Newsletter Vol. 3 # 76 – October 15, 2008

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #76 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

Greetings, News and Announcements
Coming Attractions
Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
Podcast Postings
Random Thoughts

Greetings News And Announcements

Hello and welcome as well to the October 15, 2008 edition of Guitar Noise News, your twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise.

This past Friday, as I mentioned in our last newsletter, it was my privilege to be a member of the “house band” for FODfest. “FOD” stands for “Friends of Danny” – Danny, being Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was killed in Pakistan back in 2002.

In case you didn’t read about it last time, FODfest is in full swing and chances are that some of you might find it in your very own neighbourhood!

Todd Mack, a local musician here in the Berkshires (he also owns and runs the Off The Beat ‘n’ Track Recording Studios in Sheffield, Massachusetts), played in a band with Daniel when the two of them lived in Atlanta. Since the death of his friend, Todd has been doing a series of free concerts. The concert format – part “song circle” with local singer/songwriters/musicians bringing original material to play, part “jam session” as the participants also serve as back-up band for each other, and then there’s the whole live concert aspect of it – is intriguing and entertaining and, if this past Friday’s show was any indication, they’re also going to be a lot of fun this year.

These shows are nothing short of magical. Not only are they a fitting tribute to Daniel Pearl, they also serve as a testament on the power of music to bring people together.

I’ll be writing a bit more about the opening night in our “Random Thoughts” segment. But for now, let’s get going with the rest of the newsletter:

Coming Attractions:

Needless to say, FODfest, along with two other shows I played within an eight day span of time, has kept things pretty busy. Which means that things have piled up on my desk, not to mention in all the “in boxes” I own! So let me fill you in on some articles that will be out during the last half of October here at Guitar Noise:

HOW TO PRACTICE GUITAR WITH A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME
by Tom Hess

All of us have lives that can, and often do, limit the amount of time we can spend practicing our instruments. Tom Hess gives us guidelines designed to help us all get the most effective use of the spare time we manage to find for practice.

COLOR ME BLUE
Turning Scales into Solos – Part 5
by David Hodge

It only takes a single note to change the minor pentatonic scale into the “blues scale.” And what a world of difference that one note can make! As in the previous lessons in this series, we’ll provide you with MP3 sound files in order to help you create your own solos.

GETTING PAST “UP AND DOWN”
Part 2 – Trickier Timings
by David Hodge

In the second installment of this series on strumming, we’ll look at rhythms that are slightly more complicated and involved than simple quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes. In addition to dotted notes and triplets, we’ll also take a look as “swing rhythms.”

MAN IN THE MOON
Easy Songs for Beginners #36
by David Hodge

I had the honor of playing this twice at different shows with Nick, Kathy, Greg and others in the past ten days. It’s a beautiful song that beginners can play easily and it doesn’t take all that much to add some very nice touches to it for a solo arrangement.

EXPLORING MUSIC WITH DARRIN KOLTOW

Good Habits

Here’s a habit that doesn’t relate directly to playing guitar, but can have a great impact on your practice and playing: Keep a journal.

It was hard for to me find people to hear me gripe about not being able to change chords fast enough, or the tough time I had transcribing a Joe Pass solo. But we don’t need to vent to another person. Vent to paper. You could use a computer document, but paper is better. It’s “realer,” harder, and you can press too hard onto the page to show just how frustrated you are. It’s bloodletting, and it helps.

Thanks for reading.

Podcast Postings

Hello to all!

Our nineteenth Guitar Noise Podcast, just up online a few days now, gives us an introduction to some very important strumming techniques – anticipation, dynamics, and (believe it or not) using rests as part of a strumming pattern.

We begin with an explanation of anticipation and how using it easily fits in with all that we’ve learned about strumming so far. Then we add rests and dynamics to a basic pattern to make it sound a lot less generic and a lot more like “real music.”

Finally, we follow a very simple exercise of emphasizing the upstrokes when we play to make our use of anticipation more natural and, hopefully, get you through all the problem points.

Paul and I try to post a new Guitar Noise Podcast every other Monday, so look for the next one on Monday, October 20, 2008.

Event Horizon

In addition to FODFest, which you just read about in our opening section, I’d like to mention a show coming up this Saturday, October 4. I’m going to be lucky enough to play with a lot of friends (and fellow Guitar Noise folk) at Dewey Memorial Hall, right off Route 7 in Sheffield, Massachusetts (right off the village green, next door to the Post Office). So join me, Karen Berger, Nick Torres, Kathy (“katreich”) Reichert, John (“the Celt”) Roche, Greg (“gnease”) Nease, Helena (“lakiehelena”) Bouchez and many others, for a night of friendship and fun. Hope to see you there!

Random Thoughts

The opening show of FODfest turned out to be a lot of fun. More than twenty musicians shared the stage at one point or another, not counting the Hunger Mountain Boys (a great trio of old-time music) and the Berkshire Bateria, who opened up the second act.

I got to sit between two talented young boys – Willie Watkins on drums and Sam Weiser, who is the 2008-2009 recipient of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin and who played a spirited rendition of the jazz standard, St. Thomas.

One of the very cool things about FODfest is the fact that there are usually people of all ages playing. Eleven year olds share the stage with folks in their sixties. Huge samba drum bands get together with folkies.

In an age, or perhaps it’s better to say in a society, where we tend to measure cool by how small a box we can put ourselves into, whether it be a genre of music (alt-emo-death-nu-metal-pop-punk) or a lifestyle, it’s easier for most people to use music as a means of excluding others from their lives. I don’t listen to what you listen to because I don’t like it and that’s that. Right?

But this illusion of exclusion is a lonely trap. Advertisers and songwriters use it all the time, telling us we can be unique by buying the same things as everyone else or by singing about how “no one can ever understand what it’s like to be me.” Clever, no? And it’s certainly not new. There’s just a lot more of it now, owing mostly to the fact that there’s a lot more people.

Think of the bands that you enjoy seeing perform live. Odds are that the band members not only look like they’re having the time of their lives, they’re looking at each other, too! Not just listening for clues or getting signals for when the solo starts or the song ends, but enjoying the act of making music and sharing it. When the performer or band is caught up in the magic of creation, the audience gets caught up in the joy and also gets included in the wonder of it all. That’s very cool.

If there was anything in the world I could wish for, it would be for the chance, at some point in my life, to sit and play music with everyone at Guitar Noise. Obviously not all at once! I’m not sure there’s any venue big enough for everyone! Maybe I should make it a quest. Just set out one day and get as far as I can spending every evening playing with some new folks. Would that be wild?

In the meantime, though, do your best to find others to play with and to share your music with. It will make you a better musician. It will also make you a better person.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always…

Peace