Newsletter Vol. 2 # 6 – October 13, 2002
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- New Lessons and Articles
- Email of the Week / Hot Forum Topic
- Things To Do People To See
- Sunday Songwriters Group
- Guitar Tip
- Reviews
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Wow!!!! Did we ever get a lot of responses concerning the Guitar Noise Tutorial CD project we discussed last week. Still getting them, in fact. I’m trying to reply to everyone who’s written (as of this moment I have 60 emails that I haven’t answered), so don’t panic if you haven’t heard from me yet (and is that becoming a familiar statement, or what?)! A lot of interesting points, some I hadn’t thought of, have been raised and next week we’ll get to discussing them.
This week, though, there’s a lot going on – new articles, reviews and a great new club to participate in – the Sunday Songwriters Group! I’m really excited about this for an incredibly selfish reason – it’s going to help me personally by making me write. To get good at songwriting, you’ve got to practice, just as you do with your guitar. The idea behind this group (brought to us by Nick Torres) is to give us a weekly lyric writing assignment.
Plus, this week’s Guitar Tip will give you a glossary explaining almost everything there is to know about guitar strings! You’ll find all this and more in this week’s update.
But first, two quick things – First, time is running out on the Scary Stories submission. If you’ve got a story to share, please try to get it to me or Dan Lasley in the next week.
Second, we’ve had such a great time trading stories that I’m hoping to do something similar for the November, December and January holiday season. Keep watching this space!
And now, we proudly present this week’s Guitar Noise News:
New Lessons And Articles
Much needed advice and guidance on ear training, two “working bands” pieces and more “Scary Stories” are coming your way this week. Here’s what’s new at Guitar Noise since we last chatted:
Grow Your Ears With The Net
by Darrin Koltow
Being able to listen and hear is probably the most underrated talent a musician can have. Sadly, while we talk a lot about ear training, aside from working on one’s own, there’s has been little developed as learning aids. In steps Darrin Koltow, the wizard behind Maximum Musician. He’s created a fun free software kit called “The Improviser” which helps you with your ear training. Darrin also takes us on a tour ’round the net to find all sorts of help out there. You couldn’t ask for a better guide.
Worth Another Look
To supplement Darrin’s work, let me also suggest these three nuggets from our archives. When first written in January of 2000, Guitar Noise’s three lesson series on ear training became one of our most popular pieces. See how much you can learn for yourself:
Tips To Live And Learn By: On And Off The Gig
by Joe Benedetto
We’ve got a couple of quick articles this week that make nice “check lists.” First up, bassist Joe Benedetto gives us a run down of practical items to bring to your gig. Myself, I’d add a second towel to the list…
How To Audition New Band Members
by Lesa McCabe
This must be the week of the bassist – perhaps I should have held off on Dan’s article last week! Payday Daddy’s bassist/manager, Lesa McCabe gives us some great tips on how to go about finding new band members. I could have used this advice twenty years ago when Balance of Power was going through its “Spinal Tap drummer – a – day” phase…
Things just keep getting weirder. Killer guitar picks, free drinks and that audience member you’d never want to take home to meet your mother make for this weeks trilogy of terror. Okay, maybe that is a bit of overstatement!
Email Of The Week and Hot Forum Topic
This week I got a great question and I’d like to not only share my answer with you but also ask that you share your experiences as well.
Subject: Time Question: How do you find the time to play and LEARN the guitar? I participate in volleyball and basketball and don’t forget homework! But I really want to learn how to play!!!
Hi.
Thanks for writing. Time is one of those things that we approach differently depending what we want to do with it. We find that we make time for things when we need to or want to but don’t always see where that time comes from.
I started playing when I was seventeen. I was a junior in high school and basically between classes and working I didn’t get home until seven. Then homework. Then it’s time for bed already.
When you’re this busy you have to make time somewhere and you also have to make the best use of your time. As a beginner, the thing I worked on most was changing chords so I could play smoothly. I did this by learning songs. So on the weekends, I would take an hour or two that I might normally not be doing much of anything (sleeping late, watching television – no computers back then or I’m sure I’d be doing that as well) and learn one or two songs. Then during the week, whenever I had a moment – perhaps before dinner or waiting for my turn at the shower (four kids in the family) or (most usually) as a reward to myself for getting through one subject’s homework – I’d play what I learned over the weekend. Sometimes only once through, but usually, when you added it up, I got to play a half hour to an hour every day.
The thing is that I was always learning something. When refining a song during the week I might hit upon a technique that I’d try to remember to work into another song that I might learn the following weekend.
Time adds up. Even if you manage to find fifteen or thirty minutes a day, it adds up. And if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll FIND that time and then MAKE it your guitar time.
You might want to check out an article I wrote a while back on the subject: A Question Of Balance.
As I mentioned, I’d love to hear some of your opinions and experiences on this. And I’m certain the person who wrote this would like to as well. So I’ve made it this week’s “Hot Forum Topic” as well.
Please share your thoughts on finding/making time to play and learn guitar on the forums.
Things To Do – People To See
HEY!!! Are YOU or YOUR BAND playing sometime in November? Well, let me know and I’ll be happy to pass the word along. Guitar Noise is read by people all over the world, so who knows? You might find yourself meeting someone and you’ll have something in common already.
This week:
Guitar Noise’s jazz expert, Hans Fahling has another solo performance this Friday, October 18th at TeeTeaThe in Berlin (Goltzstr.2) from 11:00AM until 2:30.
The Sheryl Bailey 3 will be performing with Thursday night, October 17th at Detour (349 East 13th Street) from 9 ’til midnight and then doing Sunday Brunch (11:30AM to 3:30) on the 20th at the Blue Water Grill (Union Square West). Both gigs are in New York City, by the bye.
On the West Coast, you can catch Lisa McCabe’s band, Payday Daddy, Saturday night, October 19th in Bremerton, WA at Nightshift.
Sunday Songwriters Group
It’s with great excitement that I announce the kick off of the “Sunday Songwriting Group.” This is a great way for all of you who are interested in songwriting to get in some practice. Writing is a skill that one must work on to get better, just like you practice scales and chords with the guitar. Each week we will post a new “topic” or guidelines for a song lyric and you have a week to put one online. For a complete introduction to the SSG, go to the SUNDAY SONGWRITER’S GROUP – FAQ.
The cool thing is that everyone will not only write but offer opinions and advice. The opening topic is “The American Wild West,” which prompted me to write the following:
I dreamt I was a wigwam
It really made no sense
But if I dream that I’m a tepee
Then I’ll know I’m just two tents.
Okay, that’s REALLY terrible. But I’ll do better, promise. I hope you’ll join me on the Forum pages with your own efforts and, while you’re there, give my “formal” submission a good going over.
Much kudos to Ryan Spencer and Nick Torres for putting all of this together.
Guitar Tip – Things About Strings
I got an email from someone last month on strings for a Vox guitar. Which led to my visiting a site dedicated to Vox instruments and amps and an interesting discussion on strings. Which led to my asking Dan Lasley (for the whatever millionth time) about the difference between round wound and flat wound strings. Which led to Dan forwarding me a URL to a great glossary on strings, on the JustStrings website. Which led to me writing them and getting permission to share a bit with you. This is from the “acoustic guitar” section and deals with two of my favorite types of strings:
Phosphor Bronze – longer lasting tone than the 80/20 (Bronze) due to phosphorous content. These strings provide about 80% of the brilliance of a new 80/20 set for a bright, rich tone that’s not excessive.
Silk & Steel – offers the driving force of steel strings and the soft tonal properties often associated with classical strings. A center wrap of silk fiber provides easier fingering and minimizes the brilliance for a sweeter more mellow tone. Popular with folk guitarists and finger-style players.
JustStrings’ glossary covers almost everything imaginable, for classical guitars to basses, from violins to mandolins. They’ve even got a bit on cryogenic strings. If you want to read the whole glossary (and you should certainly bookmark it for easy referral), visit the JustStrings website.
Reviews
In one of those ever-interesting quirks of life, both A-J and I offer up reviews on up a couple of EPs from two very talented up and coming women. Read about Arrica Rose’s “The Tone Bank” and Laya Fisher’s self titled effort on the review page.
Thoughts and Feedback
Again, I’d like to thank everyone who has responded so far to the Guitar Noise Tutorial CD proposal. You’ve all been very helpful and given me much to think about and we’ll start addressing that next week. This week I’d like to ask a totally different, but no less important question:
Is Guitar Noise News too long?
Now, I don’t bring this up because I want to write LESS (and, yes, I can hear you all laughing), but it occurs to me that perhaps the newsletter should be more of a “hit the high points” and run sort of thing. As you all know, I can get a little carried away with rambling about this or rambling about that.
It’s been my intent to make the newsletter as interesting and fun as Paul did. A lot of how I came to feel about Guitar Noise and about Paul himself came from his writing in the newsletter. Having, at last, met him in person last summer, I felt surprised at how much I already felt I knew him.
But you’re the ones who have to read what I write. Or choose not to. I think I’m more than capable of toning things down if you think it would lead to a better newsletter. Please, let me know your thoughts on this. I look forward to hearing from you.
As always,
Peace
David