Newsletter Vol. 1 # 25 – September 05, 2001

Dear Guitar Player,

This week it is back to school for millions of people worldwide. In Chicago 435,000 public school students returned to school yesterday. This year high school students will be taking double periods of English and math and children in the lower grades will be spending two hours a day reading. While public school gets into full swing in your area what will you be doing in terms of studying guitar or music? If you still have time for us we have a lot of new lessons and articles this week.

No one will complain if you spend more than two hours browsing our site every day. Just ask your music teacher how good we are. Stop by and start learning something fun at Guitar Noise.

Oh yeah, check out this affiliate site: (we get a commission if you sign up)

Guitar Secrets Revealed
GuitarAlliance.com is a comprehensive training program in the best and most effective popular guitar techniques, styles, fundamentals and progressive topics. Whether you’re interested in blues, rock or pop, you will find the most useful information on the Web right here.

Amps & EFX

This week we are launching a new department that will cover the topic of amps and EFX. This regular column will discuss different effects and what they do. Also to be covered in the near future is a lesson about how to choose the right amp for you. Since this is a new column your feedback and comments can help the author decide what to write about in the future.

We would like to warmly welcome Stefan Leonhardt to the family of Guitar Noise writers. As well as regularly writing intersting articles on this subject Stefan has also taken up the position of Amps & EFX expert. If you have a question concerning amps and EFX check out the Guitar Fourms.

GAS Powered Amps &EFX # 1
by Stefan Leonhardt (04 Sep 2001)
Most of us guitarists suffer from an affliction called GAS – Gear Acquisition Syndrome. That means we are buying gear nearly compulsively – more and more often than we really need. What do we basically need to play guitar?

Please join us all in welcoming Stefan to our camp.

Music Genres – August Topic of the Month

Our current theme of “Music genres” continues this month at Guitar Noise. One month proved to be too short a time to explore this topic. From now on our themes and topics will run for two months. To find articles from this month’s topic visit the topic page Music Genres. If you are looking for any article on our site check the site map. And if you would like to recommend a theme or topic for the future please send an email to the webmaster.

Here is this weeks addition to our look at Music Genres.

A Brief History Of Progressive Rock
by A-J Charron (01 Sep 2001)
Prog Rock is a musical genre that almost lives in its own universe. If you ask two people to define the style, you’re likely to get two very different answers. But everybody agrees on who’s Prog and who’s not.

Guitar Principles

Through the use of these principles, anyone can learn to play the guitar correctly, from the beginning, so that bad habits and playing problems do not appear, as they do for so many guitarists and would be guitarists. Likewise, longtime players can learn how to undo the bad habits they have unknowingly acquired over the years, bad habits that are preventing them from improving

Stage Fright: Part 3
by Jamie Andreas (01 Sep 2001)
So far we have talked about what Stage Fright is, and what it isn’t. We have looked at how it is done, and why it is done. We have seen that it is not something that happens to you, it is something you actually do. Well, if Stage Fright is something we DO, I think we can all agree we would rather NOT do it. But how do we not do it? The answer may surprise you.

Indie Music Reviews

Mastermind – Angels Of The Apocalypse
Now this isn’t your typical Heavy Metal band. The first thing that hits you is the superb guitar work. The album comes up with so many different guitar styles that make the whole work all the more interesting.

Qango – Live In The Hood
As its title implies, this is a live album, Qango didn’t stay together long enough to record a studio album.

Email of the Week

His first week on the job and Stefan, our new Amps & EFX expert has been busy. In addition to his article he has taken the time to write back to those who have asked questions. Here is one of the questions our newest expert answered this week:

A small group of us get together on Sat night to play. We all play acoustic guitars and we got to talking. Since I am the only one with a electric hook up they wanted me to see about adding a some kind of effect just to give us a different sound the n the state guitars. Problem is none of have any idea on what kind of pedal. I’m thinking some kind of echo. We play everything from Bob Wills to Led Zepplin. Any idea will help me.

Response:

true, an effect or two can add something to an acoustic guitar sound. Generally, you can add any effect pedal or multi-efx unit that was designed for electric guitar to your acoustic setup, too. There are also effects that are made specifically for acoustic guitars.

I don’t know your budget and if you prefer multi-efx or single boxes, but I guess I can give you some ideas which effects you might check out. BTW, if you gonna use effects, you have to amplify your guitar, otherwise, nobody will hear the effect but only your acoustic sound …

a) not an obvious one for an acoustic guitar, but if you’re playing Led Zep, why not try out an overdrive or distortion pedal?
b) more often used with acoustic guitars is a reverb effect. It gives the sound more depth. You can adjust the controls: would you like to sound as if you were playing in a cathedral or in a bathroom?
c) a delay – that’s what you probably meant with “echo”. This can fill different shoes. If you keep the delay time short, it sounds similar to reverb. If you increase the delay time, you get echos (you have influence on how many echos and how quickly after you play a note). This can be used in different ways:
– give the sound more depth, just like a reverb
– slap-back echo: listen to some rockabilly songs – an echo right after the note, very short, very “hard”
– playing harmony with yourself: play a note, play another note for example a third above the first: the delay will repeat the first note and if you timed your second note corretly, this will happen right when you play the second note …
– spacy sounds
d) a chorus: makes your sound shimmer a bit, hard to describe with few words. Often used in pop and rock songs.

Basic line: get your guitar, go to a music store and play …

If you haven’t already go back and read Stefan’s GAS Powered lesson which is new this week. If you have a question about amps or efx you can fire off a question on the Guitar Forums.

Contact Us

Most of our lessons and articles originate with reader suggestions or questions. For that reason we welcome your questions. Posting a topic or question on our Guitar Forums allows many people to join the discussion. If you want to send us a question you can contact us here.

Peace,

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer