Newsletter Vol. 2 # 88 – August 22, 2004
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- Email of the Week
- Forum News
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
This is going to be one of those newsletters that might not seem to say too much but actually has a lot going on underneath the surface.
There’s been a lot going on in general this summer. This year, if you’d prefer to think of it that way. In addition to moving to a new location, giving up my old job and trying my hand at teaching full time, there have been a lot of projects I’ve been involved with. Some of them you know of, such as the Guitar Noise Seminars and my teaching courses at the Berkshire Community College (my courses for the fall schedule, by the way, listed up on my website) and I’ve also joined the faculty of the Berkshire Music School in nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Other projects will be leaking out over the course of the next month or so. For instance, both Paul and I are working on completing the long-awaited “Strumming” CD, which will be Guitar Noise’s first self-produced tutorial. It’s our hope to have it finished before Thanksgiving, but that will depend on a lot of things coming together for us.
Something else that I hope to be completing in the very near future is a series of “Welcome To Guitar Noise” articles. I get a lot of emails asking me how best to use this site – which articles to read and in which order one might best glean all the information available here. That’s not an easy thing to answer. As most of you know, we get more than fifteen million hits a month (which represents close to a million individual users) and it’s close to impossible to have a “one size fits fifteen million” methodology. But if you have a handle on your own abilities, we might be able to direct you to places at Guitar Noise that can help you out in your search to get better. With a little luck, this series of columns will be out this fall.
And in addition to all this (and other projects which I’m not at liberty to discuss at the moment), there are a number of personal things going on as well. One of these has been taking up a great deal of my time and energy and I promise that one day I’ll let you all in on it. But something I can tell you we’ll discuss a little further on…
In the meantime, in case you missed out on reading about the latest concerning those Guitar Noise Seminars last week, let’s get you up to date in a hurry! Here is the schedule for the rest of the 2004 calendar year:
Saturday, September 11 – ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS / BEGINNING BLUES
For those of you who missed out earlier in the year, I’m offering a crash course in two of our more popular seminars. In the morning, we’ll cover the very basics of the guitar, including a number of chords and general strumming and picking. We’ll even get to play a song or two or three! In the afternoon, we’ll learn the fundamentals of blues. The twelve bar blues format and basic shuffle will be taught along with the rudiments of fills and solos. It’s a great way to get your guitar playing off to a terrific start.
Saturday, September 25 – INTRODUCTION TO BASIC GUITAR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
In this new seminar, we’ll look at a number of problems that come up time and again in our forum pages. How to best tune your guitar (and keep it in tune!), plus general cleaning and string changing will be covered. Then we’ll look at how to diagnose various problems you might encounter either with your current guitar or when deciding to choose a new or used) guitar, such as looking for warps or bows in the neck as well as checking and correcting the action. We’ll also discuss which problems you might be able to fix on your own as well as which ones might be better off in the hands of a luthier. There’ll be some hands-on work here and I’m hoping that everyone who attends will be a little more confident in his or her ability to do minor repairs.
NOTE: There will be an additional $30 materials fee for this seminar, making the cost for the day $130.
Saturday, October 9 – ARRANGING SONGS FOR THE SINGLE GUITAR
In this seminar, we’ll take a look at taking songs and making arrangements of them for the single guitarist/performer. This will be much like the lessons in both the Easy Songs For Beginners and Songs For Intermediates pages at Guitar Noise. Starting with the very basics, we’ll look at adding signature riffs, bass lines, melodies and simple solos that will enhance our solo performances of numerous pieces. Participants are encouraged to bring one or two songs that they’d like to arrange.
Saturday, October 23 – BASICS OF SOLOING
While not everyone can be _____________ (insert your favorite guitarist here), everyone does have it in him or her to create interesting solos. We’ll look, step by step, at what goes into the making of a guitar solo, by examining “classic” solos and by creating our own. This is open to both acoustic and electric players. Or bring both! We’ll look at scales, modes, chord shapes, standard riffs and the more important (and often overlooked!) aspects such as rhythm, phrasing, tension, dynamics and emotion. Come and find that there’s much more to playing a guitar solo than speed! Give yourself both the knowledge and the confidence to play your own solos.
Saturday, November 6 – PAUL SIMON SONG SEMINAR
Like Neil Young, the songs of Paul Simon offer a world of lesson to the guitarist, whether one is just a beginner or has been playing for years. We’ll work our way through a good many of Paul’s songs, spanning pretty much his entire career from the early works like April Come She Will, Sounds of Silence, Bookends, and America to many of his solo pieces as well, like American Tune, Saint Judy’s Comet, Something So Right, Hearts and Bones, The Boy In The Bubble and Born At The Right Time. So grab your acoustic and a trusty capo and come out and have a great day learning and playing some great songs.
Saturday, November 20 – ORIGINAL SONG ARRANGEMENT AND RECORDING
This is something I’m pretty excited about. I’ll be taking a small group of students (no more than four or five) and we’ll work at coming up with an arrangement and CD recording of one original song from each participant. If you’ve ever wanted to work out a recording of one of your own songs, this will be a good chance to learn about all the different aspects that go into it. As I mentioned, owing to the nature of this seminar, enrollment is limited. But, if there is a lot of interest, this might become an ongoing seminar topic and I’ll be more than happy to host it on more occasions, even on some of our “off weeks” between now and the end of the year.
Saturday, December 4 – CHRISTMAS SONG WORKSHOP
A day devoted to Christmas Carols and other seasonal songs. Learn both sing-a-long strumming of all your favorites so that you can play them in groups as well as single guitar arrangements that you can use more as “performance pieces.”
All Guitar Noise Seminars 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, with the noted exception of the September 25th seminar on Repair and Maintenance, is $100 for the day’s lessons and materials and also includes food and (non-alcoholic) drinks. And you can always stay afterwards and jam the evening away!
If you’re interested, please email me at this address and include “Seminar” in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you.
In addition to these seminars, I am going to be in Chicago on Saturday, October 16 and would be willing to do a reprise of the Neil Young Song Seminar. This would have to be an abbreviated version (four or five hours, no lunch) and would therefore be offered at a price of $75. There seems to be enough interest for me to do so, so if you’re interested in taking part in this please let me know before Saturday, September 25.
Email Of The Week
It seems that we’re lately getting a lot of emails of this sort, but I’m more than happy to pass the word along! This one actually came to my attention from Paul:
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the excellent Guitar Noise News which drops into my email box on a regular basis. Keep up the good work.
Just wanted to alert you to the talents of Newton Battenberg Faulkner (real name!) who I have the privilege of managing and producing. When you have a spare moment you should visit this site where you will be able to see and hear this amazing young guitarist in action. He is just 19 years of age but is already creating a big impact in the London area. His playing style is probably best likened to Tommy Immanuel, Thomas Leeb, Eric Roche and the like. But in addition to an incredible acoustic guitar technique he also has a voice which is mature beyond his years and a songwriting style that is already attracting the interest of major publishers here in the U.K..
I’d be really interested for your thoughts on his potential – everywhere we go people say that he should go straight to the States as “they will really get what he does”.
If you like what you see and hear maybe you could alert your readership to Newton’s website so that they can discover for themselves this interesting new talent.
Thank you so much for your time and interest.
So the next time you’re in or around London, see whether Mr. Faulkner is playing in the area and make a point to see this new talent. Better yet, write a review and send it to me so we can post it for everyone!
Forum News
One problem with being so busy is that I rarely get or make the time to tend to some of the things that most enjoy. If you’re not a participant of the Sunday Songwriters Group, or haven’t taken the time to read some of the delightful song lyrics that folks have posted there for close to the past two years, then I highly encourage you to drop in and visit that page whenever you next have the chance.
I’ve had the pleasure of writing and critiquing lyrics with these folks and often wished that time permitted me a chance to participate more often than I do. It’s partly selfish, as in the past two years I’ve gotten the chance to write or co-write some of the best material I’ve written in ages. But it’s also because the SSG has helped me get back into that magic world of songwriting after far too long an absence.
So I’m working on one project and looking into another – first off, I am in the process of producing my first CD of original material. As many of you know, I’ve been writing songs almost as long as I’ve been playing the guitar. And while I’ve performed them both solo and with bands, and have also recorded some as demos and MP3s, I’ve never put together what could technically be called an “album.” So I am setting to work on this and if all goes well, I may even be able to enlist the aid of some of the Guitar Noise staff and even a couple of our Forum members.
But this got me thinking… there are many terrific songs that have come out of the SSG since its inception. And what I’d like to do, with the writers and artists permission of course, is to come out with an “SSG Sampler” if you will. I will work with some of the moderators and contributors towards putting together a compilation CD of SSG material.
Now, I’ve not even begun to think about the logistics of this, other than the fact that I think it would be a great thing. So let’s start brainstorming together. Send me your ideas about this project and together we might start a whole new annual tradition here at Guitar Noise. Send your emails to [email protected] and please use “SSG CD” in the topic line. I’ll keep you updated on the progress. I look forward to hearing from you on this.
Thoughts & Feedback
If I’ve timed this correctly, many of you will be reading this as I am flying back to Hartford from Chicago. Hartford and Albany are the closest airports to Andante and for some reason I seem to always get a slightly better fare from Hartford. Go figure!
This last-second trip is actually a bit of a surprise to me. Fortunately, the circumstances will allow me to spend Saturday (yesterday) celebrating Tony Nuccio’s fortieth birthday (I’m, of course, writing this newsletter a bit in advance of all this so I hope that I’m getting all the verb tenses correct!).
Tony and I “met” in the fall of 2000. I had just gotten a bonus at work and consequently used it to make my first purchase on eBay, an Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor II hollow-body jazz guitar. Shortly after purchasing it, I received an email from Mr. Nuccio, not only to congratulate me on my winning bid, but also informing me of his (new at the time) website, www.leftyguitar.com. I thanked him and, after visiting the site, asked if he’d be interested in writing an article for Guitar Noise. After visiting here and reading about me, he wrote back and told me that he lived in one of Chicago’s suburbs. I wrote back and invited him to an upcoming jam at my house. He came and we’ve been friends ever since.
I bring all this up because, three weeks ago now, Tony was kind enough to visit me and to participate in the 2004 Riverside Jam. And at one point during the weekend, I was in a room with Tony, the Budar-Danoffs, Kathy, Mike (two of my former guitar students from Chicago) and the irreplaceable Nick Torres and someone made the comment that not one of us would probably know of, let along meet each other, if it had not been for the Internet.
And that kind of stuck with me for a while. A while longer, too, since last weekend, I know that one of our Forum members, from England no less, flew to Texas to see the public debut of another Forum member’s band!
The way the world works, it’s easy to dwell on all its horrors and all the terrible things that go on everyday and how the computer, the Internet, technology in general, contributes to it. But there’s always (at least) another side to remember and to try to see.
My world is a considerably better place since I’ve gotten to know Tony, my former students Kathy, Rich, Mike, Gretchen, Heddy, Steve, Jess, not to mention the many other people I’ve “met” through the Internet. And I hope that each of you gets the chance to make more friends as well.
I hope that each of you has a wonderful week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David