Newsletter Vol. 2 # 116 – March 20, 2005
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Articles and Lessons
- Sunday Songwriter’s Group
- Reviews
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
For those who might have missed last week’s big news, it’s the fact that I’m capable of stopping time! Here I go and put out a schedule and darned if I don’t make every date “July 6” whether it’s a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday! And July 6, as anyone with a calendar (and the brains to read it correctly!) would know is on a Wednesday!
So let me try this one more time:
Ahem!
I’m very excited about making this next announcement:
The Guitar Noise “Mini-Camp!”
This will be a three-day event held from Thursday, July 7th ’til Sunday July 10th at my home in South Egremont, Massachusetts. Essentially, it’s a “mega-seminar,” if you will, especially geared towards those of you who live too far away to come for one day but who would like to combine a nice weekend’s vacation with some guitar education and fun. Our theme will be “Playing With Others,” and that will include a lot of topics, from basic playing techniques to transposing so you can come up with your own part to a group song.
The basic schedule is as follows:
Thursday, July 7
People arrive starting in the early afternoon and get to know each other. We’ll have a “welcome to Egremont” dinner, an informal orientation and, obviously, do some playing.
Friday, July 8
After breakfast, it’s time to get learning. We will start with a group class, which will focus on taking the basic skills we know and using those as a starting point to improve our playing. This will take us through to lunchtime.
After lunch, we’ll take a bit of a break. I will be spending this time in individual sessions, helping each participant to come up with a personal plan for making the next step forward in his or her guitar education.
We will then meet for another group session on simple theory and chord voicing.
Weather permitting, we’ll finish up our day with an old fashioned “play around the bonfire,” complete with food and marshmallows.
Saturday, July 9
After breakfast, we’ll have another group class, focusing on group play – coming up with arrangements and exploring how to approach a song as a group. This will again take us to lunch and after lunch we’ll have a few hours of free time. Maybe, depending on interest, we’ll combine lunch and the free time with a short hike to Bash Bish Falls.
Then we will spend the rest of the day jamming outdoors (again, if the weather permits). This will be in a “song round” format and will give everyone a great chance to use the skills that they’ve learned and developed during the group and private classes.
Sunday, July 10
Of course there’ll be breakfast! After that, well, it’s up to the individual. You can stick around and talk, ask more questions, learn some more things and play a little more.
Owing to the nature of this weekend, there is limited space. But if there is enough of an interest, there is no reason why we couldn’t do a second weekend at another time later in the summer. Or even in the fall as it’s especially beautiful here in mid-October.
Pricing is as follows:
The Full Weekend: $500 – This includes accommodations and meals as well as the lessons and materials.
The Full Weekend without accommodations: $400 – includes meals as well as the lessons and materials.
Nonparticipating spouse / partner: $175 – If you would like to bring your significant other and let him or her have a bit of a vacation while you learn, by all means, please do. Music is, after all, about families.
More particulars:
I have four rooms, which can sleep two to four easily. Three of the rooms have private bathrooms (with showers). I also have a (very) large backyard, so if you’d like to pitch a tent you are more than welcome to do so.
We need a minimum of four participants to make this work. Eight participants will probably be the cut off.
For those of you who’d like to stay elsewhere, the Berkshires \is a tourist haven, full of cool motels and inns and B&Bs for just about everyone’s budget and taste. There are plenty of lakes to swim and trails to hike and little shops to shop in. I’ll be more than happy to direct you to some websites about the area.
If you have any questions at all, please either IM me via the forum or email me and include “Mini-Camp” in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you.
In other news, I’ve gotten a few emails from folks asking about doing another Neil Young Seminar. Some of the requests are from people who didn’t attend last year’s and some are from people who did. So I guess I would like to hear if there’s any interest in having another one in the relatively near future, say June 4 or 18?
This seminar would be held at my home in South Egremont, Massachusetts.
We could do some of the songs from the first time and also throw in some new ones. With enough notice, I could even do requests…
And now we’ve got a bit of an odd week here at Guitar Noise, so let’s see what that is all about, okay?
New Articles And Lessons
Meticulous At Being Ridiculous
Recording Jingles for BBC Radio
by Dave Sanderson
Guitar Noise is pleased to introduce you to Dave Sanderson, songwriter, musician and jingle writer for the BBC. Dave is kind enough to share some of his experience and insight with us on the subject of writing a successful jingle for radio promotions.
An Interview With David Sanderson
by Alan Green
Learn more about our feature writer this week as he sits down with Guitar Noise staffer Alan Green to discuss his new CD, Songbook, as well as all sorts of aspects of songwriting.
Sunday Songwriters Group
Year Three, Week 20
It’s all in the imagery
Over the next few weeks we’re going to concentrate on the imagery aspect of our song writing.
Go West – This week write a song any subject, any style but the imagery must come from the Old West (a la John Wayne). Yee-ha!
Good writing
Bob
Reviews
Flowerbed – Songbook
CD Review by Alan Green
Flowerbed is David Sanderson’s long awaited CD of original songs. It’s a fascinating collection, a showcase of Dave’s many talents as songwriter and instrumentalist.
Thoughts & Feedback
At the risk of seeming too overworked, I have to keep this week’s issue of Guitar Noise News relatively short. Not to worry – I’ll more than make up for it next time!
I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David