Newsletter Vol. 3 # 31 – October 01, 2006

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #31 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

  • News and Announcements
  • New Articles and Lessons
  • Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
  • Tutorial Tips / Digging Through The Archives
  • Reviews
  • Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

October has arrived, bringing with it the colors of both autumn and spring, depending (obviously) on whether you live above or below the equator.

Back on September 10, we had our first drawing for our giveaway for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar and congratulations went to:

  • Jarge S. of Brampton, Ontario
  • Jim A. of Fort Worth, Texas
  • John R. of Cranbury, New Jersey
  • Jonny S. of London, England
  • Justin R. of Port Washington, Wisconsin
  • Karin P. of Pittsfield, Massachusetts
  • Lars K. of Oslo, Norway
  • Tamzen L. of Toronto

And at that time I hadn’t heard from Eric B. of Hertfordshire, England, so my belated congratulations to him as well. I’m still awaiting confirmation from one winner of that drawing and, hopefully, he’ll be back to me before much longer.

In the meantime, we held a second drawing this past week and congratulations go out to the following members of the Guitar Noise community:

  • Anne Marie of Sheffield, England
  • Ed of Parsippany, New Jersey
  • Jim of Norman, Oklahoma
  • Jim of Excelsior Springs, Missouri
  • Kim of Tucson, Arizona
  • Louis of Mobile, Alabama
  • Paul of Paraparauma, New Zealand
  • Rahul of Haryana, India
  • Steve of Auckland, New Zealand
  • Tim of Washington Court House, Ohio

My publicity copies of the book arrived earlier this week and all autographed copies will be sent in the next three days.

For those of you who didn’t win, we are having a one more giveaway later this year, probably in November. Keep an eye on our home page for details.

Since it’s a mouthful to say The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar and it’s also a truly lousy acronym, I’ve taken to calling it “BOB,” short for “Book on Bass.” “BOB arrived in bookstores on September first and it’s also available through Amazon.com as well as many, many other online book services. And you can find it in just about any bookstore you walk into. It should be in the “music” section.

As I mentioned last time, some of you who’ve written about the contest have noted that you intend to buy the book regardless of the contest and my thanks for that. If you do buy one, please know that I’ll be more than happy to either autograph yours or send you a personal thank you note. Just drop me a line at the usual address: [email protected] and I’ll attend to it as soon as humanly possible.

Now let’s see what’s new, shall we?

New Articles And Lessons

Songwriter Or Craftsman?
by Robert Walker

In his first article for Guitar Noise, German guitarist Robert Walker discusses some of the finer differences between being a songwriter and a craftsman and offers songwriters some tips on how to move to the next level of instrumental songwriting.

How To Develop Your Own Style – Part 1
(It’s all about you!)
by Tom Hess

Developing your own style starts with a bit of introspection, which leads to knowledge and then application. In his latest article, Tom Hess takes you throught the initial steps needed to help you on your way.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip: the minor 7 b5

This chord doesn’t get a lot of press, but it’s pretty useful. We’re going to look at the min7b5 chord. First, a pattern for it:

|------|
|-6----|
|-5----|
|-6----|
|-5----|
|------|

That’s the D min7b5. And here’s an arpeggio pattern for the same chord. Use this to solo:

|-------------4-8-|
|-----------6-----|
|-------5-7-------|
|-----6-----------|
|-5-8-------------|
|-----------------|

Where can we use the min7b5? Let’s look at three different uses: 1) replacing the dom 7, 2) replacing a tonic minor chord, and 3) in a minor ii V I progression.

Here’s an example of the first usage:

|------|------|------|
|--6-6-|-6--6-|-6----|
|--8-8-|-7--5-|-5----|
|--6-6-|-6--6-|-5----|
|--8-8-|-8--5-|-6----|
|------|-6----|------|

This progression is as follows: F minor 7 in bar 1, Bb7 and D min7b5 in bar 2, and Eb 6/9 in bar 3. In other words, a ii V I in Eb major.

Look at bar 2. We’re substituting the D min7b5 in place of the Bb7 here. The Bb7 was also included, so you can compare the similarity of sounds. Why do the Bb7 and D min7b5 sound alike? Look at the notes:

D min7b5: D F Ab C
Bb7: Bb D F Ab

Three notes in common definitely make for a similar sound. Next time: usage 2) replacing the tonic minor chord.

Thanks for reading.

Darrin Koltow

Tutorial Tips / Digging Through The Archives

Howdy Dave!

I’ve really loved scouting through your web page and learning more and more about my guitar!

I have a brief question for you: What does ‘sus’ mean?? Sustain what? And how do I figure out chords that are ‘sus’ chords or that have a number associated with them (and what does that number indicate)?

Perhaps, not such a brief question after all?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Hi and thanks for writing.

“Sus” actually stands for “suspended” and not “sustained.” In brief, major and minor chords are composed of the root, third and fifth note of the given scale. In suspended chords, the third is replaced by another note, usually the fourth (noted as “sus4” ) or the second (“sus2′). If you’d like to read some more on the subject, you might want to start with this article: Building Additions (and Suspensions).

And don’t forget that there are literally hundreds of lessons here at Guitar Noise. On the theory page alone, you’re bound to find the answer to many a question.

Reviews

DC Slater: Decisions
CD Review by Jimmy Caterine

DC Slater is a former student of Berklee College of Music and participates in the SoundAid project to fight hunger. His latest mixes Grunge with a bit of Satch and Eddie Van Halen.

Random Thoughts

Last newsletter I mentioned two things:

First, in the upcoming months, we’ll be highlighting some of our past articles on The Joy of Music.

And also that it’s long past time that we added more to them. So if you’ve got a story to share, pass it along and we’ll get a new batch out there. Just send them to me at [email protected] and please put “Joy of Music” in the subject line.

Second, I noted that Paul had been away for a bit and that the beginning of the school year was off to a crazy start. Those of you who’ve been with us a while might have noticed something odd these past two years and that’s that we’ve not taken any “sabbaticals” from the site. There may be periods when there are fewer articles than others and last fall I was extremely fortunate enough to have Nick spell me here at Guitar Noise News while I fought bravely against the “Deadlines of Doom” and other forces of evil. But we’ve not taken whole weeks (or the occasional whole month) off in quite a while. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we’d do that at least once a year…

But one thing does happen when Paul is away, and that’s that I tend to try to work in articles that are more straight text than those that have music examples in them. Now that Paul’s back, we’ll be working ourselves silly putting out some of those lessons that have taken a back seat for a bit. So if it seems that there’s a lot more going on than usual, well, there is.

Until our next newsletter, please stay safe and play well.

And, as always,

Peace