Newsletter Vol. 1 # 11 – March 23, 2001

Dear Guitar Player,

Welcome to Guitar Noise News, the weekly update for Guitar Noise. This week we have added four new exciting lessons to our website. There is one on transposing songs by David and another on arranging songs by A-J. The Other Side returns with a look at adding a new dimension to your music by playing with others. And finally we also have a new lesson on playing acoustic slide sent in by the good guys at Acoustic Guitar Workshop. I hope that you will be able to follow along and get the most out of everything. This newsletter will also fill you in on what else we have added this week.

New Lessons

Turning Notes Into Stone – A Basic Guide to Transposing – Guitar Column # 49
by David Hodge (23 Mar 2001)
If you ever decide to play music with musicians other than guitarists (and bass players don’t count!) you will very quickly run into a situation where one of you knows a particular song in one key while the other knows it in another. The guitar has a natural disinclination towards keys that contain flats. Unless you’re incredibly adept at barre chords knowing how to transpose a song will prove to be an invaluable skill.

Not Just Another Pretty Face – The Other Side Column # 3
by Laura Lasley (23 Mar 2001)
Practicing alone often works well so that no one else has to suffer with you as you get the sound you want coming from your guitar. However, playing with others adds a dimension to your music, and actually frees you to find new ways to express yourself in the community of musicians. There are, however, stereotypes out there about girls in bands.

Arrangements – Songwriting
by A-J Charron (23 Mar 2001)
Some songwriters get stuck at the “unplugged” part of writing songs. They have no idea how to arrange their songs. If that’s your case, then that’s OK. It doesn’t mean you won’t make it. It just means that you’ll need someone else to arrange your songs. If you can’t find a particular arrangement for a song, it might be a good idea to try and enlist someone else’s aid.

Acoustic Slide : D Tuning Workout – Acoustic Guitar Workshop
Special to GuitarNoise.com (23 Mar 2001)
This is a pretty cool lesson on open D tuning and has 3 great slide instrumentals to try in the style of Blind Willie Johnson and Ry Cooder. All the exercises and tunes have audio support as per usual.

Recommended Reading

Every week I choose a different guitar or music book to recommend. This week I was over at a friend’s house and he had an old, borrowed copy of The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer lying around. I picked it up and started thumbing through it. It is such a comprehensive book that I feel this is perhaps the first guitar book everyone here should buy. Here is a link and short description of the book:

The Guitar Handbook
The most comprehensive resource available for beginning and experienced guitarists alike, whether acoustic or electric. Completely redesigned and with many more full-color photos than the original, this new edition surveys recent models and profiles current masters, includes an expanded lesson section, and encompasses 10 years of technological change in recording and amplification.

New Sites

This week I have added the following links.

  • Red Hot Chili Peppers Tabs
  • Copying Your Favorite Guitarist’s Tone – Wondering how your favorite guitarist gets that great guitar sound on their recordings? Tune in here to find out how they go about creating their guitar sounds. This page has been steadily growing – you’re sure to find info on some of your favorite musicians here.

Email of the Week

This week our email of the week is an open letter to all of you regarding tuning your guitar down.

We’re constantly getting this particular question from people – how does one go about tuning one’s guitar down a half step or a whole step? Well, I’d like to thank Victor, one of our readers, for replying to me with an idea that is so obvious I wish I’d thought of it myself. If you have an electronic tuner, simply placing your finger on the first fret (instead of the open string) and then using the tuner as you normally would will, in effect, tune your guitar down a half step. Likewise if you were to place a capo on the first fret of your guitar and then use the electronic tuner as normal (tuning to the “open” strings), you’ll find that when you take the capo off your guitar will be tuned a half step lower. Obviously, if you put the capo on the second fret and repeat the process you will be a whole step lower once you take it off. This should be a very simple solution to anyone who relies on an electronic tuner to keep his/her guitar in tune.

It is so simple it works. If you have any tips or suggestions about making guitar playing easier we would love to hear from you. Just send them to us by email and we will include the best ones in future issues of this newsletter.

That is all we have room for in the newsletter this week. But there should be more than enough guitar knowledge for you here to last another seven days.

Peace,

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer