Newsletter Vol. 3 # 134 – March 15, 2011

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #134 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

  • Greetings, News and Announcements
  • Guitar Noise Featured Artist
  • Topic of the Month
  • New Articles, Lessons, Reviews and Stuff
  • Random Thoughts

Greetings, News and Announcements

Hello and welcome to the March 15, 2011 issue of Guitar Noise News, the free twice-a-month newsletter from Guitar Noise.

We began our last newsletter with wishes for safety and recovery to all in the area of Christchurch, New Zealand and we begin this one with more wishes of the same for the people of Northern Japan, as well as all those, all over the world, who were affected by last week’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami. And we encourage all our Guitar Noise community members to include them in your thoughts and prayers.

In other news, we’ve some reports from some of our favorite teachers:

Len Collins, of “Guitar Breakthrough” fame, has his own Friday morning show on http://radiomk.co.uk/ between 10am and midday. This program, “The Learning Zone,” is an online radio podcast that you can hear live.

Jamie Andreas is also popping up all over the place, particularly as she’s recently joined Facebook. In addition, she’s recently put together a “beginner course” online, which you can find here.

Finally, trust Tom Serb to tell us news about his students at the Midwest Music Academy! We’d like to join Tom in congratulating Nicholas, a MMA guitar student who just joined his elementary school jazz band this past fall. Even though he’d never played much outside rock music, Nicholas made the band and this past week he and the rest of his bandmates beat out thirty other schools’ jazz bands to win a spot in the Illinois state competition! We wish the the best of success and we also give Tom a bit of applause for his teaching and work to help Nicholas along.

Guitar Noise Featured Artist

Quickly, without thinking two much about it, name the best selling album, by a band, of all time. Worldwide, that is. It’s the second best selling album ever, behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Well, if you managed to guess Back in Black by AC/DC, give yourself a big pat on the back. You know your album sales trivia!

Rock and roll doesn’t get more basic than when the guitar duo of Malcolm and Angus Young get fired up to play! You can read all about AC/DC, our Guitar Noise Featured Artist of the Month for March on the Guitar Noise Profile Page.

Topic Of The Month

It makes perfect sense to pair the March Artist of the Month with the topic of soloing. There are indeed a lot of articles here at Guitar Noise that deal with all sorts of aspects concerning creating your own solos. Bop on over to the Guitar Noise home page and click on the “Topic of the Month” up in the top left corner, just below the blue banner. Or go directly here.

New Articles, Lessons, Reviews and Stuff

Scarborough Fair – The “Complete Idiot’s” Arrangement
by David Hodge

Part of the fun of playing guitar is coming up with your own song arrangements. They can be as simple or complicated as you like. Since we already have the Simon and Garfunkel arrangement of this classic traditional song, it made sense to also post this arrangement that Nick Torres and I came up with for “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar.” It’s easy and fun to play and it’s also inspired a bit by Pink Floyd!

House Of The Rising Sun
by David Hodge

We’re doing a bit of a spotlight on all our Public Domain song lessons this month, so how can we not revisit this timeless fingerstyle arrangement? Getting started on finger picking will never be easier!

Random Thoughts

While it’s incredibly tempting to try to come up with something witty or clever to finish the newsletter, it seems more important to again offer my wishes for millions of people being affected by the latest round of earthquakes and natural disasters. Those of you who’ve been part of the Guitar Noise community a while know that we truly believe that every day is an opportunity to share and stand strong in harmony with the world, but somehow today it seems even more important to do so.

Help as you can and as your heart and mind leads you to.

Until our next issue of Guitar Noise News, play well and play often.

And, as always,

Peace