Newsletter Vol. 3 # 46 – July 01, 2007

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #46 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

News And Announcements

So, no sooner do I hope that summer isn’t as crazy as spring and then we end up missing a newsletter! It’s easy to understand sometimes why people can believe in things such as “curses!”

Speaking of “curses,” we’re still ironing out a few bugs in Taso’s “Layla” lesson and should be seeing it online sometime very soon. The current snafu was owing to a total miscommunication on my part and you have my apologies for that. As soon as I get the music notation and guitar tablature that should accompany the sound files written out, it’ll be good to go.

Another thing that has hindered life (or at least Internet life) here is the incredible spotty access that I’ve gotten these past few months. But, to spout the cliché closest to hand, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. At some point in the next two months, I hope to have a much better, faster Internet connection, which will lead to making a lot of things easier in regard to preparing lessons and articles for Guitar Noise. This is currently contingent on getting a few projects here at home done first, but currently it’s all on schedule. I’m still not sure this is entirely a good thing, but it will definitely help improve the current situation.

In the meantime, let’s take a quick look at what’s new here at Guitar Noise since our last newsletter…

New Articles And Lessons

Bassist Al Caldwell On Being Yourself
by Helena Bouchez

When people learn an instrument, it’s easy to get caught up in copying the riffs and styles of one’s idols. Fortunately, Al Caldwell took some advice from Anthony Jackson to heart and learned to be himself, finding his own voice as both bass player and musician.

Living The Dream Part 2 – “Johnny Appleseed”
by David Hodge

Knowing who you are and what you want to be is a big part of getting to live your dream, whether in the world of music or any other career you might choose to follow. Let’s take a look at taking a look at yourself…

Guitar Noise Staff Picks

My brother Tom sent me a terrific CD for my birthday, called Rodrigo y Gabriela, which is the name of the two Mexican guitarists who play mesmerizing instrumental music. Their story is an inspiring one: two heavy metal musicians in a Mexico City based band leave everything behind and move to Dublin, eventually becoming street musicians who manage to pick up such a cult following that they end up at the top of the Irish music charts!

While the artists insist their music is not flamenco, it certainly springs from those roots. And while many will find the covers of Stairway to Heaven and Metallica’s Orion (from their Master of Puppets album) both fresh and breathtaking, the duo’s original music is just as spellbinding.

As a bonus, the US version of the CD comes with a DVD containing live performances, interviews and even a little guitar tutorial on their music!

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Playing by Ear

Let’s go into playing guitar by ear. I’ll base the content on the series found on MaximumMusician.com, but it will be revised here and there as inspiration strikes.

Just what exactly does it mean to play by ear?

When you hear someone say, “He plays by ear” it’s often said with awe, in the same way you might say, “His car has 10-wheel drive and he can parallel park it with his eyes closed while balancing a guitar pick on his nose.”

Unfortunately, when you hear such talk, you think that you, or the average person, can’t play by ear. Talk like this gets you to believe that you can’t hear a simple melody and play it on the guitar or other instrument. And if you believe this, you believe a lie, because everyone with hearing, a bit of desire and a pinch of persistence can play by ear.

To play by ear means to listen to something, and then play it on an instrument – apart from your voice. Recognize first that singing a melody you’ve heard is actually a form of playing by ear. We’re going to focus on playing guitar by ear, but singing will help you do this.

And we need to amend the above statement a bit: playing by ear does mean to translate what you hear into what you play. But, what you hear is affected by what you understand about music. You don’t have to have a music degree or even have read music theory books to build an understanding of how chords fit with melodies, what chords can substitute for each other, and other topics. But, at some level, you can acquire this understanding, just by applying your passion to play, and asking questions like “Why does this sound so cool? How can I make more of this type of sound?” And this understanding comes out when you listen to a tune or piece you want to play by ear. So, the same sound hitting your ears and a novice’s ears can sound very different, because your musical knowledge changes your hearing.

The first thing we’ll learn how to play by ear is a simple, familiar melody. Although the melody is simple, it will still be effective for building the skill of playing by ear. Lots of melodies in popular songs are simple. Some are so simple that they’re not any fun to sing without strumming some chords to accompany them.

We’ll learn more about playing by ear next time. Thanks for reading.

Darrin Koltow
Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

Event Horizon

I got a note from Joseph Patrick Moore, letting me know he’ll be joining Austin based guitarist & songwriter Chris Duarte for summer tour 2007

The Chris Duarte Group consist’s of:
Chris Duarte – guitar/vocals
Jeff Reilly – drums
JPM – bass

During the first half of July, you can catch them at the following dates, places and times:

July 1st, 2007 – Annapolis, MD – Rams Head on Stage – 8:00 PM
July 3rd, 2007 – Franklin, NH – Mojalaki Golf Club – 8:00 PM
July 4th, 2007 – Montreal, QC Canada – Montreal Jazz Fest. – 9:00 PM
July 6th, 2007 – Thunder Bay, ON Canada – BluesFest – 8:00 PM
July 10th, 2007 – Ottawa, ON Canada – Cisco Systems Ottawa – 8:00 PM
July 11th, 2007 – Ottawa, ON Canada – Cisco Systems Ottawa – 8:00 PM
July 13th, 2007 – Blawnox, PA – Moondog’s – 8:00 PM
July 14th, 2007 – Dayton, OH – Gilly’s – 8:00 PM
July 15th, 2007 – Ferndale, MI – Magic Bag – 8:00 PM

Kathy Reichert continues to play regularly in the Chicago area. She’ll be doing her regular first Monday gig with CJ and Fairly Unbalanced at the Gallery Cabaret (2020 N Oakley in Chicago, IL) on Monday, July 2, 7pm and then joining CJ again, Saturday, July 7 at 9pm.

And Kathy will be performing once more as part of “Late Nite Highland Park” at La Casa Del Gordo, 2014 First Street, Highland Park IL (847-433-1411), on Friday the 13th of July at 7pm.

And I’m thrilled to report that GN Forum member “Bish” is back out playing with a gusto. If you’ve been following his posting on the forums, you already know that Bish is playing drums for the Dani Lynn Howe (DHL) Band and they seem to be doing quite well for themselves. In the upcoming weeks, you’ll find them at Walcott, Iowa at the Truckers’ Jamboree, which takes place Thursday, July 12, at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop (right off Exit 284) from 7 to 9 PM and then on Saturday, July 14 at the 11th Street Bar and Grill, located at 2108 East 11th Street in East Davenport, Iowa. Show runs from 9 PM until one in the morning.

And just this week I got the call to fill in for a slot next Tuesday, July 3rd, at the Monterey General Store in Monterey, Massachusetts. We’ll be playing from 7 until 9 in the evening.

Random Thoughts

As mentioned at the top of this newsletter, I’m hoping that I’ll be getting a much-needed improvement with my Internet connection over the next few weeks. For those of you who may not know, I live in a very out of the way place, where we currently only have a very, very slow dial up in order to get online. If we manage to link up with more than 26,000 BPM, we’re very lucky.

The trouble is, that even when I manage to get a better way to get online, I’m not really sure I’ll get to spend more time online. Well, the ten to twenty minutes it takes me to get hooked up initially is a start, as will be the hours spent trying to send sound files of lessons to Paul. So just making up that time alone will be certainly more pleasant.

Time seems to be on my mind a lot of late. Part of that, I’m sure, is part and parcel with growing older. But part of it, too, is the realization that as much as one might wish otherwise, you can’t possibly do everything at once, or even within a reasonably reasonable time frame.

One of the best bits of advice I’ve ever gotten is a two-part statement: Never turn down a chance to play music and never turn down a chance to go listen to music. This really is a great philosophy and an important one to take to heart. And it’s essential to participate on both ends of the equation. Being a good listener, an eager audience member, can help you to get better just as much as practicing by yourself.

Until we chat again, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace