Guitar Noise

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #12 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
• Notes From Nick
• Buried Treasure Of The Internet
• Forum Findings
• Event Horizon
• Reviews
• Off Site Sightings and Works In Progress
• Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, and I’m certainly not reveling in the misery of others but:

Harmony Central lost almost all of their user’s post counts. Some people with 10,000 posts now have 70.

The unofficial Larrivee forum owner forgot to renew the domain name and the site is currently unreachable.

The official Larrivee home page server was stolen, and they had to recreate things post haste. Currently their email is pretty limited.

I wish the best to the owners, moderators and sysops on these sites. Believe me, we know how you feel.

On to the newsletter…

New Articles And Lessons

Infant Holy Infant Lowly
by Doug Sparling

Doug Sparling graces our pages once again with this beautifully arranged Polish carol, also known as “W Zlobie Lezy” (”Lying in the Manger”). It’s in standard tuning and it’s a delight for the holidays!

Standard Notation (Part 2)
by Tom Serb

In the second installment of Tom’s series on reading notation, you’ll learn about ledger lines, repeat signs and other musical “traffic signals,” as well as delve into accidentals and key signatures. Plus you get an arrangement of “Jingle Bells” to get you going for the holidays!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

We started learning about modes last time. Let’s pick up the trail again, and explore some fundamental questions about modes.

First, we noticed how playing a scale a certain way can be just like expressing the same feeling of a chord. We played the C major scale starting from note A and ending on A, and got the feeling of an Am7 chord.

But how do use modes? When do we use them? And how do we practice them?

You can use modes when you don’t have a playalong partner like a bassist or recording, and you need to hear a certain chord. You’re tired of playing the same old chords, so you do what horn players do: they play arpeggios or play modes.

Here’s an example:

First, the chords:

|-----------|-1----1----|-1----1----|-----------|
|-1----1----|-3----3----|-0----0----|-1----1----|
|-0----0----|-2----2----|-0----0----|-0----0----|
|-2----2----|-0----0----|-----------|-2----2----|
|-3----3----|-----------|-----------|-3----3----|
|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|

Now, the modes to achieve the same basic feeling as the chords. These are all eighth notes, but bars 2 and 4 have eighth note rests on the last eighth note.

 E E E E E E E E   E E E E   E E E E
|-----------------|--------------------|
|-----------------|-3------------------|
|-----------2-4-5-|---4-5--------------|
|-----2-3-5-------|-------5---3-2------|
|-3-5-------------|----------------5---|
|-----------------|--------------------|

 E E E E E E E E   E E E E  E E  E E
|-------------1-5-|-3--------------------|
|---------3-5-----|---5------------------|
|---2-4-5---------|-----5-4--------------|
|-5---------------|----------5-----------|
|-----------------|------------5--3------|
|-----------------|----------------------|

To hear more clearly how these modes work, play the chord associated with each measure, both before and after you play the measure. Example, play the C major chord before and after bar 1.

Thanks for reading.

For those of you who might like to know more about Darrin, let me direct you to his website, Maximum Musician and also to his page here at Guitar Noise.

Once again, let me thank Mr. Koltow for his continued presence on the Internet. Darrin helped inspire many to contribute their knowledge online and I know that many of the readers of Guitar Noise appreciate his efforts.

Buried Treasure Of The Internet

Here are a few random lesson sites culled from my favorites list.

• http://www.jaybuckey.com/guitar_lessons.htm
• http://www.folkofthewood.com/page5301.htm
• http://www.ericlugosch.com/lessonhome.html
• http://www.eltjohaselhoff.com/lessons.htm

A bit of theory:

• http://www.jazclass.aust.com/scales/scamaj.htm#01

Cool Celtic tab site:

• http://users.zoominternet.net/~netsailor/musicdownloads.html
• http://www.celticguitartalk.com

Forum Findings

Here is the topic for this week’s Sunday Songwriters:

From Bob:

This week has tended to revolve around numbers. I’ve been dealing with quotes, profit margins, sales figures and all the usual kind of business malarkey that I usually try to avoid. Numbers are going toour inspiration this week’s assignment. I’d like you to write a song in your preferred style which uses numbers.

Some examples of what I mean, to avoid confusion,

If I had a million dollars – Barenaked Ladies
One – U2
Car 67 – Driver 67 (I think)
99 Red Balloons – Nena

You’ll get the idea

Good writing

Event Horizon

Supporting Guitar Noise and the Guitar Noise community is not always about money or time. 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’d 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 July (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know by the tenth or the twelfth.

If you’ve already got a show in January, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

Send your gig dates to me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

Reviews

Reviews go up almost all the time here at Guitar Noise. But we also know that what we post is, pardon the cliché, the very tip of the iceberg. If you’d like to pass along a review of an album, concert, DVD (tutorial, concert or otherwise), book or even a guitar or guitar/music product, feel free to drop me a line and try to put “proposed review” in the subject.

For those of you who are always thinking about “giving back to the community,” this is certainly a fine way to do so.

King Crimson – 21st Century Guide To King Crimson Volume 2
Review by: Jimmy Caterine

21st Century Guide To King Crimson – Volume 2 is an amazingly brilliant, flawless compilation of the last 25 years of this avant-garde wall of sound, featuring extraordinary musicians with uncanny artistic ability, known as King Crimson.

Niacin : Organik
Review by: Pete Crane

Organik is the latest release from the virtuoso jazz-rock trio NIACIN, featuring the legendary bassist Billy Sheehan, with John Novello on keyboards and Dennis Chambers on drums.

Indukti : S.U.S.A.R.
Review by: Pete Crane

Indukti is like taking a trip around the world. It’s a rich wealth of sounds and textures flying at you from every direction. Nice and heavy with plenty of crunch. But it has so much more to offer than just that.

Random Thoughts

Well, here I am at the end of the newsletter again.

This week I played at my office party. What a cool experience. I came in second in the “Idol” style competition and won myself $500 and anywhere in the USA round trip airfare for two.

David helped me with my arrangement of “I’ll be around” and it was a great success.

From what I hear David is pounding away at his book, but soon to be back here writing newsletters. There may be one more letter’s worth of suffering with me, but he’ll be back soon.

Words of wisdom: If you are carting stuff back and forth and think your guitar will balance on the cart you have to wheel across some brick sidewalk and a curb….don’t do it. Slow down. Make the extra trip and carry it. It didn’t happen to me but to some guy playing in the same hotel and it almost made me physically ill. Silly thing to say isn’t that. Hmm, I guess it could’ve made me mentally ill. Glad I clarified it for you.

At the party as I was up at the mic getting ready to play in my mojo hat and sunglasses when I realized I was almost completely blind. I paused a moment and said to the audience in my ultra cool mojo voice: “I can’t see a damn thing”, which cracked everyone in the audience up. Anyway, It’s better to look good than to see good.

And finally, and I’m quoting myself here, two things for you to think about:

I was stuck on an elevator this past week for a couple of minutes. I turned to the guy standing across the elevator and said:

“It’s just God’s way of telling us to stop and smell the elevator.”

Get it? Stop and smell the roses? But we were on an elevator. Oh, never mind.

I think the guy was really happy when the elevator started moving again.

And…

In talking about the internet and the ready access to almost unlimited information of questionable worth:

“The ability to cut and paste has usurped the desire to stop and think.”

So take the time to enjoy yourself as we rush headlong into the New Year. And where ever you are, stop and sniff. Enjoy.

Peace and play well.

Nick