Worship Resources

Resources for Guitar: Chordbook.com

I'm always on the lookout for free resources on the internet.  I recently came across such a website.  The website is called Chordbook and trust me when I say that it is endless hours of fun for the budding guitarist (not to mention that it's good for that whole learning thing).  Let's take a brief look at this website together.

Go to the Chordbook Home Page Now

The Home Page
The homepage might not look like much when you first arrive but behind this simple layout rests an entire universe of good guitar knowledge.  From here you can navigate to the things that you need most.  The nice thing about the homepage is that there is a brief description of the websites key features.  In doing this the creators of the website are saving you a little bit of time from having to navigate through several different links to find out exactly what each section of the site does.  We're going to begin by looking at the "Guitar Chords" section of the site. 

Go to the Guitar Chords section Now

Guitar Chords
This screen has a really cool look to it.  The whole interface is very intuitive and easy to use.  It does, however, assume that you have some basic knowledge about the guitar.  For example, it assumes that you know what each of your strings is called in standard tuning.  Some guitarists, oddly enough, don't know this basic information.  So if this screen mystifies you a little bit don't fret.  Hopefully what we talk about here will help make certain things less confusing for you. 

Above the picture of the guitar you'll notice a bar with all kinds of information in it.  This bar contains options for the following:  Tuning, Capo Position, Hand Position (righty or lefty), Volume Output, Strum Speed, Guitar Type (electric or acoustic), and the Notes in the order that they are strummed.  If you scroll down the page a little bit you'll find explanations for each of these.  There are so many combinations of options here.  You can theoretically tune the guitar to any tuning that you want, no matter how weird.  You can capo anywhere and you can also see all the notes that you'll be playing.  All those lefty Jimi Hendrix wannabes out there can rejoice because you can choose to see all these chords from the left handed perspective.  Now matter what you do in this bar, the chord diagrams below will adapt to show you how to make certain chords happen no matter what position or tuning you happen to put your guitar in. 

The main graphic on this page is awesome.  It allows you to choose what fret you're on.  It let's you choose any root note out of the chromatic scale and build a chord on top of it.  Have you ever wanted to know how to play an Eaug9...chordbook will show you how.  Most of the primary chord qualities (major, minor, augmented, diminished and various other kinds of chords) can be found here.  There's no shortage of flavor that you can add to each one of your chords.  Tired of playing the same old C chord.  Try a different quality of chord.  Try out the Cmaj9.  This webiste really helps you expand your creativity.  It can help spruce up the same old boring chord progressions that you've been playing for years.  As if that wasn't enough you can also see inversions of these chords.  Think of inversions as chords where the root note is not the lowest sounding note of the chord.  In standard, non-inverted, chords the root is usually the lowest sounding note.  In a standard C chord shape (x32010) C is the lowest sounding pitch because C is the note found on the third fret of the A string.  However you can take that same shape and add a finger to the third fret of the low E string and produce a C chord (which now looks like...332010) that has a G as the lowest sounding note.  Folk guitarists use these kinds of techniques to help them produce constant droning notes to make their guitars sound really full all the time.  If you've never consciously played chords in inverted forms you should try it.  It sounds really nice.  You can also design and store your own chords from this interface.

Next up is the "Guitar Scales" section...

Go to the Guitar Scales section Now

Guitar Scales
Scales are the building blocks of music and every musician should have at least a basic understanding of what scales are and how to use them.  I don't know anybody that can honestly say, "I LOVE PRACTICING SCALES!!"  However, scales are just like Wheaties...they're just good for you.  From this interface you once again have a small army of options.  The two key options here are "Hand" and "Direction".  Hand simply meaning that you can choose which hand perspective (left or right) you wish to see the guitar in.  Direction simply meaning whether you choose to see the scale in ascending or descending order.   

There are 14 different kinds of scales and arpeggio forms to choose from here.  You can also choose any note of the chromatic scale to begin your note on.  If you've always had that burning urge to learn the C# melodic minor scale then chordbook's got what you need.  Some of the basic scales you'll want to begin learning are the blues, major, minor, major pentatonic, and minor pentatonic.  These are some of the most basic and useful scales to have in your arsenal. 

Next we'll look at the "Guitar Tuner" section.

Go to the Guitar Tuner section Now

Guitar Tuner
The guitar tuner section is simple enough.  In this graphic you can tune to any notes you want.  Every note is modifiable.  So if you're playing something in a weird open tuning (like CGCGCE), chordbook can provide you with the tones that you need to tune your guitar by ear.  This doesn't do you much good if you can't really tune by ear but this could also be a great training tool for people who are trying to learn how to tune by ear.  Simply hold your mouse over the tuners and adjust notes either up or down.  Try to keep it real world though.  Strings only have so much tolerance before they sound loose and jangly or simply snap right off the guitar.  When tuning strings down make sure you have a heavier guage string on the guitar.  When tuning strings up you might want to consider a lighter guage string. 

The last two features of this site are the "Cafe" and the "Chord-Board".  The Cafe is a section with play-a-long audio.  It's pretty cool but needs more expansion.  The Chord-Board is a user forum where you can ask all kinds of guitar related questions.  All things considered this website is a great free resource.  Out of all the "chord-generators" and "scale generators" that I've seen on the web, chordbook seems to offer one of the finest.  So go ahead and get your feet wet.  Try some new chords and learn some new scale patterns.  You won't be sorry that you did. 

 

Dealing with Worship Band Frustration

I’ve noticed that many people who are playing in worship bands these days will eventually have the same question. The question in….umm…question is: “How do you deal with frustration within or with your worship band?” This question can mean a lot of things. It could mean that you have a specific issue with an individual in the band. It could mean that you have an issue with the style of music being played. It could mean that you have an issue with the leadership. It could mean that you have a problem with those around you not following your leadership. Suffice it to say that this question is a rather wide-ranging one. I even noticed a few people checking out this page for help with frustration in their worship band. So I thought it would be apt to dole out a few thoughts regarding some of the issues that will inevitably arise in most praise band settings.

Begin From A Biblical Perspective
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
-1 Timothy 1:5

Everybody begins an argument from a perspective. In the whole of your Christian life, always make a true effort to begin from a God-centered, Christ exalting, biblically based perspective. The Bible contains such better wisdom than we could ever hope to drum up on our own. The 1Timothy passage above reminds us of the kind of attitude that we ought to have in approaching all things in life. If you don’t remember to act in love, you may end up acting in spite or rage, which does not produce the righteousness that God requires (James 1:20). Let all interactions between you and the other praise band members issue from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. If we don’t do those things then we are not honoring God as Lord. Let that inspire a certain degree of fear and trembling within you. Let it be well known to your heart that by acting out of selfishness you are not honoring the one and only true God.

Create a Statement of Core Values
I’ve been working on a statement of core values for our praise band for a little while now and I hope to complete it soon. The reason that I decided to move forward with the creation of a set of core values had everything to do with where God was moving my heart. Those participating in the praise band simply need to know why the praise band exists and they need to have a clear understanding of why the band functions like it does. A word of caution though…don’t develop a statement of core values based around your personal values. It could be possible that not all of your personal values are in line with the Gospel. Consider that you, as an individual, are perpetually flawed. This is not an insult, it is merely a statement of fact. None of us have attained perfection or complete righteousness. Therefore, it is always necessary for us to weigh all that we do and say against the light of God’s word. If your arguments do not hold up under the scrutiny of scripture then your viewpoint is probably not in line with the gospel. Your statement of values should be chock full of biblical foundation. If it is not then it will be open for great speculation and debate.

Create A Welcoming Atmosphere for Worship
As a worship band (praise team, praise band…whatever you call it) we have several responsibilities. Everyone within the group must understand these responsibilities. Our top priority is always to glorify God. Everything in a corporate worship setting trickles down from this one main objective. In a corporate setting, we should always attempt to create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable to worship. Creating this “atmosphere” requires many things. It requires great discernment regarding song choice. It requires great discernment in leading the songs. It requires that the band be well rehearsed and prepared to lead the songs. The list could go on and on. If you’re experiencing frustration with your worship band, for whatever reason, then it’s highly possible that you, as a group, are actually inhibiting the worship environment. Sometimes this stems from something as simple as poor playing. God can certainly work through all our failings but we should always strive to “play skillfully” before God. Young musicians, or overly confident musicians, often have trouble understanding that they are merely a small part of a larger machine. This can spell all kinds of disaster. Such persons can make a spectacle of themselves or they can simply get carried away and basically make any song fall apart. When a band doesn’t play well together there’s always added potential for frustration to occur between band members and there’s also the chance that you’ll be frustrating the people in front of you. Here are some tips for avoiding frustration in this area of your worship band. These are, by the way, in no particular order.

Develop Musical Competency Amongst All “New” Musicians: Every band requires the proper musicians with the proper attitude about their objectives as well as the proper attitude about the kind of music that they’re playing. If not, the whole operation is more likely to come unglued. If someone comes into the church and they have a desire to play in the praise band, that desire should be cultivated by the leaders of that praise band. It must be clear from the beginning that new musicians come into the praise band on a “practice basis” first. This means that all they should do at first is practice with the band. They don’t enter into the corporate worship time immediately, unless they prove themselves capable to do so. For example, if someone just can’t follow the lead sheets, and they don’t really know their chords or note positions on the neck of the guitar, then they need more practice. Let’s face a difficult fact: If someone doesn’t know what they’re doing and they suddenly insist on playing loud and wrong, they’re going to draw attention to themselves. This assists people in taking their minds off God and focusing entirely on the individual creating the distraction. Ergo, the worship atmosphere becomes compromised. Let’s keep this on a biblical foundation. The Bible calls for skillful musicians. Psalm 33:3 says, “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.” 1 Chronicles 15:22 says, “Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.” It is our biblical responsibility as those gifted with musicality to play skillfully before God. This doesn’t mean that we have to play perfect or even play like professionals. At the very least, however, we want to play like very competent amateurs. Therefore, if a “young” (inexperienced) musician comes into the praise band and their skills have not yet brought them to a place of amateur competency then they should be worked with until their skills come to that place.

Keep Within the Style: In your worship sets you might play eight songs and each one of them might require a slightly different stylistic treatment. Some inexperienced musicians simply don’t understand what this means. Every song requires a careful balance of instrumentation, patience, feel, and direction. If you don’t maintain that balance then the song will not sound cohesive because not all the musicians playing the song are on the same page stylistically. Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. Say, for example, you were playing something in an acoustic ballad style. The band is falling nicely into the groove when all of a sudden the lead guitar player comes in with some blistering, albeit completely out of character, 80’s hair metal guitar lead with lots of distortion and delay. Meanwhile the rest of the band is keeping things subdued and trying to make a slow build into the final chorus of the song. What if that lead guitarist thinks what he/she is doing sounds really cool when it’s obvious to everyone else that the guitar part that they’ve just introduced to the song sounds completely absurd and distasteful. If the worship leader is not clear about the musical direction that each song needs to take then every musician could develop a different idea about what needs to happen musically within the song. This is the perfect recipe for disaster. If you have someone in your band who just doesn’t understand how to musically blend in then they should not be allowed to continue in the corporate worship setting until they truly understand how to contribute in a sensible fashion.

Differentiate Between Performance and Worship: I’m all too familiar with “performance”. I’ve done some relatively ridiculous things in my time as a “performer”. I’ve jumped around like a spastic moron. I’ve kicked things around, stripped off clothing, walked on bars, jumped off bars, laid on disgusting stages, licked guitar strings, powered down shots of Jagermeister in the middle of songs…anything I could think of to get the crowd going. I’m sure that if I could go back in time and watch myself doing all that stuff I would probably be a little embarrassed by much of what I used to do. However, that’s entertainment. I’m not sure if that’s a slightly sad statement or merely an observation of the truth. There are people that are going to disagree with me strongly on this point and that’s fine. To me, performance was always about trying to draw attention to yourself so that people would feel engaged in an experience and hopefully have a good time. I just don’t have those kind of values when it comes to worship through music. I think that if you’re bringing attention to yourself then you are trying to make yourself the object of worship. In my performing days that was certainly the case with me. I was always hopeful that there was some woman out in the crowd who was getting turned on by what I was doing so that maybe, just maybe, we could have some kind of meaningless tumble in the dark later. If it wasn’t that then it was because I wanted people to think that I was really something. I wanted people to talk about me. I wanted to be able to brag that people thought I was a good performer. How much more egotistical and self-centered can you get? Therefore, I usually have a great disdain for people that try to turn the worship environment into an arena of performance. I would hope that most people would consider my definition of performance and say, “I define performance a little differently, but I see where you’re driving at. I just call that something else besides performance.” So let’s not quip over words. Let’s instead come to the agreement that the worship atmosphere must be devoid of any selfishness. No one must have a desire to be known or recognized or applauded. I don’t lead worship because I want praise. Oh sure, praise makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside but it can too easily serve the worship of self. I am not worthy of praise. God is the only one worthy of praise. I would rather that people save their words of adulation for God. I’m not, of course, postulating that no one should ever encourage anyone or tell them that they appreciate what they do. That would be absurd. I’m simply saying that all praise that we give to others must be done in sober humility and humbleness. No one should become puffed up with conceit out of, or for, the envy of another. (Galatians 5:26)

Therefore, if someone in your band is doing something that crosses the line, i.e. something that draws attention to themselves, then they must be dealt with accordingly. Begin with private conversation, encouragement, and exhortation. If that does not work then try again but this time go with another individual that the person in question might be more apt to listen to. Namely, you want to take someone with you who can corroborate what you’re seeing. If this doesn’t work then bring that individual and their actions before the entire praise band. If that person continues to persist in following a path that is not in line with the gospel, then they shouldn’t be allowed to continue in the praise band until they find greater wisdom, humility and humbleness. I’m not pulling this out of the air. Hopefully it sounds familiar to you. See how Jesus speaks in Matthew 18:15-17.

Conduct yourself carefully and not self-righteously in these matters. Don’t be overly hasty but rather conduct yourself in all modesty and wisdom. Remember the charge of 1 Timothy. I could rattle on here forever. Hopefully the words presented here, though brief, will help you gain some perspective on how to deal with the issues that arise in your praise band. If you have any specific questions that you would ever like to e-mail me I would love to hear from you. Simply e-mail me at chad@bethechurch.com.

How to Play "The King"

"The King" is an extremely easy song to play.  There is literally nothing to it... 

It's in the key of D.
The guitar is tuned as follows:  DADGBE
It only has three chords:  D    G    A (in different variations)
It only has one riff-esque part at the end of every chorus...and it's only four notes played on one string

Easy, easy, easy

Let me take you through it:

At the bottom of this post you'll be able to download a hand written sheet that includes all the chord shapes that I play in this song.  The sheet looks a little chaotic but it's basically divided into three sections:
(1) Intro and Chorus
(2) Verse
(3) Pre-Chorus

These chords will successfully get you through the whole song.  I won't spend much time elaborating on each of the sections described above.  I'll just have you refer to the sheet with the chords on it. 

Section 1:  Intro and Chorus
The intro and the chorus share the exact same chord pattern.  If you refer to the chord shapes on the hand written sheet that you can download below you'll have all the information you need to play those chords as I play them. 

Section 2:  Verse
The verse is played with the D, A, and D strings open.  The B and the E strings should be deadened.  All the action on the verse happens on the G string...yeah yeah yeah....go ahead and chuckle....Here's what you do:
On the handwritten sheet you'll notice that I've placed four dots on the G string and then a note below the whole chord box that essentially says this, "The notes on this string are played in descending order.  You should play each note in this fret order - 14 - 12 - 11 - 9.  You will also do a mixture of palm muting and open stringing.

Section 3:  Pre-Chorus
The pre-chorus G is played in a relatively common drop D position.  Make sure you catch the note that indicates the first fret in this diagram as being the 3rd fret.  If you miss that you'll get some undesirable sounds and immediately begin cursing my existence.  The A chord sounds really nice.  Again take note of where the top fret is indicated on this diagram (the 6th fret).  For a variation in tonal color on this A chord you should add your ring finger to the 7th fret on the G string every now and again.  It helps the chord move a little bit. 

That Thing at the End of Each Chorus
Each chorus ends with a single note riff that is really easy to play.  The notes all happen on your drop D string.  The actual notes are D, F#, G, and then back to D.  Let me attach fret numbers to each of these notes...remember this is all on your drop D string:
D (open)
F# (4th fret)
G (5th fret)
D (open)

The Part After the 2nd Chorus
After the second chorus the music shifts gears into a more mellow section which leads into a recap of the first pre-chorus.  The chords to this are simply the pre-chorus chords over and over again.  It's easy to hear that all I did was simply pick out these chords rather than strum them out like before. 

That's pretty much it.  Any questions?  Don't hesitate to email me.  I've also included a lead sheet for your downloading pleasure. 

Download Hand Written Chord Sheet

Download "The King" Leadsheet

The Art of Transcribing

Someone once asked Dizzy Gillespie, “Hey Diz’, can you read music?” He replied, “Not enough to hurt the way I play!” When I first heard that quote I was knee deep in music school and for the first time in my life I was trying to learn how to transcribe music by ear. My teacher in college was an accomplished jazz saxophonist. He had spent time touring with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Phil Collins. He had a degree in performance from one of the top music schools in the country. He had also appeared on recordings by lounge lizard giants like Mel Torme and Barely Man Enough…I mean Barry Manilow! I used to come into lessons with something that I was trying to transcribe, unsuccessfully, and he’d listen to it like once and have it down perfectly. There were days I wanted to strangle him because he was so disgustingly good. He taught me more about being a musician than anybody else that I’ve ever known. I owe him a lot. The lessons that he handed down to me on transcribing are lessons that I use today on a daily basis. No one had ever challenged me to do that until he came along.

It’s sad that in the world of music education, the art of learning to transcribe (play by ear as some call it) is not a priority for most music educators. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why. As a band director I know that time always seems to be against you. However, a student that knows how to read music and play by ear is one that is truly on their way to becoming a more well rounded musician. So how does the ability to transcribe help the aspiring worship leader or the young musician in a worship band. To put it simply, it opens up a whole new world.

Transcribing consists of several components…the following comes in no particular order:

(1) Form

(2) Key

(3) Melody

(4) Backgrounds

Form

The “form” of a song simply refers to the structure of a song. For example a song might go in this order: verse = chorus = verse = chorus = bridge = chorus. For the worship leader form is both important and highly organic. So much of song leading depends on the ability of the worship to leader to feel where the song needs to go next. The worship leader might think to themselves, “I feel like we need to go back to a verse even though we practiced going to the bridge right here.” These are matters of discernment on the part of the worship leader. A good discerning worship leader who understands how to manipulate the form of a song can help facilitate a great corporate worship experience.

Key

Most worship songs are simple and in simple keys. There’s a good reason for this. One of the elements that makes a worship song good for a corporate setting is its accessibility. Something that is too difficult might prove frustrating not only to your band but to the people who have come to worship with you. There are many common keys that are good for most singing voices. Ideally you want something that is not too high but not too low either. Key can really help facilitate that. Popular keys for worship songs are G, C, A, E, D, and B. When I’m learning most songs the key is the very first thing I figure out. The key can also clue you in to what your options usually would be in a given chord progression. For example, if you’re playing a song in G it would not be common to have an A or E. It would be more likely to have an Ami and an Emi. It certainly wouldn’t be outrageously uncommon to have a A and an E in a song that is in the key of G but I can tell you from experience that it’s certainly not that common in contemporary worship music. Most worship songs are diatonic, which is to say that most modern worship tunes don’t often stray to chords that are not commonly found in their given keys.

Common chords in G: G Ami C D Emi (Bmi – less common but not unheard of)

Common chords in A: A Bmi C#mi D E F#mi

Common chords in E: E F#mi G#mi A B C#mi

Common chords in D: D Emi F#mi G A Bmi

Common chords in C: C Dmi Emi F G Ami

B is a common key in many worship tunes but it is usually capoed on the fourth fret and played using chord shapes from the key of G. I find that this key makes for easy medley’s of lots of great worship tunes: Marvelous Light, You Never Let Go, Blessed Be Your Name, Nothing But the Blood (Redman), Not to Us, Sweetly Broken and the list could just go on and on.

Melody

Melody is usually what I learn next. Think of the melody as the “sung” part of a song…that’s kind of a tongue twister isn’t it. It’s important that the worship leader have a good firm hold on the melody of a song. This will better enable them to help their respective fellowships learn the song. As a general rule of thumb, most melody’s in worship songs are simple and repetitive. This makes them quick and easy to learn and that’s ideal in a corporate setting. As the vocalist you don’t want to do a bunch of melody alteration as you sing. This could throw people off, make them uncomfortable and damage the experience that they’re having. Everything that a worship band does is done with the mindset of helping people meet with God in expectancy and glorify Him through the offering of song. If the singer starts doing all kinds of crazy stuff then people could start to focus on him or her and that is not at all what you want in a corporate worship setting. The moral of the story…stick to the melody.

Backgrounds

In worship tunes figuring out the form, the melody, and the key is usually a quick and painless process. The backgrounds, i.e. cool guitar/keyboard/drum parts, can be infinitely more difficult because mimicking something with your voice is much easier than replicating an instrumental background on your particular instrument. This is especially true if you’ve never tried to do such a thing before. If you play guitar but have never tried to transcribe guitar parts by ear you’ll find much frustration before you find ease and success. The same is true for any other instrument. Background figures can make a song sound so much deeper and mature. For example, you can play Chris Tomlin’s Indescribable without that really cool guitar lick at the beginning, but it sounds much more interesting if it’s there. Background figures require much more time and effort out of an individual. However, if your praise band meets on a regular basis and you have enough time to work all that stuff together then I think you’ll find the process very rewarding and worthwhile. This kind of work is really the heart of true transcribing. It means that you’re beginning to think like a musician. You’re beginning to think more like a cog in the wheel and you’re starting the very important process of learning how you contribute to the whole sound. This is a key mentality in a worship band. I highly encourage every musician to sit down and figure out those little “here and there” parts that you hear in worship tunes. They’re usually really easy and they will help make your praise band better.

When I’m transcribing a song I usually do it in this order: Key (including the chord progression), Form, Melody, and Backgrounds (if they are needed and if I have the time). You certainly don’t have to do things in this order. Find what works for you and do it.

So if those are the primary elements of transcribing then the next question might be, “How do you do it?” I’ll tell you the same thing my teacher told me in college, “Experiment, get it wrong, experiment, get it wrong some more, experiment, get a little bit of it right, experiment some more, get more right, experiment more, get even more of it right, continue to practice and experiment and voila…after potential months of frustration you’ll finally know how to do it.” So the answer to the question is that you just have to do it. You have to first gain some basic knowledge. If you’re a guitarist or a keyboardist then you’ll need to know your common chords in your common keys. If you don’t know how to play basic chords then you’ll experience an unhealthy amount of frustration that might drive the joy out of playing. Hang out with other musicians. They’ll be able to help you figure songs out. They will also help you develop your ear. Before long you’ll begin to recognize things. You’ll hear a song and you’ll say, “Hey I think that’s in G.” Then you might go home, look up the words on the net, play around with some different chords and find out that you were right, that song was in G. You may even get to the place where you pretty well know the key and the chord progression after hearing the song a few times. You’ll even start to remember some of the background figures and be able to play them without the recording. Music will become accessible to you in a whole new.  Remember, human beings are natural mimicks.  It's how we learn how to speak, how to feed ourselves, and how to do a whole list of other important things Just don’t forget, share what you’ve learned. Pass it on to other musicians so that everyone can experience the joy of music with no more help than the aid of their ears. Now, enough reading…go start transcribing. Here, I’ll get you started…

Chris Tomlin’s song How Great is Our God is in the key of C on the studio album. It has no chords outside of that key. It uses three chords most of the time but altogether the song has four chords. One of those four chords doesn’t happen very often. That’s enough info to get you started. Have fun and good luck.

Thank You Lord for Musicademy

Resources for worship leaders are rapidly increasing. It is little wonder as to why. The praise and worship team (call it what you will) is becoming a more common part of many new and expanding churches. As this has happened more people have gone looking for instructional resources on how to make their particular praise team more effective. So a heightened awareness has developed in the praise and worship community for the needs of the developing musician who wishes to pour out their talent for the purpose of serving God. One thing that I’ve wanted to see develop is a DVD resource that covered every basic area of the worship band. Guitar resources are usually plentiful but what about resources for the bass guitarist in the worship band. How about the drummer or the keyboard player? I used to say to myself, “They’re part of the band too…why don’t they have a bunch of fancy resources?” Generally speaking, most resources for guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals use popular or classical music as their teaching vehicle. There’s nothing wrong with that but it doesn’t necessarily help the developing worship team. One group of people is changing that in a big way. Enter…MUSICADEMY!

Who and/or what is Musicademy?

Musicademy is an organization that works in conjunction with the Academy of Contemporary Music, Europe’s leading school for rock and pop musicians. They are also an accredited organization. So if you live in the UK, sorry America, you can enroll in their courses and receive college credit. Many of the teachers at Musicademy were trained the Academy of Contemporary Music. Some of their teachers work as studio musicians. Some of their teachers work as worship leaders. I could go on but suffice it to say that their staff resume is quite impressive. This highly trained group of people have banded their talents together and have begun making video resources for the developing worship musician. Will it cost you some money to take advantage of their resources? Yes. Is it worth every penny? It certainly seems like it. To find out more let’s jump over to their website (www.musicademy.com).

Welcome to Musicademy

This is the friendly greeting you see when you arrive at Musicademy’s website. If you scroll down the center of the page you’ll see several things of note. Let’s just go down through it and see what they’ve decided to put center stage.

EXPLORING THE HOME PAGE

Local Courses

If you happen to live in the UK this might interest you. Musicademy offers real life classes for those who are interested. This section will tell you who and how to get in touch with if you want to enroll in one of their classes.

Online Guitar Lessons

Click on any of these links and you’ll arrive at instantly downloadable video about playing the guitar. These videos represent REAL people teaching REAL songs.

The “Rock & Pop” lessons are chock full of cool songs to learn. You’ll notice that each “course” of lessons in this link is broken down into stages. Within each stage there are a number of lessons that are available for download. Each download costs 3.49 euros (something like $4.75 in US currency). The teaching is sequential so stage 1 is for the absolute beginner and the higher number stages begin to get more technically difficult. You don’t have to download each lesson individually. In fact, you can buy a whole stage and save a little money. So for example, if you bought all 7 of the “Stage 2” lessons (which includes music from the Monkees to the White Stripes…how’s that for diverse) it would cost you a little over 28 bucks because in stage 2 you can get a coupon code to get one lesson free. Think about what you’re getting. You’re not just learning how to play songs. You’re picking up professional techniques from professional musicians. I can’t tell you how invaluable that is. If you were paying for guitar lessons you’d be lucky to get 7 lessons for less than a hundred dollars. So while you might be thinking, “Man this seems a little pricey,” you really are getting the absolute amount of bang for your buck. Here’s the other cool part…once you download the video once, you can refer back to it as many times as you want. It’s literally like taking a guitar teacher home with you. You’re basically getting guitar lessons at about five bucks a shot. Anyone that has ever taught music privately will tell you that “dirt cheap” isn’t really an apt description for just how inexpensive that truly is. So if you’re just starting out on guitar, I highly recommend this series. Buy a stage every other paycheck or something like that and you’ll soon find that you have the whole set and you now have an amazing library of musical instruction at the tip of your…um…uh…fingertips.

No offense to rock music, but what if you’d rather learn to play guitar using praise and worship tunes. Hey, I love U2, Nirvana and The Troggs just as much as any cat out there, but not everyone does. If you’re looking to get a praise and worship team together in a hurry then “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Sunday Bloody Sunday” might not be the best vehicles for your praise band to use as a model for practice. Musicademy truly shines in the area of praise and worship because they go to great lengths to remedy this very problem.

The “Worship Song Learner Downloads” are incredible. There are currently 22 downloads available in this section (as of 8-27-07). The very first video available for download is “All Creatures of Our God and King” as done by the David Crowder Band. The description of the video made me want to buy it instantly. This video teaches you how to play the acoustic guitar part of “All Creatures” note for note (i.e. just the way Crowder plays it). Even if you’ve been playing by ear for a long time you might sometimes wonder exactly how you’re favorite artists play certain songs (there is usually more than one way to play something). I know some people who get DVD’s of their favorite bands/musicians just so they can physically see how the actual artists play a certain song. I can’t tell you how helpful it is to know precisely how another musician plays something. It doesn’t mean that it’s the only way that it can be played but sometimes you might discover something that makes the song a million times easier to play than the way you might play it. Also, if you’re a member of the website you can download resource sheets with each of these videos. These sheets include things like song charts, chord shapes and strumming patterns. All of this is information that will help you learn and retain that much faster. Scroll through all 22 products available, get crazy and buy 7 or 8 of them (you get one video free after you buy so many). The videos that they have up right now represent some of the best worship music that’s out there today. You’ll even find things here that you won’t find in their instructional DVD’s.

Musicademy Worship Courses on DVD

The few links that they have under this are but a mere spattering of what they have available. What you ought to do instead is go over on the left hand side of the page and put your mouse icon over on “Worship DVD’s” (it’s right between the Home and Vocal CD’s links). When you put your mouse icon over the Worship DVD’s you’ll notice that a whole new menu jumps out to the right. Click on “Beginners Guitar”. Follow this process for all the other sections as well.

Beginners Guitar/Intermediate Guitar

All together, there are 6 DVD’s in the Musicademy worship guitar course. Three of the DVD’s are for beginners and the final three move up to the intermediate level. These DVD’s teach sequentially so make sure you get them in the proper order. Each DVD is a whopping two hours long. The question on everybody’s mind is, “Yeah, but how much do they cost?” Each DVD will cost a little over 30 bucks. Right now some of you are saying, “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! 30 BUCKS FOR A TWO HOUR DVD!! I GOT THE FOUR DISC SET OF “RETURN OF THE KING” FOR LESS THAN THAT!!” While 30 bucks might seem like a lot of money it really isn’t when you consider all that is packed into each DVD. I challenge you to go to a big city and find a guitar teacher that will give you lessons for two hours and not charge you any more than 30 bucks. Even in smaller areas this isn’t all that easy. In truth, going out and paying for guitar lessons would end up costing much more in the long run. So you’re actually saving money with these DVD’s.

Speaking of saving money, if you bought all three of the beginner DVD’s individually you would end up shelling out close to or just over 100 bucks. Fortunately, Musicademy offers the beginner and intermediate courses in a box set. On worshiptogether.com they’re currently offering those box sets at $74.99 each. Again, this total might have made you wince. But let’s do some more math. Let’s say that the average guitar teacher in America charges only $20.00 for an hour-long lesson (that’s an understated figure by the way). The DVD’s in each course offer a total 12 hours worth of instruction. 12 hours of instruction with the Average guitar teacher in our example would run no less than $240.00 dollars (that figure would be much higher in metropolitan areas). If you simply bought the two box sets of DVD’s (beginner and intermediate) from Musicademy you would save yourself nearly $75.00 in lessons. Talk about savings. Also, I bet if you did some shopping around on the net you could probably find those DVD box sets a little cheaper. So the cost here really should be a no brainer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…so the price is pretty good…but are the DVD’s actually any good? What are they teaching? Take it from someone who has taught guitar and someone who has also been the beginning student, these DVD’s are the real deal. They are showing you everything you need to know in order to get off on the right foot with your guitar playing.

The Song Learner Series for Guitar/Keyboard/Bass

As if lessons on guitar, keys and bass weren’t enough, Musicademy offers a whole other series of “Song Learner” DVD’s. Each DVD in this series is also two hours long. They teach you how to play virtually all the modern day staples of the average praise band. Imagine a scenario like this:

A guitarist, a keyboardist and a bassist are all at their respective homes in front of the TV. Each of them are watching their song learner DVD’s. Each of them is learning how to play “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin. They all practice diligently for a solid week and then they show up at praise band rehearsal. Everybody already knows how to play “Indescribable” so they go ahead and tear into the song. It’s not exactly magic the first time but it’s also not horrid because they’ve had someone teaching them how to play that song for the last week. Their whole practice session is made easier and better because they’ve had a professional telling them how to make their playing better. Imagine how much their learning will be excelerrated if they continue to work with those DVD’s.

If I had a young group of musicians who wanted to form a praise band I would undoubtedly buy these DVD’s and send them home with my kids as practice tools. The bass DVD in this series is not yet complete but it is scheduled out for later this year. I hope that they’re also planning one for drums. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Vocals

I’ve never really considered myself a true vocalist. True vocalists know all kinds of stuff about breathing, diction, falsetto, vibrato, their diaphragm, head voice, chest voice, warm-ups, vocalises and a whole bunch of other stuff. Your average worship leader of today probably knows very little about the list I just described. So you might be asking the question, “If our singer sings well enough, do we really need a DVD to help us out?” Like in every other area of musicianship, more help never hurt.

I remember being in college and sitting in my first session of class voice and thinking, “This is really lame!” I thought to myself, “I’ve been singing for years…it isn’t exactly rocket science.” After one day in class voice I realized just how wrong I was about everything I thought I knew about singing. The human voice is an extremely complicated instrument. It takes really hard work and an extreme sense of dedication to develop the singing voice properly. The things that I learned in class voice all those years ago are things that I’ve carried with me all the way up to the present. I keep them in mind every time I get ready to sing. So on the technical side of things I would say that the vocal DVD’s from Musicademy have a wealth of good information to offer. But here’s the best part…they’re not just teaching you proper technique. They are also considering the varying dynamic aspects of worship leading.

Here are some examples of crucial things that Musicademy’s vocal course will teach you:

Choosing Keys: Choosing an appropriate key for a song is so essential for corporate worship. There are a great many worship songs out there that are great worship songs because they have several things: solid theology, simplicity, and singability. Okay “singability” isn’t really a word but what it means is simple. A song is considered “singable” or accessible because it’s melody falls within the comfortable range of a large number of people. In other words, songs whose melody is very high may be uncomfortable for the average man to sing. Songs whose melody is very low may be too difficult for the average woman to sing. Songs whose melody is too “notey” may too complicated for the untrained voice. Yet a song whose melody falls somewhere between “not too high and not too low” and “has very few notes” is the kind of song that can be learned very rapidly in a large group setting. Choosing the right key means that your congregation will be able to sing the song with more ease and thereby feel more comfortable to worship without the threat of the dreaded puberty voice. I’ve heard Chris Tomlin say, “You might want to move the key of this song down to a different key to make it more accessible to your congregation.” He says this because he knows that he sings very high. This means he sees the potential complications that people might have if they’re trying to sing really high like him. For a long time I was a real stickler for doing songs in their original key. Finally I realized that changing the key of a worship song doesn’t rob the song of its integrity, it merely opens up more potential for people to worship in song.

Teaching Songs: Teaching a new song to a congregation is not as easy as one might think. Showing it to the band might not be any easier. Musicademy provides tips on how to teach songs in a fashion that will allow you to communicate intelligently. You always want this particular process to be enjoyable. It won’t be if you have no idea how to communicate it to the people around you.

Band Communication: Everybody has a different set of body language. I remember our drummer once saying something like, “Chad and Chris do some of the same things but they don’t mean the same things when they do them. I always have to remember whose leading because if Chris stomps the ground it means he wants a different tempo but if Chad stomps the ground it just means he’s getting into it.” So much of what happens between a band consists of non-verbal communication. Verbal and non-verbal communication are essential for any good band. Musicademy will help you be more effective at this.

A quick story about the power of non-verbal communication

One of the most amazing musical moments I ever experienced in my life took place over the course of a 17 minute musical jam with an old band I used to play with. You should know that this didn’t take place at church. This took place at a slightly scary bar. Anyway, there were four of us playing (drums, bass, guitar, and sax). The jam started off really big and bombastic. Then, over a period of about 17 minutes, the music continued to change moods and get increasingly understated. The guitarist eventually left the stage, followed by the drummer. This left just the bass player and myself.  What the basss player and I played…well I can’t tell you what we played…I just remember that everyone in front of us was mesmerized. We just played these simple little things together and eventually we just faded it out to nothing. It doesn’t sound like much of anything when you read about it on a page but it was the first time in my life that I had ever done something musically where I felt like my playing went places that it had never gone before. That whole 17 minutes no one said a word to one another but everyone knew exactly what to do. We all just knew what the moment needed. That’s how worship leaders need to be. They need to know what the moment needs and often times you’ll have to communicate that to your band through non-verbal cues.

Spontaneous and Prophetic Singing: You might be saying to yourself, “How can someone give you guidelines on singing spontaneously…isn’t that kind of an oxymoron.” Matt Redman is perhaps one of the best practitioners spontaneous and prophetic singing. While there are no specific hard and fast rules about doing this in worship there are some general concessions that everyone should be aware of because failing to follow them could spell disaster for the worship atmosphere. I’m so glad to see that Musicademy is addressing this particular topic. Too many people do it poorly. Musicademy will show how to do it as it ought to be done.

Those are but a mere spattering of the vocal DVD’s have to offer. A wealth of information awaits you in all of the volumes of the Musicademy vocal course.

Keyboard DVD’s

The ability to play keyboards in a worship band adds so much depth to the overall sound of the group. The keyboard series is broken up into two volumes: the intermediate and the beginner. From looking over what the DVD’s teach I can tell you that this won’t be like your ordinarily boring piano lessons. These lessons seem to get right down to showing you how to play in a worship band. Naturally you’ll learn most of your standard basics along the way but by the end of the 1^st DVD in the beginners series they’ve already got you playing the amazing worship song “Lord Reign in Me”.

Keyboarding basics aside, some of the things that I’m really excited about in these DVD’s are some of the extended techniques that they’re teaching you. I list some of those examples below.

Learning How to Play with Feeling and Expression: In truth, this isn’t the kind of thing that can actually be taught. However, people can give you plenty of advice to help you learn how to tap into that potential within yourself. Too many “trained” pianists, mostly young pianists, play like robots. They don’t really know how to naturally use things like dynamics and tempo fluctuation to add a sense of purpose to their playing. I’m so glad Musicademy is addressing this. I hope that it is currently helping a lot of uptight keyboardists to loosen up.

Playing in public for the first time: So many people, even if they’re in a group, experience this nearly inexplicable terror every time they play in front of a group of people. I’m sure this section of the DVD offers some very solid advice about overcoming these fears and realizing that what you’re doing is for the glory of God…that being the case…let go of stage fright and just worship.

Melodic Fills and Improvisation: Many people who have been “classically” trained on the piano have a very difficult time thinking outside the box. Classically trained pianists tend to get into a full band situation and just pound out chords. They do this because they have no music in front of them to help them do otherwise. Sadly, improvisation is just not taught to many developing musicians. In light of that reality piano players usually add little flavor to the overall mix of the band. Granted, there are times when you really just need a pianist to plunk out chords but in the modern praise and worship setting the keyboard can do so much more. So many of the really cool sounds you hear coming out of a praise band come from a very creative keyboardist. There have been a number of occasions where I have been playing the keyboard in our praise band at Oasis and never bothered to plunk out one single solitary chord. Instead, I’ve challenged myself to find interesting sounds to add ambience to the overall sound of the group. The possibilities that one has in front of them on the keyboard are limitless. You can add such a unique dynamic to your praise group by better understanding how to put “melodic fills” and improvisatory sounds into each song. It makes the praise band multi dimensional.

Resources for Bass Guitarists

Some people think of bass guitar kind of like the dummy instrument. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bass guitar is so crucial that it can’t possibly be overstated. One of the nice things about bass guitar is its accessibility. Often times you’re called on to use only one finger on one string at a time. This makes the learning process faster and the learning curve much less steep. However, the moment you get the easy stuff down you soon find yourself wanting to do so much more. The problem is that a lot of young bass players have no idea what to do past the basics that they’ve learned. I’ve listened to albums before like the Red Hot Chili Peppers classic “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” and found myself saying, “The bass part is so mesmerizing that I can hardly listen to the other parts of the song.” It’s amazing how well a good bass part can drive a song. How about “Dancing Generation” by Matt Redman. You just can’t play that song unless you have that killer bass part. Thankfully Musicademy has come up with a resource to help all those thirsty bass players out.

There are six DVD’s in this series (3 for beginners and 3 for advanced players). The tutor in this series is none other than the great Matt Weeks….yeah I didn’t know who he was either. This guy has one serious resume. He has worked with the likes of Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Brenton Brown, Paul Baloche, and Brian Doerksen (just to name a few). Many of the songs taught on the bass DVD’s are songs that Matt created the original bass parts for. This guy is the genuine article and bass players in every praise band everywhere can benefit from what this guy has to teach. As of this article the bass DVD’s are not yet available but when they become available you should buy them all immediately.

Resources for Drummers

I’m not kidding…when these DVD’s (6 total) come out, I’m thinking about buying them for myself. I’ve never learned how to play the drumset but I’ve always wanted to learn. Again, these DVD’s aren’t out yet but they will be soon. There’s not really much I need to say here. I looked over what the DVD’s teach and it all seems solid. The truly nice thing is that it is all worship focused so you’ll get the chance to play along with already familiar worship tunes.

Wrapping it UP

Well, here I am on page 8 of my Word document. I could go on for hours about the wonderful resources contained within this website. I can’t stress enough what a help these DVD’s would be to your praise band. Yes it will cost you some money but it will be worth every penny. So continue surfing around on Musicademy. Tell others about it. Use it to help you glorify God through music.

Responding to Common Questions: How can I learn to play guitar?

In the modern realm of music education, guitar has become an increasingly legitimate instrument.  Here’s what I mean when I say that:  For a long time guitar was scorned by many people in the music education profession as a bastard instrument.  It was felt that the guitar was not as worthwhile as pursuing, say, the violin or the trumpet.  Oddly, other common band instruments of today once received the same treatment.  The saxophone once fell into that category.  So for a long time the guitar had no home in public music education.  Thankfully, things are changing and the guitar has become an invaluable part of modern music therapy and education.  Many of the beginning band methods now include a guitar book.  As an educator, and someone who loves the guitar, I can’t tell you how truly refreshing that is.  Yet, many people who seek out the guitar seem to think of it as an uncomplicated instrument that will require little to no time to learn how to play.  I’ve seen so many people begin guitar lessons only to drop them after they realized that it was actually going to take a little work.  What I want to do in this brief article is give you some basic pointers on how to begin the guitar.  I think that’s the most common frustration people have when it comes to learning guitar…they just don’t know how to get started.  I want to do what I can to help alleviate those kinds of concerns.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re about to read some magic formula that will enable heaven to begin flowing from the strings of your guitar.  This article merely seeks to dispel some myths about learning the guitar while laying down some concrete facts about what you’ll encounter while you learn.

The Average Joe

This article is really talking to one kind of individual…the average joe…the person who doesn’t know much, if anything, about the mechanics of learning an instrument, much less the technical side of playing music.  This is the kind of person who desperately wants to get into music but has zero concept of how to begin learning an instrument. 

Myth:  I could never learn to play guitar on my own!

Fact:  Yes you can!  However, it helps to seek out people who already know how to play.  Most of my learning on guitar was accelerated by hanging out with other people who knew how to play.  I merely watched them and tried to do what they were doing.  I would ask them questions, quietly jam with them and one little bit at a time I found myself becoming more capable on the instrument. 

Methods of Learning

Disclaimer:  Everyone learns differently.  There is no one incontrovertibly true way to learn an instrument.  What I’m going to list below is a mere sampling of how the average individual learns how to play guitar. 

**Garage Band Knowledge**

Virtually every self-taught musician (which I’ll simply call garage band musicians) has a different way of explaining what they understand about playing their instrument.  This means that you may get wide ranging information from person to person, some of which is accurate, some of which is highly inaccurate, and some that falls in a wide grey area of “not wrong but not necessarily right either”.  Most “garage band” musicians don’t really know much about music theory (the fundamentals of how music works).  They also don’t know much about proper technique when it comes to playing the guitar.  They can’t really explain how they play solos on the guitar.  They can’t really tell you how chords work on a guitar.  They usually can’t tell you what note they’re playing on any given string (some can but this is not common amongst most young garage band musicians…generally you get that kind of information from people that have been playing for a long time).  They mostly know what chords are called.  Beyond that, the average, young, garage band musician won’t have mounds of insight on the mystery of learning guitar.  At this point you may be inclined to ask, “What good are these garage band musicians?  They sound kind of worthless!” 

