Guitar Noise

Guitar Noise welcomes Doug Sparling to our pages, with the first of what will (hopefully) be a series on lessons on Celtic Music for Guitar. This lesson is on the beautiful hymn, In The Bleak Midwinter, arranged for the guitar in DADGAD tuning.

Let’s wrap up (no pun intended) this season’s selection of Christmas carol arrangements with a lesson that uses a little of everything that we’ve been working on. Also it will give us a chance to start exploring putting the melody further up the neck while still coming up with an easily playable chord accompaniment.

Fingerstyle guru Mark Yodice has given us a wonderful arrangement of Silent Night in open D tuning. What a terrific holiday gift! I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I have been doing this past week!

David’s arrangement of this much-loved Christmas carol focuses on the use of chord arpeggios rather than using straight chords for an accompaniment. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you will pick it up!

Our arrangement of this traditional German Christmas carol may only use two notes at a time, but we will learn a lot about how two notes can imply a rich textured harmony. This lesson features MP3 files to help you get the sound just right.

Next in our series of Christmas lessons we are going to work on The Little Drummer Boy. Way too often, guitarists tend to under-use or, worse, ignore the little finger when playing. Many beginners don’t start working with it until they absolutely have to and at that point it’s almost like learning to play all over again. Includes MP3 files.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas is a wonderfully easy introduction to creating a chord melody arrangement and the first of a series of holiday song lessons for our readers. MP3 files are included.

Here’s a chance to work on your hammer-ons and pull-offs while playing a Celtic soul arrangement of this lovely song. Plus, you get to learn a lot about chord choices and voicing and even get to play around in Drop D tuning.

Here’s a terrific introduction to the wonders of acoustic blues, using the Muddy Waters’ classic You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had. First time GN contributor Jim Arkuszewski will get you playing the blues in no time.

Let’s take some of the things we’ve discussed in past columns and see them put to good use. If you’d like, you can even learn how to play Lindsay Buckingham’s solo from the original recording of Landslide. But you’ve got to promise to learn something.

Here’s something especially for those of you who think that having small children gives you an excuse not to practice – you can play this arrangement of Brahms’ Lullaby at least several times each day! And we’ve turned it into a fairly decent lesson so that those of us without children can learn a few things as well.

Not everyone picks up the guitar to be a strummer! But song arrangements and chord melodies do not have to be the forte of just classical and jazz players. You, too, can learn to create song arrangements to play at your own level.

Peter Simms adds his share to the finest gifts we bring with his wonderful chord melody arrangement of this Christmas carol. Using Drop D tuning to create a thrumming bass part, you’ll have everyone in your house going pa-rum-pa-pa-pum in no time!

Guitar Noise Forum Moderator Greybeard takes us through the steps of creating a chord melody using Auld Lang Syne as an example.

Arjen Schippers, who goes by Promedics on the Forum, has been kind enough to throw together a great song lesson on the REM cover version of this old classic.

Peter’s latest lesson is this wonderful standard that really swings! While simple in melody, this song is a lot of fun to play and also to use to develop your own style.

Here’s a nice easy arrangement on a classic standard, brought to you by the inimitable Peter Simms. Lots of fun to play and if you’re really in a moony mood, check out the lesson on Blue Moon at Peter’s website as well!!

Peter Simms walks us through the basic steps of chord construction, which is a truly helpful thing to know when playing chord melodies, no? Learn all about major, minor and dominant chords in one easy lesson.

Here is part 2 of Peter’s arrangement of I Got Rhythm. Judging by the emails, you’ve all undoubtedly been working hard on his first lesson.

Peter Simms walks us through an introduction to the jazz style of chord melodies. And he makes it both easy and entertaining.