Newsletter Vol. 3 # 30 – September 15, 2006

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #30 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

  • News and Announcements
  • New Articles and Lessons
  • Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
  • Event Horizon
  • Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

First off, this will be a fairly brief newsletter, as I know that Paul is going to be sending it out on the fly – he’s away from home and operating out of Internet Cafes and there’s no sense to make him spend all day inside! But even though it’s short, we’ve got a lot to tell you in this, the September 15 edition of Guitar Noise News.

Last weekend, on September 10, we had our drawing for our giveaway for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar. Congratulations go to:

  • Jarge S. of Brampton, Ontario
  • Jim A. of Fort Worth, Texas
  • John R. of Cranbury, New Jersey
  • Jonny S. of London, England
  • Justin R. of Port Washington, Wisconsin
  • Karin P. of Pittsfield, Massachusetts
  • Lars K. of Oslo, Norway
  • Tamzen L. of Toronto

I am also awaiting confirmation from two others who were chosen.

For those of you who didn’t win, we are having a second giveaway later this month and all of you who do not win on September 10 will be automatically entered into that giveaway. If you want more details on that, check it out on our “Contests” section of the Forum page.

Since it’s a mouthful to say The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar and it’s also a truly lousy acronym, I’ve taken to calling it “BOB,” short for “Book on Bass.” “BOB arrived in bookstores on September first and it’s also available through Amazon.com as well as many, many other online book services.

Some of you who’ve written about the contest have noted that you intend to buy the book regardless of the contest and my thanks for that. If you don’t win an autographed copy, please know that I’ll be more than happy to either autograph yours or send you a personal thank you note. Just drop me a line at the usual address: [email protected] and I’ll attend to it as soon as humanly possible.

Okay, let’s continue on with our abbreviated newsletter:

New Articles And Lessons

Are You Unique?
by Kole

Kole (Kyle Hicks) is a first time contributor to Guitar Noise as well as a student of Tom Hess, who’s certainly no stranger to these pages. In this article, Kole examines how one develops a unique sound, looking at ways that may help you create music that is different from other musicians.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

The Major Chord With #11

We covered the major chord with a sharp 5 last time, and this time we’ll cover its “sister” chord, the #11. Where does the term #11 (pronounced “sharp eleven”) come from? Look at the notes in the G major scale. Yes, that’s not a typo: the G major, not the C major scale:

C D E F# G A B C D E F# …etc

Counting up from C to the *second* F#, you’ll see the F# is eleven. And since it has a # (sharp) after it, we get the name sharp 11 (#11). Making a major chord from this, we take every other note, starting with C:

C E G B D F#

That looks like a lot of notes for a chord, doesn’t it? We guitarists like 3 and 4 note chords, generally, as far as ease of playing goes. So we can eliminate some notes, being sure to hang onto the F#. We can play patterns like these:

|-2------|-5----|
|-5------|-5----|
|-4------|-5----|
|-2------|-4----|
|-3------|-3----|
|--------|------|

The second one is better for strumming. And it has the 13 added, yet another extended chord “color.”

Where to use major chords with a #11? Try them in place of unaltered major chords. They won’t sound right in every situation, but they could add a fresh change of pace from the usual 1 3 5 major.

Thanks for reading.

Darrin Koltow

Event Horizon

I’m not doing a lot of gigging these days owing to my full schedule of teaching, but Joel Schick, a longtime Berkshire resident and songwriter has me providing backup for his show next Friday, September 22, at The Dreamaway Lodge in Beckett, Massachusetts. If you’re up for a great meal in the middle of nowhere, this might be your ticket! Show starts at eight.

Random Thoughts

The month of September has been a huge jumble thus far. Paul’s been away enjoying a bit of a vacation and the school year is off to its typical befuddled start. It’s busy and exciting and a lot of fun, although finding any kind of free time is close to impossible.

To top that all off, I got to spend a week in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, visiting friends. Part of the trip included a trip to neighboring Shepardstown, where I got to sit in on a weekly Thursday night jam at O’Hurley’s General Store. There were two hammered dulcimers, a mountain dulcimer, an acoustic bass, a piano, a cello, at least two violins, and a number of folks who flitted from one instrument to another including flute, tin whistle, piccolo, autoharp, banjo, mandolin and more. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend giving it a listen. There’s a seating area for those who don’t play and everyone has a terrific time.

I especially bring this up because it’s so heartening to read people posting about their first times playing with others. Many of the Guitar Noise community have started to venture forth and share their music – performing at open mics, forming bands, or simply getting together with friends and/or neighbors.

If you’ve not yet taken this step, imagine if you will the joy you get from playing. Now multiply that by, oh say a couple thousand or so… With autumn (or spring, depending on your particular hemisphere) coming on, it’s a good time to start making plans to get together with people for the holidays. Sharing your music with them is priceless and it also gives you so
much in return.

In the upcoming months, we’ll be highlighting some of our past articles on The Joy of Music.

But it’s also high time we added more to them. So if you’ve got a story to share, pass it along and we’ll get a new batch out there. Just send them to me at [email protected] and please put “Joy of Music” in the subject line.

Until our next newsletter, please stay safe and play well.

And, as always,

Peace