Myth:  Garage Band Musicians have nothing of value to offer!

Fact:  Garage Band Musicians, particularly ones that have been playing for a long time, have mountains to offer. 

Interesting Fact:  The average classically trained musician is paralyzed once you take sheet music away from them.  This kind of musician often has trouble “playing by ear”.  Playing by ear is the ability of a person to listen to something and figure out how to play it without the aid of any kind of sheet music.  It’s a skill that most music teachers don’t naturally develop in their students.  That’s a real shame because being able to play by ear is a critical ability for any well rounded musician to have in their repertoire of skills.  It is this vital skill, perhaps more than any other, that garage band musicians will have to offer.   

The reason I talk about garage band musicians, a blanket term I’m using to refer to self-taught musicians, is because these individuals are often the most accessible people.  Chances are you already know someone that plays and it is also an equal possibility that they have taught themselves.  So they’ll be able to help you.  Generally speaking you’ll want to seek out these kinds of individuals first.  One of the best things about having friends that already know how to play is that you can learn to play for free.  Which brings me to my final point under this section.

Be careful if you’re thinking, “I’d love to take guitar lessons!”  The truth of the matter is that most people don’t really want to take guitar lessons even though they think they do.  Guitar teachers are very diverse in their concept of teaching.  Many guitar teachers will want to start you in a book where you’re learning how to play simple songs (using single notes, not chords) on a few strings.  In truth, this is not what most people want or mean when they say, “I want to learn how to play guitar.”  So guitar lessons might only prove to be a waste of your money because they might not be teaching you what you want to know.  When people say, “I want to learn how to play guitar,” what they really mean is, “I want to learn how to play chords.”  Yet, many guitar teachers don’t want to teach someone simply how to play chords.  In lessons guitar teachers often feel like they’re not giving you your money’s worth if all they’re doing is showing you how to play chords.  So if all you’re wanting to do is learn how to strum out a song (i.e. be able to play the chords of a song and maybe hum or sing the words with it) then your best bet is to avoid guitar teachers…they often want more money than you might want to spend for what you want to accomplish.  Instead find a friend who knows how to play guitar and ask them this question, “Could you show me how to play some chords?” 

True Story:  When I first started learning how to play guitar I went to one of my friends who had been playing guitar for a long time.  I said to him, “Hey man, would you mind showing me how to play the chords to Sister.”  Sister is a song by a band called the Nixons.  It was a song that I had heard the guys playing while we were sitting around jamming.  I really liked the song and it didn’t look like it was that difficult to play.  So my buddy, Nate, sat down with me and took me through the chords to Sister.  He showed me where all my fingers needed to be on certain strings and then he’d say something like, “Okay, you see how your fingers are set up now…that’s called G chord.”  He continued this process until he’d shown me how to play three other chords.  It took about a half hour, but by the time we stopped playing I could kinda sorta play Sister.  The fingertips on my left hand felt like they were absolutely on fire.  But the good news was that I knew the song well enough to go home, clumsily strum out the chords and even begin to sing along to what I was doing.  I had to work really hard to smooth out moving from one chord to the next but once I finally mastered that one song I felt like I could tackle anything on the guitar as long as it didn’t require me to do more than strum chords.  It’s amazing how much confidence I had to trudge forward and continue learning more chords and more songs. 

That one half hour I spent with Nate, a good friend who didn’t charge me, taught me more about playing the guitar than all the hours I had spent looking over do-it-yourself books.  So needless to say, I recommend this method to anybody. 

**Do-It-Yourself Guitar Methods**

What if you literally have no one that can help you learn how to play guitar?  You might be a really shy person who has very few friends.  You may live in a small town that is musically challenged.  If you find yourself to be such a person, don’t fret…learning the guitar is still very possible for you.  One of the reasons many people don’t like do-it-yourself methods is because they don’t want to take the time to read how to do things.  Many people, like myself, would rather sit down with someone and be shown how to do something.  However, if you’re a motivated individual who is willing to take the time, then there are many guitar methods out there that you will find helpful. 

So many choices….

There are, literally, thousands of guitar methods out there.  Each of them will boast to be one of the best or best-selling or most comprehensive or easiest or fastest.  I’ll go ahead and save you the headache and tell you that there exists no single method that I’m aware of that is truly the most comprehensive or the easiest or the fastest or even the best.  Many guitar methods are the same and, being as such, many of them share the same problems.  I’ve seen methods that were either way too hard or way too easy.  I’ve seen methods that progressed too slow or too fast.  There are methods that focus solely on reading music for guitar.  There are methods that combine reading “TAB” (a shorthand number system for notating music without notes) in conjunction with lessons on reading regular sheet music.  There are methods that focus solely on playing chords and developing your knowledge of chords.  There are methods that focus on playing “leads” in all kinds of varying styles (blues, rock, jazz, etc.).  There are methods that attempt to cover all the main topics in guitar playing only to create more confusion than help.  Swimming through the sea of methods that exist for learning guitar can often be enough to discourage people. 

True Story:  I was once in a Sam Goody store and I noticed this poor woman desperately pouring over a bunch of guitar methods.  She asked one of the clerks, “Which one of these would you recommend?”  The poor clerk knew nothing about guitar and honestly told the woman, “I’m sorry, I don’t really know.  We have a few guys on staff that play guitar but none of them are here right now.”  You could see the woman’s final hope deflate from her.  She was trying to find a good book about learning guitar for her daughter and you could tell she felt like she was failing her little girl.  The woman, confused and dejected, began to put the book down so that she could leave and continue her search elsewhere.  I stepped in and told her that I was a music teacher and that I might be able to help her.  The relief that flooded over her face was really cool to see.  Needless to say, we managed to comb through what was there and I was able to find some good books that would prove very helpful to her little girl.  I was also able to give this concerned mother some advice about how she could assist her daughter in the learning process.  She seemed highly optimistic and supremely confident that she now had the knowledge she needed to help her daughters dreams of playing guitar become a reality.

Books

So what kinds of methods would I recommend?  For beginners, most of whom just want to learn how to play chords so that they can jam along to their favorite songs, I recommend methods that focus on teaching chords.  The problem is that you won’t find many methods that just say, “I’m going to teach you how to play chords and how to generically play anything.”  Remember that’s more of a garage band approach.  Most methods seek to be more specific.  There are some really cool methods out there that come fully equipped with CD’s that help you learn how to play guitar using familiar tunes (stuff by the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Pink Floyd, John Cougar Melloncamp, etc.)  These books seek to teach you the basics behind playing chords and “riffs”.  Even if you don’t know what a riff is, chances are good that we all know at least one very popular guitar riff.  If you can hum the beginning guitar part to Sweet Home Alabama, you know a riff.

Two of the more popular publishers of guitar methods today are Mel Bay (www.melbay.com) and Hal Leonard (www.halleonard.com).  I, personally, am not all that fond of Mel Bay methods.  However, they do offer a wide selection of videos, DVD’s, methods in all different styles and even streaming video that you can purchase and beginning watching right now.  Hal Leonard is kind of like the Wal-Mart of the music world.  They’ve been swallowing up smaller music companies for years so they can do lots of things with their methods that others can’t.  For example, they can use popular music in their guitar methods because they have permission to do so.  This is more of a difficult task for smaller companies, especially those that deal only in guitar based products.  Hal Leonard, being the giant that it is, is capable of offering really unique learning opportunities for the guitar.  If you go to the link above for the Hal Leonard site you’ll need to follow a few links for getting to the guitar methods.  Once at the Hal Leonard home page you’ll need to search on the left hand side of the page for a clickable link entitled “Guitar/Bass & Fretted”.  Once you’ve clicked that link and arrive at that page you’ll notice you have several choices in direction.  I recommend that you click the link that says, “Presenting the Hal Leonard Guitar Method – 2^nd edition”.  Once you click this link you’ll arrive at a new page that describes the Hal Leonard guitar method.  It’s actually quite a large series with many different books in it.  Past this description you’ll find a few more links.  Click on the link that says, “Stylistic Methods”.  On this new page you’ll find methods that teach you how to play in different styles like blues, rock, and jazz.  If you have an acoustic guitar you might want to check out the method that’s designed for acoustic guitar.  If you have an electric guitar you might want to check out the rock guitar method.  Either way, the method books seem to focus largely on teaching you chord basics and then using those basics to play songs you probably already know.  The acoustic and rock methods use a wide range of popular songs to help you learn how to play.

Video

Yet still, books might not be the best way for you to go.  The good news is that with technology advancing the way that it is, so many things are becoming available on VHS and DVD.  For example, if you navigate back to the Hal Leonard home page (www.halleonard.com) you’ll notice a link, a little ways down, called “Software and Video”.  Click on this link.  You will then be prompted to enter a search.  In the search field simply type in “guitar”.  When I did this I got nearly 400 matches in the category of software, video, and DVD.  You don’t have to look far into the list to find a 2 DVD set called The Acoustic Guitar Method.  Click on it and check out the description.  It seems to cover most of what the books cover.  That might not be a bad idea.  Yeah you might shell out a little money but in the long run it will still be cheaper than paying for lessons.  And look at it this way…you’d have a professional guitarist in your DVD rack that you could consult any time you wanted.  Spend some time looking over the different videos that Hal Leonard has to offer.  Look online for other sources.  Go to Amazon.com and type in the name of the product you’re interested in.  This will help you see editorial reviews on the product and see what other people who have bought the same thing have said about the product. 

I haven’t even scratched the surface on exploring the vast abyss of guitar methods and videos that are out there.  I’ve merely provided you with a starting point.  Remember, in this day and age, the internet can be your friend.  So use it to your advantage.  Go to any random search engine and search something like “guitar methods” and you’ll get enough hits to keep you busy for the rest of your life.  Research different products.  Email someone.  Get on a message board.  There are so many ways that the internet can help you get started on the guitar.  You might even be able to find resources that are free and reliable.  I’ve found a few in my day although I can’t remember where they were (sorry!). 

If you use one of the few methods that I’ve described you will be well on your way.  Remember, don’t get discouraged.  Learning guitar is like learning anything else.  It takes time and patience.  Some people find that they have a natural aptitude for the instrument whereas others find out that they really have to work hard to get better.  In my time as a music educator I had to learn how to play all kinds of different instruments so I consider learning any new instrument a true joy.  I guarantee you that won’t always feel that way when you’re learning your first instrument.  I can honestly say that the guitar has been one of the most rewarding instruments I’ve ever learned.  I think you’ll feel the same way once you begin to get the hang of playing the guitar. 

Enough reading…start learning how to play the guitar!                 

New Schedule Officially Up

Hey praise band folks,

On the left is a new schedule.  Merely click on the link and print to see when your appointed times of service are.  Thanks and see you at practice.

Chad

Our God Reigns: A Challenging Worship Song?

Delirious? arrived on the Christian music scene around 1996.  In late 1997 the band experienced an unexpected success with the single "Deeper", which climbed into the British top 20 charts.  This success continued to propel them forward to yet even more success.   Yet Delirious? has never been a band who sought to spread their own renown.  Instead they have always been open about the fact that their music is meant to serve the purpose of God.  They are a ridiculously talented group of young men who have been glorifying God through music for over a decade.  They have penned such modern staples as "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" and "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble".  Their most recent album, The Mission Bell, is yet another towering achievement in their illustrious career.  So it's obvious that I'm a big fan.  But one of the songs from The Mission Bell really challenges our perspectives.  I think it does this in a good way.  I'm not going to comment much on the song.  I'm merely going to post the lyrics to the song.  From there I encourage you to pray over what it says and then respond with your thoughts about what lesson, if you find any, this song has to teach us about God. 

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

The west has found a gun and it’s loaded with ‘unsure’
Nip and tuck if you have the bucks in a race to find a cure.
Psalm one hundred and thirty nine is the conscience to our selfish crime,
God didn’t screw up when he made you,
He’s a father who loves to parade you.

Yes he reigns, yes you reign, yes you reign,
For there is only one true God,
But we’ve lost the reins on this world,
Forgive us all, forgive us please,
As we fight for this broken world on our knees.

your thoughts.......

Guitarists Resources: A Review of "Billion Chords"

A knowledge of chords and their structure are essential to any developing or advanced guitarist.  There are a multitude of programs on the internet that claim themselves as comprehensive "chord libraries" but in reality what you often get is a mess of a program that is not only difficult to understand but difficult to use.  If you happen to be out on the information super highway today then I suggest you stop by Chord Editor.com.  This site is home to an amazing little program called Billion Chords.  Billion Chords is a guitar chord utility that boasts over 1 Billion chords with thousands of charted variations.  If you've ever wanted to know how to play a chord, Billion Chords is your solution. 

Let me say up front that this IS NOT A FREE PROGRAM.  However, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg either.  You can own this program for less than 20 bucks.  If you have a credit/debit card you can expect to shell out $14.95.  You will get your activation license on the spot and you can begin using the full power of this program IMMEDIATELY!  You can, of course, demo the program before you buy it.  After using the demo of this program for a short while I'm seriously considering forking out the dough for the full version.  Let me tell you why. 

(1)  It's hard to find extensive chord libraries that are this cheap.  I gurantee that you won't find one this comprehensive in print form.

(2)  As a growing songwriter I'm always on the lookout for new flavors in the chord structures of my songs.  If you're bored with playing the same old C chord then Billion Chords will not only give you a whole slew of ways to play that C differently, but it will also give you some ideas on how you can modify that chord to make it sound more interesting.  This is a huge bonus.  It makes you realize that the guitar is not a one dimensional instrument but rather a complex piece of musical equipment that is full of virtually limitless possibilities. 

(3)  This program is highly visual.  If you're like me you learn best by seeing a visual representation of things.  The nice thing about Billion Chords is that it gives you a variety of ways to visualize the chord.  Billion Chords will show you how to play the chords in a fretboard diagram, a number diagram (x32010...that represents a standard C chord by the way), and a visual recreation of the neck of a guitar with dots where you're fingers would go.  In the case of fretboard diagram and the visual recreation of the neck of the guitar, numbers appear inside the dots.  This tells you what fingers are typically used to play those chords. 

These three things were very important to me while I was learning guitar and they continue to be a priority to me now.  But let me briefly take you inside the program so that you can see for youself the amazing versatility this program has. 

   If you click on the thumbnail to the left a larger image will appear that will show you the full screen of Billion Chords.  I think the interface is very easy to understand and very user friendly.  However, if you aren't familiar with the "chord language" then much of what you see may be very confusing to you.  Let me help you with that.

The first piece of the main screen that we're going to examine is a snippet of the top portion of the main window in Billion Chords.  On the left of the image above you there are three colums of letters, numbers, and potentially strange symbols that you may have never connected with music. 

The column on the far left respresents chord names.  Whenever you see a "#" after a letter it means that note is "sharp".  Whenever you see a "b" after a letter it means that note is flat.   This may mean nothing to you now but in future articles at this site I will be discussing some basic music theory so just stay with me for now.  At the bottom of this column you see two buttons that have the flat and sharp sign on it.  Toggle between these two to make notes flat or sharp.  If you've already downloaded the demo version and you're following along try this now and see what happens. 

The next column over represents chord qualities and chord alterations.  Standard chord qualities are major, minor (denoted with a lower case m), augmented (abbreviated as "aug"), diminished (abbreviated as "dim"), and the not so common half-diminished chord (which is denoted in Billion Chords as a small circle with a line underneath...the line usually goes through the circle in standard chord notation).  Qualities represent the "sound" of a chord.  Technically it really refers to the arrangement of interval types in a chord that make it sound either major, minor, diminished, or augmented.  Chord alterations are the addition or insertion of different notes into a standard chord formation.  These alterations add a new character to otherwise bland chords.  Altered chords are very popular in jazz music.  Alterations to a chord can give it a unique sound and make your chord progressions stand out.  You can try virtually any combination of chord quality and chord alteration so my advice to you is to fool around and see what kind of sounds you get.  Trust me when I say it will be a new kind of experience for you if you've never tried something like this.   As an added delight you also have two "mod" buttons at the bottom of this column that extends the chord possibilities even more. 

The next column over allows you to choose the lowest sounding note in each chord (i.e. the bass note).  People often confuse the bass note of a chord with the root note of a chord.  The root note of a chord is the note that the chord is fundamentally built upon.  In other words, the note C will always be the root note in a C chord.  It doesn't matter what note is the lowest sounding note, C will still be the root note of that chord.  A bass note would be anything besides C (in the example of the C chord).  So if a G is the lowest sounding note in the particular chord formation that you're playing then G is the bass note, not the root note.   Since Billion Chords gives you the option of choosing your bass note you have the wonderful option of bringing a theoretical technique to your music called "inversions".  If you're messing with the demo version try playing the C chord with a G in the bass as it shows you in the fretboard diagrams to the right of these three columns.  You'll see that you have a lot of options.  Make sure you have the top option clicked in your middle column (the chord qualities/chord alterations column).  Try plaing the fretboard diagram that is in the second row down, all the way on the left.  The number formation should be (332010).  It may not sound hugely different but it really thickens that C chord up.

I just made reference to the large screen to the right of the columns as the "fretboard diagram window."  This window is full of possibilities.  You have many options to limit the amount of results that you get.  For example you can choose to take out chords that have any barred parts in them.  You can omit the 3rd or 5th of a chord.  If you're reading this I am, for this moment, assuming that you know how to read fretboard diagrams.  If you do not please check back in the future.  I will be posting permanent links here that teach you how to do things such as read tab and understand fretboard diagrams.  Reading a fretboard diagram isn't brain surgery so if you just exercise a little common sense you'll find that these are pretty easy to read. 

The picture above represents a panel in the middle of Billion Chords.  The box on the left simply gives you the chord formation in number format.  It also lists the number of results that you were given from the choices you made in the chord selection columns. 

