Newsletter Vol. 3 # 113 – May 1, 2010
Greetings,
Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #113 of Guitar Noise News!
In This Issue:
- Greetings, News and Announcements
- Topic of the Month
- Guitar Noise Featured Artist
- New Articles and Lessons
- Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
- Forum Findings
- Podcast Posting
- Event Horizon
- Random Thoughts
Greetings, News and Announcements
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I can’t believe how quickly April has flown by! Hello and welcome to your May first issue of Guitar Noise News, the twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com). It’s been way too busy here between wrapping up both the writing and the recording for the upcoming “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” (which I’m told is coming out on October 5) and doing a lot of rescheduling of lessons and also tending to many long neglected things around the homestead.
So busy in fact that I’m not only behind with my email correspondence but also with the regular mail as well. Those of you expecting mail from me please be assured that everything will be out in the post by May 5. Whether you’re waiting on a book or some hard copies of music notation and tablature, it will all be in the mail by next Friday. Wednesday, if I’m lucky! I can’t thank you enough for your patience!
We got some great news from Tom (“Noteboat”) Serb this past week. Let me share this press release from Tom’s Midwest Music Academy concerning two of his voice teachers with you:
Two Plainfield teachers join Chicago Symphony Chorus
After auditioning singers for nearly two months, the Chicago Symphony Chorus has invited two Plainfield voice teachers to join the ensemble.
Baritone Robert Potsic and soprano Julie Kersaan will be performing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus during the summer 2010 season.
Mr. Potsic, a former member of Illinois’ IMEA All-State choir, has appeared in productions throughout the US, Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University, and received additional training at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
Ms. Kersaan, also a graduate of Western Michigan University, is a three-time state level winner of the National Association of Singing Teachers competition and was awarded a silver medal at the Georgy Dimitrov European Grand Prix of Choral Music.
Their debut performance will be Sunday June 18th during the Beethoven Festival’s performances of the cantata “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” and the ninth symphony.
Both vocalists are on the teaching staff at Midwest Music Academy in Plainfield.
We can’t congratulate Tom and his school, the Midwest Music Academy, enough. They’ve not even been open for two years yet and not only is the school exceeding expectations, they are providing quality musical education for hundreds of students. Another tip of the hat to you, Tom!
Being May 1, we also want to announce five more winners in our current giveaway. An autographed copy of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” will be making its way to the following Guitar Noise followers (listed in alphabetical order by last name):
Gary Byers of Ontario (Canada)
Javier de Lope of Madrid (Spain)
Brian Dunlap of Colorado (USA)
Alannah Grainger of Wellington (New Zealand)
Jorge Matos of Taquara City (Brazil)
Looks like I’m going to be spending a lot on postage this time out! And while we’re congratulating our first five winners, we also wish all of contestants the best of luck for the remainder of this contest. We’ll have one more drawing for this giveaway, picking five more lucky winners. They will be announced in our June 1 newsletter.
In case you’ve not yet entered and would like to do so, 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.
The best of luck to you all!
I’m also starting to receive photos for our second contest. This one is for a seventeen-month long giveaway of autographed copies of the all new ”Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar,” which will be out this fall (figure late October or November). We’re calling it “Complete Idiot’s Rock in the Free World,” and 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. And please put “Picture Book” in the subject line of the email. We’re looking forward to seeing where in the world the books end up! Best of luck to you on both contests!
Topic of the Month
Given all the different topics of the month we’ve had, it kind of takes me by surprise when we come up with one we’ve not used yet! Believe it or not, we managed to do it again, as the Guitar Noise Topic of the Month for May is Finger Picking.
When you visit the Home Page, be sure to take a look at some of the many fine articles on this topic, including many cool song arrangements by Doug Sparling and Peter Simms. And also be sure to check out the latest Guitar Noise Podcast, which you’ll read about in just a moment or two.
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
The Guitar Noise Featured Artist for the month of May, 2010 is B. B. King, who is currently in the middle of touring Florida, Georgia and Louisiana before heading off to Morocco late this month.
You can read our bio about B. B. on the Guitar Noise Artist Profiles page.
New Articles and Lessons
Top 10 Mistakes People Make When Trying To Become Professional Musicians
by Tom Hess
There many things you need to know and do in order to become successful in the music industry. But even if you learn and do all of those things, you still might prevent yourself from achieving success in the music business by making key mistakes along the way. Tom Hess guides you around the many pitfalls along the road to success in the music industry.
The Learning Curve Of Various Styles Of Guitar – Part 2: Strumming And Singing
by Jamie Andreas
In Part 2 of “The Learning Curve of Various Styles of Guitar,” Jamie Andreas looks at the skills needed to become a “strum and sing” guitar player. She also provides you some excellent resource material as also gives you a time frame in which you can expect to develop your skills.
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Tip for May 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 29)
Welcome back to our group exploration of modes. We just finished work on the C Phrygian, and we’re now going to tackle C Dorian, about position V (that is, the fifth fret of the fingerboard), and all around the neck of the guitar.
Before we do this issue’s exercise, let’s talk a bit about what the Dorian mode feels like. It’s a minor feeling, which is often, but not always, connected with sadness, longing, and wicked things a-comin this way.
The pure Dorian mode isn’t used as a destination for the flow of the music, but a vehicle to get to a destination. The Aeolian mode, by contrast, is a destination. However, play a 4-note C Dorian and a 4-note C Aeolian together and you’ll hear exactly the same thing.
To cut to the chase, we’re going to interpret “C Dorian” to mean “C Minor.” This means we’ll use C Dorian sometimes as a vehicle, and sometimes as a destination. Let’s play some C minor chords:
|-8--6--5----------------------------| |-8--6--6--8--6----------------------| |-8--5--5--8--5--8--7--5-------------| |-8--5--5--8--5--8--5--8--8--7--5----| |-------6-----6-----6--6-10--8--6----| |-8--------8-----8--------8--8--6----|
Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2010 Darrin Koltow
In case you’ve never visited Maximum Musician, hurry on over to Darrin’s website. 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.
Forum Findings
GN Forum Moderator (not to mention one of our first contributing writers) Dan Lasley is playing bass for a new blues band called Crusin’ 4 a Bluesin’ (and you can check them out at their MySpace page). Since they’d like to be playing some original numbers as well as old favourites, Dan recently enlisted the help of Vic Lewis and Vic devoted a week of the Sunday Songwriters’ Group to the assignment. You can hear (and read) a lot of cool new blues songs over at the SSG and take a look through the Week 25 postings.
And do feel free to join in on any of the SSG assignments. You won’t find a better group of folks to help you work on developing your songwriting skills.
Podcast Posting
Since our next Topic of the Month is Finger Picking it seemed like a good idea to show how you can add simple techniques you already know from single note playing and strumming to spice up your finger picking playing as well. And what better way to do so than through the Guitar Noise Podcast series? Yes, it’s been way too long since our last one!
Guitar Noise Podcast #28, Getting Beyond Basic Finger Picking, is the first of a series of GN Podcasts on fingerstyle playing that will (hopefully) be just as informative and enjoyable as the GN Podcasts on strumming.
As always, I’ll be walking you through each step, so come on along and join in the fun. And, again as always, please let us know what you think. Please feel free to give us your feedback. You can post your thoughts here, at the Blog, or even PM or write me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com
And, in case you’re interested, you can find all our Guitar Noise Podcasts (the current one as well as the first twenty-seven) up online at the Guitar Noise Blog – just click on “blog” or “podcast” at the top of the page here at the Forum (or any page on the Guitar Noise website). Or, if that’s too much trouble, you can click right here.
You don’t need an iPod or iTunes to listen to the lessons. Below the play button is a link that says “Download.” Right-click and “Save as”. You can listen to it on your computer or transfer it to any music player you have.
If you are an iTunes user check this out: From the “Advanced” menu click ”Subscribe to Podcast.” Paste the following link http://feeds.feedburner.com/GuitarNoisePodcast into the box and click “OK”. iTunes should automatically download the latest podcast when it’s published.
Also, Paul and I have been working on ways to improve the sound quality of the Guitar Noise Podcasts. The latest one is presented at a much higher bit rate than our previous podcasts and we’re hoping to make them even better in the very near future.
Thanks for listening, and (again as always) thank you for your support.
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.
Doug James (“Moonrider” on the GN Forums) is in a new band called “Southern Roots” and you can check them out tonight, Saturday, May 1 at Boondocks, 2220 Broad Rock Boulevard in Richmond, Virginia beginning at 5 PM. It’s an outdoor show, so get out there and have some fun!
And next Saturday, May 8, you can catch them at Namaw’s Country Diner at 16121 Goodes Bridge Road in Amelia Court House, VA. Show starts at 8 PM.
Random Thoughts
Last time out I mentioned that the first three FODfest shows of 2010 will take place over Memorial Day weekend, at the following venues and dates:
Friday, May 28 at the brand new Club Helsinki in Hudson, New York
Saturday, May 29 at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Sunday, May 30 at the Infinity Hall and Bistro in Norfolk, Connecticut
Word from Todd Mack, founder of FODfest, is that he’s hoping to bring this wonderful celebration of music to Israel and possibly other points in the Middle East late this year. I’ll be sure to keep you up on all the latest details.
If you’ve not heard about FODfest before, check out the website and click on the promotional video on the home page. If you take a look through the videos and photos, you’ll see a number of Guitar Noise folks, like Greg Nease and Kathy Reichert, taking part in the proceedings.
Until our next newsletter, play well and play often.
And, as always…
Peace
