Newsletter Vol. 1 # 50 – April 26, 2002

Hello Guitar Players,

Welcome to the April 26, 2002 issue of Guitar Noise News. In case you missed last week’s newsletter I want to point out one of the links I added last week. If you haven’t already visited the Blues Shuffle In E lesson, I suggest you look at it this week.

This link will take you to a lesson that will give you the pentatonic scale, a chord progression and a looping backing track that you can listen to and practice with over and over. It fits in perfectly with our theme of Soloing and Improvisation this month. Incidentally, I added some more lessons to the Soloing and Improvisation Page this week if you want to check that out as well.

Finally, this week we have yet another writer to welcome aboard. Matt Butler from Jacksonville, Florida joins us with an article called Thematic Improvisation. See below for the lesson as well as an interview we did with Matt so you can get to know him. From his article there is also a link to his website that will let you check out his music.

In this newsletter:

  • News
  • New Guitar Lessons
  • Acoustic Guitar Tip
  • Recommended Reading
  • CD Reviews
  • New Links
  • Email of the Week

Why not help a fellow musician? You can do them a favor by forwarding them this newsletter.

News and Announcements

Our good friends over at Acoustic Guitar Workshop are always putting together helpful stuff for musicians and music fans alike. Here is some of that good stuff:

Free Acoustic Fingerstyle E-book
Fingerstyle Blues E-book
Download this free e-book on fingerstyle blues with 10 lessons in the art of Acoustic Blues. Contains many links to MP3 examples so you can listen to how the lesson should sound. (Download size is 1MB – click right mouse, and choose “Save as”)

Guitar and Bass Lessons

Thematic Improvisation Part 1
by Matt Butler (26 Apr 2002)
On our path to becoming proficient improvisers/soloists we will, undoubtedly, make attempts to transcribe players that move us, the hope being to capture some of the ‘magic’ and bring it out in our own playing. We may also find ourselves studying a virtual library of theory books trying to shed light on some of the mysteries that we find in our favorite players.

An Interview With Matt Butler
by David Hodge (26 Apr 2002)
If you’ve already read his article on Thematic Improvisation, you know that, Matt has some wonderful ideas about music. In order to give our readers more insight into and his thoughts about music in general, and his approach to music in particular, we had a little on-line interview.

What should I have in my band’s promo package?
by Lesa McCabe (26 Apr 2002)
Your promo is what’s going to sell you to a club. It is the first impression you will give. And you will only have about a minute to make your point. Club owners and managers are very busy people. They won’t or can’t spend a long time looking at your band’s promo. So, how do you make that lasting impression, hmm?

Acoustic Guitar Tips

This week our tip comes to us courtesy of Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Tips.

Harmonics and Chimes

Let’s do a little experimenting!

Experiment 1

Play your bass E string open…this is called E, if your guitar is in tune : ) , or the Fundamental Frequency.

Now gently lay a finger tip on the bass E string directly over the 12 fret. Don’t press down on the string like you would do when actually playing it. This will take a little practice finding just the right place and pressure but find how to get the loudest note. You should hear something that sort of sounds like a chime. This “chime” will be one octave higher than when you played the string open and it is called the Second Harmonic. The note is still E.

Now apply the same light touch technique to the bass E string on the 5th fret. You will now hear another E “chime” higher yet.

Now lightly touch the bass E string on the 7th fret. You will hear a higher note B.

Experiment around on other frets. You’ll find other chimes as well. Pretty cool, huh?

Do you notice anything else? Yes, the notes have less volume as you play higher & higher harmonics.

This technique can be applied to any string on the guitar.

Experiment 2

Play a chime on the 5th fret of your bass E string and then the 7th fret of your A string. The notes should be the same. If they are slightly out of tune, you will hear an oscillation or “beating”. Some guitarists like to use this method when tuning. I find it works better on electric guitars than acoustics unless you’re in a pretty quiet environment.

This procedure can be done again on the A & D strings, D & G strings, and B & high E strings. It can’t be done between the G & B strings.

