Newsletter Vol. 2 # 102 – December 05, 2004
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Articles and Lessons
- Worth a Look
- Sunday Songwriter’s Group
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
We’ve got a lot to throw at you this week, and in the next few weeks as well! So let’s get straight to what’s new here at Guitar Noise since we last chatted:
New Articles And Lessons
An Interview With Sheryl Bailey
by David Hodge
Sheryl just got back from Europe this past week and was kind enough to answer a few questions for us at Guitar Noise. I think that you’ll find her insights into jazz and songwriting to be both helpful and enlightening.
Discover Your Discomfort
by Jamie Andreas
Have you ever had trouble playing something on the guitar? Have you ever seen or heard someone play something, tried to do is yourself, maybe practiced it for a long time, and ended up with only frustration and bad feelings about yourself as a player? Could be you’re not paying attention to the little signals your body is sending to you. Jamie tells us how to listen to our body and to become better players as a result.
The Little Drummer Boy
by David Hodge
Next in our series of Christmas lessons we are going to work on The Little Drummer Boy. Way too often, guitarists tend to under-use or, worse, ignore the little finger when playing. Many beginners don’t start working with it until they absolutely have to and at that point it’s almost like learning to play all over again.
Worth A Look
Last week I mentioned that we (read “Paul”) were (was) going to put up a Christmas page to go along with the lights. And, true to his word, it’s up there.
And one of the many things you’ll find on this page is Peter Simms’ arrangement of The Little Drummer Boy done in Drop D tuning. It’s a fun little piece and you might find it fascinating to see how different song arrangements come about.
Sunday Songwriters Group
Year Three, Week 5
As previously mentioned, in the first weeks of SSG III we’re going to look at inspiration. We’ll try to find it in the strangest places. Places you’d never think of looking.
The Good News or the Bad News: This week I want you to find a news headline and write a song inspired by that headline. Don’t write the news story just what the headline makes you think of – a kind of free association.
Good writing
Bob
Thoughts & Feedback
Continuing with some questions sent to me by one of our readers, let’s explore one that gets debated quite often:
Should we learn to read music?
First off, I’d like to direct you to a great discussion about this very topic that took place on the Forum pages a little while back.
One of the arguments here, that when you learn another instrument such as piano, saxophone or even drums, that the teacher will teach you to read notation, is very telling I think.
It is certainly possible to learn to play guitar, to play it one’s whole life in fact, and not ever read a single note of music. Or TAB, for that matter. This is the “classic” argument you’ll hear time and time again…”Paul McCartney (or pick any musician you’d like to use as an example) didn’t read music and he’s certainly done okay…”
And, as an argument, there’s not too much that you can say about that. Not because of what it says but because anyone who uses that argument is probably not interested in reading music.
How can I get that out of this simple sentence? Well, seriously think about it… Any guitarist (or musician) that we consider has “made it” has done so, in all likelihood, without his or her ability to read music even entering the picture. There are so many factors involved in being able to make it as an artist that to focus on this one thing (technically, this lack of one thing) is an approach that would only be resorted to in order to close down a discussion rather than to start one up.
Much more important to consider is this – What, if anything, has so-and-so’s decision to not learn to read music (and it is a decision much more often than a disability – more on that later) got to do with me as a guitarist? After all, I’m not Paul or Jimi or Stevie or whoever.you decide to pick as an example.
I can’t speak for you, but as someone who is, even at the age of forty-seven, constantly trying to become a better guitarist, musician, human being, I will gladly welcome all the help and advice I can get! Why on earth would I walk away from anything that could possibly help me get better? I don’t have the luxury, or the patience to sit and reinvent the wheel. Nor do I have the ego that makes me think that my reinventing the wheel will make me a superior person.
I could claim it’s hard work, but, quite frankly, so was learning the guitar in the first place. I could claim I don’t have the time, but I make the time to practice. What would spending an extra five or ten minutes a day for a few months cost me? I could say I’m too old but I know a lot of people who’ve learned to read music at a late age. And when I make that statement, I’m also assuming that all of us would agree that learning to read music at seventy-eight or eighty-two to be considered “late.”
Basically the decision whether or not to learn to read music has to be in an honest manner by the person making the choice. And the easiest way to do that is to, again honestly, list all the pros and cons about being able to read music. No lie! Get a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and list all the good things about being able to read music in one column and all the bad things in the other.
Writing out a list of pros takes no work at all. And most of these were mentioned in that Forum thread I mentioned earlier. There’s being able to read a lot of guitar music that isn’t done in TAB. There’s the ability to know when a piece of TAB is wrong or, even better, to realize that there’s an easier way to play something than simply by what the TAB suggests. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a difficult stretch dictated by a TAB only to realize that there was a simpler way to get the same note. And being able to read what the note was is what made me see that.
Another “pro,” and this is also a huge benefit, is that you’re not limited to guitar music. You can get some really great ideas and arrangements from being able to read piano music (quite a few of our song lessons, in fact, come from this), not to mention being able to put in horn parts or fiddle tunes or just about any sort of music you can think of.
And it’s important to note here that the “pros” we’re listing (and hopefully the ones you’re listing as well) are all tangible things. These aren’t opinions; they are facts. There are real things that you can accomplish simply by knowing how to read music.
The same is not so on the other side. In fact, it’s in listing out the “cons” where I run into an incredible problem. I’ve been trying to do an itemization of this nature for the better part of two months now and, for the life of me, I cannot come up with any “cons.” And I suspect that others can’t either, because if you read any discussion of this, no one offers any real reasons to not read music, specific things like
If I substitute the word “excuses” for “cons,” then I can indeed come up with a list. In addition to the “so-and-so doesn’t read music” argument, there’s the “it’s too hard” or “it takes time” that we’ve also already discussed.
And there’s also the “coolness” factor, I think. Whether or not we’re honest enough with ourselves to admit it, the idea of being a “rebel” or an “outsider” appeals to most of our natures. So being able to do something without being part of the norm strikes us as being cool. And, personally, I think this is also why a lot of musicians make a big claim to not knowing how to read music. It’s part of the image. The truly silly thing about this kind of posturing though, and again it only works if you’re able to honestly look at things, is that we tend to really delude ourselves with this sort of thinking. Advertisers know this; it’s in fact the heart of most pitches: Be unique by buying the same thing everyone else does! And I really shouldn’t get started down this particular path…
But doesn’t the fact that I can’t list a single item in the “cons” column that is a genuine reason to not learn to read music, instead of an excuse, make the point for me? If not, then take a look for yourself. Write out what “cons” you have. Chances are very likely, if you’re being honest with yourself, that your reasons are simply clever (or not so clever) translations of “because I think it’s stupid” or “because I don’t want to.”
And, again, that’s why I don’t think it’s worth an argument. If you can’t see how the pros of being able to read music can honestly help you out, and how there’s nothing about being able to read music that can make you a worse musician or guitarist, then what can I possibly say that will change your mind.
I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David