Worship Guitar Class Blog

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Guitar Scales – 4 Tips To Mastering Guitar Scales

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Would you like to improve your guitar playing? Practicing with guitar scales is a fruitful and beneficial practice. Here are 4 tips that can help you play scales excellently.

  1. The first tip is practicing. You need to spent time with the instrument to improve your playing. Use scales to begin you time of practice. It helps you to focus on just the technique of playing.
  2. Speaking of focus. That’s the next tip. Sometimes people play the guitar, but just play things they already know. To get better, it takes concentration and focus. I know a concert guitar player who plays a difficult section of a piece 100 times perfectly. If he messes up on #89, he starts over again from #1. We aren’t all ‘concert guitar players’ but I think focusing will benefit all players.
  3. Start the scales by playing them slowly. Try moving both hands at exactly the same time. In other words, hold down the note and strike the string at the same time. This will help you play faster down the road.
  4. Using a metronome is an excellent practice. You can use it to gradually increase the speed and it will also help you achieve an more accurate sense of tempo.

For an easy scale to play, there is a video at the website of Guitar Scales.

7 Tips on Changing Guitar Chords Faster

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Change Chords FasterWhen you are first learning to play the guitar, it usually takes a while to change the chords. Here are some tips to help you change to new chords much faster. Mastering this skill will make it easier to play your worship songs.

1. Memorize the chord forms in the worship song you are trying to learn.

2. Practice changing the chords by themselves, without singing the song.

3. If the chord is difficult, break it down into smaller units. For example, change to just a portion of the new chord. If the chord requires four fingers, change to 2 fingers of the chord, then 3 fingers of the chord, then the entire chord.

4. When you are practicing the chord changes, watch where your fingers will be moving too, not on the current chord. This is especially important for chords that are in different positions on the fingerboard.

5. When you are playing your worship song, look at the next chords coming up in your peripheral vision.  You’ll change to the chords much faster if you are already thinking ahead before it’s time to play them.

6. Pick a strumming tempo that you can play and don’t slow it down for any chord change. Even if you aren’t quite on the new chord, this will train your hands to change faster.

7. How well you play is very connected to your mental attitude too. Be quick to ‘forgive’ yourself for any mistakes and decide that you can be a wonderful guitarist.

Of course, the very best way to start every practice session is with prayer. God can help us accomplish wonderful things to His Glory!

Getting Clean Notes On Your Guitar

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guitar and boyHow To Get Clean Guitar Notes and Chords

Here are a few tips to getting a clean chords on your guitar, so your worship songs sound great

1. Trim your left-hand fingernails. If you have nails it’s impossible to hold the strings down cleanly.

2. Hold a string down with the tip, or pad, of your finger right behind the frets. If you hold a string down on top of a fret it can produce a muffled tone. If you hold down a string too far from the fret it can produce a buzzing sound. Stay on the tips of your fingers and hold each string firmly, as close to the frets as you can. [Read more…]

How To Practice The Guitar

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Christian Guitar Practice – Pray First

The exciting difference between just practicing the guitar and using it as a tool for worshipping an Awesome God is that our purpose and focus shifts.

It’s no longer just you learning to play the guitar. When you as God to help you, He can give you insights and help. You can use the guitar as a tool to worship Him. It helps to continue to ask Him for His help whenever you’re playing the instrument.

In my guitar studio there were countless times when a student was having difficulties and I just said, ‘"Help him Lord.’" They always immediately played better. Then I’d always say ‘"Thank you Lord."

The first step as a Christian musician is to pray. Try to use your practice as a time of worship. It’s a matter of where your heart is focused. It says in Scripture, if we seek Him with all of our hearts we will find Him. (For the rest of the article click the ‘More’ link below.). [Read more…]