Newsletter Vol. 2 # 109 – January 30, 2005

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

  • News and Announcements
  • New Articles and Lessons
  • Email of the Week
  • Sunday Songwriter’s Group
  • Reviews
  • Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

For those of you who came in late, or who just may not pay attention to the little things, I happen to live pretty much with two mottos, neither of which is original, and both are stolen from cartoons. And neither cartoon is Maisy Mouse, by the way. Motto number one comes straight from the classic Super Chicken, and it goes like this:

“You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”

The second comes from Calvin and Hobbes, which is where, for better or worse, I have gotten a lot of my outlook on life. And that one goes: “Gradually he catches on!”

And both of them come into play to start out this edition of Guitar Noise News!

A couple of months ago we had one of those server glitches that occasionally occurs and at that time my ability to access any email at my “guitarnoise.com” @ddress. Paul managed to fix that for me and mentioned that, if I wanted to, I could handle any “automatic” responses from the newsletters. Wanting to be of help and thinking that there couldn’t be all that much to it, I naturally said “sure!” Well, it turns out that I have to actually actively access that email! In the immortal words of Homer, “D’oh!”

So if you happened to one day write a note to us by hitting the “reply” key after getting our newsletter, and you’ve been wondering why you’ve not gotten a response from anyone, look no further than here.

But, as advertised, I’m catching on!

Let me attempt to head off some of those emails right now by bringing up another subject – the MP3s here at the Guitar Noise site. Owing to an unprecedented surge of popularity, we seem to be running over our allotted waveband and, at the present time, the easiest way for us to deal with it is to temporarily disable the MP3 file. This is only for a few days and, by the time some of you read this newsletter, the problem might well have been taken care of. So if you have recently, in the past four or five days or so, tried to listen to an MP3 and gotten nowhere, try it again later this week. You should get through fine.

And now let’s see what’s new here at Guitar Noise since we last chatted:

New Articles And Lessons

Practical Insights In Songwriting
by Gilbert Isben

The song Picking A Flower was the January winner in the International Songwriting Contest “Song of the Year” in the category “jazz/world/instrumental. Guitarist (and Guitar Noise contributor) Gilbert Isbin tells us of the steps he took in writing the music for this award-winning song. At the end of the article, Gilbert is kind enough to give us more links and information on the song and the contest itself, including reviews from listeners.

An Interview With Mark Summers
By A-J Charron

After listening to Disguise the Limit’s new album, Redemption, A-J felt that he just had to get in touch with the guys in the band. Guitarist Mark Summers agreed to share his thought on the group’s latest album and on his own career as well.

Email Of The Week

I received this notice via email from one of my former students in Chicago this past week. And even though it’s too late to post so that you could attend the event, I thought it would be a great way to show how some people come up with very creative ways of using their musical talents.

The Old Town School of Folk Music

909 West Armitage Avenue
Saturday, January 29th at 7:30

Before Live Aid, before Farm Aid, before “We are the World”, there was The Concert for Bangladesh. George Harrison orchestrated this famous star-studded concert (Clapton, Dylan, and Ravi Shankar for starters) and generously donated all proceeds from the concert and subsequent album toward the elimination of hunger and poverty in southeast Asia.

33 1/3 years after its initial release, we’re dusting off The Concert for Bangladesh for another spin, this time performed by the ensemble classes of the Old Town School and benefiting the Asian tsunami victims.

Admission is free. Donations will be accepted during the show. You can make checks payable to the IFRC or UNICEF. Cash will be divided between the two charities.

Here’s hoping that the event was a huge success and that everyone who attended, both listeners and performers, had a wonderful time.

Sunday Songwriters Group

Year Three, Week 13

One of my favourite songs was on the radio as I was driving home the other day – Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman. It started me thinking people would be a good subject for the next few assignments for the SSG.

Week 13

This week I want you to pick a lonely (or solo) profession and write about the life of that person, how the job makes them feel, how they pass the day (waving at passers by/counting ducks on the water that sort of thing)? Make us feel we know exactly how they’re feeling.

Remember I’m not looking for a job description here.

Good Writing

Bob

Reviews

Disguise the Limit – Redemption
CD review by A-J Charron

Redemption is one of the best things I’ve put in my CD player in a long time. There’s not a weak song anywhere to be found here. Everything is done superbly, from the writing, to the performing, to the production. Redemption is one of those albums that have you begging for more.

The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story
DVD Review by A-J Charron

Who was Syd Barrett, really? And what really happened? This DVD sets the story straight. Told from an objective point of view, with interviews with the members (and former members) of Pink Floyd, who knew the guy, and with other musicians who played with him, this is a very informative and interesting DVD.

Thoughts & Feedback

Last week in our “Thoughts and Feedback” section I mentioned that I’d like to hear from our readers on the topic of “Playing With Others.” My thanks to everyone who’s written so far and I’ll be posting articles full of your stories in the very near future.

But I’d like to share one of the emails that I’ve gotten because to me it’s a bit of a point of pride. This comes from another former student of mine:

I can’t say enough about the benefits of playing with other people. If you’re mainly self-taught, as I am, you need interaction with others, if for no other reason than to gauge progress. I used to be very, very intimidated playing in front of other people. It was even worse when as a young (er) adult. I happened to meet and hang out with a lot of musicians that were actually making a living playing. I used every excuse NOT to play with these people since I thought I would embarrass myself. I have since discovered that most guitarists will tell you that they don’t think they’re very good, even when they’re blowing you away.

Anyway, with age and maturity(?) I developed a little more self-confidence and started accepting invitations to jam with friends from work, my musician friends, etc. Even then when they would compliment me, I thought they were just being nice. Nevertheless, I always came away from these jams with a little more than I started with. Besides meeting new people with similar interests, you may learn a new chord, a new riff, or get the lyrics to a song you’ve always wanted to learn, etc. And NOTHING is better than just doing your own simple thing and having more advanced players back you up. It sounds awesome!

And I’d like to take up the other side of the coin, so to speak. Last August I twice had the pleasure of playing “back-up” for my former student as she played a bunch of songs, covers and originals. The first time was at the 2004 Riverside Jam here in Massachusetts and the second time was at the fortieth birthday party of a mutual friend (and guitarist) of ours.

You might think that my use of the word “pleasure” is simply my being polite, but in reality (and my friends will vouch for this) it’s very much an understatement. Being able to take part in creating something immediate and moving is what every musician lives for. And while my former student probably thinks that she was the one benefiting and learning from the experience I can assure you that it was a two way street. I think of every opportunity to play as an opportunity to learn and being asked to play on her original songs (and equally original covers!) was quite a rush. And it was a lot of fun.

Likewise, in early December I happened to have to be in West Virginia for a short weekend. Nick Torres, who lives close to Washington DC, drove out and we got in an evening’s and a morning’s worth of playing. He’ll probably say that he learned a lot but so did I. That’s how these things usually go. And that’s why you should never pass up an opportunity to play. Besides the learning, it’s usually always fun and you might make a new friend for life if you don’t look out!

I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace

David