Newsletter Vol. 2 # 10 – November 10, 2002

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

News and Announcements
New Lessons and Articles
Email of the Week
Things To Do People To See
Sunday Songwriters Sessions
Guitar Tip
Reviews
Hot Forum Topic
Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News! I hope this newsletter finds everyone in happy and healthy spirits.

Don’t forget that throughout November and December we encourage you to share your thoughts and stories concerning “The Joy of Guitar” or “The Joy of Music.” We’ll be starting this up the last week of this month, but don’t wait ’til then to send yours! Email Dan Lasley, Darrin Koltow or myself and we’ll take it from there.

Also – if you’ve got a knack for marketing and would like to share some of that expertise with us, please contact myself or Paul.

Carrying on…

New Lessons And Articles

Since there’s been so much activity on the Songwriting Forum, I decided to go with a couple of songwriting articles (both from new writers!) this week, plus one on adding dynamics to your group’s arrangement. Here’s what’s gone online since we last chatted:

The Art Of The Muse
by Share Ross

Let me introduce you to Share, guitarist and lead singer for Bubble. Even though she and her husband are currently in Spain with the band Dogs D’Amour, preparing to open for Alice Cooper on his European tour, she has taken the time to write this inspiring piece for us. I hope you enjoy this advice from a winner of Maxell’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Let It Flow
by Daniel Cowgill

Being able to simply let yourself be yourself is essential to the songwriter. First-time writer Daniel Cowgill offers up some more tips on how not to be your own worst critic and to let your writing flow naturally.

Email Of The Week

Right on the heels of last month’s Easy Songs For Beginners Lesson (Happy), here’s a question on open G tuning:

I have just started learning to play the guitar along with my 6-year old son. We are using the SmartStart program which starts us off with learning Open G tuning and chords. I really want to master this method before moving on to standard tuning (EADGBE) as we both have small hands and the chords in Open G tuning seem to be easier to reach. However, I am having difficulty finding popular songs which use Open G tuning, other than Happy by the Rolling Stones which you point out in your Lesson 18. Do you know of any other songs we could try, or maybe an online source which might list songs played in Open G? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Thanks for writing. There are two ways to pursue what you are doing – first off, you can find songs that have been written specifically in open G tuning. That may be difficult, as you’re finding out. A great deal of Rolling Stones songs are played this way, Brown Sugar and Honky Tonk Women being the very obvious examples. These songs were recently TABbed out in Musician Magazine – you’re bound to be able to find an old copy, perhaps in your local library.

Speaking of the library (or music store), be sure to check out any instructional books on open tunings (you’ll find a lot of slide books with open G).

But an important thing to realize is that if you know some basic chords in open G, then there are all sorts of songs you can play. For instance, I was playing with a group of people last Friday and for whatever reason we got it in our heads to play You Are My Sunshine (I think that someone was on a bluegrass kick). Well, in order to not be one of three guitarists playing the same thing, I retuned to open G to play it. The song has three chords (G, C, and D) so it was easy to play the chords straight and it was also easy to come up with altered chords as well (Am7 for C, for example).

Because we were having fun with the open tuning, we went on to Me and Bobby McGee which, when played in the key of G, also has just G, D, and C for the chords. This led to Dylan’s (or the Byrds’) You Ain’t Going Nowhere (G, Am and C) which led to Knocking on Heaven’s Door (G, D, Am and C).

So don’t feel that you have to find songs specifically arranged in open G. You can have a blast with almost any song if you feel like it.

Things To Do – People To See

HEY!!! Are YOU or YOUR BAND playing sometime in November or December? Well, let me know and I’ll be happy to pass the word along. Guitar Noise is read by people all over the world, so who knows? You might find yourself meeting someone and you’ll have something in common already.

This week:

Guitar Noise reader Randy Combs informs us that his band, Flipside, will be playing next Friday and Saturday, November 15th and 16th, at the Double Branch in Troy, Alabama.

And in Greenwich Village (New York), the Sheryl Bailey 3 will be playing Thursday at the Cornelia Street Café (29 Cornelia Street). The show starts at 9 PM.

Sunday Songwriters Group

Fun with words this week! Write a song, any style, on any subject. What you want to do is to incorporate some unusual wordplay, such as “The New Clear War,” instead of “The Nuclear War.” Ideally, we’d like this in the title, but also make an effort to throw some in the verses…

“…Candy stands on the corner…”

“…power for the few (cha!)…”

Remember that these are my examples, so you should (a) understand that they are lame and (b) be very thankful that I didn’t stoop to ?am and Janet Evening…_ or worse, Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes!”

As Nick says, write well.

Guitar Tip – Things About Strings

Have YOU got a guitar tip to share? Send it in!!!!

This week’s tip is another glossary, which I learned of from Dan Lasley. All the technical terms you’ll ever need can be found here.

Feel free to impress your friends!

Reviews

Vanden Plas – “Beyond Daylight” & “Colour Temple (special edition)”

Two for one!! A-J Charron reviews the latest releases by this top notch heavy metal progressive band.

Hot Forum Topic

Beginners’ Q&A Forum

Okay, this isn’t a topic as much as it is yet another request for feedback. It’s been about four months since Paul made the switch to this new forum format. How and what do you think about it? Look for the thread on the “General News” forum and join in the discussion on the Guitar Noise forums.

Thoughts and Feedback

Tomorrow, November 11th, marks my third year of writing for Guitar Noise. Since my past, particularly these past three years, is pretty well documented here on the various pages of this site, let me ask you to come walk into the future with me…

What would you like from Guitar Noise in the next year? I’ve already discussed the first CD tutorial plan (and I’m happy to say that the production/recording of this should start late this month). I’m also in the process of working with Paul to bring WAV files for the lessons, possibly even MP3 links. With a little luck and a lot of effort, this might happen before the year is out.

And doing one CD can easily lead to others – why not Guitar Noise CDs on fingerstyle, beginner’s electric guitar, various genres? It would be possible (I’m checking into the copyright issues) to produce lesson CDs based on our “Easy Songs For Beginners” or “Intermediate Lessons,” complete with the songs broken down into nice easy pieces, just as they are here on site.

And why stop at CDs? There are all sorts of other things we can do. Some people have approached me about the possibilities of Guitar Noise “Guitar Camp” or weekend seminars. Chicago is fairly centrally located, but I’m certainly open to traveling. Would that be of interest to people?

It all really depends on how you look at Guitar Noise – what you want this place to be. If you are happy to think of us as just another one of those free places on the web where you can get your TAB and go, then that’s what you get. But if you think of us as YOUR site, your learning center, well, then you raise the stakes.

Over the past six, seven (?) years, Guitar Noise has truly become a community. It’s a place where everyone is welcome to discuss music matters, to ask questions, to write, even to peddle their wares. Paul has done an incredible job of creating a true atmosphere of camaraderie here on the web. I continue to be nothing less than amazed at everyone’s willingness to participate.

As we grow, I truly hope you remember how important your input is to me. Guitar Noise is a group effort. I am more than willing to do what I can, but I cannot do it without your help and support – even if that support is simply an occasional “hello.”

It’s easy for me to be so excited about what we can do here on this site because I have already met a lot of my traveling companions – you. I couldn’t be luckier.

I hope that each of you has a great week. I look forward to hearing from you.

As always,

Peace

David