Newsletter Vol. 1 # 17 – July 01, 2001
Dear Guitar Player,
Welcome to Guitar Noise News, the weekly update for Guitar Noise. This newsletter will keep you up to date with the latest news and developments on our site, including all our new lessons, advice, and links added within the past week. Subscribers to this newsletter should feel like they are part of our growing guitar community. Your voice is important to us and we always want to hear what you think about this newsletter and our website.
Faithful readers will be happy that we are back from our holiday. Hopefully you are all in good shape and eager for more guitar knowledge.
This month we are making one exciting new change to our format. In addition to the regular lessons and articles we publish, we are now going to be having special themes or topics every month. Each month we will get as many different lessons and opinions on the current topic as possible. The first topic we are addressing is one of the most common things people ask us about. The topic for July is “How to Buy Equipment” We have several articles in our archives about this topic already. As well as taking the time to bring them to your attention, we will be featuring no less than five new articles on this topic by the end of the month.
I hope you enjoy this weeks newsletter. It is packed with stuff you can use and there will be another one like it next week.
How to Buy Equipment – July Topic of the Month
One of the most popular types of question we receive at Guitar Noise concerns buying equipment. A lot of people are interested in playing guitar but don’t know where to start. Many of them go online to do their research. In fact, buying equipment goes beyond the realm of a beginner question. We often field questions about particular brands and models of guitar. There is the question of buying new or used gear, buying equipment online, choosing effects and accessories and so on.
To deal with this huge topic we have dedicated the whole month of July to covering this one theme. We plan to explore this topic in as much detail and from as many angles as possible. Throughout the month we will be bringing you articles on the same theme from different writers with different perspectives. Before July is over we will share our opinions on buying a guitar, buying a bass, shopping for a home studio, buying stuff online and more.
Here are some of our older articles about buying equipment. You will find some brand new articles in each newsletter this month.
The Rites of Spring
by David Hodge (28 Mar 2000)
Buying a new or used guitar can be an emotional ordeal, especially if you haven’t the faintest idea of what you are looking for. This is why it’s important to do a bit of thinking and investigating before even setting foot inside a music shop. It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be your first or fortieth guitar, take a moment to gather your thoughts.
Reaching The Limits
by Abel Petneki (22 Aug 2000)
Tried everything but still can’t play that solo no matter how much you practice? This seems to be a common problem for beginners – let’s try a different approach. The problem might not be you; it could actually be your guitar.
The Little Things
by David Hodge (29 Nov 2000)
If you are considering buying something for a musician you know and are a bit worried about buying the “wrong” thing, have no fear – there are no wrong things! You may not know this, but there are a lot of things that guitarists always need, but rarely purchase. Guitar players go through stuff that needs to be replaced fairly often. While there is still time left before the holidays let us go through some of the things you can buy for the guitar player on your list.
Building a digital studio
by A-J Charron (06 Jun 2000)
The digital recording environment, although not the best, offers some cheap solutions for musicians. Digital is the conversion of naturally occurring phenomena into a series of electrical pulses, i.e. 0’s and 1’s. In this article A-J shows you how to use your PC as a home digital studio. Topics include what you need to do and how much it will cost.
The Other Side
Have you ever noticed that most of the people playing and talking about playing guitar are guys? Most of the authors (ok, all of the other authors) on this website are guys. Many of the artists talked about are guys. Not to say that guys aren’t great guitar players, writers and composers. But what about the Other Side??? Don’t think of guitar as a male sport; it’s for anyone with a love of music.
Shopping
by Laura Lasley(01 Jul 2001)
I find that shopping for a guitar is much like shopping for anything else. The available information can be overwhelming, especially on the internet. There are a million web sites about every kind of guitar and every style. I have a few simple shopping rules that I like to follow which apply to clothing, TV’s, cameras, cars, houses and yes, guitars and guitar accessories.
Bass for Beginners
This series of articles is designed to give the beginning bass player enough tools to get started and play competently in a band. Each column focuses on a different aspect of playing the bass, but they are intended to be read (and practiced) in order. It is assumed that the musician can read music and knows how to find the notes on the guitar.
Part 7: Nice and Easy
by Dan Lasley (28 Jun 2001)
There are many songs where the bassline is BORING! However, if you start to get “creative” when the listeners expect “simple” it can backfire. Here is a quick look at a few songs that are fairly simple to start with, but provide some opportunities for fun. In addition, they provide more tools to help you create your own bass lines.
A complete list of bass guitar lessons is available on the Bass for Beginners page.
