Guitar Noise

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #37 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
• Email Of The Moment
• Forum Findings
• Emails? We Get Emails!
• Tutorial Tips
• Event Horizon
• Reviews
• Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

A funny thing happened on the way to 2007…

At some point in the latter half of December, Internet access in parts of the world (especially the part where Paul lives) became very spotty and erratic. This very conveniently coincided with Paul’s launch of a new Guitar Noise format (and shame on you if you’ve not checked out the new home page) and he’s consequently been doing a lot of tinkering and tweaking.

Owing to numerous circumstances, we ended up not being able to send out any January newsletters. And, truth be told, I’m keeping my fingers crossed about this one. But if you’ve read thus far, then I guess you’ve gotten it and it’s okay to keep writing. Otherwise I’ll just keep writing knowing that no one will probably read it. I’ve done this twice already, so I’m getting proficient at the task.

Hopefully, things are back under some semblance of order and we can get back to sending out bimonthly issues of Guitar Noise News. And there’s a bit to get caught up on, so let’s get right to it!

Back in the middle of December, we held a “holiday giveaway” of autographed copies of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar. The original plan was to give out ten copies, but I got an unexpected windfall playing for a holiday dinner and used that to get five more copies for the giveaway. So we had fifteen winners. And, in one of those wonderful twists of fate, the one person who won back in September but never got in contact with me sent an entry for this past giveaway, so he was able to get his rightful copy.

So join me if you will in extending congratulations to:

• Barb of Brecksville, Ohio
• Catherine of Hamilton, Ontario (Canada)
• Dan of Janesville, Wisconsin
• Derek of Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada)
• Eric of Ore City, Texas
• Frank of Long Island, New York
• Gerald of Claremore, Oklahoma
• Guillaume of Brooklyn, New York
• Harold of London, Kentucky
• Katleen of Quebec, Canada
• Marc of Brussels, Belgium
• Paul of Montreal, Canada
• Phyllis of Camden, South Carolina
• Ray of Jennerstown, Pennsylvania
• Sandra of Huntsville, Alabama

Hopefully, everyone’s gotten his or her copy in the post by this time. Please feel free to write me with any questions you might have or suggestions on what could have been done better.

As I’ve said before, I know that there are many of you who’ve already purchased a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar, and if you’d like an autograph, please let me know. I’d love to send you a thank you note in appreciation of you buying my book. Just write me at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and I’ll mail one off.

Speaking of bass, I got to spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s visiting family and friends back in Chicago. One of the highlights of the trip was an informal music jam, hosted by my onetime student (and terrific songwriter) Kathy. Among the many, many friends present and playing was Helena Bouchez, with whom I worked while in Chicago. Helena’s become quite a bass player (although she’ll tout herself as a “work in progress”) and it was a blast to finally have a chance to jam with her.

Besides playing bass guitar, Helena in very active in the bass community on the Internet. She’s written many articles and interviews with prominent bass players and she’s very kindly consented to have a number of these posted here at Guitar Noise. So over the next few months, keep an eye out for them!

And speaking of new articles and lessons, let’s see what’s gone up online since we last chatted way back in 2006…

New Articles And Lessons

The Christ Child’s Lullaby
by Doug Sparling

Here’s a wonderful simple and sparse arrangement of this traditional song from the Outer Hebrides. It’s a beautiful song and. like Doug, you’ll be thrilled to add it to your holiday repertoire.

Bassist Victor Bailey On Making Good Music
by Helena Bouchez

Guitar Noise welcomes writer / bassist Helena Bouchez to our pages with the first of a series of discussions with prominent bass players. Here, renowned bassist Victor Bailey (Weather Report) muses on how to go about making good music.

Judy Ccollins - Biography of a Child Prodigy
By Colette Dumont

Colette Dumont brings us one of her well-researched musical biographies to start out the New Year. Read about Judy Collins and get a lot of links to more about her and her music.

How To Read And Perform Music On The Guitar
By Peter Simms

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to start (or finally) learn music notation, then help is here in a big way! As Peter points out, “the only obstacle is that reading music takes a while to learn.” If you truly want to learn, patience and consistent practicing will get you there.

Living The Dream Part 1 - Crunching Numbers
by David Hodge

Just as there are all sorts of ways to make a living in music, there are more ways why people decide not to follow their dreams. More often than not, the simple task of being prepared to ask oneself questions (and to answer honestly) can get you living the life you dream about.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

A quick lick

Here’s a quick lick to play over these chords: Em, Am, Dm, G7 in C major. In other words, this is a turnaround: the last two bars before returning to the start of the first phrase. You can strum each chord once or twice; record that accompaniment and play this over it:

  E E E Q Q  E   E E E Q  Q.
|-------5------|-----5----------|
|-5-6-----8--5-|-6-7---8--------|
|-----7--------|----------------|
|--------------|----------------|
|--------------|----------------|
|--------------|----------------|
Q - quarter; E - 8th; Q. is dotted quarter. The Q. with no note is a rest.

When you study licks, and really try to figure out what makes them sound good, study the lick in standard notation. The reason is that you can see the shape of the line so much clearer in standard notation compared to tablature. It’s not a knock on tab, just the way it is.

Even if you can’t (yet) read standard notation, you can at least see the relative height or depth of pitches, which is already more than what tab can show you.

By the way, this tip about studying licks applies just as well to any melodic stuff you really want to understand: use standard notation to figure it out - and write your own.

Thanks for reading.

Darrin Koltow

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

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.

Email Of The Moment

Mr. Hodge,

I have been finally getting the hang of this six stringed demon from Hades through the wonderful examples you have… er, HAD, on your web site. The little MP3s that allowed us to “play with the master,” so-to-speak. They seem to be no longer working???

PLEASE tell me this is but a momentary lapse and they will be available again soon??!!??!!

Thank you for writing and also for your kind words concerning my work at Guitar Noise. I’d hardly call myself a “master” of the guitar, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Concerning the sound files, it’s probably on account of Guitar Noise’s popularity that the MP3 files are currently not available. Please understand that we are a free site and that sometimes works against us. We buy only so much bandwidth for the MP3s that we can budget for any given month and sometimes, especially in January when everyone seems to make learning the guitar their “new goal in life,” our bandwidth for the MP3 files gets exceeded.

We get over twenty million hits on the Guitar Noise site every month. Fortunately, not everyone downloads any of the MP3 files, but you can imagine that a great, great many people do.

The MP3 links should be back up and running after February 1, so try again this weekend. If they’re still not working, let me know. It is possible that it’s just a broken link on this particular page, but I’ve a hunch that it might be something else.

I know that Paul, the gentleman who owns and runs Guitar Noise, has recently given the whole place a bit of a makeover and sometimes when that happens, we’re constantly finding little things that got missed. So, as I mentioned, if it persists in not working, please let me know.

Also, one thing that you can do that would immensely help matters is to download any file you want directly to your computer. Do this by right-clicking on the MP3 link and click on “save target as.” This means you only need download it once and it’s yours. Way too many people just keep clicking on a sound file over and over and over and over again and, guess what? Yes, we’re out of bandwidth before you know it.

Thank you once more for writing. Please feel free to email anytime. I look forward to hearing about how things are progressing with you and the guitar.

Forum Findings

I’d like to take a moment to introduce everyone to Guitar Noise’s latest edition to the Forum Moderating Team - Mike. Mike, as many of you know, did a lot of work with the Easy Song Database and very graciously accepted UberModerator Nick’s invitation this past week.

So the next time you get a chance, drop in to the Forum and pass along a PM to Mike to wish him well! He’s going to be a great member of the Guitar Noise Forum staff.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hello David,

I started playing guitar about two years ago, and I stumbled upon Guitar Noise this summer. I have been slowly working my way through your beginner lessons, and I figured it was time to tell you how much I appreciate the thorough work you have done for the site. The MP3 files are an amazingly helpful touch, and for some reason the recordings make the lessons much more personal and, therefore, accessible.

Thank you for all your effort, and I look forward to having your lessons with me as I continue my musical development.

Tutorial Tip

Hi David

Simple question about your lesson on Sitting on the Dock of the Bay: In the third measure of the chorus, we strum the G chord and then pick the G note and then the open G string, then pick a G# on the low E string before picking another open G. The G# just does not seem to fit to me. Is that a misprint or do I need to train my ear to accept the dissonance that it creates?

Thanks for writing and it’s not a misprint. Dissonances can be funny things. If you play a B and a C note that are right next to each other (say the open B string and the C note at the fifth fret of the G string), it’s a little jarring. But if you spread the two notes out, say play the open B string and the C at the third fret of the A string, it can sound very cool.

Part of it is also what you’re used to. Even though the G# in question does sound dissonant, it’s what we’d call a “passing tone.” We’re not going to linger on it by any stretch of the imagination. It’s merely a way to lead the ear to the new root that’s a little more interesting than just going from G to A.

And part of it is that it’s so blatant a dissonance. With a song played by a full band, there are lots of places for dissonance to lurk without being so much in your face, as it were. If someone else were playing the chords and you were just playing the bass line, you might think it sounded very cool.

I’m not really sure it’s a matter of “accepting” the dissonance as much as it is a matter of hearing more of them in the music you already listen to. Music is all about tension (dissonance) and release (resolution to the new chord) and it’s hard for a song, or any piece of music, to be interesting for long without some kind of tension.

If it really bugs you, then don’t worry about it. Sit on the G note and it will still sound fine. But do start to listen critically to all sorts of music and see how much dissonance you can pick out. It may be that there’s more already that you listen to that can help your ears adjust to hearing it on a single instrument.

Thanks again for writing and I hope this helps.

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 March (that is, after the fifteenth), then let me know before the tenth, if you can.

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

Wes Inman’s group, Twist of Fate, will be playing twice in February. First up is a gig on Friday, February 9th at the Blackboard Café in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The following week, Friday, February 16th, they be at Dee-Man’s Lounge in Nagatuck. If you’re in the area, drop in and say hi to Wes, Dom and the rest of the band.

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.

In the meantime, here are the latest reviews to be posted on our site:

Victor Wooten: The Music Lesson
Book Review by David Hodge

A mysterious, seemingly mystic teacher arrives to assist a struggling bass player make sense of both music and life in Victor Wooten’s (bassist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) book. Both entertaining and enlightening.

Random Thoughts

As I mentioned at the top of the page, I got the chance to spend an evening playing with some friends last month. It was a real blast, mostly because we also did a lot of new songs, many of them originals. Both Kathy and I participate in the Sunday Songwriters Group (SSG) over on the Forum page and a number of songs that started out as SSG assignments have become favorites at the jams I take part in.

So I’d like to take a moment to give a hearty thanks to SSG moderator, Bob, for all the work he does (and continues to do) in providing a place for songwriters to work on improving their craft. Just as important, thanks also to everyone who participates in critiquing the work. This “group effort” when it comes down to tweaking a song is what really makes the SSG special to me.

Until next time, and I hope that it’s just two weeks from now, play well.

Play often.

Stay safe.

And, always,

Peace