Experiment 3

Chimes are a really cool thing to discover and can add a lot of effects to your music. Last thing to do for me is lower the tuning of your bass E string until it reaches one note lower, D. Compare the sound to your D string to get it right. The tuning of the bass E string will be an octave lower! Don’t accidentally tighten it. Okay, this is now called Drop D tuning. One of the many, many, tunings that sound really cool with chimes. (Check my Tip # 7 for other tunings later.) Now play a D chord and strum all 6 strings for a change. Wow! Now make your little finger straight and lay it across all the strings lightly at the 7th fret. This will take a little practice to get it just right. After experimenting around a while, I came up with this.

Gman ( o )==#

For more tips visit Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Tips.

As a follow-up to Gman’s tip, you can use also harmonics to tune your guitar. Many people use this method because harmonics ring out longer than other notes giving you more time to get the tuning correct. If you are interested in this method of tuning your guitar, David Hodge has written a lesson called Harmonic Tuning that will walk you through the process.

We want to print your guitar tips here. Please send us your tips with “Guitar Tips” as the subject of your message.

Recommended Reading

I try not to make any presumptions about the musical tastes of this newsletters readers. Then this week, when selecting a book for this section I had to stop and consider the possible impact of the book I chose. The author of this book has written songs for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. For a second I worried that some of you might not like that. But then I remembered one of the main philosophies of Guitar Noise – that is, you should use every resource available to help you in your studies. And if it is a hit song you want to write, whether for yourself or someone else, I do recommend you get your hands on this book. You can either order it through us or take a trip to a large bookstore and flip through it there before making a decision.

6 Steps to Songwriting Success: Comprehensive Guide to Writing and Marketing Hit Songs
by Jason Blume
Songwriter Jason Blume presents an easy to understand, step-by-step approach to mastering those key elements consistently found in hit songs. Incorporating inspiring anecdotes, effective exercises and common sense checklists for self-evaulation, this guide provides a concise analysis of the six steps essential to songwriting success. Jason Blume is one of the few songwriters to have singles on the Country, Pop, and R&B charts simultaneously. His recent credits include songs recorded by the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

CD Reviews

Steve Morse Band – Split Decision
Steve Morse, I believe, doesn’t need an introduction. The title of the album comes from Steve’s willingness to do both heavier, band-type of music and more laid-back stuff acoustic elements in it. So this album does take you in two different directions.

Jean-Paul Bourelly – Boom Bop
Bourelly’s excellent effort takes you into various jazz experiences. With African and mid-eastern beats and sounds, this album offers a different kind of musical experience.

New Sites

  • Guitar Downunder – Free fingerstyle and classical guitar music downloads in gif and pdf formats. Information on left and right hand fingering and tuning.
  • Virtuallessons – Free guitar lessons, workshops, sheetmusic and tabs for 6 and 7 strings. Chordfinder, scalefinder, metronome, tuner, recording utilities and more.

Email of the Week

Muddy Vocals
I am having trouble getting vocals to come out clear to my audience. I believe I have them up loud enough they just sound muddy and are not easy to understand. My band consists of a drummer, a bass player, two guitar players, and four vocalists. I am not getting any distortion in the speakers. Is this an equalization problem? Any info would help. Thanks.

Dan’s Response
Yes EQ is the prime cause of Muddy Vocals. You should try setting up with just a rhythm guitar and the 4 singers and sing some Crosby Stills and Nash type harmonies. Play around with increasing the EQ between 800 and 6KHz. Do this with the tone controls on the mixer set flat, only adjust your equalizer. Try doing too much so it sounds harsh or tinny, then back it down until it sounds better. It’s OK to leave it a little bright, so long as it doesn’t distort. You can then adjust each individual voice on the mixer.

Be sure to check that your speakers are working correctly. There may be an attenuator on the horn/tweeter, or it may be blown out. You should be sure that you can hear some hiss from it.

Last, make sure you don’t have on too much reverb. A little is good, but a lot can mess it up. If you are using a digital reverb, try making the time and depth longer, more of an echo than a chorus.

Let me know if any of these ideas help.

Dan Lasley

Thank you for reading. If you have made it this far in the newsletter please take the time to welcome Matt to Guitar Noise. If you like his stuff and tell him so he will surely write more. Like the other writers who contribute to the site, such as Hans, Jamey, David, Dan, A-J, Gilbert, Laura, Ryan, Darrin et al., everyone has their own style and views. The diversity of views and knowledge we share is a good enough reason for you to keep coming back.

As always, if you know anyone who might benefit from this free information please forward it to them.

All the best,

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer