Newsletter Vol. 3 # 50 – September 01, 2007

Greetings,

Welcome to Volume 3, Issue #50 of Guitar Noise News!

In This Issue:

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

News And Announcements

I didn’t plan for the fiftieth issue of Volume Three of Guitar Noise News to be an anniversary, but sometimes things just work out this way. Five years ago from one week from now, I began my stint as writer of the Guitar Noise News. It seems much longer than that and also sort of like yesterday. So many things have changed, on site and in life in general (not to mention with the newsletter itself), that thinking about this earlier today just made me stop and think about it for way too long a time.

Dare I wonder about the next five years? Five months is hard enough! Hopefully we will continue to grow and get better.

And speaking of getting better, we’ve got a new feature here at Guitar Noise. Actually, it’s not on Guitar Noise itself. That’s vague and mysterious enough, right? Well, if you’ve not already read about this on the News Page of the Guitar Noise Forums, let me announce the opening of the Guitar Noise Blog! To put it in Paul’s own words, taken from our very first post:

Let me be the first to welcome you to the official Guitar Noise blog. Now you can stay up to date with all the latest site info posted by the Guitar Noise crew. We want to open the lines of communication and interaction a little further, and from now on you’ll learn about changes to the site as we make them. Perhaps the biggest benefit of all, is that you’ll be able to give us your feedback right away. We encourage you to use the comments section and join in the discussion.

My first concern is to keep this blog from being a boring place with site announcements that could just as easily go on the news page. To keep my back covered, I’ve already started inviting guest bloggers to share this space with us. Each of them has their own area of knowledge and expertise and they’ll be chiming in with guitar tips, mini-articles and what-not. Expect to see a variety of posts from some of the Guitar Noise regulars. Sometimes they’ll be informal and brief; others will be more structured. I hope you’ll find everything here useful. I’m not exactly sure what this blog will grow up to to look like, but I can say that it’s all going to be a lot of fun.

In terms of geek-ness you can syndicate this blog feed on a reader. (You are a geek if you know what I just said. I’m a little in doubt myself. :-))

If there is anything you want to see added here please let us know. Leave a comment. One thing to be aware of, is that we’ll be monitoring the comments to keep them free from spam and we’ll remove anything that’s unsuitable for younger, impressionable readers.

This is a much better way to share news and happenings with you. Whenever we have some maintenance to do, or need to ask for your feedback, this will be the place. Don’t forget to add this to your bookmarks and check back often.

Everyone is blogging these days, from David Hodge to David Gilmour and Prince. Hopefully you’ll have as much fun here as we’re going to have.

So do come by and visit. Leave a comment or suggestion or just say hello if you’d like. It’s located at this URL: https://www.guitarnoise.com/blog/

Remember that the Guitar Noise Blog is meant to be a fun place as well as an additional source of information concerning this terrific website we call home.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there. And, in the meantime, let’s look at what’s going on here at Guitar Noise:

New Articles And Lessons

On The Other Hand
Mastering Your Chord Changes
by Josh Urban

When you’re starting out, sometimes it seems like your hands have a mind of their own. Maybe even two minds, since you have two hands! Josh Urban explores how using a little psychology can help you to get faster and cleaner in making your chord changes.

Seven Common Problems With Learning Sweep Picking And What To Do About Them
by Mike Philipov

Sweep picking is an advanced technique used in many genres from metal to jazz. In itself, it poses many challenges to those players who want to add the technique to their playing. Mike Philippov covers seven major obstacles that guitars tend to encounter when attempting to sweep pick and gives advice on how to overcome them.

Exploring Music With Darrin Koltow

We’re continuing our lesson series Playing Guitar by Ear, which is geared to newbies. Newbies to both guitar and playing by ear. We’re getting ready to actually play a melody by ear – on a piano. Remember from the last issue that learning to play by ear on the piano is a zillion times easier than guitar and that what you learn on the piano you can transfer to guitar playing. If you don’t have a piano or keyboard, don’t worry: We’ll look at places where you can get a virtual keyboard. This is software that simulates, visually and sonically, an actual piano keyboard.

Almost rules

Let’s talk about some skills that are almost required to play by ear, but that you can easily build. I call these skills “almost required” These skills will massively help you play by ear.

