Newsletter Vol. 1 # 51 – May 04, 2002

Hello Guitar Players,

Welcome to the May 4, 2002 issue of Guitar Noise News. I hope you don’t mind but I’m sending the newsletter on a Saturday this week. Some of you may not be reading this till you get back to work Monday morning. But I could think of worse things to be doing on a Monday morning.

First, this week I have to clear up a couple problems. I goofed on two things in the last newsletter. If you were wondering why you are receiving two newsletters this week it is because the last one, scheduled for April 26, was delayed by a server problem. But time goes on even when servers go down and I couldn’t wait any longer to get this next newsletter out.

Second, last week I made a gross error regarding the downloadable ebook. The link used in the newsletter was incorrect and left many people wondering what went wrong. My fault there. Sorry for any confusion. Download the book now. I have also zipped the file this week as I was told that that reduces the number of complications in downloading. Thanks Steve.

OK, let’s get on with this weeks stuff.

In this newsletter:

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

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

News and Announcements

PRESS RELEASE

A new website called Music Careers hit the web on May 1, 2002 after an entire year of planning and development. The idea originally stemmed from a topic that was presented to Guitar Noise. Guitar Noise has successfully been teaching guitar online since 1995. This topic was seen as being too large to deal with in the scope of its parent site, so a new site was approved. Optimism about the success of Music Careers is fueled by Guitar Noise’s other successful spin-offs: The Other Side, Guitar Noise Canada, and Guitar Noise China.

Early on, the focus of Guitar Noise was primarily on teaching beginners how to play guitar because that’s where the demand was. But as those beginners developed into intermediate players and beyond their questions and needs became less about how to play guitar and more about how to make a career out of playing. Yet, as evolved as GN became, it was clear that an entirely new site was still needed.

Music Careers will focus more on the working side of a life in music. While there is a strong interest among young musicians on how to “make it” in the business, this website will also deal with some nontraditional music careers. Also, to keep the perspective broad we will include a wide variety of reviews and interviews as well as links to as many valuable resources as we can find.

Date: May 1, 2002
URL: http://www.musiccareers.net

Music Careers is very much a Guitar Noise website, but now we’re able to focus more on teaching guitar with this website. You may be hearing more about the new site’s development in this newsletter from time to time. But bear in mind that Music Careers has its own high quality, exclusive content, and you’ll have to visit the site yourself to make sure you aren’t missing anything.

Where Does All The Money Go?
By A-J Charron
Ever see some pop or rock star in an interview complaining that he/she has no money? You’re thinking “yeah, right!”. They sold so many albums that they have to be rich. Let’s see how it works.

Musicians don’t miss Music Careers.

Guitar and Bass Lessons

Scaling The Heights
Guitar Column # 57
by David Hodge (04 May 2002)
Today we’ll take the next step in building a strong foundation on which we can become good (or better) lead players and improvisers. But let me add that it’s not just the lead guitarist who benefits from this knowledge – the rhythm guitarist can learn to be much more than just a strummer by adding interesting riffs and fills that become an integral piece of the rhythm.

How Chord Progressions Work
by Darrin Koltow (04 May 2002)
Here’s a common chord progression used in many popular songs. You’ll hear it in songs like “What a Wonderful World,” and “Cupid,” by Sam Cooke, as well as some more modern tunes. I highly recommend singing a song you like as you play these changes. That makes the song come alive. Let’s discuss why this song sounds as good as it does.

The Glue of Repetition
by Jamie Andreas (01 May 2002)
One of the joys of knowing how to practice correctly is the feeling of confidence when you decide to learn a new song, piece, or exercise. When you first sit down to practice you have the same feeling that a craftsmen has when he/she sits down to build a new project. There is no doubt about the final result, you know what you are doing. You have done it many times before.

Acoustic Guitar Tips

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

Guitar Cases

I strongly advise everyone to get a hard-shell case for your guitar. Gig bags and pasteboard cases with fold-over latches just don’t make it if you’re going to do more than store the guitar around the house. Get a hard shell case that your guitar fits in snugly. Make sure the latches have the safety ring that first goes up, then the latch goes down to secure it. There are various levels of quality in hard shell cases. The cheapest is 3 ply plywood with a flat top & bottom. My new Martin D15 came with one. It has a snug fit and a real thick, plush lining. It will do well for taking it in my van to the limited local gigs I’ll use it for. Because it has a flat top, it’s not very crush proof, so I’ll always stand it on edge. A better case would be more layers of plywood (maybe 6) and an arched top, maybe even the back. Molded plastic cases are good too. They’re lighter in weight but are not quite as rugged. If you really need the ultimate protection for your guitar, get a flight case.

One thing I do is if I’m buying a new guitar and I don’t like the case, the music store is usually very agreeable to trade up to a better case. As with most things though, use logic. Don’t spend more for your case than you do for your guitar.

Gman ( o )==#

For more tips visit Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Tips.

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

CD Reviews

Steve Saluto – Under
Wow! A fabulously well-done hard-rock, hard-hitting album! Saluto is from a crop which one doesn’t hear of as often as we’d like to anymore. An excellent guitarist, Saluto brings a wonderful touch to his brand of music. Although the guy could do it, he’s careful never to overdo it.

Email of the Week

Stuck on Pentatonics
My problem is this. I can improvise over pretty much anything I want to play along to using pentatonic / blues scales, but my playing always seems to sound the same. Also, for a song in G I’m leaping from the Am pentatonic on the 5th fr. to the Em pentatonic on the 12th fret and it doesn’t sound very fluid. How can I get away from pentatonics and make my solos sound more original / different – I have a book of guitar scales which I practice daily to increase my speed and knowledge of the fretboard, but I don’t see how you’re supposed to know which scale to play over which chord. Any advice gratefully appreciated.

David’s Response
Thanks for writing. This is one of the problems when people learn to only use scales in terms of leads and improvising. Solos can be thought of as songs within songs – with their own melodies and dynamic tension. If you haven’t done so yet, you might want to read two articles I wrote a couple of years ago:

Also, we’re in the process of putting together quite a few articles on soloing and improvisation that might interest you. What I’d recommend is to start looking outside of your normal style for a while. Check out Gilbert Isbin’s piece on fingerstyle, Improvisation for the Fingerstyle Guitarist. This shows how different chord voicings can lead to interesting improv ideas.

Look out for our new articles where we’ll be dissecting other people’s solos and seeing how they tend to come from a combination of scales and chord voicings. We’ll also work on constructing some of our own.

Also, and this is incredibly important, listen to how other instruments solo. Trying to imitate phrasings other than the guitar can also inspire you to new things.

These are just a few thoughts and I hope it helps you somewhat. Please drop me another email if you’d like to discuss any of this (or anything else) in more detail.

Peace

David Hodge 2002-05-04

Well, well, well. It was a busy week. With two newsletters, two websites and the usual workload on top of that, it is no wonder that you are hearing from me on a Saturday.

Take the time to read through the all the new lessons on GuitarNoise.com this week. For the beginner this is more than enough stuff to keep you working hard for a few weeks. For those whose level is a bit higher this may be a good time to review concepts you learned long ago. Everyone has a different way of teaching and explaining things so things may appear to you in a new light this week.

All the best,

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer