Guitar Noise

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #44 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
• Digging Through The Archives
• Hot Off The Press (Releases)
• Event Horizon
• Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

Welcome, I hope, to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News. I have been having a lot of trouble with my computer of late and in the interest of not screwing things up too much, I’ll be keeping this newsletter a little on the short side. Hopefully, this is the last time for that.

In case you missed last issue’s big announcement, the “Guitar Noise Store” is back up and running. It’s a great way to contribute to Guitar Noise AND get something in return. Paul has spent some time this spring revamping the Guitar Noise Store, stocking it with new shirts and designs.

Personally, I’ve got my eye on one of those cool golf shirts…

Even though I’ve been beset with a computer with an attitude, we did manage to get a new lesson up this past week. Let’s move on with all the new stuff, shall we?

New Articles And Lessons

Children’s Music: Lullabies And Nursery Rhymes
by Doug Sparling

Doug has come up with a lesson featuring two children’s favorites: “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “London Bridge.” Enjoy sharing these with people of all ages!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Learning Melodies By Ear

Some quick tips on learning melodies by ear in this issue.

First off, learn scales and play them regularly. Most important: the major scale. Learn at least the five CAGED forms. (Get Fretboard Logic is this term confuses you). But the more forms you know, the more insights you get into how melodies work - when you take the time to learn melodies on those forms.

Also, doodle, noodle, and play. Scat or sing stuff and try to play what you sing. This is easier when you know a melody well.

Make transcribing melodies a habit. Listen, sing, then fret away.

Last tip for this issue: make a game of finding a melody note over the chords you strum to a song. This is a great way of learning how melodies work with chords.

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.

Digging Through The Archives

Considering Darrin’s thoughts on “Learning Melodies By Ear” made me think about the basics of playing chord melody pieces. As with anything concerning the guitar (or music or just about anything at all), being able to pick out melodies gets easier with practice. And coming up with simple chord melody songs, such as those in Doug Sparling’s new lesson, is a great way to get that sort of practice.

Guitar Noise offers a lot of lessons and articles on chord melodies, which you can find on our Song Arrangement page.

There are lessons for just about every level of player, including (gasp!) an easy version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in the lesson entitled Arranging Things. And, in addition to these, you’ll find many of the Songs for Intermediate lessons, such as After the Gold Rush or Time After Time, involve many aspects of chord melody playing. Take time to check them out and give yourself some extra practice sessions.

Hot Off The Press (Releases)

Yes, this was brought up in our last newsletter, but Bill’s work as PlayJazzNow.com is certainly worth repeating a second time!

PlayJazzNow.com Releases Innovative Play-Along Tracks For Jazz Drummers And Percussionists

CHICAGO, IL (March 20, 2007) - PlayJazzNow.com, a Web site featuring downloadable play-along tracks for instrumentalists and vocalists, has announced the addition of play-along tracks for jazz drummers and percussionists. Since its inception last June, PlayJazzNow.Com has offered downloadable play-along tracks for jazz musicians who want to hone their improvisation skills by working out with a live trio. Now it aims to reach out specifically to drummers and percussionists who want to master the rhythmic, stylistic, and formal elements of jazz.

PlayJazzNow.com has created sets of tracks geared to beginning, intermediate and advanced percussionists Drummers can now play along with the rhythm team of piano and bass without the clutter of a pre-existing drum track. Students of jazz can practice a wide range of rhythmic styles, including swing, jazz waltz, bossa, samba, 6/8, 5/4 and ballad. Each style is available in a variety of tempos, which employ standard forms such as 12-bar blues, 32-bar AABA form, plus the less common 16- and 24-bar forms.

Chicago bassist and teacher Bill Harrison, the driving force behind PlayJazzNow.com, says, “This is the next innovation I’ve been promising visitors to the Web site. I believe these tracks are just what aspiring jazz drummers need to help them get to the next level. I haven’t seen or heard tracks of this kind offered anywhere else.”

Until the last decade or so, young jazz players could learn a lot ‘on the job’ and at jam sessions, but Harrison notes that now there are a lot more players - and a lot fewer sessions. He feels that budding jazz musicians need a way to practice regularly with a real rhythm section at home.