The next box over gives you some limiting options in your chord choices.  Checking omit 5 or omit 3 cuts down on the number of result in the fretboard diagrams window.  If you're wondering what omit 5 or 3 means I'll quickly tell you.  The standard chord is usually what's called a triad (three notes compose the chord).  So in the case of the C chord you would have the following notes composing the chord:  C  E  G.  The third of the chord would be the E.  The fifth of the chord would be G.  Omitting either one of these will give you a different sound.  Omitting the third of a chord usually gives you the open sound associated with power chords.  The 3rd also tends to be the "color tone" of a chord.  The difference between a C major chord and a C minor chord is the third.  In a C minor chord the third would be Eb, not E.  In this same box you'll also see a box titled "Distance" and another box titled "Up To Fret".  The distance box allows you to select the max amount of frets your chord will span.  This is a nice feature for those of us with smaller hands.  The up to fret feature is cool because it allows you to see how to play different chords all over the neck of the guitar.  You can have either a large range of chords or a smaller range of chords depending on where you set the up to fret option.  This would come in handy if you were playing a chord high up on the neck of the guitar and didn't want to make a big jump down the neck to get to another chord.  The up to fret feature would show you a chord in closer proximity to the one you're currently playing. 

The next box over allows you to adjust the tuning of the guitar in virtually any weird way you want.  Some bands out today use a non-standard tuning system for their guitars.  One of my favorite bands, The David Crowder Band, constantly plays in an open E tuning.  These kinds of tunings can take some getting used to.  Billion Chords will help you take the guess work out of those non-standard tunings. 

The last box in this graphic has a few nice features.  If you're a lefty, Billion Chords is looking out for you.  Simply click this option and all your chords appear in a left handed format.  Also, if you hate to play barre chords you can click the box that says "no barre chords" and all the barre chords in the fretboard diagram window will disappear. 

The very bottom of the Billion Chords window has a cool visual representation of the guitar neck.  But this isn't just a pretty picture.  In the full version of Billion Chords you can use this to play the chord.  This is a great feature because when you're learning some of the "weirder" sounding chords you might find yourself saying, "Is this right?"  Play it back to yourself on Billion Chords and see if you're right.

All in all this program packs a mountain of punch.  It has an impressive list of features and it's cheap!  I know....some of you out there are groaning because it's not free....BUT COME ON IT'S LESS THAN 20 BUCKS!  The internet generation has been spoiled by free stuff.  I think the people who break their backs to create this kind of stuff really deserve the paycheck. 

Now how does this all relate to being a worhsip leader.  Heed the words of 1 Corinthians 10:31, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  In any capacity of ministry we should always be seeking to glorify God.  You might say, "How does something like Billion Chords help me glorify God?"  Simple.  It is one of those little things that makes you better at what you do.  When we bring an offering of praise in song to God it should be as good as we can possibly make it.  This doesn't mean that it needs to be flashy, it just means that it needs to embody the heart of honoring God as the great King that He is.  Every little thing that can help us do that or be better at it than we once were is something that, I think, is worth investing our time in.  But do not be deceived.  Things like this should not replace your time of study, prayer, and worship.   So check out Billion Chords and make a joyful noise.   

Theological Foundations: Above All by Lenny LeBlanc, Paul Baloche

Consider the following lyrics to this very popular song:

Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

 Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

 Crucified and laid behind a stone
You lived to die rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me above all

 Let me say up front that I have personally led this song in worship many times. Our fellowship actually made a recording of this song with our own worship band. My goal here is not to attack, discredit, or even support the song. My goal is to look at its language and consider how Biblically founded it actually is.

 The first two verses are easy to consider. I believe that these verses simply say that God is above all our conceptions of what is glorious, wondrous, and powerful. There is no earthly power, no ruler of government, no thing that is created, no expanse of wisdom or knowledge devised by humanity that existed before God or that exists above God. There is no empire, no seat of authority, no great act or miraculous thing of history, no measure of monetary value that compares or sits above the great worth of God in His sovereign state. The question is, “Are these Biblical things to say?” Absolutely! If you want a Biblical foundation for these concepts then simply go to Job chapter 38 and begin reading. By the time you end in chapter 42 you will have a clear picture of how forcefully and undeniably God illustrates His sovereignty to Job.

 The chorus of this tune was called into question some time ago. So let’s carefully look at each line to see if the questions that have arisen about this chorus have any Biblical foundation.

 Crucified and laid behind a stone
Chapters 23 and 24 of Luke support the assertion that Jesus was in fact crucified and buried in a tomb, the entrance of which was covered by a large stone.

 You lived to die rejected and alone
Read Luke 22:39-46. In Luke’s account Jesus is praying on the Mount of Olives and he is asking the father, if it is the father’s will, to remove this cup from him. This is a clear illustration that Jesus was well aware that his physical body was about to be beaten, broken, and killed. Jesus was asking the Father to remove this cup from him but Jesus, more than anything, desired for the will of the Father to be accomplished. So if it was physical death that was required, Jesus would fulfill that requirement of his Father. We know that this is the case. So to say “you lived to die rejected and alone” is to potentially head down an easily questionable path. There is certainly Biblical evidence to say that a defined part of Jesus’ life was to die and he was aware of that. Jesus also knew that he would be rejected. The gospel accounts also teach us that at his crucifixion, Christ was not surrounded by a multitude of followers. The same people who had hailed him into Jerusalem had also called for his crucifixion. So in a sense it is true that his life was lived to die and that at the end of his physical life he was, for the most part, rejected and alone. However, I think it could also be argued that he lived to serve his Father’s purpose. I could see how someone could say, “Jesus didn’t live to die. He lived to serve God’s will. Dying was part of that but it was not his primary purpose of existence.” I know it may sound like I’m arguing semantics or that I’m just splitting hairs but considerations such as these are, I think, important to make so that we don’t run the risk of being false in our understanding of how we are to honor God. I would rather err on the side of considering the full weight of the things I say rather than making the mistake of not taking them seriously enough.

 Like a rose trampled on the ground
You won’t find this analogy in scripture. However, I don’t think that fact necessarily makes this statement unscriptural. There are a number of words and analogies that are used to describe scriptural truths that we don’t find present in the Bible. As long as those words and analogies represent the truth of scripture I believe they are acceptable to say. When I say that I believe that Jesus was beautiful I’m not saying that he was a strikingly handsome young man. His very existence, God incarnate, would have been amazing to even be around and the spirit of God that flowed forth from him would have made him an incredible person to be around. So when his physical body was beaten, broken, and killed it would have been a tragic thing to behold. For Christians this physical death takes on a transformed meaning of salvation but I believe the analogy, while insufficient to describe the full weight of what it would have felt like to see the physical body of Jesus lifeless, helps us hold the idea of the tragic nature of beating the maker of the cosmos into lifeless submission. The good news is that we know that Jesus didn’t stay that way. When Jesus returns it will not be as the humble peasant who was trampled by his own people. When Jesus comes again he will bear a marking on his leg that says, “King of Kings, Lord of Lords.” A flaming sword will come from his mouth and he will bring terrible retribution against all unrepentant and unbelieving hearts.

 You took the fall and thought of me above all
Jesus did take a fall but we know that he rose again. We know that we were part of God’s plan and so it is fair to say that we were an included consideration in the death and resurrection of Jesus. But to say that Jesus “thought of me above all” is to, I think, cross a theological line that cannot go unaddressed. I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I never considered a potential problem with this line until someone brought it to my attention. When I actually took a moment to consider what I was really saying when I sang this line, I was startled at how strongly it bothered me. I began asking questions like, “Really? When Jesus died he was thinking of little old me above all other things? Above his Father’s will? Above the church that Christ is the head of? Above his Father’s glory? Above his Father’s sovereignty? I was elevated in importance above all those things?

 No doubt someone will say, “But you’re just being overly critical. Surely you know what the writers were trying to say. They were trying to say that God values those whom he has predestined to be conformed to the image of His son. So yes God did think of us. He did think about reconciling us to him through the death of His son.” I’m not disputing that but language matters a great deal. While I think that the authors may have had good intentions, their choice of words in this last line are questionable because I think they elevate humans to a place of importance above the vastly more important qualities of God.

 Final Analysis
I think that 99% of this song is very theologically sound. It’s just the last line of the chorus that troubles me. However, I can tell you that based on the limited experience I have with other songs by these two writers I find them to be generally good, theologically sound writers. My advice is not to steer clear of this song. In fact, if this song is popular among your own fellowship I would encourage you to highlight this line and explain the deeper theology behind it so that your local body of believers does not stumble on it’s potentially confusing structure.

 I assure you that considerations such as the ones that I’ve made here in this article are considerations that I’m making with every song I write. It didn’t used to be this way though. There are a number of songs that I’ve written that have little to no Biblical foundation at all. The first batch of songs I ever wrote were largely about me. Those early songs did not elevate God like he deserves to be elevated. This is one of the reasons why I never call my songs done. There is always room for change and adaptation as God continues to shed more of His light on my mind.