Newsletter Vol. 2 # 111 – February 13, 2005
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Articles and Lessons
- Worth A Look
- Email of the Week
- Sunday Songwriter’s Group
- Reviews
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
I don’t know how many people actually look at our Home Page anymore (it seems that many simply click on the links via the newsletter or have their computers go straight to their favorite part of Guitar Noise, such as the Forum Page or any of the Lesson Pages), but those of you who do check out the Home Page might have been as surprised as I was to see that Paul’s given me a new “Author Photo.” Maybe he thought that, after four (or more!) years, the old one needed a rest. Maybe he thought that it was time that I smiled for a change! Maybe he just wanted to have a picture of someone in one of those cool yellow Guitar Noise T-Shirts! Whatever the case, I appreciate the gesture and the photo, taken at last year’s Guitar Noise Seminar in Toronto, is a welcome change.
We’ve got a bit of big news to give you this week, but before we get to it, I’d like to sure I mention some other very important stuff. First, I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to Scott Thomas, Managing Editor of Guitarz Forever. Scott has been kind enough to contribute an article this week on performing live, and I’m hoping that we’ll see more material from him in the future. If you have the chance this week, drop by his site and say hi. Also by sure to let him know how much you like his stuff.
Speaking of performing, don’t forget that Guitar Noise has declared 2005 the year of “Playing Well With Others!” Starting next week, we’ll be posting the stories and thoughts of our readers concerning this vital topic. If you’d like to share yours, please do! Just drop me a line at my email – [email protected] – and I’ll be happy to make certain that you’re included in one of our upcoming pieces. And my thanks go out to those who have already contributed to this project of ours.
And speaking of projects, it’s high time to announce our first big one of the year. I’m pleased as punch to announce that you will be able to find new lessons from me coming up in a new format. Beginning with the April 2005 issue, you will be able to find my work in Acoustic Guitar Magazine! The first lesson will be about looking at alternate tuning without fear. We’ll take a very simple, yet unusual tuning and then explore how to find our basic open position chords. We will also examine some of the unique sound qualities of that particular tuning and then work out an arrangement of the traditional folk song, Handsome Molly.
We’ll be posting more about Acoustic Guitar Magazine in upcoming newsletter and will also be certain to put up links so those of you who can’t get to a newsstand can view the lesson at the magazine’s online site.
As excited as I am about being able to do this, I want to take the time to thank all of the Guitar Noise community for making this opportunity possible. If it weren’t for all of you reading my material and responding so kindly and enthusiastically, I know that the editors of Acoustic Guitar would probably have never approached me in the first place.
Special thanks go to the Forum Moderators and Guitar Noise “staff” of writers for their support in this, and my other projects. And it goes without saying that my biggest thank you of all goes to Paul Hackett for starting up Guitar Noise in the first place and then allowing me to work with him on making it the site that it is.
And, on that note, why don’t we see what’s new here at Guitar Noise this week?
New Articles And Lessons
Performance And Gigs
by Scott Thomas
Guitarz Forever’s Managing Editor Scott Thomas debuts at Guitar Noise with an article full of tips for those of you looking to start playing your music in public venues. You’ll find a lot of good information here that might help you land your first gig!
Emulating Others
by A-J Charron
If you go to any major art museum, chances are likely you’ll see a student or two dutifully attempting to copy an old master. This is one way that people learn to become great artists themselves. And since songwriting is an art, why can’t this idea apply to songwriters as well? A-J shows us that it certainly can be a way to improve your own writing or to at least help you get out of a rut.
Worth A Look
In Scott’s piece on performance, he mentions the spectre of performance anxiety, otherwise know as “stage fright.” And that made me think of Jamie Andreas’ three part series on the subject, the first article of which is called Stage Fright: Part 1 – What It Is and What It Isn’t.
As I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, there’s an awful lot of material here at Guitar Noise. Take some time to explore for yourself. And if you’re curious about a particular subject, feel free to either drop me a line or post a thread on one of the Forum Pages and someone will probably be able to direct you to something you’ll find of interest.
Email Of The Week
This “email” is actually a thread from one of the Forum Pages, namely the “Guitar Noise Lessons” page. Did you know we even had something like this? On this Forum page we encourage people to ask questions or make comments on specific lessons and articles here at the Guitar Noise website. It’s a great way to get extra tips on any lesson, as everyone who has played one usually has a story to tell!
This particular question deals with the article titled Arranging Things, which, as an introduction to chord melodies, contains a number of versions of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
Hi David,
I’m hoping you can help me. I’m having a bit of troublewith this Twinkle, Twinkle arrangement where you have a moving bass line simultaneous with a moving melody (Twinkle #2). I just can’t for the life of me figure out exactly how I’m supposed to play the bass lines that are outside the “normal” chord structure.
I’m writing to you because I really don’t want to give up in complete and total frustration, but I just can’t seem to figure this part out. It can’t be THAT hard, can it?
Hello and thanks for writing.
It certainly shouldn’t be that hard and if there’s a problem it’s that I don’t think I made myself perfectly clear in the lesson. For “Twinkle #2,” I start out by saying:
“This next one starts with the melody, but for the accompaniment, we are using only a bass line of single notes.”
But I do include the chords in the notation. You should not be playing or even fretting the chords! They are simply there so that you can hear what we call the “implied harmony” that you get by pairing the melody line with a single harmony note in the bass. Two fingers, tops, are all you need to play “Twinkle #2” because you should only be playing two notes at a time.
If you’re interested, I do a much better job covering this particular way of arranging songs in the (relatively) recent lesson on O Tannenbaum!
I hope this helps and I apologize again for not spelling things out better in the original lesson.
Sunday Songwriters Group
Year Three, Week 15
Party On! – This week imagine you’re at a Party (or social gathering of some sort) write about the different people there – the host/hostess, the bored kids, aged grandma holding court etc. Make us feel like we’re there. Place the people in the context of the gathering and let them tell us what’s going on don’t just describe them let’s see the party through their eyes.
Good Writing
Bob
Reviews
Blackmore’s Night- Beyond the Sunset (The Romantic Collection)
CD Review by A-J Charron
If you think you’ve heard Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore play the guitar, get ready for a surprise, for something that will blow you away. Here he matches up his guitar work with the lovely voice of his wife, Candice Night, on this compilation of love songs from the first four Blackmore’s Night CDs. This album is a great introduction to their music.
Joanna Connor – Joanna Connor Live and Raw!
Concert and CD Review by Mike Roberto
I caught Joanna Connor at the legendary Chicago club, B.L.U.E.S. ON HALSTED, on February 4, 2005. The large Friday night crowd was treated to arguably one of Chicago’s best modern blues performers.
The Shadows – The Final Tour
CD / DVD Review by A-J Charron
In 2003, after more than 40 years together, The Shadows decided to bow out gracefully. And they did it in full-style! Musically, the CD and DVD are identical: a whopping 42 tracks!!! (the DVD is 180 minutes long!!!) That’s not a typo…
ScaleSMART
Tutorial Software Review by Nick Torres
So it can tell you scales, but is it really smart? Nick Torres checks out some software that sounds too good to be true in his own inimitable fashion.
Thoughts & Feedback
Last week in our “Thoughts and Feedback” section we read an email from someone responding to our “Playing With Others” topic. The author had a good many questions which deserve some thought and attention and I’d like to start with the first part of this email:
I find that when I ask people to get together to play, they almost always think that I must be way too good to play with (which isn’t anywhere near true) just because I initiated. They typically say “I’m not very good” or any number of variations that do not lead to playing. Sometimes I’ll press a little bit along the lines of
“any music we make is music that wasn’t there before” but it rarely produces a get-together.Are there better ways to break the ice? What are some ways that work for folks? How do you get from “I play guitar, too” to sitting in the same place playing guitars? How do you defuse the “I’m afraid I’ll suck” factor and get people to open up a little?
There are, as we’ll see in some of the upcoming stories in this series, many ways of breaking the ice. And I’m more than happy to give you some ideas of my own.
First things first: you have to find other musicians! Being a teacher gives me the opportunity to cart my guitar all over the place. You’d be surprised how many people will talk with you simply because you’re carrying a case. Just taking your instrument to work with you once in a while can start up some potential possibilities.
And who among your friends already plays an instrument? Do you even know? Depending on a person’s nature, not everyone talks about this, usually owing to shyness or fear of being put to the task. So talk about it yourself. Be sure your friends and neighbors know that you play and are approachable. Check bulletin boards at music stores and music school, or where you work and at other place where you meet people socially or semi-socially, such as your church or places like that. Don’t just read the notices! Put one up yourself expressing exactly what you’re looking for.
The more imaginative of you might host parties or barbecues for your friends and neighbors. Instead of having a boom box, find out who owns an instrument or who knows someone who plays and get the ball rolling that way.
But you shouldn’t necessarily start right out by asking someone to play. Think about why many people play the guitar in the first place; it gives them a kind of safe haven away from the rest of the world. You have to keep in mind that you are, in a way, invading a person’s privacy. So do it very gently. Whenever you talk with someone, do your best to first find out about this person. How long has he or she been playing? What sort of music does he or she like or like to play (and that’s not necessarily the same thing!)? What kind of guitar?
If you find enough similarities to want to play with this person, then suggest getting together sometime, purely for the fun of playing. Like you might suggest going out bowling or having a meal or a drink someplace. Then, like it as not, the choice is up to the person being asked. If you’ve done your best and the person doesn’t want to do so, don’t get down about it. You will find people with some persistence.
I’d like to also give all of you this caution: However you decide to break the ice, do so in a manner consistent with how you are as a person. Not all of these ideas will work for everyone, not only for some obvious reasons, but also for many subtle ones. Remember that you’re working with a lot of factors that you may never know about (a person’s home life, work schedule, family dynamics, etc.) and you have to keep in mind that your potential jam-mate is a person first and a musician second.
Plus, be very aware that many people are shy about playing in front of other people, particularly if they are beginners or simply shy by nature. This is why I feel it’s important to go out of your way to get beginners involved. Even if their first time out is spent mostly watching and listening, try to keep them involved and encouraged. We’ll talk more about this next time out when we deal with song arrangements.
And finally, don’t be afraid to be the “instigator” and don’t be afraid to be gently persistent. There are two people in Chicago that it literally took me two different years’ worth of invitations before I got either of them to come for a jam. When they finally did come “Ëœround it was not only a wonderful time but we had many, many more fun times as a consequence.
These are, obviously, just a few ways and thoughts about finding folks to play music with. I hope that our readers will feel free to add more of their own! Please send you ideas and experiences to me at my email @dress [email protected]
As I’ve mentioned on many occasions, we’ll be putting all of this online so that we’ll have a nice page devoted to getting out and playing with other people. Next week, in fact, we’ll start posting those online and here, in “Thoughts And Feedback” we’ll start to address the question of what to play.
In the meantime, I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David