PlayJazzNow.com addresses this need. The Web site offers jazz play-alongs that are different from the CD/book sets of play-along tunes sold elsewhere. PlayJazzNow.com tracks consist of chord progressions - turnarounds and forms that occur in all types of standards and jazz compositions. Harrison states, “Our play-alongs are available for immediate download. They come in all 12 keys and you can find the precise tracks you need for your level and your instrument.”

With the addition of tracks created specifically for drummers and percussionists, PlayJazzNow.com now has tracks that all instrumentalists can use to improve their skills as soloists and accompanists.

“Using these play-along tracks really helps and inspires my students,” says Harrison. ” If they work for me, I know they’ll work for other teachers, students and professional players who are looking for a new and fun way to build their jazz chops.”

Bill Harrison is an accomplished jazz bassist who has performed with many jazz masters including; Clark Terry, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Kenny Burrell, Bunky Green and Joe Daley. He has been a faculty member of Chicago State University and the American Conservatory of Music, and has taught at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Clark Terry’s Great Plains Jazz Camp and the Saskatchewan Summer School for the Arts. Harrison currently plays jazz, commercial and theatre gigs in Chicago and maintains two teaching studios.

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 August, let me know, too! It’s never too early to plan for things!

Send your gig dates to me and try to put “gig alert” in the subject header.

This weekend, beginning with Friday, May 18, is turning out to be a busy weekend for Guitar Noise folks. As I mentioned last time, I received a note from Tom McLaughlin of the Chicago area, letting me know his band, Wildeye, will be playing Friday May 18 at a local VFW Hall in Tinley Park, Illinois. The address is 17147 Oak Park Avenue and Wildeye will be playing from 8:30 until 12:30. You can find out more about this great rock band at the website: http://www.bandwildeye.com/

Moving on to Saturday, May 18, it’s a pleasure to announce that Late Calling, Dennis “corbind” Corbin’s old band has regrouped and will be playing at Li’l Jim’s Country Tavern, located at 47W739 Route 64 in Virgil, Illinois (and I thought I had the gift of playing out in the middle of nowhere!). Show starts at 7:00 and should be a lot of fun. Say hi to Dennis from me!

And next Tuesday, you can find Gustavo Assis-Brasil’s trio playing at the Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge Street on Inman Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This show, starting at 7:30, will feature the premiere of some of the group’s new original material.

Random Thoughts

I’m hoping that I can come to a working relationship with my computer in the very near future. Especially since we’re got some cool lessons awaiting posting. Keep your fingers crossed and we should have a lesson on Layla by none other than GN forum member “Taso,” as well as some material from new contributors to Guitar Noise. With a little more luck, I might even be able to get one or two of my own into the mix.

Writing up an issue of Guitar Noise News often leaves me feeling a little guilty. Spare time is hard enough to come by these days and I often think that putting together a lesson or article should be higher on my list than piecing together the newsletter.

This may seem a silly analogy, but it helps me to think of the website as a song being performed by a jam band. The song has to be the first consideration, rather than the players. Good musicians will often tell you that the secret to playing well is more often than not a combination of listening and playing less. The more space you create, the more interesting things you can do with it.

Those of you who read the “Gigs and Jams” section of the Forum, as well as those of you who read in between the lines here, know that I recently played two gigs with a number of Guitar Noise folks at a couple of local venues. Considering the fact that this performance was the first time all seven of us played together, it was a very good show.

Oh, it had some wonderful moments and even more wonderful mistakes, but the focus of the night was giving the audience a good time. Playing music usually is a matter of a very, very simple equation: you pay attention to the audience and enjoy what you’re doing and the audience will tend to respond in kind.

That Friday night at the Monterey General Store, the seven us of managed to create some space to allow that magic when the music plays the musicians instead of the other way ’round. That’s a very cool thing when it happens. It doesn’t, it can’t, happen on each number. You simply try to have it happen as often as it can.

Likewise, here at Guitar Noise, it’s the synergy of all the various parts of the website that make it magical. It’s scary that there’s so much here to learn from.

But, as much as there is here, it’s still a small piece of the big picture when it comes to playing and enjoying music. And I don’t mean all the other Internet sites out there. All the web pages, all the books, all the CDs and DVDs and videos and what have you are nothing compared to simply playing. And playing with others.

“Playing with others” seems to be a phrase that I use even more than my “Peace” tagline. And there’s a good reason for that. Besides being one of the best ways to learn and improve your musicianship, it’s what music is all about. Having fun and sharing yourself and taking in what others can give you.

Until we chat again, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace