The Maximum Musician Newsletter for 3/20/2002

By Darrin Koltow

In this issue:
- New guitar ebook
- Great free software
- Tip on practicing scales
- Feedback request
- A Maximum Motivation quote

== New guitar ebook ==

I've been working on a new ebook for beginning to intermediate guitarists. It's called Guitar Chords for Beginners. You can check out a draft outline for the book at the site. The book is nearly finished. I'm writing promotional copy for it now, and working on a cover page. Here's the updated table of contents for the book:

Table of contents for Guitar Chords: a Beginner's Guide
Introduction
About the Author
The Chord Changes
   Which Changes to Play
   How it Works
      Five One
      Two Five and Four Five
      One Six
   Playing with the Changes
      All Minor Chords
      V to I
      The Right Hand
   The Most Common Changes
      How to Transpose
      Chord Changes for Different Music Styles
   Chord Ingredients and Types
      Ingredients of the Most Common Chords
      Less Common Chords
      The Main Chord Types and When to Use Them
   Blues Changes
      The "Straight Strum" Blues
      The "Double-stop" Blues
      The "Little Big Changes" Blues
How to Put Chords to a Melody
   Which Chords to Use
   Chord Voicing
      Voice Closeness
      The Sweetest Note
Appendix
   Chord Combinations
   Chord Replacement and Substitution
   The Most Common Chords
      C chords
      A chords
      G chords
      E chords
      D chords
      F chords
Closing Notes
Acknowledgements
Index

== Free music software ==

There are a couple of great freeware programs I've been using. You might find these useful in your work, too.

Power Tabs. A tablature editor. You can create full compositions with 6 different guitars tuned in different ways. You can throw in hammer-ons, pull-offs and other many other effects. Change vibrato, too. Standard music notation is given along with the tab, though you can't edit the standard notation. Export to MIDI *and* to HTML. Powertabs has decent help and support, including a help file and some forums online. There's a pretty extensive chord database in here, and a groove builder to quickly use these chords in tunes. Another useful feature is a tool that reports any missing beats for a particular measure.

Author: Brad Larsen

Home page: http://power-tab.net/

"Messer": An MP3 "On the Fly" and timed Recorder. I had been doing my mic recording using the old Windows Sound Recorder feature. I could get a few minutes of wav files, and then I'd be out of memory. Now I've discovered the joys of MP3 recording with this freeware. I've looked everywhere for a free MP3 recorder that you can use for home recording. I couldn't find anything, and then happened upon Messer. This app is fully configurable. Even if you have a relatively slow system, you can tune the parameters to capture great sounding audio that takes up a fraction of the space of wav files. Author: Darek Sieradzki

Home page: http://www.dago.pmp.com.pl

== Tip on practicing scales ==

Whenever you practice a scale, *always* put the scale in a musical context. Make music, not mush. For example, if you're going to practice the major scale, build it into a ii-V-I progression. So, if you're practicing the C major scale, Dorian mode (starting on D), run through the mode, and then follow that mode with some form of G7, whether through arpeggios or a chord. Music is made up of not just isolated bits we call "scales" and "chords" and "arpeggios," but a *flowing* synergy of these ingredients. Always practice scales in a musical context. "Two five one is your friend."

== Feedback request ==

If there's a particular topic you'd like to see in the Maximum Musician newsletter, drop me a line at dkoltow@MaximumMusician.com. If there's something in here you *don't* care to see, let me know that, too.

Finally, a quote to energize your practicing:

== A Maximum Motivation quote ==

"Concerning all acts of initiative, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

- Goethe

That's all the news from MaximumMusician.com. Keep playing and have fun!