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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<The
Acoustic Guitar Wire<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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1. Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 17
2. News and Notes
3. New at Acoustic Guitar Central
4. Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes
5. Win a Set of CD Songbooks
6. Grants, Jobs, and Slack-Key on the Web
7. Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar
8. Martin Eric Clapton Signature 000-28EC Giveaway
9. Great Books from String Letter Publishing
10. Win a Free CD!
11. A Joke from the Farm
12. A.G. Wire Archives
13. Contact and Unsubscribe Info
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Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 17
Happy New Year, acoustic musicians
and music lovers! We here
at Acoustic Guitar hope your 2003 is filled with joy,
resolved resolutions, and of course, music. The AG Wire
went on a short hiatus over the holidays. Now we're back to
help you 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 maybe a joke or two and the
chance to win a guitar, gear, and other great prizes.
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
Acoustic Guitar is accepting
entries for our third annual
Homegrown CD Awards contest. WeĠre looking for self-made
recording projects--music that is played, recorded,
produced, packaged, released, and sold by the artists
themselves. AG editors will identify the three highest-
quality projects and present them in Acoustic Guitar, along
with all the critical details that went into making them.
Winners receive a $500 gift certificate from First Quality
Musical Supplies. For rules and entry forms, go to
http://www.acousticguitar.com.
The deadline for entries is
March 31.
CITES, the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, added Latin-American
mahogany to its Appendix II list of protected species at a
November conference. This classification requires countries
to ensure that all mahogany exports are sustainable and
covered by CITES export permits. CITES' Appendix I, which
includes Brazilian rosewood, prohibits commercial trade
entirely.
Toronto, Ontario, will host the
first Winterfolk festival
(http://www.winterfolk.com),
January 31-February 2, with
workshops and performances by more than 50 artists. Toronto
will also be home to the International Association for Jazz
Education conference, January 8-11. Attendees can
participate in clinics and workshops on topics such as jazz
history, improvisation, technology, and teacher training. To
register, go to http://www.iaje.org.
Bluegrass, Etc., Lost Highway,
and the James King Band are
among the performers at the Colorado River Bluegrass
Festival, January 31-February 2, between Bullhead City,
Arizona, and Laughlin, Nevada. Free firewood is available
for attendees. For other useful information, go to
http://www.coloradoriverbluegrassfestival.com.
Lonnie Donegan, creator of skiffle
music, died November 3 at
the age of 71. The son of a classical violinist, Donegan's
own "mongrel music" was heavily influenced by early 20th-
century American music and incorporated elements of jug
band, folk, swing, and blues. The simple, accessible style
caught on quickly in 1950s England and influenced the
Beatles, the Who, and Van Morrison. Donegan was the first
British man to have two American Top 10 hits, and he claimed
28 Top 30 songs in Britain, including "My Old Man's a
Dustman," "Rock Island Line" (made famous by Leadbelly), and
"I'll Never Fall in Love Again," which was later recorded by
Elvis Presley.
Guitar Talk is the online discussion
forum at the Acoustic
Guitar Central website. For the past year or two, 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. Read more about the events
and post your own in the Gigs, Workshops, and Gatherings
forum of Guitar Talk.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi
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New at Acoustic Guitar Central
Excerpts from the February issue
of Acoustic Guitar magazine
are now available online. Read our article on George
Harrison's behind-the-scenes influence on the Beatles, 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.
A.G. subscribers, now you can
take care of all your
subscription needs online at http://www.acousticguitar.com,
which has been upgraded to include easy access to your
account. You can pay your bill, renew, give a gift, and
change your address all online. And of course, new
subscribers can sign up online, too. Come to
http://www.acousticguitar.com
and save yourself time and
hassle.
Afraid to step into the murky
waters of a minor-key tuning?
Chris Proctor helps you navigate a variation of G-minor
tuning in his song "Swept Away." Find this and other great
lessons at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/lessons.shtml
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Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes: Fiddle Tune Basics
If you love bluegrass and folk
music, you'll enjoy using
Flatpicking Guitar Essentials book-and-CD package to learn
flatpicking backup styles, melodies, and leads from some of
the finest teachers around. It offers 12 outstanding lessons
with 16 complete songs to play. Here's a selection from
Scott Nygaard on flatpicking fiddle tunes.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar
with fiddle tunes,
I'll get a few of the basic concepts out of the way first
(the fiddle tunes FAQ file). Most fiddle tunes are played in
a specific key, so it is important to learn them in that
key. Most fiddle tunes have two eight-bar sections, each of
which is repeated once before proceeding to the next part.
(There are countless exceptions to this rule.) When playing
fiddle tunes with other people, there are two protocols,
which we will call the old-time version and the bluegrass
version. In the old-time version, the entire tune is
repeated en masse, ad infinitum (some might say ad nauseum),
without individual solos. In the bluegrass version, each
player plays one entire cycle of the tune, then makes way
for the next soloist. Neither protocol is better than the
other; each has its own advantages. Put simply--the old-time
way promotes group solidarity and groove, while the
bluegrass way promotes individual expression and virtuosity.
It's an age-old dilemma.
For more tips on flatpicking
fiddle tunes, Celtic melodies,
and other types of music, check out "Flatpicking Guitar
Essentials"
http://www.stringletter.com
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Win a Collection of Acoustic Guitar CD-Songbooks!
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
set of six of our CD-Songbooks, including the Alternate
Tunings Guitar Collection, Shades of Blue, Habits of the
Heart, and Flatpicking Guitar Masterpieces.
Get the details when you sign
up today at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi
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On the Web
In November, the New York Foundation
for the Arts
(http://www.nyfa.org)
debuted NYFA Source, a free online
database of over 2,600 grants and awards programs, 2,000
services, and 700 publications for artists in dance, music,
folk/traditional art, theater, performance art, design,
media, and literary arts.
Guitarists whose musical tastes
lean toward the Polynesian
can visit http://www.taropatch.net,
a site dedicated to
Hawaiian slack-key music. The site features resources for
learning slack-key (including a list of tunings), a message
board, and news headlines to bring you a little bit closer
to the 50th state.
The New England Conservatory
Job Bulletin is a biweekly
email listing hundreds of positions in music performance,
teaching, and arts administration worldwide. A subscription
costs $35 per year. To view samples of the bulletin, go to
http://www.newenglandconservatory.edu/career.
Get more when you subscribe to
Acoustic Guitar every month.
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Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar Magazine:
Our March Custom Guitars issue
will be hitting the
newsstands in early February. Highlights include:
-- Features on guitar makers
around the world and how to
work with a luthier to get your dream guitar
-- An interview with Richie Havens
-- Profile of independent singer-songwriter Aimee Mann
-- A review of new nylon-string guitars from Martin and
Taylor
In our April issue, we talk to
Tracy Chapman about her
new album Let It Rain and transcribe her hit "You're the
One." Get ready to gear up for summer guitar adventures with
our annual Summer Study guide and five quick lessons to help
you brush up your skills.
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 Martin 000-28EC Eric Clapton Model Guitar!
The grand prize winner will take
home a package that
includes the Martin 000-28EC Eric Clapton signature model,
worth $3,719.00, plus 12 sets of Martin SP+ phosphor-bronze
light-gauge strings, worth $324, for a total retail value
of $4,043.00.
To enter the contest and see
the grand prize package, go to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/martinclapton/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 Complete Method,
#00695667, $24.95
Learn more at http://www.stringletter.com/methodcomplete.html
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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. This month's winner is
James Addist, who sent us this joke.
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A Joke from the Farm
A farmer went to visit a neighbor
farmer whose daughter was
taking voice lessons. Her loud, screeching voice could be
heard halfway down the road. Her father, oblivious to the
grating sound of his daughter's voice, proudly told his
friend, "Emmylou is cultivating her voice." The friend said,
"That ain't cultivating. That's harrowing."
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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) 2003 String Letter Publishing. All Rights
Reserved. You are welcome to forward this email to your
friends. Other reproduction in whole or in part in any form
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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