Newsletter Vol. 3 # 39 – March 01, 2007

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #39 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

  • News and Announcements
  • New Articles and Lessons
  • Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow
  • Forum Findings
  • Digging Through The Archives
  • Event Horizon
  • Random Thoughts

News And Announcements

Well, the Year of the Pig is now in full swing, so I don’t have to make any of the old jokes about putting the wrong date on one’s checks, right?

Welcome to the March 1, 2007 edition of Guitar Noise News. Let’s begin with an (or “yet another”) apology. I was in such a hurry to get a new Easy Songs for Beginners lesson up online that I misspelled “Folsom” all throughout the darn text! How sad is that? My thanks to everyone who wrote to point that out. And thank you also to everyone who wrote to thank me for the lesson, too!

So, what else can go wrong this time? Glad you asked!

New Articles And Lessons

How To Become A Professional Guitarist And Musician
Part Three – Acquire An Accurate Map
by Tom Hess

Knowing the difference between plans and goals, being able to distinguish between the hows and whys of the music business can help you create an accurate map, which in turn can help you achieve your goal. Tom Hess expounds on the importance of finding your way through the intricacies of the music world.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Scale Practice Overhaul, part 2

This is much more accurately entitled, “the seven-note pattern.” We showed such a pattern in the last issue, toward making scale-playing more interesting.

Let’s go over some comments about this 7-note pattern. First, describing it without notation, it goes like this:

Play 4 notes of an ascending major scale(*). Descend two notes, then ascend again for one note.

Here’s an excerpt of the tab from the last issue:

|---- --------------|
||o-----------------|
||------------------|
||------------------|
||o-------4-------4-|
||--5-6-8---8-6-8---|

(*) (This is actually a major scale with an extra note played a half-step above the 5: It’s called a Bebop Major scale. So, in F major, the notes include …C, C#, D…This scale is used in a variety of musical genres, not just jazz.)

We could have used a regular major scale on this. But the Bebop scale has a nice way of making the right notes – chord tones – sound in the right places. We may go into that another time.

Without over analyzing the 7-note pattern too much, we’ll just say it’s worth learning at least a few bars of. Doing so will perk your ear up to the possibilities hidden in scale playing.

A tip in learning the pattern: Learning the first seven notes is not too tough. It’s the second set of second seven that gets tricky. But it doesn’t have to be. Try this: Play the pattern starting on any degree in the scale, and start it so the first note is on an up beat. Do that for several runs to get the second set of seven familiar to your fingers and ears.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

Forum Findings

I guess I’ll always think of him as “Arjen,” the engaging young man from Holland. These days in the forums, he’s going by “Sleutelbos” and he’s turned out another compilation of original music. I’ve not had the chance to give this one a listen as yet, but if it’s a fraction as good as his earlier work, it’ll definitely be getting a lot of play here at home. Check it out here.

Digging Through The Archives

While our latest Songs for Intermediates lesson draws from several of our older lessons (that is the whole point of the lesson, actually!), a good deal of it comes from Bookends.

And be sure to note that while Time After Time is listed as an Intermediates piece, you will find that this particular lesson works its way up from a typical beginner’s lesson. Don’t be afraid to try it out!

Event Horizon

One of my one-time Chicago students is getting a gig all of her own! Kathy Reichert, whom many of you might know on the SSG forum, will be playing Monday, March 5, at the Gallery Cabaret in Chicago (2020 North Oakley) from 7 to 9 PM. She’s a great songwriter and you’re in for a terrific time.

And, as I mentioned last time out, I got a note from Millard, who writes:

Minnesota 13 and its smokin’ hot lady vocalists will be performing at Martini Blues on Thursday, March 8 at 9PM and The Marlin Bar on Saturday March 10 at 11PM, both in Huntington Beach, California. More info (and video) at www.Minnesota13TheBand.com.

And just who is the “Riverside Jam Touring Company?” Stay tuned!

Random Thoughts

A funny thing happened to me on the way to putting together the Time After Time Songs for Intermediates lesson…

Maybe “funny” isn’t the right word. As many of you know, I seem to have been working on this lesson forever! I actually thought it would be ready for Valentines’ Day. Valentines’ Day 2006, that is!

I chat with Paul about this constantly, about how huge chunks of time seem to simply disappear, to get chewed up without one even being aware they are gone. But the thing is, often times it goes by choice. Not always the choice you want to make, not always the right choice, but a choice nonetheless.

Also as many of you already know, I made a choice a little over three years ago to move and to take up teaching full time. Things have been working out very well in that regard. But the thing is that it eats up a huge amount of time. I start a week with a list of things I hope to do and months later the list is still pretty much the same. Little by little, I let other things take priority. I do it consciously at the time, but it still surprises me in the end.

Practicing can be like this. You give yourself a goal, a measurable attainable goal and chances are like as not that you feel you’re nowhere nearer your goal than when you started.

But practicing can also seem like this while being entirely different. Quite often we are the worst possible objective judges of our accomplishments and, to make matters worse, we refuse to believe the praise of others. Even when it is purely objective.

Sometimes the best possible thing you can do to improve is to take a vacation, to stop practicing altogether. As I wrote in a guitar column long, long ago, it’s kind of like doing a crossword puzzle. You get stuck. You put it down. Chances are that when you pick it up again you will find yourself wondering what the problem was in the first place.

Don’t be afraid to take a break from playing or practicing. The music will be there for you when you come back, probably stronger and sweeter than ever.

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace