Guitar Noise

Hello to all!
Our latest Guitar Noise Podcast picks up right where GN Podcast #26 left off. Having gotten the basics of this song under our belts, it’s time to explore what to do when (notice I didn’t say “if”) we get around to playing with another guitarist. So here we start out with a simple [...]

Here’s a song I’m sure most of you know and maybe learned in some summer camp or musical get together. It’s a lot of fun to play and we’ve kindly provided the words and chords to the first verse and chorus:

For this Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll work on getting the basics down, plus have a [...]

Hello to all!
In our latest Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll finish our look at “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” by looking at a slightly more complicated strumming pattern as well as learning about a new voicing of the G7 chord. This particular use of the G7 will be turning up again in the upcoming Guitar Noise [...]

Hello to all!
In our latest Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll continue to explore how to sing and play at the same time, using “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” as our example.
This time out, we’ll look at a new strumming pattern and the begin to add fills, working with a cool D to G bass run very [...]

Hello to all!
In our latest Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll take a look at getting comfortable with strumming with an eye toward being able to sing and play at the same time. We start with a new song, the iconic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” and we even have a cheat sheet for you:

We’ll spend most [...]

Hello to all!
With many apologies for it taking so long, let me welcome you to the latest Guitar Noise Podcast,the second part of our look at the old Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.” Here we’ll make an arrangement for the last half of the verse and also do something fun with the [...]

Our latest Guitar Noise Podcast begins a look at the Irish folksong, “The Star of the County Down.” Not to worry – we’ve prepared a “cheat sheet” for you:

First we go over the basic structure of the song and then work on creating a cool introduction for it, which is always a good thing as [...]

Our twentieth Guitar Noise Podcast examines two ideas – first we’ll make use of rests, combining them with simple arpeggios to create space while strumming, especially in slower songs. Then we’ll also look at how to use different chord substitutions, embellishments actually in this particular case, as well as different chord voicings. Using these in [...]

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 [...]

Hello to all!
Today, we’ll wrap up our work with the traditional song, “Streets of Laredo,” one that some of you may recognize from Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings IV.” We’ll pick up where we left off and then take a little side journey into modulations, which are basically temporary shifts of key, In this particular song, [...]

Hello to all!
Let’s get right on with our work with the traditional song, ”Streets of Laredo,” one that some of you may recognize from Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings IV.” In this Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll look at creating walking bass lines from D to G chords. We’ll also start to tackle the “chorus” section of this song.
As always, I’ll be [...]

Hello to all!
We’ll continue with our “using the stuff we’ve learned so far” by looking at “Streets of Laredo,” a traditional song that some of you may recognize from Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings IV.”

In this, our sixteenth Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll start with a basic ”bass / strum” in 3/4 timing and then add some fancier [...]

Hello to all!
Guitar Noise Podcast #15 takes up right on the heels of #14 – we’ll still be using “Handsome Molly” as an exercise to incorporate the various lessons we’ve picked up in our podcasts thus far. The emphasis here will be on combining measures (or half measures) of strumming with measures (or half measures) [...]

Hello to all!
In our thirteenth Guitar Noise Podcast, we move into the realm of swing. First, we’ll look at the feel of swing and of how “swing eighths” differ from the “straight eighth” notes that we’ve been using in our strumming up to this point.
And, since swing eighths are the basis of blues shuffles and rhythms, we’ll [...]

Hello to all!
We’re going to try something a little different with our twelfth Guitar Noise Podcast. I’m not even sure it’s got a “technical” name!
Basically, and for lack of a better way of putting it, we’ll be “stretching out” our downstrum – turning it from a typcial downstroke to something that’s more of a musical [...]

Hello to all!
Let’s continue with examination of percussive rhythmic strumming techniques and move from palm muting to string muting. Just as with our last GN Podcast, our eleventh one will take us from the basic elements of string muting and then work on integrating this new technique into the strumming patterns and techniques we’ve covered thus far.
For the [...]

The tenth Guitar Noise Podcast gives us an introduction to palm muting, how it’s done and, more importantly, how it can become a vital part of your strumming bag of tricks.
After some initial exercises, we’ll be using the Am chord a lot, first doing an Am to G to F (or Fmaj7) to E chord [...]

Okay, let’s get going on our ninth Guitar Noise Podcast!
Here, we’re going to take ideas from many of our past GN Podcasts and use them to create fills that will make our basic strumming sound even better. We use one of our earliest strumming patterns, not to mention one of our earliest chord progressions (G [...]

Hello to everyone and welcome to our eighth Guitar Noise Podcast! My apologies that I’m still a little behind schedule. But we should be back on track now!
As you might guess from its title, this GN Podcast combines elements that we’ve been working on since our series of podcasts began. We’ll take one of our [...]

Hello to everyone and welcome to the latest Guitar Noise Podcast! And my thank you to all for your patience in giving me a little time off since the last one.
Our seventh GN Podcast picks up right on the heels of the sixth, working with the Am to G to D progression in 3 /4 [...]