Newsletter Vol. 2 # 82 – May 09, 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
- Reviews
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
Here in the United States, today is Mothers’ Day. Yesterday, by the way, was my mother’s birthday. I only mention this because it occurs to me that I wouldn’t be writing this newsletter, and perhaps all of Guitar Noise would be an incredibly different place, if she hadn’t been born. So allow me to take a moment to thank my mother for all the things she’s made possible, simply by living her life. I think that’s pretty cool. And I think all of you should take a moment to do the same for your own mothers.
I don’t know where the time goes but the day after tomorrow is the day of Len Collins’ shot at the “World’s Largest Guitar Lesson!” That’s Tuesday, May 11th at Middleton Hall at the Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. In addition to raising money for Diabetes UK, this free group lesson is sure to be both entertaining and educational. And, in case you need further reason to venture out, how about the chance at winning a new guitar? No less than four guitars will be given away or raffled – and that includes one signed by the Darkness.
All you need do is an acoustic guitar and to register (free).
Here at the home front, I need a bit of advice. No one’s yet signed on for the July 24th Guitar Noise Seminar on “Basic Soloing.” So I’m wondering if I should switch the topic to a re-run of the Beginners’ Blues Guitar or offer up “Blues Guitar II?” I’d appreciate hearing from you on this.
And before I get any further, I’d like to personally extend a huge thank you to both Nick and Paul for the tireless (and seemingly endless, I’m sure!) work that both have done the past few weeks on the new Forum Page. We’re still working out a few minor things, but I think that everyone will agree that these two guys have worked themselves silly getting things together.
Speaking of the Forums, I’d also like to remind everyone that the Forums are intended for discussion purposes. If you’ve got something that seems like a rather lengthy piece, whether it’s something you’ve come up with and would like to share or even an answer to a question that was posted, you have the option to write it as an article for Guitar Noise.
In fact, if you are going to go through all that trouble to write something at length, why not get the VIP treatment? I am always happy to put new material on the site and I think that a lot of our readers who don’t visit the forum pages (and there are quite a few of those!) would benefit greatly from some of the terrific advice that comes from many of our Forum readers. This is how a lot of the Guitar Noise writers got their start.
And we’ve got one such new article, along with some other fascinating pieces, for you this week. So shall we move along and see what’s new here at Guitar Noise since we’ve last chatted?
We’ll get to that and more right after…
New Lessons And Articles
Altered States
(or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Partial Capoing”)
by Rick Endres
Rick dropped me a line a while back and asked if he might right up an article on the use of “partial capos.” And naturally I said, “Sure!” This is a terrific piece for those of you interested in the subject, which will educate and inspire you. And if you’re not familiar with the subject, I suspect it will whet your appetite to learn more about it.
Creativity And Expression – PART 2
by Tom Hess
Here Tom expands on the ideas he set out in his first article on creativity and expression. You’ll find a concise five-step process that Tom walks you through as part of an exercise to create a piece of instrumental music. You’ll be hard pressed to wait for part three!
Why Do We Perceive Playing Or Performing As A Competition?
by Graham Merry
In the first of our series of discussions on this fascinating topic, Graham provides his thoughts on the ideas of “positive and negative competitiveness.” This is a thoughtful piece that I think will give everyone a few new insights into an old problem.
Worth A Look
Going through all the articles and lessons here at Guitar Noise, it’s easy to forget that we’ve also got all sorts of reviews! So while Rick’s article on partial capoing sent me reaching for my own Third Hand Capo, I figured I could send the rest of you off to a review of this wonderful product we originally did a while ago. Nick is, of course, excluded because I know he’s already got a few of them!
Email Of The Week
As I mentioned last week, my email is now up and running very well. I’m even hoping to get totally caught up with all my old correspondence before this week is out! This is an email I recently received that I thought might interest a few of our readers:
David,
I sure would like to learn a couple of Crosby, Stills & Nash songs, Carry On and Suite: Judy Blues Eyes. I believe they are both in alternative tunings. One of which may be DADDAD for Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. Not sure about Carry On.
I haven’t found any good tabs and besides I don’t think most Internet tabs are not very accurate for the most part.
The book I have of CSN transcriptions says that both of these songs are played with EEEEBE tuning, and I think I’ve even mentioned this in my first article on alternate tuning, called “On The Tuning Awry.”
This tuning is a little strange, to say the least – both the fifth and sixth strings are tuned to low E, which means tuning the A down quite a bit. The G string is tuned down a step and a half to E while the D string is tuned up a full step to the same E. So, in essence, the first two strings (high E and B) and the low E string remain the same, the third and fourth strings are both tuned to the E note that is normally the second fret of the D string and the fifth string and sixth strings are tuned to the E an octave lower.
It kind of makes the guitar sound like a huge mountain dulcimer!
For what it’s worth, this sounds very accurate – the book, as most books that you can buy these days, is a pretty good transcription. That’s one of the reasons why I find books to be much more valuable than the Internet. But I know that not everyone thinks first of getting a book. If you live in a place with a good public library, you might even be able to find a copy there.
I hope that this helps.
Reviews
Eric Clapton: Me and Mr. Johnson
This CD is somewhat of a departure from what one might expect from Eric Clapton. Instead the listener is treated to Clapton’s interpretation of Robert Johnson’s music and his attempt to capture the essence of the songs.
Thoughts & Feedback
I’d just like to take moment here and wish Len Collins the best of luck on his “World’s Largest Guitar Lesson” this upcoming Tuesday. As mentioned earlier, Len is doing this in order to raise money for Diabetes UK and, if you’ve read any of Len’s pieces that he’s written for Guitar Noise, you know that this is just the sort of thing he does. I think it’s inspiring to find someone who can use his talent and passion to help others while he is spreading the joy of music to people.
If you’re in the area, please do attend and tell Len hello from me.
In the meantime, I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David