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# NOISE # DETUNINGS # TABS # STUFF # LINKS #

#INTRODUCTION#
There's something about the guitar, or more specifically the electric guitar. Don't ask me why, but somehow a cult has built up around it; people blame Jimi Hendrix for this, but he wasn't the first person to play the blues. But either way you look at it, people have the misconception that playing guitar is some sort of great feat, and that to produce a simple melody line requires years of practice, slaving over your instrument for ages.

People also have misconceptions of what constitutes great guitar playing; solos, for example, are pretty pointless and not nearly as hard to play as chords. Quite probably, a lot of the stereotypical 'guitar heroes' couldn't even play some of the more difficult barre chords. But I don't have a problem with musical incompetence; in fact, I'm beginning to think that a lack of training is behind most of the best music around. Once you strip away all the crap, all the stuff which is there for no other reason than for showing off, you're left with melody, lyrics, rhythm. Or in other words, music.

All the best bands in history are essentially simple; it's the riffs that Hendrix will be remembered for, not the solos. Great bands, from Joy Division to the Sex Pistols, didn't necessarily feel the need to show off how fast they can move their fingers, but rather were more concerned with making music. Or, in the case of the 'Pistols, with destroying music. And good for them. Music needs destroying every once in a while.

But there's another side to music; noise, or more specifically, guitar noise. Somehow making a load of random noise on a guitar sounds really good, while on any other instrument (with the possible exception of an analogue synth) it just sounds like crap.

I don't know, maybe the love of discordance and dissonance, which has been present in everything from Hendrix to Neil Young to Jeff Buckley to Radiohead to Nirvana to Sonic Youth, is just the replacement of the guitar solo. But if the guitar solo is just harmonically-correct nonsense masquerading as skill, then noise masquerades as nothing: it's there, and to create it requires more mechanical ingenuity than musical training. Which is good.
 
 

#NOISE# Ah, noise. 'Tis ambrosia for the ears. Or perhaps not. Wanna create the musical equivalent of a cerebral haemorrhage? The Archive of Noise contains noises which I've recorded. The Sonic Cookbook has 'recipes' for creating noise. The ARCHIVE OF NOISE The Sonic Cookbook #DETUNINGS# Unless you really like breaking strings, pick up some detuning advice here. Also has: List of Alt. Tunings Chord charts for DGDGBD Chord charts for CFCFAF Chord charts for F#F#F#F#EB

#TABS# Some of my favourite noisy guitar tabs, which can be trashed around and improvised. Urusei Yatsura: Glo Starz Sonic Youth: 'The Expressway to yr Skull' Sonic Youth: 'Silver Rocket' Nirvana: 'Endless Nameless' Beck: 'Mutherfuker' #STUFF# Ah, yes. The enternally vague 'stuff' section. All my pages have to have one, you know. How to Learn to Play The Proper Way 1 2

#LINKS#
There are precious few sites I've found really dedicated to guitar noise, but these might be helpful.
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Strummer Online May the resurrection of Christ Jesus transform your life! No, really. Nowt to do with Joe Strummer, like many alternate tuning sites this is based around acoustic guitar. Chords and tips for Low C, Open G and many other nice tunings. Contemporary Folk Tunings Folk might often be dull as shit, but they have a very interesting approach to music. This is a collection of some very weird, and some less weird, tunings. Guitarists.net Alt. Tunings A mixed bag of good, bad and obvious tunings. Mary McCalslin Good old Mary, whoever she is, has posted some very handy chord charts for the more commonly used alternate tunings. Guitarists.net A surprisingly non-corporate site, with tab, reviews and alternative tunings and so on. Guitar Geek I refuse to be labelled a 'guitar geek' by anyone, but this site doesn't seem to mind. An archive of musician's gear setups. They didn't have Thurston Moore, last time I looked, but they've got lots of noise rock stuff like Melt Banana and Mogwai.

GEO Lots of interesting stuff about effects, including how to build your own. Stephen Malkmus.com S.M.'s new website, for his band the Jicks, features a noise section. Noise.html Pretty pointless and out of date, this seems to concentrate rather heavily on cock-rock. Oh well. Harmony Central The best place to start when you're searching for anything guitary. Addicted to Noise You'd think they'd have something. The Online Guitar Archive They were recently 'done', like Mp3.com was, and thus have taken down most of their tab. It's of very variable quality anyway, so don't necessarily believe what you read. Saucerlike Sonic Youth The best SY fansite, this can probably point you in the right direction.

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