Newsletter Vol. 3 # 47 – July 16, 2007

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #47 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

News And Announcements

I’ve been tagged. Now, if I were still living in Chicago, this would mean something totally different than it does and I’d be busy putting new paint on my garage to cover up the graffiti. We had a garage in Chicago even though I never owned a car while living there.

But, anyway, I’ve been tagged. Maybe “hit with a chain mail” would be a better way of putting it. Paul Hackett, who owns and runs Guitar Noise, also has a great blog page, and William Speruzzi at This Savage Art, who reads Paul’s page tagged Paul who, in turn, tagged me.

I’m supposed to list “eight unknown facts or habits” about myself. But before I can do that, I should list the rules of this particular game of tag:

The Rules

  1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
  2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  3. People who are tagged write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
  4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So, let’s get started:

  1. Aside from Paul’s blog and one other one (one which Paul has also “tagged”), I have never logged onto another blog. So I’m not going to be able to complete my obligation in full. What I will do instead is to try to expand my horizons a bit and take my time to tag people. So this game may go on for quite some time…
  2. I’ve been to see the Holmes Brothers six times since I’ve moved to Massachusetts and each time has been more fantastic than the last.
  3. All thirteen of the rose bushes I planted last year have bloomed this year.
  4. For an incredibly judgmental person, I’m fairly open-minded. Mind you, I think that everyone is judgmental and doesn’t want to be thought of as such (see #5).
  5. I believe that the connotations we give words allows the words to have power over us and this often causes us to not say what we mean.
  6. Four wild turkeys crossed my yard yesterday afternoon, and, this time at least, left my raspberries alone.
  7. I wear long sleeve shirts in the summer and short sleeves in the winter and I can’t remember the last time I wore socks.
  8. I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have met the people I have met in my life and to have been able to play music with so many wonderful and talented people.

That’s probably more than anyone needs to know, right?

Meanwhile, I’m happy to say that the work with the new improved Internet connection continues apace and, if the stars align themselves correctly, I’m hoping that I’ll be up and functioning much more efficiently before the month is out.

As mentioned just above (in “Statement #2”), I try to see the Holmes Brothers each time they visit the area. At last weekend’s show, I talked for a bit with Wendell Holmes, the trio’s guitarist, and he consented to a short phone interview later in the week. I’m hoping to have most of that online for you all sometime in the next week or so. And before the month is out, we should be seeing a number of new things here at Guitar Noise, such as this new lesson:

New Articles And Lessons

Are You A Bad Student? I Was! (Part One)
by Tom Hess

Sometimes we think we know what we need to do, as guitar students. And sometimes we’re dead wrong! Tom Hess relates some of his history as a guitar student and shares his thoughts as how one can improve quickly in spite of one’s best intentions!

Guitar Noise Staff Picks

A silly confession – when growing up I wasn’t all that impressed with the Beach Boys. Nothing personal, it’s just that I preferred other artists from the time. But as I grew older, and especially when I started songwriting on my own, I began to listen to and appreciate the genius of Brian Wilson more and more.

So when I found Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live at my local music store, I scooped it right up, along with Brian Wilson Presents Smile. Here you can find some of Mr. Wilson’s best songwriting, performed with heart and soul by a spectacular group of musicians – familiar songs such as Heroes and Villains, Good Vibrations, Caroline, No and Wouldn’t It Be Nice and other, less well-known tunes, like I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times and In Blue Hawaii. And the great thing is that it sounds like Brian and the band are having the time of their lives. Definitely great music for a summer day…

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

Playing by Ear (continued…)

We continue our exploration of playing guitar by ear. This time out we’re going to look at reasons for playing by ear.

You want to play by ear for this reason above all others: it just feels good. That’s it! That’s why you began playing in the first place, isn’t it? You play because you dig the sounds coming out of your guitar. And that’s the same feeling you’ll get, multiplied by 100 or so, when you first start picking out melodies on the guitar.

When you start figuring out chords and complete songs on the guitar, you get an even bigger rush. When you get to that point you will realize that not only was figuring out chords and tunes not that hard, it was pretty darn fun.

Besides the fun and satisfaction factor, why else would you want to play by ear?

Here’s a good, motivating reason: you’ll save money and time. The next time you hear a tune on the radio or a CD that you’d like to play yourself, instead of spending time digging around for the tab, or spending money to buy the sheet music, you’ll work the tune out for yourself. Besides saving money and time, you’ll also get your fun quota filled for the week. (See the “fun” reason just mentioned.)

Here’s another reason to learn to play by ear: jamming. If you’re getting together with a buddy to make music, you’ll have a much more satisfying time of it if you can hear what he or she is playing and respond to it, whether with chordal accompaniment or a melodic line.

