Newsletter Vol. 2 # 89 – August 29, 2004

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

  • News and Announcements
  • New Articles and Lessons
  • Worth a Look
  • Email of the Week
  • Forum News
  • Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

We’ve a bit of an abbreviated newsletter this week so let me get right to the new stuff:

New Articles And Lessons

A Guide To Developing A Practice Session Schedule
By Jon Doucette

There’s much more to this piece than it’s title! Jon, who goes by his nickname “Kido” on the Forum pages, was kind enough to include a detailed explanation of the use of tetrachords and interval study that he uses in his practice routine. I think you’ll find a lot of good material in here no matter what your level of play!

Worth A Look

Jon’s article touches on a lot of subjects that you can already read about here at Guitar Noise. Take a peek at our Scales and Modes page for starters, not to mention the great articles on practicing (on the Practice page, naturally!), such as Jimmy Hudson’s Making The Most Of Your Practice, an old piece of my own called A Question Of Balance, and many others by Dan Lasley, Len Collins and Logan Gabriel.

Finally, if you’re at all interested in chord construction, be sure to give yourself a minute or two to read The Power Of Three, which should handle any question you might ever happen to have concerning triads.

Email Of The Week

I’m seriously thinking about renaming this section “Press Release Of The Week” or maybe just starting a whole new section for that purpose! What do you think? Anyway, this week we hear from June Koh of the International Songwriting Competition:

2004 International Songwriting Competition (ISC) Now Accepting Entries

ISC is the perfect opportunity for bands, artists and songwriters looking to gain exposure in the music industry. In addition to celebrity judges such as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Bo Diddley, John Ondrasik (Five For Fighting) and more, ISC judges also include many high-profile record label executives who turn to ISC, looking for new talent. “This (ISC) is a great A&R source to find new artists,” stated Monte Lipman, President of Universal Records.

ISC 2004 will yield 50 winners that will share in $100,000 cash and prizes; but for many songwriters, the prizes are just one of the many benefits from winning a competition of this stature. Today’s music industry is highly competitive, and winning the ISC can help open doors for an artist: “I’ve had requests from labels in America asking me to send them more music, and there just seems to be so much good will with this competition” said British singer-songwriter Jane Taylor (2003 ISC Folk/Singer-Songwriter category winner).

The exposure and attention given to their songwriting achievements is another benefit for many ISC winners. “Winning the ISC is the highlight of my composing career. Radio stations celebrated my win in their news bulletins, with one even describing me as a national treasure!” said 2003 Grand Prize winner Moana Maniapoto. Echoing that sentiment is Rick Fines, the 2003 Blues category winner: “The media has been really good to me since winning! I am thrilled with the prizes and the media attention!”

ISC is now accepting entries in 16 musical categories. Deadline for submission is October 15, 2004. Enter ISC by August 31, 2004 and save on multiple-song entries.

2004 Judges:

Monte Lipman (President, Universal Records); Bo Diddley; John Ondrasik (Five For Fighting); Taj Mahal; Clint Black; Sean “P. Diddy” Combs; Macy Gray; Aaron Lewis (Staind); David Hidalgo (Los Lobos); Branford Marsalis; Darryl McDaniels (Run D.M.C.); Peter Furler (Newsboys); Sully Erna (Godsmack); Stacey Earle; Scott Kirkland (The Crystal Method); Michael Gudinski (Chairman, Mushroom Group of Companies); Alan Meltzer (CEO, Wind Up Records); Tara Griggs-Magee (Executive VP Gospel/Urban Music, Sony Records); Michael McDonald (President, ATO Records); Tracy Gershon (Sr. Dir A&R/Artist Dev, Sony Records Nashville); Chris Parr (VP of Music Programming & Talent Relations, CMT); Peter Asher (Co-President, Sanctuary Artist Management); Kim Stephens (VP A&R, Lava Records); Barbara Sedun (VP Creative, EMI Music Publishing Canada) and Leib Ostrow (CEO, Music For Little People).

Categories for 2004:

AAA/Roots/Americana, Dance/Electronica, Jazz, R&B/Hip-Hop, Blues, Folk/Singer-Songwriter, Lyrics Only, Rock, Children’s Music, Gospel/Christian, Performance, Teen, Country, Instrumental, Pop/Top 40, World Music

International Songwriting Competition
211 Seventh Avenue North, Suite LL-20
Nashville, TN 37219
Phone: 615.251.4441
Fax: 615.251.4442
songwritingcompetition.com

To any of you who decide to participate in this competition, my best wishes to you! If you do happen to win (or have something else of note happen to you), be sure to write me and let me know so we can post your email up here as well!

Next week I promise to get back to the “regular” email!

Forum News

Last week’s news about putting together a CD of songs from the Sunday Songwriters Group (or “SSG” as we tend to call it) generated a lot of excitement. And rightfully so! I think that this idea could turn into an annual event.

There are a lot of things to be considered, though! Come join in the discussion here:

This week, I’m pleased to announce that Bob, who’s been handling the SSG pretty much by himself this past year, has agreed to stay on as both moderator and “assignment-guy” (don’t you just love the titles we use around here?) for the group’s upcoming third year!

I know that this news will make a lot of folks happy and I hope you all take a moment to send Bob a note of thanks. His contributions and his critiques have been an inspiration to all those who’ve taken part in this group and I look forward to reading a lot of great song lyrics in the upcoming months.

Thoughts & Feedback

Everything is running very late and behind schedule this week, so I’m dashing this off to Paul with only the thought of getting it out on time. In the back of my mind I am laughing a bit because I remember him telling me over and over again that we’ve “no deadlines” here at Guitar Noise.

But even though there are no deadlines, we do like to get into some routines. Getting articles and newsletters out on a regular schedule and things like that…

So it’s my hope that I’ll be able to get things back onto what passes for a regular schedule in the very near future. In the meantime, though, I hope that each of you has a wonderful week. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace

David