Worship Guitar Class Blog

Christian Guitar Lessons Blog

Worship Contest 2006

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Bethany Waters send me her picture with the new guitar and DVDs. Thought it would be fun to share with you. God is so gracious. They only sent the contest website to a few friends, but somehow the email was circulated and then someone posted it on their Homeschool Website.

Bethany was surprised to receive calls and emails from people who heard her song. It was also exciting to hear that the Women’s Bible Study at their church decided to use Bethany’s song. She was 11.

I praise God for all the children that wrote songs and I just couldn’t take them down. Those that wanted to stay are still up at – http://worshipguitarclass.com/sep-2006kids.html

The adults are still up too. Many have CD’s and I’ve made their names clickable so you may visit their sites and perhaps pick up a CD for Christmas. – http://worshipguitarclass.com/sep-2006.html

Paulie Heath and Richard Paseck both sent me CD’s and although I don’t usually play CD’s very often I’ve nearly worn them both out. Great music!

Sore Finger Solutions

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Guitar-sore-fingersOne of the topics of high interest last year in the Newsletters was finding solutions to sore fingers. I had sent suggestions in a newsletter and was surprised to hear responses from the readers of solutions I had never heard of. Thought it would be helpful to post them here for future readers and as a reference for those looking for solutions.

Below are 10 solutions:

1. Make sure the action is low. The action is the distance between the strings and the fretboard. If the action is high on any guitar, that can hurt your fingers. The action should be around 1/16”, or 1.5mm, at the 1st fret and 3/16”, or 5mm at the 12th fret. You can have the action adjusted in most music stores.

2. Use lighter gauge strings. Try to purchase the newer coated strings. They last longer and are easier to play.

3. If it’s your first guitar, try starting with a nylon-string instrument. You can always move to an Acoustic later. Nylon-strings are definitely easier on your fingers, or an electric guitar.

4. Soak your fingers in vinegar for about 30 seconds, and then dry them off before you start playing.

5. Don’t play right after you have washed your hands. Rub some rubbing alcohol on your finger tips, let them dry, then play.

6. Use Dubbin on your fingers. This is a leather conditioner apparently from Australia. I’m told it keeps your fingers soft and tough at the same time.

7. From a sewing/craft store you can purchase stick on quilters’ thimbles that are made of silicone. They stick to the tips of your fingers. Made in Japan, they only cost a few dollars for a pack of 60.

8. Hold ice on your fingertips before and after you play.

9. Dissolve some Alum in water and soak your fingertips for a few minutes. Dry and play.  Repeat for a few days and the “toughness” increases. It’s found in the spice section of most grocery stores.

10. One subscriber shared that he would slide his fingers up and down the strings until they hurt. He repeated this every 10 minutes on and off for three days and after that his fingers all had thick calluses.

Once you know that the action is low and that the strings are easy to play, try any of the other suggestions to help your fingers adjust to playing this wonderful instrument!

JW Worship Guitar Class Lessons

Step-by-step guitar lessons for learning to play worship songs on your guitar.
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Isaac King: A Life Dedicated to Jesus

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July 15, 1986–September 4, 2006

Isaac King Isaac Dale King was born July 15, 1986, in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. He was the oldest of six children born to Dale and Karen King. Isaac died in a tragic car accident in September. Three of his closest friends—Aaron Davis, Stevo Dillon, and Sarah Foster—died with him. According to the Enid News, “The four were killed when their car was hit head on by another vehicle then collided with a third.” Isaac was planning to attend Liberty University following his volunteer work with Primary Focus, a group that performs at grade school assemblies, emphasizing a “character counts” message.

1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” God touched the life of Isaac King with many gifts, and Isaac lived this verse in every aspect of his life. The most obvious gift was Isaac’s music. The words that follow are also evidence of something greater—how Isaac used the gifts God gave him and how God used Isaac. In his short 20 years, Isaac was a true instrument for Jesus Christ.

Click the ‘more’ button below to be blessed with his story….

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Recording to PC

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The article below is from John Dotson.

How can I record audio on my computer? Have you tried using Windows Sound Recorder? Only to find that it will only record one minute of audio? We will fix that in just a bit.

One minute of audio? What were they thinking?! Beats me but, there is a work around. You will need a microphone connected to your PC. Please check your owner’s manual for the specifics for connecting one to your machine. In general the record jack on the back of your computer (front if your lucky) will be a small female plug of the same color as the male plug end on your microphone (Usually pink in color.)

These microphones often-cost as little as five dollars US in stores that carry computer supplies. Fancy microphones costing up to hundreds of dollars can be obtained and may give a somewhat better tone. But, these less expensive ones will get you started just fine.

First, find Windows Sound Recorder, it may not be easy to find. In Window XP, go to Start/ All Programs/Accessories/ Entertainment Sound recorder. Once, you have found it you can create a shortcut to your desktop by clicking your right mouse button and choosing copy. Your next step is to click on your desktop with the left button and the again with the right mouse button. Choose paste. If everything went ok you will now have a speaker shaped icon on your windows desktop.

Double-click the sound recorder icon that we just put on the desktop. A small window opens with a flat green line and menus for File – Edit – Effects – Help a green line some black arrows and a red circle.

Now that we have a microphone on our machine we need to create a template that will allow us to record more than one minute of audio. Click record (red circle) and let it run silently for 55 or so seconds or until it at the end of the line where the indicator is moving. Click stop, press record again, keep doing this until you have a silent recording of about 3 minutes of length, this is your template. Go to File Menu and select Save as . Save your file as Template. If you have a microphone already you may have recorded 3 minutes of your local weather from the TV! That’s ok. Save your 3 minutes of whatever to the desktop.

Finally, save your work with a name appropriate to your song. Now, you have your 3 minutes of mono for use on your machine…

If you want to put your sound files on a CD you need to start the Windows Recorder with a format quality of 44,000 Hz and 16 bit stereo and you’ll end up with approx. a 40 Mb file for each track. You can then record them onto a CD. The large size of the .wav files on a CD is why you can only get around 21 songs per CD. Always set up Windows Recorder Audio Properties before you begin your session and as appropriate to your use. IE: set up the recorder to 44,000 Hz (Hertz) when you are ready to make a final recording for creating a CD. I hope this will help you to make quality recordings without fancy and expensive software.

Good luck and make beautiful music!