated solely to the discussion of the Guitar Noise Seminars. What a cool idea! This is a great way to see whether or not there might be enough interest in your area to gather people together to have such an event. Or to get the latest news and schedules of any upcoming seminars. You can find this new page on the Guitar Noise Forums

See you on the boards and, maybe, in your neighborhood!

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 24

I’ve not yet heard from Bob concerning this week’s topic, but I do know that this week we’re going to be moving away from last month’s “genre” assignments. What will we work on instead? Let’s go on over to the board and see, shall we?

As Bob would say, “Good writing!”

Thoughts & Feedback

While I’m thinking of this, I want to once again bring up my upcoming summer courses at the Berkshire Community College. Why? Hopefully, to prove an important point.

Many people cite cost as a major reason for not taking guitar lessons. Personally, and nothing to do with being a teacher at all, I have to wonder about that. Here, at the BCC, eight weeks of classes (that’s twelve full hours) costs $125 US. That’s slightly more than $10 an hour. Maybe it’s not the most ideal situation for some, but I have a hard time imagining anyone finding a better deal.

Most of the “self-taught” guitarists I know did not spend money on lessons, but they certainly did on books, CDs and whatever tuition materials they could get their hands on.

Like anything, how much you learn depends a great deal on what kind of effort you put into things. “Effort” can encompass a lot of things besides time – time spent practicing, time spent watching others, time spent listening to CDs or reading books.

So folks, truth be told, simply learn faster and perhaps with a bit more focus, if they have a good teacher. Someone to work with one-on-one can help the guitarist immensely. Can help anyone, really! If you ever pass up getting a teacher because you don’t think you can afford one, chances are you’re not looking around at all your options. This community college program is a good example. Do yourself a favor and look around at all your possibilities. Chances are that you’ve more than you think!

I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe. Learn as much as you can!

And, as always,

Peace

David