Year In Review

Let’s kick off the new year by sending out 2014 in style. Here are some of our favorite moments from the past year.

January

Spirit of the Horse

Chinese New Year fell on Friday, January 31. This year was The Year of the Horse. If you turned twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six, forty-eight, sixty (as Stevie Ray Vaughn would have been), seventy-two (like Paul McCartney – worth noting Jimi Hendrix would have been seventy-two, too), or simply timeless (like Sir Isaac Newton, Rembrandt, and Genghis Kahn), this was your year. We played the ponies on January 30 and sent out a new incarnation of Guitar Noise News, our free email newsletter.

February

Spirit of Love

Can you feel the love this month? Easy Songs for Beginners made a return with two new lessons in February. First (on the first) there was Ventura Highway by America (and a bio of the band). Later in the month we asked you to tune to Open G for a cool arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game. For those not down with flowery folk ballads we added a primer on Power Chords that is useful for any style of music. On the 14th we sent out the Valentine’s Day Edition of our newsletter, reminding you that it was already too late to plan something special for “The Day Love Costs Money.”

March

Celtic Spirit

Leprechauns and green beer couldn’t keep us away. March rolled in like a Celtic Lion and we responded with a relatively simple yet still somewhat challenging single-guitar arrangement of “Crazy Love,” from Van Morrison’s 1970 album Moondance. Before he was Van the Man, he went by many other names – including The Belfast Cowboy. We followed this lesson up with an inspirational blog post on The Many Ways to Play. And if you want to find out why we love Superior Donuts you’ll have to re-read the March Newsletter.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand

April

Earth Spirit

In April we paused for “Earth Week.” We asked why set out one day, or even one week of the year to treat someone or something special? Earth, meaning this planet, is all that we have. Regardless of one’s politics or religion (or lack of either), it should be easy to understand that. And everything, from the air to water to all the animals and all the art and music, not to mention every single person alive, is part of the planet, too. Celebrating that and doing our best to make sure that everyone can continue to celebrate it in the future should be worth more than .2739% of our time.

In other April News, David took to the newsletter to explain why there are two Idiot’s Guide to Guitar books, both written by him, and what the differences are. Still confused? Buy them both and be done with it.

May

Victorian Spirit

In Canada, May 24 weekend, 0r Victoria Day as it’s also known, is the unofficial start to summer. This year we did what any normal person would expect and melded the Kinks song “Victoria” into a birthday tribute to Queen Victoria. Wait! Why? Just read (Sort of the) Guitar Noise News for May 2014 and very little will be revealed. Who has time to explain while summer is just getting going?

June

Summer Spirit

Even more exciting than Children’s Day on June 1, this month signals the start of summer holidays for school children eberywhere. Seventies Rockster Alice Cooper once said that greatest three minutes of his life were the last three minutes of the last day of school. If you know that feeling you’ll appreciate our “School’s Out” rebel artwork that captures the excitement of summer holidays. You can check out other GN art on these sites:

July

Apollo Spirit

Quick, how many songs about space do you know? How about songs about space that aren’t by David Bowie? We like Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” and “Walking on the Moon” by the Police a lot. This past July was the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 space mission and the first men to walk on the moon. Like everything else in life, there is a soundtrack to human spaceflight. We obsessed a little over space themed music on our Tumblr page and flashed back to 1969 in Flashback #11.

August

Concert Spirit

Our 1969 flashbacks are pretty strong and recurring. Only one month after the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, the musical landscape changed forever when half a million people converged on a muddy field outside Bethel, NY for the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. Woodstock’s lasting impact owes a lot to the unifying spirit of the music. Some of the era’s biggest bands had their career defining performances: Santana, The Grateful Dead, CCR, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, The Band, Johnny Winter, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Jimi Hendrix. Check out Flashback #12 for a look at Woodstock.

September

Celestial Spirit

Eastern philosophies call it Yin and Yang, but for hard rocking bands like Dio and Iron Maiden it’s just “a Light in the Black.” September saw Paul waxing about the “equal night” in Welcome to the Equinox. As musicians we’re always trying to find our way and the Autumn Equinox is an especially good day for this. On the day of the equinox the sun rise and set shows you precisely where east and west lie. The changes of the season remind us that while we can either grow or retreat – we don’t necessarily have to “fall back” like the clocks every year.

They built up with their bare hands

what we still can’t do today

(Not an Ad – just an observation)

October

Spooky Spirit

It’s crazy how much some people look forward to Halloween. It’s like Christmas and high school graduation all rolled into one. The only made up holiday where you get to dress up and people give you free stuff. This year we put together a list of spooky, moody songs that are otherwise overlooked for most of the year. It’s a ten song play list called Spooky Songs for Halloween, and it’s not very scary at all.

November

Thanksgiving Spirit

This year Thanksgiving meant it is now fifteen years since David first introduced himself to Guitar Noise. His lessons have brought the guitar to millions of people worldwide. It’s probably safe to say that someone from every country on earth has at some point stumbled upon Guitar Noise. We took stock of this and other things in our Thanksgiving message.

November also saw the publication of David’s seventh instructional guitar book” Idiot’s Guides: Guitar Theory

Music theory is often considered to be one of the most difficult subjects to learn. Idiot’s Guides: Guitar Theory breaks down music theory for guitar and other fretboard instruments in very simple and easy-to-understand lessons.

Order Idiot’s Guides: Guitar Theory from Amazon.com today.

December

Holiday Spirit

Every year at this time we like to make sure our Christmas lessons aren’t buried under too much snow. We already have over 30 solo arrangements of classic Christmas carols and this year the collection grew with the addition of three new transcriptions: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, El Noi de la Mare (The Child of the Mother) and I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day.