One of those almost required skills will probably seem obvious to you, but we need to mention it: listening. You have to listen, with concentrated effort, when you’re learning to play by ear. That means putting on headphones, tuning out all distractions, and imagining yourself crawling inside or surfing on top of the sounds coming from your CD player or computer. Spend time listening without singing. Singing is also important, but listen first, then sing. By doing this, you devote your full attention to the impressions the notes are making on you.

In a sense, you’re listening with your feelings. Music is the kind of thing that directly affects your psyche; it can immediately trigger emotions within you. So, when you listen with concentration to a piece of music, you’re actually listening to your emotional responses to it.

We don’t need to go overboard with this. For instance, when you hear Steve Vai or Yngwie Malmsteen fire off a billion notes in 1 microsecond, you’re not going to be able to identify the emotions that each note – or actually note change – has on you. But, with some training, you will be able to identify the overall feeling that you get from listening to such a dense concentration of notes.

We’ll continue with “almost-rules” next time.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

Forum Findings

Did you know there’s a songwriting contest going on? Right on our veryown Guitar Noise Songwriting Club Page? The prize is just fame, without the fortune (although someone has kindly offered up his air guitar as a prize), but to be picked out from your peers is no mean feat. You’ve got until September 7 to get in.

Here’s where you can find out all about it.

Good luck to you and a big thank you to Ness K., Pete, Vic, and everyone else who’ve taken this idea and turned it into a reality. I’m looking forward to hearing all the entries!

Event Horizon

It’s tonight and it’s in Gainesville, Florida – see GN Forum member “bluenotefla” perform at Lighten Salvage on 23rd Ave in Gainesville.

If you’re closer to Marquette, Iowa, then catch Bish, playing drums with the Dani Lynn Howe Band tonight on the Isle of Capri Casino / Riverboat. Tomorrow, September 2nd, they’ll be at Dickson Park in Milan, Illinois, performing for Indian Summer Fest. Showtime is 8 until 11:30 PM. And you can also see them playing at Tiddley Day, 340 16th Street in Bettendorf, Iowa, next Saturday, September 8th. Music starts at 8:30 PM and runs until midnight.

Kathy Reichert will be performing once more on Monday, September 3rd at the Gallery Cabaret, 2020 North Oakley in Chicago. It’s a 7:00 PM start for this show, so get there early.

And I’ll be backing up local singer / songwriter / producer Todd Mack at the “Celebrate Sheffield Celebration” on Saturday, September 8th. It’s at the Sheffield Village Green, Route 7 in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Come on by and say hello.

Reviews

We all come to Guitar Noise to share in how much music means to all of us. And we all come with very different tastes and experiences when it comes to music. One thing that’s easy to forget is how we can help each other expand our musical horizons, simply by relating our own musical adventures, whether it be of a CD, a concert, a book or DVD. If you’d like to share your musical experiences by passing along a review of an album, concert, DVD (tutorial, concert or otherwise), book or even a guitar or guitar/music product, feel free to drop me a line and try to put “proposed review” in the subject.
David Fagin: For Promotional Use Only
CD Review by Susan Schwartz

As founder and lead singer of The Rosenbergs, David Fagin led a crusade for artists’ rights against unfair recording contracts, yet his solo CD is virtually free of politics…

Random Thoughts

Recently, one of the students from one of my group adult classes asked me how I manage to get everything done. The honest answer is the easiest one, and that’s I don’t. Get everything done, that is. Not even close.

One thing I did manage to get done this summer is to get myself back up to speed with both the Internet and my computer in general. But now I find myself faced with a totally different thing to deal with, and that’s the overwhelming amount of material that’s avaiable on line. I never used to be able to listen to music or view videos or any of the other things that are close to impossible to do with a slow dial up modem connection. Now I can see where the computer could easily eat up hours of time where I’d be doing absolutely nothing.

And, as tempting as it is to declare “this is my free time, let me waste it whatever way I want,” I think it’s high time I got back to being more of a contributor and less of a supervisor of contributions.

Strange as it may seem, the new Guitar Noise Blog has helped me to start being a little more organized as to my writing and free time. In addition to Blog entries and lessons and articles, I’m also hoping to spend more time back at the Sunday Songwriters’ Group on the Forum pages. Even though I might not write a song every week (while the emphasis is on the lyric, it’s incredibly rare for me to write a lyric without having first put together a melody, chord progression and basic arrangement), I can certainly participate in the critiques of other people’s work.

So maybe the next time someone asks me how I manage to everything done, the honest answer will be “I don’t know…”

Until our next newsletter, play well. Play often. And stay safe.

And, as always,

Peace