Newsletter Vol. 3 # 5 – September 01, 2005
Greetings,
Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #5 of Guitar Noise News!
In This Issue:
- News and Announcements
- New Articles and Lessons
- Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
- Notes From Nick
- Buried Treasure Of The Internet
- Digging Through The Archives
- Event Horizon
- Reviews
- International Songwriting Competition
- Off Site Sightings and Works In Progress
- Random Thoughts
News And Announcements
Since this is the latest edition of Guitar Noise News, Volume III, it’s a good bet that today is September first, or pretty shortly thereafter if you’re reading this a day or two later. I hope that you are having a great summer and making the most of these last days of it. And, of course, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, then I should be wishing you the prospect of a beautiful spring.
Some of you may have noticed a small change concerning the Guitar Noise site this past summer. Usually we take a bit of a sabbatical – either Paul has a big project going on or we simply could use a vacation. This year we’ve managed to keep the site up and running while handling numerous tasks – big, small and in between. Part of this is owing to experience and part is pure luck.
Be that as it may, we’ve recently posted a lot of new material (with much more on the way) and we’ll take a look at that in just a moment. But first, the news:
One last thing to mention is that I’ve recently been getting a lot of interest from folks about writing articles and lessons for Guitar Noise. As a result, you’re going to be seeing quite a few new contributors to our site. Remember that feedback is always welcome, not to mention helpful!
Also, more contributors means more editing chores, so please don’t be discouraged if it takes me a little time to get back to you concerning your proposal or if it takes a more time than you’d like to get your article up online. Reading and following our submissions guidelines would be a big help but some of it is simply trying to get everything going at once.
And speaking of getting things going, let’s see what new pieces have gone up online since we last chatted. We’ll also have the latest from Darrin and Nick and I’ll even get you updated with things in my neck of the woods. Shall we?
But before we do, I’d like to note that those of you who’d like to enter the Sibelius G7 Give Away (see the International Songwriting Competition section further down) want to send your entries to the International Songwriting Competition. And not to me or Guitar Noise. Those of you who’ve already sent in one to me (or Guitar Noise), don’t worry. I’ve already forwarded your information on to the proper folks. Of course, doing so again probably couldn’t hurt!
All right then, onward!
New Articles And Lessons
Rocking The Rest Home
by Chad Andrews
If you’re looking for an appreciative audience or looking for a way to give back to the community or even just looking for a way to fine-tune your performance, chances are you can do all this very close to home. Here Chad Andrews tells of his experiences and advice concerning this easy way to make a lot of people happy!
Building A Relationship With Your Guitar
by Chris Standring
Having musical knowledge in your mind is important, but so is having it in your hands and fingers. And sometimes, quite often, in fact, it takes more time for that to happen than it does to get it into your head. Chris talks about how vital it is to get the “feel” of your instrument so that it can truly sing.
Work And Play
by Jamie Andreas
“Work” and “Play” may seem to be two separate activities, but the guitarist must learn to combine the two. Jamie Andreas’ latest piece discusses the importance of both work and play and details how to use both to get the most out of your practice and performance.
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
For those of you who’ve come in late, Darrin Koltow of Maximum Musician has been kind enough to volunteer to regularly contribute to Guitar Noise News. This week Darrin gives us Part Two of Scales and Soloing:
We’re looking at scales to use for soloing. Here’s the progression we’re working with
||: C major, A minor, D minor, G7 :||
Last issue we improvised over these chords using the C major pentatonic (see the newsletter archives for details, including the pentatonic pattern we used).
Is the C major pentatonic the only scale you can use over a progression in C major? Thankfully, no. We have many choices. Listen carefully to how this next scale plays over the aforementioned changes. This is the G major pentatonic:
|----------------------3-5----| |------------------3-5--------| |--------------2-4------------| |----------2-5----------------| |------2-5--------------------| |--3-5------------------------|
The G major pentatonic has none of the notes — F and C — that could cause unacceptable dissonances. Specifically, the F, if present, would clash over a C major and A minor chord, and the C, if present, would clash over a G major and E minor chord.
Let’s generalize this finding so we can play in other keys: if you know a phrase or progression or sub-progression is going to stay within a major key and not stray outside it, instead of playing the major pentatonic from the root of the key center (e.g. C penta within C major), play the major penta from the V of the key center (e.g. G penta). For D major, this means you would use the A major pentatonic pattern, and for G major, you’d use the D major pentatonic pattern.
Next time: improvising with the Blues
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.
And once again, let me thank Mr. Koltow for his continued presence on the Internet. Darrin helped inspire many to contribute their knowledge online and I know that many of the readers of Guitar Noise appreciate his efforts.
And speaking of someone whose efforts I could laud until Judgment Day, here is Mr. Nick Torres:
Notes From Nick (or “The things you don’t know you know”)
So I’m sitting around on the porch, guitar in hand, working out the final wrinkles of “Here Comes the Sun” and I think, “Well the neighbors have probably heard enough of that, what’s next?”
And you know I couldn’t think of a single song.
I sat and thought a while and absolutely nothing came to mind.
“That’s impossible. I have to know at least twenty to thirty songs, don’t I?”
Then I had a thought. David had printed up some books for the Riverside Jam. (Thanks David, by the way). So I went inside and got the book. There had to be a hundred or so songs in there, just the chords and words printed out, but it’s a great resource.
I leafed through the book, and lo and behold there were twenty to thirty songs that I knew well. I was right. But that couldn’t be all could it?
Now I was on a mission, so off I went to the computer and wrote down all the songs in the Guitar Noise song lessons for beginners and intermediates. Hey whadda ya know, I’m up to almost fifty songs that I can play well.
There must me more! Down to the basement I went, into my studio/teaching area. Let me grab those Acoustic Guitar magazines from the past ten years. Wow, I forgot I knew “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” and “Caleb Meyer”, and “Makin’ Pies” and “Forgot that it was Sunday” and about 20 others. The total number of songs I know and can play is now seventy-seven!.
Hold on don’t I have Hal Leonard’s acoustic Beatles, the one with the excellent acoustic transcriptions? Well yes I do. We are up to eighty-eight songs. Which reminded me, didn’t I see some Beatles thing on the easy song forum?
Back to Guitar Noise and the easy song forum, uh-huh here we are. Now we are over one hundred and five tunes.
Hold on a sec, didn’t I create a bookmark of all my favorite www.olga.net tunes I know? Well yes I did.
This went on for the better part of four hours. Think, find, print, hole punch, stick in the book and think some more.
I went from not being able to think of a single song to having over two hundred tunes to play that I can play well.
You know the very cool part about it? I didn’t have to learn anything new or practice. I just had to remember the things I didn’t know I knew.
The point being, make yourself a book and keep it up to date. It’s a heck of a lot easier than what I just went through.
Buried Treasure Of The Internet
I already mentioned www.olga.net, which has a very broad selection of tab. Sometimes you just want to find a bunch of tunes by your favorite artist.
Here are two of my favorites for Neil Young tab:
If you can’t find them there, they don’t exist
If you don’t know who John Hiatt is, you should. If you haven’t heard him, I guarantee you’ve heard him covered; Angel Eyes, Have a Little Faith, Thing Called Love, all Hiatt tunes. Check them out here:
http://www.thejohnhiattarchives.com/new/main.html
Click on the download tab and then click chords.
Do you have a tab site for a specific artist? Let me know about it and I put it up here next newsletter.
Digging Through The Archives
Tom’s article, Standard Notation, is a terrific way to get started on reading music notation. You can also check out Your Very Own Rosetta Stone and I’ve Got Rhythm on our Absolute Beginners page if you want more material on this important subject.
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.
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:
George L Cable Checker
Product Review by A-J Charron
Got a problem with a cable but don’t know which cable? With the cable checker you can test the shields and check for shorts. No more guess work!
Black Diamond Strings
Product Review by A-J Charron
In the world of guitar strings, it’s often hard to come to a decision regarding which ones you want to use. Black Diamond Strings may help you with that decision!
The D’Angle
Product Review by A-J Charron
The D’Angle is a neat little guitar stand. It’s very small and can be easily carried into a gig bag. You place it on a shelf, atop of a counter, or on any stable surface and hang your guitar from it.
International Songwriting Competition
It’s getting to be that time of year again! This year’s ISC deadline is October 14. Here is there official blurb:
Gain exposure in the music industry and have your songs heard by top professionals and recording artists. One of the largest songwriting competitions in the world, ISC offers entrants a chance to compete for over $100,000 in cash and prizes, including an Overall Grand Prize package of $10,000 (US) in cash and $20,000 in merchandise.
ISC presents a unique opportunity for artists to get their songs heard by some of the most influential members of the music industry, helping up-and-coming artists get a head-start in this highly competitive market. “We’ve always been impressed with the talented songwriters who participate in the ISC. This is a great A&R source to find new artists.” – Monte Lipman (President, Universal Records)
August 2005 Updates:
ISC 2004 Winners Compilation CD Released Every year, ISC compiles a CD, consisting of its Grand Prize winner and First Place category winners. The CD is used to promote its winners and to help them gain more exposure for their amazing talent. This year, record labels and publishing companies who have requested to receive a copy of the CD include:
Universal Motown Records Group, Inspire Entertainment, EMI Music Publishing, Capitol Records, Chrysalis Music Group USA, Atlantic Records, Cherry Lane Music Publishing, Columbia Records, ATV Music Publishing, Sony Urban Music, The Island Def Jam Music Group, Rounder Records, Sony Music Labels Group, Wind-up Records, Verity Records, Curb Records, Inc., Warner Bros, Geffen Records, Zomba Music Publishing, V2 Music Publishing, Nettwerk Management, Lava Records, Epic Records, Maverick Records and many more…
Sonny Rollins Joins 2005 ISC Judging Panel ISC is honored to have Sonny Rollins included as a judge for its 2005 competition. He is widely regarded as the most talented and innovative tenor saxophonist in jazz and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 from the Recording Academy.
ISC 2004 R&B/Hip-Hop Winners’ New Single is iTunes “Single Of The Week” Stop The Music,” by New Zealand Hip-Hop artists P-Money and Scribe (ISC 2004 R&B/Hip-Hop category 3rd Place Winners), is the iTunes “Single Of The Week”. Download the song for free.
ISC 2004 Finalist To Play Dewey Beach/ISC Showcase ISC has secured a showcase spot at the 2005 Dewey Beach Music Conference & Festival and has selected 2004 Honorable Mention winner Adam Kowalczyk to perform at the event.
Sibelius G7 Giveaway ISC will give away G7 software (retails at $149) to five lucky winners. To qualify in the drawing, just email The International Songwriting Competition and put “G7 Giveaway” in the subject heading. The winners will be notified by email. Deadline to enter this drawing is September 15.
G7 is the ultimate software for writing songs and playing better guitar. With G7, you can write tab, chords, lyrics and notation, learn songs and riffs with the on-screen fretboard – and even publish your music on the Internet. G7 is so easy to use that you can capture your ideas almost as fast as they come to you – you won’t ever forget that chord progression or lick again! G7 contains a complete interactive guide to guitars, playing techniques and musical styles, with many studio-quality recordings and tab/notation examples you can use to create your own riffs and songs
2005 Judges include: Monte Lipman (President of Universal Records); Tom Waits; Loretta Lynn; Sonny Rollins; Macy Gray; Joss Stone; MercyMe; Amy Ray (Indigo Girls); Darryl McDaniels (RUN D.M.C.); LeAnn Rimes; Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse); Jeff Stinco (Simple Plan); Steve Vai; John Scofield; BeBe Winans; Peter Hook (New Order); Benji Madden (Good Charlotte); Charlie Musselwhite; The Donnas; Keith Wozencroft (President, Capitol Music UK); Cameron Strang (President, New West Records); Dan Storper (President of Putamayo World Music); Michael McDonald (President, ATO Records); Bruce Iglauer (Founder/President of Alligator Records); Alexandra Patsavas (Owner, The Chop Shop Music Supervision – credits include The OC, Grey’s Anatomy, Without A Trace, Carnivale, Rescue Me); Glen Barros (CEO/President, Concord Records); Darrale Jones (VP A&R Urban, Atlantic Records); Chris Parr (VP Music Programming & Talent Relations, CMT); Barbara Sedun (VP Creative, EMI Music Publishing Canada); Tara Griggs-Magee (Executive VP of Gospel/Urban Music, Sony Records); Leib Ostrow (CEO of Music For Little People), Thomas Brooman (Co- Founder/Artistic Director, WOMAD); Cory Robbins (Founder/President, Robbins Entertainment); Emily Wittmann (Vice-President, Nick Records – Nickelodeon/BMG); Danny Epstein (Music Director, Sesame Street/Sesame Workshop); and Patrick Moxey (President, Ultra Records/You Records/Sequence Records/Escondid Music/Empire Mgmt.)
Off Site Sightings And Works In Progress
Folks have written in asking to be updated on my latest writing activities, so I thought it would be a good idea to post them in a separate section, one where we could include all the Guitar Noise Staff and contributors. So if you’ve spotted one of our writers (or readers) outside the realm of the Internet, write me and I’ll post it up.
As for myself, I am hoping that my latest article for Acoustic Guitar Magazine will appear in one of the next two issues. It’s a piece on the “Basics of Crosspicking” and will feature a single-guitar crosspicking arrangement of the Counting Crow’s’ song Rain King. I also just turned in a lesson on sustained notes, which will hopefully turn up in their January issue. Included in this lesson will be a short transcription of Green Day’s Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).
Speaking of Green Day, I’ve been asked to write up a beginners’ lesson on Wake Me Up When September Ends for Play Guitar! Magazine, which (if accepted) should also be out towards the beginning of next year. In the meantime, I will have an article on basic alternating bass patterns for their upcoming fall issue.
Random Thoughts
I’d like to take the time to thank everyone who’s written these past few weeks concerning another project of mine. If all goes well, I hope to be meeting sometime this month with the Editor-In-Chief of a big music publishing house to discuss the possibility of a book (or, hopefully, a series of books) based on the Guitar Noise Song Lessons that I’ve written. The idea will be to have the book (or books) contain fifteen to twenty songs, broken down piece by piece just as we do here at Guitar Noise. Each book will also contain an audio CD with the songs played in pieces (and at various tempos) as well as a “finished product” song to play along with.
The reason for going through a big music publisher is pretty obvious – I’d like to use songs people want to play, and why not go right to the song-rights source?
It’s my intention to try to come up with a tutorial book that will work on as many levels as possible, again, much like our lessons here at Guitar Noise. So if you’d like to chip in and tell me what you think works and doesn’t, that would be terrific.
One idea that a number of folks have written is to make certain that there is a “bare bones” version of any given song. Something that almost anyone can play with a minimal amount of effort. From there we’d add more to the arrangement of the song. Our lessons on Horse With No Name or Margaritaville will give you an example of this style of teaching.
Will this book project come off? I honestly don’t know. In the publishing world, it helps to have a strange combination of hard numbers (who will buy the book, why will they buy it, how will the book be different than all the others out there) and luck.
So, if you’d like the chance to tell a publisher what you’d like to see in a guitar lesson book, here’s your chance. I will be putting together a presentation for the Editor and the more information I can give her the better.
Send any comments at all to me and I’ll make sure they get used in my presentation.
And keep your fingers crossed!
Until we see you again on September 15, stay safe and play well.
And, as always,
Peace
David
