Newsletter Vol. 3 # 129 – January 1, 2011
Greetings,
Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #129 of Guitar Noise News!
In This Issue:
- Greetings, News and Announcements
- Guitar Noise Featured Artist
- Topic of the Month
- New Articles, Lessons, Reviews and Stuff
- Exploring Guitar with Darrin Koltow
- Spotlight on the Sunday Songwriters Group
- Random Thoughts
Greetings, News and Announcements
Happy New Year, everyone!
Welcome to 2011 and this year’s very first issue of Guitar Noise News, the free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise (www.guitarnoise.com). It’s great to be back writing the newsletter again and I would be totally remiss if I didn’t extend my heartfelt thanks to Charley for filling in for me for most of 2010.
It does indeed seem like ages since I’ve been back at the Guitar Noise desk. 2010 felt like one of the longest years ever, but I’m still very much at a loss to tell you where any of it went to so fast.
Some things, though, are still the same. We are still giving away two autographed copies of my latest book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” each month right up ’til the end of this New Year.
Our first winner of 2011 is Rick from Florida. You can see his photo, as well as photos of all our past winners, at my blog.
Books pretty much feature in all the big news for this newsletter. Obviously it’s been busy these past two years with both “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar” coming out in 2010. What many of you may not know is that I’ve been working the last three months on a new book for Alpha that will hopefully be arriving in bookstores on August 2 this summer. It’s a brand new version of their songwriting book that will be called “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Art of Songwriting.”
I’m doing this project with a co-writer, Casey Kelly, who’s been a professional songwriter for ages. He’s been based out of Nashville for some time now. If any of you have ever seen George Strait in concert, then you’ll be familiar with the song “The Cowboy Rides Away,” which George uses to close his shows. Casey wrote that. He’s a terrific person to work with and has a great sense of humor. You can read his bio and find out more about his music at his website, http://www.caseykelly.net/biography.html
And you’ll hopefully be getting some more good news concerning books and music and songs in the upcoming weeks. With a little luck, 2011 is going to bring a lot of good news to Guitar Noise!
Guitar Noise Featured Artist
He started out being more famous as a songwriter than a performer, even writing a song that’s become a Christmas classic. And to top it off he’s got a guitar named Trigger! Willie Nelson gets the nod as Guitar Noise’s Featured Artist of the Month for January. Read all about this artist who continues to prolifically write and record music on the Guitar Noise Profile Page.
Topic of the Month
We’re highlighting all of Guitar Noise’s bass guitar lessons for January 2011. Drop in at the Guitar Noise Home page and then click on the Topic Banner showing “Bass for Beginners” and dig into the many wonderful bass guitar lessons we have here on site.
New Articles, Lessons, Reviews and Stuff
How To Play Guitar Fast
Avoiding Critical Mistakes In Learning To Increase Your Guitar Speed
by Tom Hess
Many players obsess about not being able to play fast. Tom Hess offers some important tips for guitarists wanting to improve their playing speed.
THE GUIDE TO TOURING (PART 2)
by Chris Gallant
In the second part of his introductory guide to touring, Chris Gallant (lead singer and guitarist of The Sidewalks), takes you from launching your tour to making your van your home to bringing everyone safely and successfully back home for real.
ANDREW DuBrock: Total Acoustic Guitar
Book Review by David Hodge
Chord melody is a way of arranging songs so that the single guitar does all the work of providing melody and harmony, and usually includes a bass part as well! Chord melody arrangements can be as simple or complex as you choose to make them.
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Tip for January 1 – Practicing Modes (Part 44)
In the last issue or so we started investigating the F dominant 7 sound. Our explorations took us through a diatonic (in-key) chord walk around position V. Now we’re going to complement that diatonic walk with a chromatic one, which is especially useful if you’re playing chord-melody arrangements. Here’s the walk:
|-8--7--6--5-------------------------------| |-8--7--7--6--9--8--7--6--5----------------| |-8--8--5--8--6--8--6--8--5--8--7--6--5----| |-7--7--------7--7--7--7--8--7--5--7--8----| |-------6--8--6--8--6--8--7--8--6--8--7----| |------------------------------------------|
The challenge for us is to understand how we can put each note of the chromatic scale on top of an F mixolydian chord. If we were constrained to use only the notes of the F mixolydian/Bb major scale, we couldn’t put notes C#, E, F#, or G# atop F7. Next time, we’ll talk about how to get access to those extra notes.
Thanks for reading.
Darrin
Copyright 2011 Darrin Koltow
Spotlight On The Sunday Songwriters’ Group
We’re putting the SSG Spotlight on Vic Lewis this month and posting up a song he wrote way back in Year 4 of the SSG. It’s called “Constant Chameleon” and I hope you enjoy it!
Plus you get to read some of Vic’s thoughts on songwriting as well as on running the SSG for the past two years!
Random Thoughts
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are usually times where we make new resolutions and goals for the upcoming year. It’s certainly a convenient starting point for new diets or losing old habits or making a change of lifestyle or routine, hopefully for the better, of course.
Personally, one of the things I would really like to do better, not to mention more of, this coming year is practice. It may seem a bit of a surprise, but I don’t usually have the time to practice. At least, not practice as much as I’d like to.
And that’s not necessarily true. What really happens is that I don’t make the time to practice. The time is usually there, it’s much more a matter of my finding it, setting it aside and then using it as I think I want to. Notice the word “think” there. It’s almost like I’m talking myself out of doing what I say I want to do! The mindset you have affects the words you choose, and vice versa.
In my head I know that if practicing is something I truly want to do, I will find a way to make it happen. It may take several tries to work out a system that works and it will take energy and effort on my part to make it happen, but that’s all part of achieving the goal.
We’ve all sorts of great articles here at Guitar Noise concerning both setting goals and practicing, especially those by Darrin Koltow, Jamie Andreas and Tom Hess. Many of those will be on my reading list for the upcoming days. What I need to do to make this resolution really work is to make certain that practicing is something I want enough to actually do something besides make a resolution about it.
It’s really funny when you think about it, because everyone will tell you there’s no “magic” way to just pick up a guitar and be playing like a seasoned musician, just as there’s no way to simply sit down and be a whiz at the piano or math or a new language or painting or whatever. It’s all a matter of putting in the hours and the work.
Yet we often approach resolutions as if they were magic. I’m going to resolve to practice, to lose weight, to stop smoking, or whatever, so therefore it will happen. Or we go in the complete opposite direction and use resolutions as a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. I’m going to resolve to practice, to lose weight, to stop smoking, or whatever, so therefore it most assuredly won’t happen.
It’s simple, maybe too simple, but it really comes down to, is this: do I want this badly enough that I’m going to put in the effort, to do the work required to make it happen? If I want it, I won’t count on magic or fate or things falling nicely into place so that everything works out right and I get it. I’ll make it happen. That’s what resolve is about.
Of course, it’s foolish to think that this mindset is going to work for any and everything. I will never, no matter how much I want it, be able to run as fast as a high-speed train or leap over buildings in a single bound. But I certainly should be able to put together an hour a day to practice, which is something I love to do.
Anyway, sorry to dwell so much on myself! I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you’re going to make a resolution that you really want to succeed at, remember that making the resolution is truly only the first of many, many steps. And remember you can do it if you really want to! Unless, of course, what you really want to do is to simply be able to resolve the same thing year after year after year after year.
Make yourself happy in 2011. Give yourself a goal that’s achievable and then achieve it.
And if I don’t answer your emails immediately, it will most likely be because I’m practicing!
Until our next issue of Guitar Noise News, play well and play often.
And, as always…
Peace