Worship Guitar Class Blog

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Worship Contest

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Throughout Scripture there are references about singing a new song. For example Psalm 33:3 says “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” In Ephesians 5:19, Paul tells us to “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” After being severely flogged, we find Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns in a jail that couldn’t hold them, Acts 16.

Now you have the opportunity to ‘sing to Him a new song…’ by submitting one song in the worship contest. There are two age categories, 17 and younger or 18 and older. The song must be original and needs to have at least one reference to a Scripture passage. The song must be a worship song, directed towards God.

There are wonderful songs sung about God, but this needs to be directed to God. Songs may be sung a cappella or with instrumental accompaniments, but must be sung in English. The songs must be submitted by September 23rd, 2006. The songs for the two age categories will be posted on the website, for people to listen to the songs and vote for their favorite. Songs will be posted on the website and voting will begin on September 25th, 2006. Only one vote per computer will show up, to keep the voting fair.

First place winners will receive a Guitar, Case, Tuner and a set of the first three volumes of Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class(TM) DVD’s. Second place winners will receive the 3 DVD’s. The winning songs will stay posted at the site. Best songs will be posted and voted on at the end of September.

To enter the contest, go to www.worshipguitarclass.com/contest.html and fill out the appropriate form for the 17 years and younger or 18 years old and older.

5-Minute Lessons

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At both recent shows, CHEA (Christian Homeschool Educator’s Assoc.) and CBA (Christian Bookseller’s Assoc.), I gave free guitar lessons. Most of the students never played the guitar before, but several had been playing for years and I had the opportunity of tweaking their playing. Here’s the video testimony of Jane Laweson, from Remunda Cornterstone Bkst in Wickenburg, AZ, who said she learned more in our time together than her last 5 years of playing!

[S3VIDEO file=’jw/store-owner.flv’]

There are a couple dozen video testimonies at: worshipguitarclass.com/videotestimonies1.html Apologies to all the Friday Students… I didn’t think of using my camera for testimonies until Saturday at CHEA. Would have loved to include you guys too!) We started every lesson with prayer. If you aren’t doing this, you’re missing a HUGE blessing. God does answer prayers and you would be giving Him an opportunity to show you that He is the Best Guitar Instructor around.

Alesia Cambell, her testimony video is at: www.worshipguitarclass.com/videotestimonies2.html she purchased my DVD’s for her 15 year old son last year. He’s leading worship for his High School group now and shared with his mom that since he’s been playing worship songs, he’s noticed how good his playing is getting. God has been blessing his efforts. When we’re using our gifts to God’s Glory, He increases our talents. It was fun meeting so many of you. Thanks for all your kind comments at the shows!

Good Music is Good For You!

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I just listened to an interesting CD set called ‘The Profound Effects of Music on Life’ by Andrew Pudewa. I bought it from Sarah Cooper at SingNLearn.

Andrew quotes a number of scientific studies involving young children, college students, mice and plants.

One of the studies was by David Merrell, he won the Virginia State Science Fair in the late 1990’s. He used 72 mice split into 3 groups. He used a standard maze and tested each group before introducing them to music. They all took around 10 minutes to get through the maze.

One group heard Mozart for 12 hours a day, another silence and the third heard a Heavy Metal group for 12 hours a day. After a few weeks the Classical group got through the maze in 1 1/2 minutes, the no music group took around 5 minutes and the Heavy Metal group took half an hour. They, the heavy metal group, also became very aggressive and started killing each other.

Other studies show how music actually effects the way brain cells grow. Conclusion…. good music is good for you!

After listening to these CD’s it makes me wonder if Christian Heavy Metal music is such a good idea. Plants and mice cannot understand words, but the ‘sound’ of this type of music is detrimental to their health. What does it do to us?

In college, I remember learning in a music history classes that even in the time of the Greeks, philosophers said that a whole group of people can be dramatically influenced by the type of music they listened to. Apparently one of the music modes in that time made people ‘lazy.’

Sarah Cooper send an interesting article to me today about how music is healing. You can read it here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5194884.stm

It does make a difference what we listen to, and yes it makes a huge difference in our lives when we actively produce music, like using our guitars to play worship songs!

Piano Patterns, Play by Ear Piano

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Learning chords and different strumming and picking patterns is an easy way to play the guitar. Did you know, it can also work with piano? My friend David Sprunger has a whole system that teaches you how play the piano by ear. Listen below to a simple pattern:

click here to listen

It’s an easy pattern, but look how David’s uses it to sing a song. David, by the way, is a Worship Leader and has been on my Newsletter list for years. Listen to the audio below. Doesn’t he have a wonderful voice!

click here to listen

Once you begin to learn patterns, your options for playing songs open up. Listen below to the incredible arrangement David made of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ using several different rhthmic patterns.

click here to listen

Isn’t that a beautiful arrangement! How would you like to sound like David too? Well, you can. To learn about his program go to: http://worshipguitarclass.com/piano.html