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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<The Acoustic Guitar Wire<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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1. Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 10
2. News and Notes
3. New at Acoustic Guitar Central
4. A New History of the Lute
5. Win a Bundle
6. Alternate Tunings Online
7. Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar
8. Carvin Giveaway
9. Great New Books from String Letter Publishing
10. Free Guitar Clinics
11. Win a Free CD
12. A Good Yarn from the Emerald Isle
13. A.G. Wire Archives
14. Contact and Unsubscribe Info

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Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 10.
Enjoy the latest acoustic music news, information
about happenings online, advance notice of special offers
and giveaways, and previews of new publications from String
Letter Publishing. You'll also get tips and advice about
guitars, gear, and playing, plus a few jokes and the chance
to win a free guitar and amp package or a bundle of CDs.

This newsletter is best viewed in 10-point Courier.
Our hyperlinks are formatted to be "hot" in most mail
readers. If your reader doesn't support click-through
linking from email, just cut and paste the URLs into your
Web browser.

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News and Notes

Guitar Talk is the online discussion forum at the Acoustic
Guitar Central website. For the past year or so, folks who
have been meeting in cyberspace to chat about guitars,
making music, and all sorts of stuff have been gathering to
play music together in real time.

You can see photos of a recent gathering in Seattle by going
to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000239.html

There is a national Guitar Talk gathering planned for Kansas
City the weekend of April 12. Folks from all over the
country will be flying in to play guitars, take a few
workshops, and generally have fun with music for the
weekend. Check out the details in the Gigs, Workshops, and
Gatherings forum at Guitar Talk:
http://acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi

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New at Acoustic Guitar Central

Excerpts from the April issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine
are now available online. Read our exclusive interview with
singer-songwriter Jewel, check out the latest CD reviews,
and get tips, advice, and insights from the pros in the
Q & A and What They Play sections. See the latest at
http://www.acousticguitar.com.

Spice up your chord progressions with a lesson on chord
fills from former A.G. music editor Dylan Shorer. This free
online lesson with tab, notation, and streaming audio clips
shows you how simple additions and variations can add real
zest to your basic chord changes. Strum along at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/lessons.shtml.

Take a guitar vacation this summer, and let A.G. help you
pick the right workshop or music camp for your interests.
The expanded Summer Study listings for 2002 are now online
at http://www.acousticguitar.com/summer/welcome.html.

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A.G. Wire Sponsor: A New History of the Lute

The Lute Society of America is proud to announce its
publication of A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the
Renaissance by musicologist Douglas Alton Smith.

The lute was the primary Renaissance instrument for song
accompaniment and instrumental solos. Since it's tuned
almost like the modern guitar, guitarists can play most of
its music, and a huge repertory survives.

Smith reveals who the great composers were, who wrote the
easy pieces for beginners, and where to find the music.

For more information and to order, see
http://www.lutehistory.com.

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Win a Bundle of Great CDs from Doc Watson, Joan Baez, and
Sean Watkins.

There's always a good discussion about guitars, players, and
acoustic music going in the Guitar Talk forums. Register to
participate and automatically get a chance to win a free
bundle of great acoustic-music recordings.

Get the details when you sign up today at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi

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Alternate Tunings Online

Our On the Web department in Acoustic Guitar magazine
features the latest news about hot spots on the Web that
offer cool resources for guitarists. Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
recently conducted a tour of cyber spots for learning about
alternate tunings. Here is an excerpted selection of URLs
from that story for anyone who wants to explore the world
beyond E A D G B E.

http://www.accentonmusic.com
http://www.adrianlegg.com
http://www.dancingcat.com/dancingcat/shorthist.shtml
http://www.jonimitchell.com
http://www.looknohands.com

Get more when you subscribe to Acoustic Guitar every month.

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Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar Magazine:

Our May issue will be hitting the newsstands in
early April. Highlights include:

--Features on Jazz Giants Bill Frisell and Jim Hall
--13 Pages of Music to Play
--Genre-Bending Nylon- and Steel-String Collaborations
--Gear, Gear, Gear! (Did we mention gear?)

In June we've got a feature on recording with your computer,
a profile of flatpicking wizard Tony Rice with music to
play, and an overview of the newest guitars and gears
debuting this year.

Look for a Pete Seeger cover story in July. That issue will
also include a review of great nylon-string guitars under
$1,500, the 2002 Homegrown Award winners, and lots more.

Don't miss out on any of these great features! Subscribe to
Acoustic Guitar today. Sign up online at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/service/service.html#subscribe or
call toll free (800) 827-6837.

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Enter to Win a Great Giveaway Package from Carvin!

The winner will receive a Carvin Plug 'n' Play Prize Package
One C850 Cobalt Series Guitar with an AG100D acoustic
amplifier, an HC21 hard-shell case, a GSD3 guitar stand, a
GS25 guitar strap, and an SH15 guitar cable.

To enter the contest and see the grand-prize package, go to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/carvin2/index.html

To meet some of our previous giveaway winners, go to
http://acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/winners/index.html

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Now Available from String Letter Publishing

THE COMPLETE ACOUSTIC GUITAR METHOD SERIES
by David Hamburger

Learn how to play guitar using the techniques and songs of
American roots music with the revolutionary new Acoustic
Guitar Method series, including the Grammy Award-winning
song "Man of Constant Sorrow."

Beginning with a few basic chords and strums, you'll start
right in learning real music drawn from blues, folk,
country, and bluegrass traditions. Working in both tablature
and standard notation, you'll learn how to find notes on the
fingerboard. You'll expand your collection of chords by
learning songs in various keys, and picking out the melodies
in the tunes you're working on.

When you're done with this method series, you'll know dozens
of the tunes that form the backbone of American roots music,
using a variety of flatpicking and fingerpicking techniques.

Acoustic Guitar Method, Book One (48 pp.) #00695648, $9.95
Acoustic Guitar Method, Book Two (48 pp.) #00695649, $9.95
Acoustic Guitar Method, Book Three (48 pp.) #00695666, $9.95

Learn more:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/method/

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Free Acoustic Guitar Clinics

Come and get a firsthand introduction to the groundbreaking
new ACOUSTIC GUITAR METHOD from author David Hamburger.

See the current schedule of free clinics for students and
teachers at:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/method/clinics.html

TEACHERS
You'll have an opportunity to ask questions about all the
books in the series and find out how each book serves
students at different skill levels.

As an acoustic guitar teacher, you may have been piecing
together an assortment of materials to formulate lessons for
your students, making your own simplified arrangements and
transcriptions. The Acoustic Guitar Method is organized to
make your teaching as logical, progressive, and rewarding as
possible, offering beginning students a comprehensive
introduction to the songs, artists, and history of
traditional American music.

STUDENTS
If you've never held a guitar, or you know just a few
chords, come to this clinic! Author David Hamburger will
show you how to get started with The Acoustic Guitar Method,
Book One.

He'll cover open chords, basic strums, single note picking,
and country backup, plus a few songs from the folk and blues
repertoire, according to student level.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE CLINIC THAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU!

The Acoustic Guitar Method clinics are sponsored by:

Fishman Transducers
Gibson Original Acoustic Instruments
C.F. Martin & Co.
National Reso-Phonic
John Pearse Strings

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Win a Free CD!

We're giving away a free CD of acoustic guitar music to the
contributor of the best music joke or gig story each month.
To enter, simply send your favorite music joke or anecdote
about a gig from hell to mailto:jokes@stringletter.com. Be
sure to include a mailing address in case you win. We'll
award a new prize with each edition. Our prizewinner this
month is Connor Blain of Berkeley, California, who sent us
this little tale from the Emerald Isle in honor of St.
Patrick's Day.

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A Tale for St. Patrick's Day

I was taking a walking tour of Ireland last spring with my
backpacking guitar. After trudging through the steady
drizzle of Sligo for a day or two, I was delighted when the
sun came out and a beautiful rainbow appeared. I took the
opportunity to sit down in the field, pull out my little ax,
and begin work on a lovely jig I'd heard in the pub the
night before. I was really stumbling over the second part of
the tune when I heard a voice say, "Try dropped-D tuning."

I looked around and didn't see anyone. The only thing in
sight were a couple of horses in the field--a chestnut mare
standing nearby and a dappled gray further up the hill. I
went back to my hesitant picking, and once again I heard a
voice say, "Try dropped-D tuning."

Again, there was nothing in sight except rocks, grass, and
the horses. Just for the heck of it, I dropped my E strings
to D's as suggested by the mystery voice and tried the tune
again. Sure enough, the melody just flew under my fingers in
the new tuning, and the low drone sounded great. I played
happily for half an hour and moved on.

Down the road a way I stopped into the first pub I came upon
for a wee drop. As I relished my pint I relayed to the
barman my experience with the field, the tune, the horses,
and the mysterious voice, hoping I might hear about a
leprechaun or banshee or anything to explain the curious
occurrence.

He pondered my story for a while and then asked, "Was it the
brown horse or the gray horse that was standing near you in
that field?"

It was the brown one, I replied.

"Ah well. You're all right, then. That gray horse doesn't
know a thing about arranging jigs for the guitar."

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Back issues of the A.G. Wire are available online at:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/wire_archive/index.shtml

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Send news, comments, and requests:
mailto:agwire@stringletter.com
Copyright (c) 2002 String Letter Publishing. All Rights
Reserved. You are welcome to forward this email to your
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or medium without express written permission of String
Letter Publishing is prohibited. Acoustic Guitar Wire and
the respective logos are trademarks of String Letter
Publishing.

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