• Home
  • About
  • Contact Us

Worship Guitar Class Blog

Christian Guitar Lessons Blog

Guitar Walking Basses

By Jean Leave a Comment

Guitar Walking BassesGuitar Walking Basses

Using walking basses is a common technique used to write worship songs. You see this in songs like ‘As A Deer’.  You can also use this technique to make a song arrangement. I show some examples in our Music Theory Course of how to take a song and make many different arrangements of it. In the video below is a video showing how to find the walking basses in three different keys.

There are examples in the key of ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘G’. In the key of ‘C’ there are no sharps or flats, so the notes of the descending scale are C, B, A, G, F, E D and the back to C. In the video below you learn that the descending scale often moves to the ‘V’ or ‘V7’ chord between the last two notes, or last two chords.

In the picture you can see one example using the chords ‘C’, ‘C/B’, ‘Am7′, Am7/G’, ‘F’, ‘F/E’, ‘G7’, then ‘C’. The note underneath a slash ‘/’ is always the bass note. In the video the chord should have been called ‘Am7/G’ instead of ‘Am/G’. It’s actually the chord in the picture.

In the key of ‘D’ the bass notes are ‘D’, ‘C#’, ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘G’, ‘F#’, ‘E’, ‘A’ (which is the V), and ‘D’. In the key of ‘G’ the descending bass notes are ‘G’, ‘F#’, ‘E’, ‘D’, ‘C’, ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘D’ (the V), and ‘D’.

Filed Under: Guitar Technique, Right-hand, Writing Songs

It Is Well With My Soul Story

By Jean Leave a Comment

[S3VIDEO file=’jw/well-soul.flv’]

‘It Is Well With My Soul’ is one of the songs in the New Reading and Music Theory Guitar Course. The story is so touching, I decided to make a short video about it to share with you. God is FAITHFUL in all of our trials and helps us through them when we have an eternal perspective. I hope you enjoy this short video and are maybe even inspired to write your own songs or poems of His Unfathomable Love and Faithfulness.

Filed Under: About Music, Friends, Writing Songs

How to extend worship songs

By Jean Leave a Comment

I’m enjoying creating our new Music Theory for Guitar course. One of the musical concepts in the course is called a Deceptive Cadence. Worship leaders use this technique quite often to extend a worship song.

It’s common for a song to end with a chord called the V, or V7,  to a chord called the I. There isn’t space here to talk about the various chord structures and keys, but the I chord is the root chord of a key. For example in the key of ‘G’ the I is the ‘G’ chord. The V in the key of ‘G’  is the chord ‘D.’

A ‘D’ or ‘D7’ chord resolves nicely to the chord ‘G.’ A deceptive cadence is when you change to the VI chord at the end of a song instead of the I.

A good example is the song ‘Lord I Lift Your Name On High.’ I know many of you have our ‘Worship Guitar Class’ course and this song is in the first volume. The chords are predominately ‘G C D C.’ It ends with the chords ‘D,’ ‘Dsus,’ G…..

The deceptive cadence for the key of ‘G’ is the VI chord which is the chord ‘Em.’ Instead of playing ‘D,’ Dsus,’ ‘G’ … you can play ‘D,’ ‘Dsus,’ Em.’ The ‘Em’ is on the last word ‘high.’ Play it for a measure then half a measure on ‘Am’ and ‘D’ ‘Dsus’ for the 2nd half of the measure and ending on G. The ending is below…

|    Em     |  Am              Dsus       D           | G  C | D C | G
… high.             Lord I lift your name on high.

We often repeat the deceptive cadence 2 or 3 times before finally ending on G.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to read music or to understand music theory, would love to have you join our music theory class. 🙂

Filed Under: About Music, Song Arrangements, Worship Resources, Writing Songs

Music Theory Course

By Jean Leave a Comment

The new ‘How to Read Notes and Music Theory‘ course is ready! It’s a 17 week course with streaming videos, music, a forum, phone calls and more. Visit the website to get the music for the first Lesson free. Learning how to read notes and about music theory will help any guitarist to understand their instrument better. Would you like to pick up any music and be able to read it? How about taking a song and making your own unique song arrangement?

Free Guitar Reading Lesson.

Filed Under: Song Arrangements, Writing Songs

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Worship Resources

  • Christian Guitar Lessons
  • Kids Worship Guitar
  • Percussion/Drum Lessons for Worship Songs
  • Piano Course for Christians
  • Play Piano by Ear
  • Vocal Help
  • Worship Guitar Lessons

Join Our Newsletter and Receive “Free Guitar Playing Tips & Chord Chart eBook.”

Categories

  • About Music
  • Blog
  • Friends
  • Guitar Technique
  • Left-hand
  • Piano
  • Right-hand
  • Song Arrangements
  • Thoughts
  • Violin
  • Voice
  • Where's Jean?
  • Wonderful God Stories!
  • Worship Contest
  • Worship Resources
  • Writing Songs

Links

  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2018 JeanWelles.com