Coming Soon: Later this month we will feature another new lesson by Dan “How to Buy a Bass”
Indie Music Reviews
The invention of the CD by Sony and Phillips brought major changes to the world of music. First, the quality of the playback increased tenfold. Then, the price of recording and producing an album went down tenfold. As Sony and EMI and the others started buying out every record company they could put their hands on, it also meant less place for art in music. The new rule was: If you don’t sell three million copies, forget it.
Then came the Independent labels, now commonly referred to as Indies. Many were formed by artists who couldn’t get signed to the majors. Others were formed by former employees of the Majors who didn’t like the direction the Majors were taking. Again, others were formed by people who wanted to hear good music.
Over the next few weeks and months Guitar Noise will be presenting you many CD reviews from Independent labels. Why Independents? Essentially because Major labels think we are not important enough for them, while Indies are more than happy to be seen within our pages.
We’ll be taking a journey through many types of music: Progressive Rock, Punk Rock, Pop Rock, Straight Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues, Jazz and some stuff that defies labeling. In most cases, you will probably not have heard of the artists we are presenting. Take the time to read them, visit their websites, which usually have clips or full songs on MP3 format. Click on the links to the record companies. If you say hello to anyone, please mention Guitar Noise.
In addition to these reviews, we will also be presenting you interviews with several of the artists. Many of them had a choice between Indies and Majors, but opted for the Indies. Others are just too good to be recognized as such by the Majors.
Many of the interviewees will be guitarists, others will give you tips and tricks to making it. Some might be just shooting the breeze with us. When available, we will also link to tour dates so you can see the artists live. I use the term artist because that is the one thing all these people have in common: They are real artists!
We hope you will like this segment. Get ready to be introduced to some of the best music around!
Bozzio Levin Stevens – Situation Dangerous
Quite the interesting mix of musicians. Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, UK, Missing Persons) on drums, Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel), on basses, upright cello and Stick, and Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) on guitars. How could you go wrong?
Asia are back with their first new album in five years. I must admit that I didn’t really know what to expect with this new offering. I was not particularly enthused with the previous album, Arena, however, Aria was one of the best Asia albums. Putting it in the CD player caused me a few seconds of panic as it sounded like it would be a straight pop sound. Luckily, this lasted only five seconds or so.
New Sites
Having just returned from a holiday that began in May it is not surprising that we have a lot of new links to catch up with. Here is a small sampling of the new links added recently.
- UK Copyright Service – UK Copyright Service – Independent witnessing service and copyright registration center for the UK. Registers original music/recordings on behalf of record companies, musicians and songwriters across the UK. The site also offers information about copyright law, and advice on how to protect your work.
Email of the Week
While we were away on holiday many readers wrote in on our behalf. Just before going away I ended the newsletter with an email from someone who returned his guitar to the store and asked to be removed from our mailing list because there was no way he could “benefit” from our free newsletter. I was going to make a list of ways you could benefit from this newsletter if you don’t have a guitar. Instead, I’ll just include two of the many responses that email generated.
Email of the week number one:
Dear All
Have to take issue with the guy who wrote saying he couldn’t benefit from this site and had returned his guitar. What a fool. I’ve learned more from this site in 6 months than I’ve learned in my guitar playing life of some 22 years. I am not a serious player by any stretch of the imagination, have dabbled in a number of groups but that was more about attracting girls than playing tunes. Have more recently taken to writing and recording (on own 4-track), play guitar, bass and am even splashing out on rhythm track. The reason I’m becoming more involved is because I now know more about playing, composing, arranging and sound engineering than ever and it’s all due to your excellent site.
Besides wanting to say well done and thanks for rekindling my love for all things of a guitar nature I wanted to let anyone out there know that with a little work and all of David’s lessons the mysteries of the guitar will unravel and you’ll have so much fun.
Keep it up guys.
Bob
Email of the week number two:
dear paul,
i just read the e-mail of the week,(the took the guitar back to the store one),and i thought i would write you guys a positive e-mail.i have been playing for only 8 months.i tried various other free, learn to play the guitar sites.but i’m 35 years old and dont want to learn how to play mary had a little lamb.your site gives good lessons on descent songs that i dont mind learning.i would have to say that i use you guys material to learn from .it is easy to use,along with a little common sense and a lot of practice i have come a long way in a short period of time.i guess it is kindly like my dad always said patience is a virtue.i dont care if i’m as good as hendrix, as long as i can learn a little and satisfy my urge to play the guitar. thanx,kevin
Response:
I think there is no need for a response this week. These two letters say more than I could ever say. In fact, I can’t express my thanks for all your kind words. You make us all feel proud of the work we do and give us so many more reasons to carry on.
Best of luck with all your guitar endeavors.
Contact Us
Most of our lessons and articles originate with reader suggestions or questions. For that reason we welcome your questions.
Peace,
Paul Hackett
Executive Producer