Newsletter Vol. 2 # 3 – September 22, 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
  • Guitar Tip
  • Reviews
  • Hot Forum Topic
  • Thoughts and Feedback

News And Announcements

Greetings!

First off, a hearty thanks for all the emails from people (more on that later). Secondly, don’t forget that we’re asking for your “scary stories” to put online during the month of October. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m going to need a “rating code” like they use to rate movies (“WARNING: You must be 18 or accompanied by an adult to read the following…”)

What’s the greatest thing about asking our readers for proposals on articles? Well, not only are we getting to know what our readers want, we’re also getting to know our readers personally. It’s amazing to get a fantastic idea from someone totally new to the guitar and then to look at the next email and find an article from someone who’s been playing longer than I have!

Whether you are an absolute beginner or someone who can’t remember ever not having a guitar in his or her hands, you’re bound to find a kindred soul here. To everyone who visits, I’d like to say thank you for sharing your time and knowledge and enthusiasm with us.

We’ve got a lot of new things to cover so I guess I’ll leave off the potential ramble so that we can get on with the fun stuff!

New Lessons And Articles

Another life story and a great new piece from a first time writer highlight our new articles this week. Top that all off with the latest Intermediates’ Song Lesson and I’d say we’re doing pretty well. Here is what’s gone online since our last newsletter:

My Secret Life As A Bass Player
by Tracy Hardy Johnson
What does one do when she is a mom, a medical transcriber and a classically trained flutist as well? If you’re Tracy Hardy Johnson, you pick up a bass and start playing the blues in the middle of northern Minnesota! More proof that it seems to take something special (and, please, no jokes about defective genes) to play the bass…

Singing 101
by Nick Torres

We get a lot of questions about singing (maybe that’s the “noise” part of “Guitar Noise”). In his first article for us, Nick Torres tells us to look at our voice as an instrument. His writing is thoughtful, helpful, funny and, best of all enlightening. It’s a terrific way to study and learn this instrument we all can play.

Yesterday
by David Hodge
Songs for Intermediates # 6

Yes, it’s another song by Paul McCartney. That’s not necessarily a bad thing…In this lesson we will work up a finger-style, single-guitar arrangement of this classic, complete with walking bass lines, chord melodies and inverted thirds. Those of you who have been using these songs to show off to your friends (and I know you’re out there!) will have another gem to add to your repertoires. And, just to see how it works, we’ve thrown in a couple of MIDI files. Please let me know what you think.

Email Of The Week

Quick little theory question this week –

Hey…one question that just popped into my mind…why isn’t the low E (open 6th string) played on a C chord? It seems as is it should be played, since we play the high E.

Technically you can play it. Many people do. But it just sounds “wrong” for lack of a better word. Here’s why –

We are used to hearing the root or the fifth as the bass note (or lowest in tone) of a chord. It doesn’t matter what type of music you listen to, this is true of virtually ALL types. Of the three notes in any given major or minor chord, the root gives the chord the strongest overall impression and the fifth comes second. This is why alternating bass lines (like in the “Margaritaville” lesson) use both the root and the fifth.

The third, while incredibly important to the chord (it defines a chord as being either major or minor), is the weakest of the three notes when used as the bass note. And when you figure that the bass note of any given chord is, in all likelihood, going to be the first one you strike in a downstroke and left ringing the longest, it’s important that it give a strong impression. Thirds are often used as passing tones in bass lines, but rarely as the bass note in a sustained chord.

I hope this helps.

Things To Do – People To See

I’d like to introduce a new section to our newsletter. As much as I guess I should hate to say it, playing the guitar and enjoying music is not about being on the computer. Many of our writers (as well as the people we write about!) perform on a regular basis. Okay, some have schedules that are more sporadic than regular…

But I’d like to give you the chance to get out and meet some of these people. Or, at the very least, get you out to hear some great music. So if you are playing somewhere and would like to have it posted, please send me the info (place, date and time) AT LEAST TWO WEEKS AHEAD OF TIME! I try to write these newsletters by Thursday so that it’s one less thing to do over the weekend! And remember that they go out on Sunday, so it’s no good telling me about any Saturday gig that same week.

Guitar Tip

Faster chord changing

Last week we debuted our Absolute Beginner page with a lesson on chords. Not surprisingly, I’ve gotten many emails about how one goes about getting faster at changing chords. Well, as much as I hate to say it, practice has a lot to do with it. Most of us do not use our hands for anything remotely like playing the guitar during the course of our day to day routines. So it should make sense that we need to get as much practice in as we can.

But there is one tip that I’d like to pass on to you. Try to form your chords from the “bottom” up whenever possible. That is, from the bass note to the high note. More often than not, you change chords on the downstroke, so you want to get the lowest notes in place right before you strum. Take a G chord as an example. If you get your fingers on the low E (6th) and A (5th) strings just as you start your strum, you have a lot of time to get that finger on the high E (1st) string before you actually strike it. I know that it may not seem like a lot of time to you right now, but trust me – it is more than enough.

Another thing to remember is to minimize your finger movement whenever possible. If you go over the chord lesson in our first Absolute Beginner piece, you notice that I gave you fingerings deliberately chosen to allow for easy switching between chords. But there is no one correct way. Take the time to try out different things yourself. And also remember that whatever way you come up with, be open to exploring others.

REVIEWS

Guitar Pick Jewelry – Hall Glass Studios

Something a little different this week: Paul was contacted by Angel Hall, owner of Hall Glass Studios, who designs and makes jewelry. Among her popular items are custom necklaces made with guitar picks. How could we resist? Take a look at our “Guitar Noise” necklace as well as more from Angel’s catalogue.

Hot Forum Topic

from the Guitar Players Discussion and Beginners Q&A Forum

Choices, choices, choices…

I’m sure that these have to be three of the most-asked questions that ever grace the forum pages. Do I play electric or acoustic? What’s harder to play, bass or guitar? Is it better to know TAB or music notation? The really cool thing is that whenever these questions come up, there always a LOT of different answers and very interesting opinions tossed about. Now, while I can answer “both” to all choices (I seem to do that a lot when given a choice, particularly with ice cream flavors…), I could also argue one or the other.

Why not weigh in with your choices and tell us your thoughts:

Guitar or bass; Acoustic or electric; Notation or TAB: Guitar Noise forums.

Thoughts and Feedback

First off, my thanks to those of you who responded to my questions in last week’s newsletter. I truly do appreciate that you take the time and trouble to write.

When you consider that Guitar Noise receives more than seven million hits a month, it’s easy to understand that we (I should really say “I” here) do realize that we cannot possibly meet everyone’s particular needs. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to do more to improve our site.

Last week I asked you for your thoughts on sound files and your responses were, on the whole, in favor of them. We put a few in with the latest Intermediate Song lesson (“Yesterday”) and I will greatly appreciate hearing whether they helped or not. If so (and disc space permitting), we’ll work on getting more of them incorporated into the lessons – even the old ones. Fair warning – they will definitely be of a dubious MIDI nature to start with! I’ll explain more about the problems of this next week.

This week, let me pose this question: what could we have MORE of?

About a year ago we got a number of requests for jazz lessons and we have been more than fortunate to get contributions from Hans Fahling, Darrin Koltow, Bill Cozzo, Gilbert Isbin (who’s second lesson I am FINALLY finishing up!) and others.

Some of you have noticed and commented positively on the fact that I’m working more fingerstyle pieces into both the beginners’ and intermediates’ lessons. While these take a great deal of time to work up, I understand that there is a desire for them. As long as you are patient, I can produce more.

And this brings up another question – my song lessons, both beginner and intermediate have been just that – lessons. I haven’t picked a song that didn’t have something to teach. Is this good? Or would it be nice to simply have the occasional transcription simply for the sake of having one? My purpose at Guitar Noise has always been to teach. You’re probably tired of me saying so, but the “why” has always had priority over the “how” at this website. But does that mean that we can’t find a place for it?

Who wants classical guitar pieces? Bluegrass? Blues? Acoustic or electric? Acoustic AND electric? As I say in my columns and lessons, there is no end of the things one can learn.

But I can’t do this alone. And we’ll start to address that next time out. But in the meantime, think about what you want from this site. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these matters, as well as any others you might be pondering.

As always,

Peace

David