Guitar Noise

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #45 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Guitar Noise Staff Picks
• Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
• Emails? We Get Emails!
• Tutorial Tip / Forum Findings
• Event Horizon
• Reviews
• Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

As we say goodbye to May and welcome June, I can’t help but hope that summer will be a lot easier to my computer and teaching schedule than this past spring was. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a crazy time trying to get things working out in some semblance of order. It seemed like every time I turned around something was falling apart on me.

But, as I write this, June is just around the corner and it promises to be a busy summer. Busy is definitely better than frantic.

So let’s try to get caught up a bit with things. Here’s what’s new at Guitar Noise since we last chatted…

New Articles And Lessons

How To Read And Perform Music - Part 3
by Peter Simms

Time to tackle the notes on the third string of our guitars! Peter’s series on learning the notes of the guitar in standard notation continues along, complete with exercises and sound files.

The Pursuit Of Artistic Greatness
by Tom Hess

Do you have it in yourself to find “Artistic Greatness?” Is it something you’re born with, or something you can learn and develop? Tom Hess takes a long look at this fascinating topic.

Guitar Noise Staff Picks

I managed to finally catch Fred J. Eaglesmith when he came back to town last weekend. If you’ve not heard of Fred, you’re missing a treat. He’s Canadian and tends to be hard to classify. Some will think he’s country. Some will think he’s folk. Some will say “alternative” and some will give you a combination of the three.

If you’re more concerned about great songwriting and heartfelt performances than labels, then you’ll find Fred a treat. He’s kind of a cross between Hank Williams (Senior) and Steve Earle with a dash of Warren Zevon and Ray Davies thrown in for good measure. At his show I picked up a copy of “The Official Fred J. Eaglesmith Bootleg Series - Volume 2″ and it’s been playing nonstop for almost the entire week. You can find out more about Fred at www.fredeaglesmith.com and do be sure to see him if he’s ever in your town.

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.

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hello David,

I wanted to send a quick thank you for your time and effort (and to others at Guitar Noise). You see, I have owned a guitar for about three years and have not been able to play a single song! I can do simple arpeggios and such but no songs. I would ultimately get frustrated and place it back in its case for another day.

I had finally decided that I wanted to learn to play “Wish You Were Here,” when I stumbled upon your article on strumming this song. You said the one thing I think I needed to hear, to ‘let the rhythm be free’. That was my problem - I was trying so hard to have all the fingers exact, strumming exact, each note exact- that the enjoyment was gone. All of a sudden, “Wish You Were Here” was in my living room, coming from my guitar.

Thank you for helping me, I now have learned eight songs in about two months! I look forward to becoming an accomplished guitarist.

Regards

Dear Mr Hodge,

I want to thank you for your guitar lessons - they are instructive indeed (being an intermediate player, I still get a lot from the beginner’s lessons) and they’re FUN! Besides, I really like your selection of classic songs and the arrangements proposed as well.

And I dare a request: Would you teach us ‘Homeward Bound’, by Simon & Garfunkel? It has lots of challenging stuff that would make for a good lesson: a nice tag intro, a fingerpicking descending and ascending line with quite a stretch, switching from fingerpicking to strumming, and a weird syncopated strumming pattern for the chorus… Please?

Thank you both for your kind words concerning the lessons here at Guitar Noise. One of the things I’m still wrestling with, even after having moved to my new home three plus years ago now, is getting a schedule set so that I have free time to write and record more lessons. Hopefully this summer will see me work it all out.

Homeward Bound has been on my short list for a while now (I frequently use it as a teaching lesson to both private students and group classes), and I’ll do my best to get that one up online sometime in the relatively near future. The song fits in well with the lessons I’m currently finishing for Guitar Noise because all of the upcoming pieces examine working out moving bass lines to accompany oneself on the guitar.

Tutorial Tip / Forum Findings

This post recently surfaced in the “Beginners’ Q & A” section of the Guitar Noise Forum:

OK, so I bought a piece of sheet music to learn a song that my daughter REALLY wants me to play. Most of the chord fingerings are pictured at the top of the sheet music. So far, so good. Trouble is not ALL of the chord fingerings are provided.

