Guitar for Beginners and Beyond Newsletter - December 24, 2006
________________________________________________
Happy Holidays | Merry Christmas | Seasons Greetings
#########################################
Please note: You can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time by logging into
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/ and going to your User CP > Edit Options and unticking the 'Receive Email from Administrators' check box.
#########################################
This weeks lessson - An easy version of Auld Lang Syne - in a new lesson format
I've been slaving away over two hot computers for days now, putting together a PlaneTalker Lesson -- a pretty involved 5-movie set called 'The Chord Tone Blues'* -- but I managed to tear myself away for long enough to put together a nice, stripped back, easy to twang beginners' version of 'Auld Lang Syne'. New Years Eve is coming up and there's still time to practice up and do a nice slow, plaintive rendition for everyone on the big night... bring a big midnight lump to their throats.
The lesson can be found here:
Auld Lang Syne
I'm trying out a new teaching aid ... a little fretboard grid showing you how the notes move around the fretboard. I'll be curious to know if members find it helpful. It's quite time consuming and if it's not worth it, I'd rather not go through it all. The dots don't just get there by magic :-) ... I have to make them all individually then insert them into the time line. We've posted a poll asking the question here -
New lesson format, if you could place your vote one way or the other, I'd really appreciate it!
* To any PlaneTalker: The 'Chord Tone Blues' lesson is a very detailed look at how to improvise over a 12 bar blues without thinking 'scales'. It will be a CD lesson, as it weighs in at over 300Mbs. Check the PlaneTalker's Forum for the official release ... it shouldn't be more than a couple days at the most.
I'm very pleased with the results :-)
#########################################
The Guitar for Beginners and Beyond Members' Christmas
Radio
Over the last month or so, we've been lucky enough to get to hear a number of great Christmas recordings submitted by our members... in fact, there were so many, we decided to put together a dedicated GFB&B Christmas Radio - if you haven't had the chance to check it out yet, do yourself a favour and have a listen here -
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/Radioxmas.html - or even better yet, plug your speakers into your computer, turn up the volume and treat yourself (and your Christmas guests) to a day of guitar based Christmas Carols... The radio loops, so it'll keep playing throughout the day.
The Christmas Radio should suit all tastes as it has a mix of guitar and music styles (26 recordings in total). Thanks goes out to the members who contributed to the Christmas Radio - solidwalnut, Fretsource, cshude, chammon, GT, SlickCat, wjp01908, lcjones and Rockerbob. (hope I haven't forgotten anyone)
#########################################
Donations
If you've benefited from the free lessons this year and enjoy being a member of the forum, why not consider donating and become one of our Star Members... Donations help with the huge running costs incurred each month (we now go through over 8 gigs a day in bandwidth!). To donate, all you need to do is go here -
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...llspaypal.php? - donations of any amount are welcome and every little bit helps... It's all done through Paypal and takes just a couple of minutes. Once you've donated, you'll get a star (or stars) next to your username to reflect your generosity...
Thanks to all our starred members! We certainly do appreciate it.
#########################################
PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book
For any of the 'beyond' players who come to Guitar for Beginners and Beyond, you may be at a stage in your playing where you feel the need to move on up the fretboard, to explore the upper reaches, beyond the second dot ... it can be pretty scary moving away from that familiar territory, but in fact, there is nothing different about it. There's a simple way to make the entire fretboard familiar, friendly territory at all times. It has nothing to do with scales, either. Scales are one-dimensional, and have their place in the big picture, but there is something more practical and useful that you can tune your brain to, a simple way of looking at the fretboard that glues everything into place ... at any given moment of any given tune.
Check it out at
http://www.thatllteachyou.com
There are dozens of testimonials here:
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=43 and once you become a true-blue PlaneTalker, you can join the private forum.
#########################################
How to Play
Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped D Tunings
The DVD I finished recently continues to go out to the world at large. It's a 70 minute demo of the art of playing slide guitar in standard tuning. Most of us know how to tune a guitar to a chord and play slide that way ... that's the traditional way ... playing in standard allows you to slide a slide over the pinkie and use it intermingled with your normal playing. It takes a bit of getting used to, of course, but it sure can spice up your sound, and contrary to popular belief, standard tuning is a rich environment, full of slide possibilities. I like to tune my bass string down a tone to D too ... that adds a whole extra dimension without altering the overall fretboard map too much.
Check that out at
http://www.bottleneckguitar.com ... have a listen to the many slide tunes I have loaded into the radio there on the home page.
I recently loaded some videos of some slide playing up on YouTube ... check 'em out:
The Yuppy Blues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMkcE87CzCg
Blue Groove (from the DVD):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJdRNYUA0o
Walkin with Kirk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmFIVWIYNgw
I reveal all in the DVD I recently finished: 'How to play Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped D Tunings' which you can check out at
http://www.bottleneckguitar.com
#########################################
That's it for this week, enjoy the lessons, enjoy the site and happy holidays to you all!
Kirk Lorange
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/