Or, let’s say your jamming buddy is claiming that he’s learned the Stairway to Heaven solo note for note — from tablature. He starts playing, and because you can play by ear, you immediately hear which notes are out of whack. And you diplomatically point out those notes, and again, using your highly attuned ear, point out the right notes to play.

In short, you earn the respect of the musicians you currently play with, when you can play by ear.

Once you begin playing by ear, you’ll be creating a connection between yourself and the great musicians of the past like Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and others who played only by ear. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to know that, by using your ears, you’re following the same path that some of the most worshipped guitarists before you have followed?

Playing by ear helps you learn new tunes quicker. You’re more able to scope out a tune you’ve never heard before, and learn how to play it and remember it much more easily than if you don’t yet know how to play by ear.

You probably have your own reasons for playing by ear. The list just given is just a sample. Writing down your reasons in a journal is a great way to intensify the feelings those reasons evoke. And doing that will get you to play by ear even more quickly. Now that we know why to play by ear, we’ll begin easing into the how to do it, and what to do with it.

Thanks for reading.

Darrin Koltow
Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

Emails? We Get Emails!

Hey David,

I’ve been doing your lessons for about a year now and I have frequently noticed that my personal style of learning is just straightforward. I tend to pick up the lessons quite easily and I find myself frustrated that trying to learn these songs is interrupted by me stopping every few seconds and scrolling down to see the next bar. If there was any way that you could include in your lessons some sort of complete tab at the end, as I am playing a few bars of the song then scrolling through to find the next one. You provide numerous examples so I end up playing the same bars over and get
confused.

Aside from that I really enjoy your lessons, whenever I am out playing for or with people I end up playing the songs you’ve taught.

Thanks so much

Thank you for writing. You bring up an interesting point, one that, in fact, has been mentioned here before and one that I’ve gotten numerous emails about.

There are several reasons why I do the lessons the way I do, but the main one is that, first and foremost, these are lessons, meant to be teaching tools and not merely tabbed out song transcriptions. In the earliest of lessons, I would actually do exactly what you suggest and put out a “complete” song at the end. And what would end up happening is that I would get literally hundreds of emails asking me questions that were spelled out in the text of the lesson. I took this to indicate that, given the choice, people would ignore the “lesson” part of the articles and simply go to the tablature and try to work out the song from there.

And, when you think about it, that makes perfect sense because this is how most guitarists get their material these days, whether on the Internet or from most books. I don’t think it’s a matter of straightforward learning style as much as it is our natural inclination to take the easiest route whenever possible.

So writing the lessons out in this manner is merely me trying to be what I am, a teacher.

Perhaps, though, I should rethink this policy. Please feel free to write me about this and discuss your views and opinions. I look forward to hearing from you about this and also to sharing these opinions with all of you.

Event Horizon

GN Forum member “Bish,” playing drums for the Dani Lynn Howe (DHL) Band, will be at the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, located at 3184 Highway 22 in Riverside, Iowa this coming Wednesday, July 18, from 7 until 10 PM.

And GN Forum Moderator Wes Inman and his band, Twist Of Fate, will be performing at the Riders Café in Waterbury, Connecticut this Friday, July 20. This will probably be the last time they perform in the current lineup, as singer Lee Hodge will be moving out of state soon. So come on out and wish him well, listen to some great music and have a terrific time with the band.

Random Thoughts

This year I’ve been playing out more than I have in a long, long time. Besides my own gigs, I’ve been playing in support of some of the local singer / songwriters here in southern Berkshire County.

In the last issue of Guitar Noise News, I mentioned how important listening is as a skill that every musician should develop. Playing other people’s songs is one way to work on your listening skills in a hurry. Being able to capture the feel that the songwriter wants, while also being able to put a stamp of your own personality on the arrangement can be tricky. And it’s a lot of fun.

One of my students spent the last week at one of the National Guitar Workshop camps and his biggest thrill was working on an ensemble arrangement of some blues songs that were played before the entire camp. And, listening to the recorded performance, it’s obvious that he and his group did a great job.

Listening is also a topic that has to be approached from many angles. I know a lot of musicians who wrap themselves up in their art, and, for them it’s fine. But if you’re going to want people to listen to your music, then you also have to listen to your audience. And listening to an audience takes as much, if not more, skill than listening to other musicians. This isn’t to say that you have to cater to public opinion. Rather, you need to be able to gauge your listeners and then engage them. Bring them along on your musical journeys. There’s nothing as frustrating as wanting to go on a trip with someone only to find that he or she is off in his or her own world and oblivious to having a companion.

And it’s reciprocal – Including the audience in your show will often help you perform better. We’ll be exploring a bit more about this next month.

So, until we chat again, play well. Play often. Stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace