Guitar Noise

There are three important creative aspects of musicianship that can help you move up from being someone who just dabbles with the guitar to a serious musician.

This page features some of the advice we've given songwriters over the years.

For many guitarists, playing and songwriting go hand in hand. Since both skills improve with practice, why not try practicing on both simultaneously?

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there's only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

Dave Sanderson is kind enough to share some of his experience and insight with us on the subject of writing a successful jingle for radio promotions.

A-J shows us that copying an old master can be a way to improve your own writing or to at least help you get out of a rut.

The song Picking A Flower was the January winner in the International Songwriting Contest Song of the Year in the category jazz/world/instrumental. Guitarist (and Guitar Noise contributor) Gilbert Isbin tells us of the steps he took in writing the music for this award-winning song. At the end of the article, Gilbert is kind enough to give us more links and information on the song and the contest itself, including reviews from listeners.

Sometimes you write down something that sounds good and later (often much later) you figure out why. Here’s an interesting look at this from A-J, concerning one of his songs, Jasmine Scents.

Being naïve can both hurt and help you. It’s a great asset to the artist or songwriter but it can also lead one to make less-than desirable (read disastrous) choices. A-J explores both sides of this trait in this interesting and thoughtful article.

The long-awaited sequel of Nick’s Songwriting for Beginners has finally made it online. Here you’ll find more tips to help develop your songwriting skills even further, including a neat little step-by-step guide.

Award winning songwriter Keane Li returns to the pages of Guitar Noise with tips on writing commercial material. Don’t tell anyone, but there’s actually good tips for writing all sorts of songs here!

A-J Charron gives us a write up of some of the do’s and don’ts of packaging your CD.

The cost of making an album is becoming more affordable. But just because you can make an album doesn’t mean you always should.

Here is a concise and handy reference for all the songwriting lyricists out there. Also the difficult topic of giving and receiving criticism.

From silly idea to demo recording – you get to sit in on the process of creation and listen to the final results.