Newsletter Vol. 3 # 109 – March 1, 2010
Greetings,
Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #109 of Guitar Noise News!
In This Issue:
- Greetings, News and Announcements
- Topic of the Month
- Guitar Noise Featured Artist
- New Lessons and Articles
- Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
- Event Horizon
- Random Thoughts
Greetings, News and Announcements
Hello and welcome to the first day of March. Here in western Massachusetts, the new month is certainly coming in like a lion. We’ve had quite a bit of snow this past week and we’re running out of places to put it all!
Besides the weather, the big news around here is the arrival of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” in bookstores and online booksellers tomorrow, March 2. And an event like this certainly deserves a bit of hype from the Guitar Noise News, so we’ve got the first of two giveaways for you. For this book. There’s another giveaway deal, too, for a different book that you can read about at the end of the newsletter. Right now, though, let’s work with the one book…
To celebrate the arrival of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” in stores, we’re also giving away fifteen copies of it between now and the end of May – five copies each month. To enter this contest, you need to send me an email with the following information:
- your name
- your email address
- your mailing address (and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are)
- the title of your favorite article at Guitar Noise
- the name of your favorite rock guitarist
Please send only one email per person to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and put ”CIG ROCK GUITAR” in the subject line.
Winners will be announced here and on the Forum pages on April 1, May 1 and June 1. The best of luck to you all!
Topic of the Month
Begorrah, and if it isn’t March already! Where does the time fly? Since Saint Patrick’s Day will soon be upon us, it kind of made sense to start celebrating early by having “Celtic Music” be our Guitar Noise topic for the month. When you visit the home page, you’ll find a link to the Guitar Noise articles and lessons on Celtic music, including some great song lessons from Doug Sparling as well as an interesting Celtic arrangement of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song! Plus we’re due for a few new song lessons featuring some traditional tunes from the Emerald Isle in the upcoming weeks.
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
Even Gordon Sumner’s mother and kids call him “Sting” so I guess we will, too! Especially since he’s the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of March, 2010! You can the bio about this Rock Hall of Fame and Songwriter’s Hall of Fame artist over at the Guitar Noise Artist Profiles page.
New Lessons and Articles
Avoiding Avoidance
by Gerald Klickstein
Numerous guitarists underachieve because they shirk regular practice. Gerald Klickstein describes how musicians can counter avoidance and keep their creativity rolling.
Improve Your Guitar Teaching
by Tom Hess
Sometimes the desire to fix every problem a student may have all at once may cause even more problems. Tom Hess describes how to break down a bad habit so that both teacher and student can tackle it in easy, manageable steps.
Solving Timing and Rhythm Problems – Part 1
by Nick Minnion
Whether you are a guitar teacher or a self-taught guitar player you are likely to come across problems related to playing in time and interpreting rhythm. In this series of articles TeachGuitar.com’s Nick Minnion looks at where these problems spring from and what can be done to address them.
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Tip for March 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 25)
Welcome back to our group exploration of the modes, the C phrygian mode in particular. Today we’ll work through another substitute for C phrygian. This sub, Bbm7b5, doesn’t fit squarely into the same major key that C phrygian does (Ab major), but does fit in within Db melodic minor. C phrygian isn’t in Db melodic minor, but some of its best-sounding notes–Db, E, G# and Bb–are.
Here’s a run using our sub:
|-----------------|---8-6-9-6-8-----|-----------------|----------| |---------------5-|-9-----------9-5-|-----------------|----------| |---------5---6---|-----------------|-6---5-----------|----------| |-------6---8-----|-----------------|---8---6---------|----------| |---4-7-----------|-----------------|---------7-4-----|----------| |-6---------------|-----------------|-------------6-8-|-4-6-8----|
Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2010 Darrin Koltow
In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. You can find it at and you can also read his past contributions to Guitar Noise here. And you can also read some of Darrin’s past Guitar Noise News posts over at the Guitar Noise Blog.
Event Horizon
Just as it’s important to support each other when it comes to CDs, it’s also important (probably more so) to support live music. Sometimes it’s about being there. Literally. As musicians, it’s always good to support each other simply by being at a gig if it’s at all possible.
One thing we at Guitar Noise would really like to do is to help promote your shows, whether it’s in a stadium or at a ten-seat coffee house. Not only is it a great way to help support each other, it’s also a terrific way to meet more musicians!
So please feel free to write me if you’ve got some gigs coming up. Remember that Guitar Noise News is sent out on the first and fifteenth of each month. Usually I will have it ready to be sent out a few days ahead of time, so plan accordingly. For instance, if you’ve got something coming up in the last two weeks of January (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth. If you’ve already got a show in August, 2010, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!
Maybe you’ll get to meet some of your Guitar Noise friends at upcoming holiday shows!
Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.
Up on my blog, I’ve recently posted a review of “Fingerstyle Collections,” a thirteen song CD by Guitar Noise Forum member Joe Hempel. The astounding thing about this CD is the fact that Joe has only been playing guitar for a little over two years and has taken to it quite wonderfully. The music, all single guitar instrumental arrangements performed on either the classical or the acoustic guitar, is done with an elegant sense of simplicity and grace. In case you don’t get it, I highly recommend this CD, which you can pick up on CD Baby.
My reason for bringing this up is that Joe is also going to be gigging in support of his CD. And, it being the first gig he’s ever done, I figure that if you’re in the Cincinnati region, you might want to drop by and give a fellow Guitar Noise community member your support. Joe will be at the Borders Book Store at 5873 Deerfield Boulevard in Mason Ohio (phone – (513) 770-0440) on Saturday March 27th at 8 PM. If you can, stop by and say hello from me!
Random Thoughts
Even though “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” comes out tomorrow, my head (and much of my life, truth be told) is focused on finishing up the totally brand new “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” which, should all go according to plan, will be off my desk by the end of March and in bookstores this coming October or November. And not to knock either the Bass book or the Rock Guitar book, but I think this latest one is my best work to date. And I’m thrilled that I’ve (hopefully) managed to talk our own Nick Torres into pitching in with vocals on the play-along CD that will accompany this next book. It’s not everyday one gets to provide musical backup for such a great singer (and all around cool guy).
But since October and November is such a ways off, Paul and I wanted to come up with a way to help everyone pass the time between now and then and we’ve hit upon a very cool contest. We’re calling it “Complete Idiot’s Rock in the Free World,” mostly because I’m lousy at names! Here’s how it works.
If you do buy a copy of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar,” take a picture of yourself with it someplace. You don’t have to have the Eiffel Tower or Mount Rushmore in the background, but be creative. Paul and I will select two photos a month, starting in August and running through all of 2011 and will send an autographed copy of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” to those whose pictures we select.
So please send your photos to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and be sure to include an email address where you can be reached, as well as a mailing address. We’re looking forward to seeing where in the world the books end up! Best of luck to you!
Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.
And, as always…
Peace
