Newsletter Vol. 3 # 98 – September 15, 2009

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #98 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

• Greetings, News and Announcements
• Topic of the Month
• Guitar Noise Featured Artist
• New Lessons and Articles
• Exploring Music with Darrin Koltow
• Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Depending on where you live, fall or spring is right around the corner! And even though there’s still a week left before we welcome the change of seasons, we here at Guitar Noise wish all our readers a wonderful fall or spring. And what better way to start than with the September 15, 2009 issue of Guitar Noise News, your free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise?

By the time you get this, I also suspect that the Guitar Noise Facebook page will have registered its one thousandth fan. We’re sitting at nine hundred ninety-eight as I write this, so I’m thinking that’s a safe bet. It’s been very cool to browse through the fan base and to see how many different people of all ages and from all over the world have been joining in. Just looking through the very latest set of people who’ve signed in, I see fans in New York, London, Quebec City, Dallas, Galway, Israel, Australia and Saudi Arabia. It’s good to see you and our thanks for joining our international guitar community.

In case you missed it last time, Tom Hess (a wonderful guitarist, teacher and a regular contributing writer to Guitar Noise and Music Careers) is out on the road wih his free guitar clinics.

Early word on the Forums pages is that a number of Guitar Noise readers are hoping to make the Cincinnati clinic. If you do get there, please tell Tom “hello” from me.

Topic of the Month

Our Topic of the Month of September is “Teaching.” On the Guitar Noise Home page you’ll find links to the many articles here at Guitar Noise that discuss teaching and the various things that go along with it. And you should also be sure to look up the articles, both here and on our sister website, Music Careers, written by some great teachers who are also GN contributors, such as Darrin Koltow, Tom Hess, Tom Serb, Alan Green, Nick Torres and many more.

And feel free to post an email to me if there’s a particular topic you’d like to see given “Topic of the Month” status at some point in the future.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

And the Guitar Noise Featured Artist for this month is the Beatles. Click on over to our artist profiles page for a bit of light reading on the Fab Four as well as links to the numerous Beatles’ song lessons that you can find on the Easy Songs for Beginners page as well as the Songs for Intermediates page.

New Lessons and Articles

Smile (A Charlie Chaplin Song)
by Hank Stupi

Here is a finger style chord melody arrangement of the beautiful Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile.” Long-time Guitar Noise reader and first-time contributor Hank Stupi takes you through the process step by step, so you’ll see how an initial “busy” arrangement consisting mainly of eighth notes and arpeggios was pared down to make it easier to play and to allow room for some nice movement in the bass line.

Guitar Teaching: Lesson One
by Paul Andrews

If you have read Nick Minnion’s article “Could You Teach Guitar?” and finished with a resounding “Yes!” then the next question is “How?” This article hopes to answer that question with a detailed look at how to teach the all-important first lesson.

How To Advance Your Lead Guitar Solos
by Mike Philippov

Mike Philippov details five important steps to making memorable and interesting guitar solos. These are not only easy to follow, they also make a lot of sense!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Tip for September 15 – Practicing Modes (Part 15)

We covered C Mixolydian, aka C7, arpeggios in the last issue. To keep in line with our study of this mode, a look at scales that communicate that sound is in order.

Here’s the fundamental C7 sound in scale form.

|-8-5-6-5---------|-----------------|
|---------8-6-5---|-----------------|
|---------------7-|-5---------------|
|-----------------|---7-8-7-5-------|
|-----------------|-----------8-7-5-|
|-----------------|-----------------|

|-----------------|-----------------|---5-6-8-8----|
|-----------------|-------------5-6-|-8------------|
|-----------------|-------7-5-7-----|--------------|
|-----------------|-5-7-8-----------|--------------|
|-------5---5-7-8-|-----------------|--------------|
|-8-5-6---8-------|-----------------|--------------|

It’s important to end with the note C to really convince your ear that it’s hearing C Mixolydian / C7. Also, playing a C7 chord or arpeggio before and after you play this scale, will drive home the C7 sound.

It’s the coolest thing the first time you can play just the Mixo scale by itself — or hear someone else playing it — and say “Hey, that’s a C7.”

The next time out we’ll look at other scales that convey C7.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2009 Darrin Koltow

Random Thoughts

I received an email from Alan Green last week and it sounds like his first week of teaching went very well. If you missed our last interview, you may have not read that Alan has taken on teaching guitar for the Essex School Music Services in England. You can read more, both about Alan and his teaching adventures in the Guitar Noise Interview.

Alan’s schedule is certainly filling in! His latest report puts him with forty-nine students from six different schools and more on the way! All of us at Guitar Noise wish him continued success and happiness with his teaching and playing.

And happiness is a big part of why we play, no? I read a wonderful post recently on the News page of the Guitar Noise forum, from GN Forum member “specialof” and I’d like to share it with you:

Hey guys, just a quick update that might encourage someone to keep at it.

I have the opportunity to play (solo) every Sunday in our worship service as I do all the music. Daily practice has made a huge difference with my guitar playing as I am constantly preparing for the next Sunday, and now I am also willing to sing solo along with my playing. This has been a big step, as I am a naturally shy person although most wouldn’t notice it. The first time I sang solo a few months ago I was shaking in my boots, although it went very well. Since then, I have continued to sing solo several times and it gets easier each time, and also sounds better.

I mention this, as music rubs off on others. My wife just loves to hear me practice daily (and attend the different music festivals we go to) and I could tell she wanted to learn an instrument. So, about four or five months ago I started teaching her the mandolin (even though I had never really played the mandolin before – but it just seems natural for a guitar player and easy for me to play immediately).

So, yesterday she played in the service with me for the first time and we did a duet of that old 1868 song “In The Sweet By and By”. I sang and did my guitar stuff, and she played the Mandolin… and did a terrific job. The applause was great, and a big encouragement to her. Understand we are in our 50’s (but think we in still in our 20’s), and she had never played an instrument before but was able to do this within a few months is terrific.

Last week, I recorded us during practice on my Handy H2 recorder doing this song in my little home studio, and she just couldn’t believe herself and kept asking me “Is that me playing the Mandolin?” and of course it was as she was the only one in the room with the mandolin. After hearing herself, she couldn’t wait to play in the service.

Last night when we got home, she wanted to start working on our next song together… which we did.

Just thought someone might be encouraged by this.

The joy of playing music with others is incredible and I’d like to invite all of you once again to share your own stories. Just send them my way ([email protected]) and we’ll put them in the upcoming newsletters.

And until our next newsletter, stay safe. Play well and play often.

And, as always…

Peace