I’m not at all up to speed on music theory and chord formation enough to figure them out (in spite of all the hundreds of pages I’ve printed and read from Guitar Noise.

The sheet says “Symbols in parentheses represent chord names respective to capoed guitar” AND “Symbols after reflect actual sounding chords”. The capo is on the 2nd fret.

Here are the chords I’m trying to learn how to make:

(Fadd9) Gadd9
(C6sus4) D6sus4

Anyone? Anyone?

Assuming you’re playing the capoed chords on the second fret, you’re playing Fadd9 and C6sus4. Strange thing is that both chords use the same notes:

Fadd9 - F, A, C, (which are the notes of the F chord) and G (that’s the “9″)

C6sus4 - C6 is C, E, G (the standard C chord) and A. But the “sus4″ means that you want to replace the E with F. So therefore the C6sus4 is C, F, G and A.

Weird, huh?

The typical way to play Fadd9 is like this:

E - third fret (pinky)
B - first fret (index)
G - second fret (middle)
D - third fret (ring)
A - don’t play
E - don’t play

As mentioned, these two chords have the same notes, but usually one likes to have the root note in the bass, so C6sus4 becomes a little bit of a problem. Easiest way (and “easiest” is really not in this case) is a partial barre chord, laying your middle finger across the first four strings at the fifth fret:

E - fifth fret (middle)
B - sixth fret (pinky or ring)
G - fifth fret (middle)
D - fifth fret (middle)
A - third fret (index)
E - don’t play

If you’re not using the capoed chords and playing the Gadd9 and the D6sus4, you may find things easier going. The Gadd9 is either:

E - third fret (pinky)
B - open
G - second fret (index)
D - open
A - second fret (middle)
E - third fret (ring)

Or:

E - fifth fret (pinky or ring)
B - open
G - open
D - open
A - second fret (index)
E - third fret (middle)

And the D6sus6 is a snap:

E - third fret (pinky or ring or middle)
B - open
G - second fret (index)
D - open
A - don’t play (but you can and it won’t hurt)
E - don’t play

Hope this helps.

Further on in the thread is a wonderful chart for using capos, provided by the always helpful Forum Moderator Elecktrablue, and Brian F., another GN Forum member kindly provided a link to www.chordfind.com , a guitar chord page. You can read the whole thing here.

I guess the main reason for bringing this up is to once again make a big deal about stating the obvious - you can find a lot of help at the Guitar Noise Forum pages. Chances are that many of the questions you might have as a budding guitar player have already been addressed and discussed.

Be sure to take advantage of all the experience available to you! Drop on in and learn a few things. Better yet, take a moment or two and help someone else who’s struggling with a question.

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.

Kathy Reichert seems to be playing fairly regularly in and around Chicago these days. Check her out this Monday, June 4, at the Gallery Cabaret at 2020 North Oakley (close to the Western and Armitage intersection) at 7 PM. You can also read about her last gig in our “Reviews” section.

And while it’s not a performance gig, per se, I’ll be giving a demonstration and taking Questions and Answers at a book signing at the Stockbridge Booksellers, located at 10 Elm Street in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (and, yes, that the same town that Alice’s Restaurant used to be in way back when…). It all starts at 2 PM. Visit www.stockbridgebooksellers.com for more information.

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.

Also, we like to encourage reviews of performances and recordings of Guitar Noise members. After all, this is your community and reviews are a terrific way to learn more about you and your music.

Bearing that in mind, here is the latest review to be posted on our site:

Kathy Reichert - Live at Borders Books, Highland Park, Illinois, May 12, 2007
Performance Review by Mike Roberto

Guitar Nose contributor Mike Roberto caught Kathy Reichert (a Sunday Songwriters Group mainstay) playing last month at a Saturday night performance at Borders Bookstore in Highland Park, Illinois. Read all about it!

Random Thoughts

With this newsletter, we’re introducing the idea of promoting more of the playing that goes on by Guitar Noise members. You can always check out the news and latest reports at the “Gigs and Jams” section of the Forum, and I’m hoping that getting more detailed reviews, such as the one Mike Roberto wrote for Kathy Reichert’s gig, will encourage more of you to contribute along these lines.

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

And, as always,

Peace