Newsletter Vol. 2 # 98 – November 07, 2004
Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.
In This Issue
- News and Announcements
- Email of the Week
- Sunday Songwriter’s Group
- Thoughts and Feedback
News And Announcements
Greetings!
Welcome to Guitar Noise News!
These next two weeks are kind of special This week to Guitar Noise and next to not only the web site, but to me personally. Accordingly, I’m going to devote the majority of this week’s newsletter to our first event and next week, well, we’ll just have to see, I guess…
And if you saw last week’s edition of Guitar Noise News, then you should already know what we’re celebrating this week. It’s nothing less than the start of the third year of the Sunday Songwriters Group.
For those of you who don’t know, allow me to bring you a short bit of history. In fact, I may just quote the old “official” blurb:
The Sunday Songwriters Group is a Guitar Noise exclusive. Conceived by Ryan Spencer and Nick Torres, the idea is to give songwriters a weekly exercise in order to help develop their lyric-writing skills.
For more info, visit the SSG FAQ.
I am pleased, intensely pleased, to say that this little group is still going strong. While the number of people participating can fluctuate wildly at times, the spirit of the SSG still remains true to Ryan and Nick’s vision and, as you’ll soon see, much more than simple songwriting has resulted from their efforts.
Bob, who took over the moderating and assignment chores at the start of the SSG’s second year, has been an incredible leader. And, also as I mentioned last week, he’s ready and more than willing to take the group through its paces in the upcoming third year. It’s impossible to even mention the group without acknowledging Bob’s contributions. I hope he realizes what a gift he’s been to us all.
And, like any group of this sort, the SSG has taken a bit of a life of its own. Members not only write their own lyrics but also help the other participants in fine-tuning their own. Some even end up as true collaborators, contributing music for lyrics or vice versa. This spirit of community is what makes the SSG very special.
Email Of The Week
And I can’t make a statement like that without backing it up. This note was actually a forum post, a reply to this past week’s SSG assignment. Since it’s both a nod of thanks and a terrific bit of inspiration, I thought it prudent to share it with everyone:
It’s been a good year guys. Here’s to another one.
I’d like to take some time to thank Bob, Nick, David, and everyone at GN and SSG. Earlier this year I started a band. Just to see what would happen. At the time we had maybe five songs that I’d written that I felt appropriate for the type of music we were playing… all of those songs had been kicking around in my head for years and it was nice to finally get them out in a band format. But we weren’t going to go anywhere with five songs, most of which were fairly mediocre as far as I was concerned.
In steps GN… One night I went searching for “free online guitar lessons” on Google and www.guitarnoise.com comes up in the results. I wanted to pick up a few pointers on guitar. Nothing fancy. But when I get to the site, there in the little sidebar I see “Sunday Songwriter’s Group”. It was Week Fourteen of this year (Year Two) and I read in the topic for that week that the group was supposed to write a song with a number in the title. “Okay… sounds easy enough,” I thought. And a bit later I posted up.
Since then I’ve participated in most of the assignments posted up. I’ve been writing songs for about twelve years now and have never had a period of productivity and creativity that even approaches what the SSG has helped to bring about. My band now fills out full sets with good, powerful songs (in my opinion) and almost all of those songs were written for this very message board.
“Scratchmonkey” once thanked the board because he woke up one morning with a song stuck in his head and it was a song that he had written himself. We all have these goals we’ve set out for ourselves by posting here. Well. I’ll let you guys in on a few of my achieved goals. I wanted to form a full band and play original music. Done. I wanted to play shows with that band. Done. And I wanted to release an album. And in January of next year we head into the studio with a pretty major producer who sought us out after hearing two songs on the web. The songs were Which 5 O’Clock and Everything’s Eventual, both SSG songs.
Anyway, this has gotten very long winded. So let me sum things up. Thank you Guitar Noise. Thank you Sunday Songwriter’s Group. Thank you Bob, Nick, David, Scratchmonkey, Jamir and everyone who’ve helped out since I first came here. And thank you to all the people who’ve joined up along the way and given your input. This board is a wonderful place and I’m quite proud to be a contributing member of this community.
Thanks Again.
Marv
Marv’s band, The Household Gods, made their “official” debut this past summer. Friday, August 6, at Graffiti’s Rock Room in Dallas, to be precise. Not only did it sound like a terrific time, it led to more gigs.
And as cool as all that is, one of the cooler aspects was that one member of the Guitar Noise community took it upon herself to fly to Texas from England to lend her support for the band’s first gig. Now that’s truly cool!
Sunday Songwriters Group
And now that you know what all the hype is about, why not drop in and take part in this week’s assignment. Here it is, courtesy of Bob himself:
Year Three Week One
In the first weeks of SSG III we’re going to look at inspiration. We’ll try to find it in the strangest places. Places you’d never think of looking.
Week 1
The mundane: It may sound dull but I’d like you take a look around you at the room you’re in now and whichever room you’re in I bet we all have the same two things in that room; the computer and the guitar. So this week I’d like you to look around the room and find an object in there that inspires a story you can write a song about. It may be an old sweater that’s seen better days and was worn by a one time loved one and still smells of them; it may be a cuddly toy you were given as a rash present; an object d’arte you’ve brought back from holiday. Either way, try to write a song this week about something in that room.
Good Writing
Bob
Thoughts & Feedback
I’d like to add my personal thanks to the group as well. Over the past two years, some of the SSG assignments have led to my writing many a terrific song.
But, to me at least, something even more important than that is that the time I spent critiquing other people’s work opened up so many other ideas to me that it was a bit of overload at times. This is one aspect of this group that often gets overlooked. By taking the time to contribute constructive and positive feedback, I probably learned even more about writing than I would have simply writing my own lyrics. It’s amazing what the process of looking at someone else’s work and asking, “Do I like this? Why do I like this? How would I make it better?” can do for your own writing!
And I’d also like to thank the writers who have allowed me to come up with music for their lyrics. I’ve never been one to do a lot of collaboration, but the songs that I was able to co-write with PoRR, Jamir and Nick are some of the pieces I’m most proud of these past two years. My gratitude goes out to you for allowing me to share in your creative process and for inspiring me with your words.
Remember next week we’ve another “event” to celebrate. In case you need a hint, it’s an anniversary and I think that Thursday, November 11, is the actual date in question!
In the meantime, I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe.
And, as always,
Peace
David