Worship Guitar Class Blog

Christian Guitar Lessons Blog

What Child Is This?

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Here is an instrumental arrangement of ‘What Child Is This?’ that I put together as a Christmas gift for you this year. Get the music first and then watch the video. If you don’t read music, it’s also in guitar tab. You should see an article of how to read tab below. If you don’t see it, you can always type ‘guitar tab’ in the search box and that should bring it up.

Hope you enjoy playing the song:

[S3VIDEO file=’jw/what-childSm_Prog001.flv’]

Click here to get the music

In a previous Newsletter you can find arrangements of the Christmas Song, Joy To The World – it’s here.

Blessings in HIM,
Jean

My Jesus Tab

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‘My Jesus, I Love You’ is a song in Volume Four of our Worship Guitar Class course. Those lessons teach about bar chord families and there are lots of songs in upper positions. I was looking at ‘My Jesus, I Love Thee’ and this instrumental arrangement came into my mind. I thought, “This would be a fun arrangement to share with you.”

In the second lesson of Volume Four I’m teaching on how to make any chord into a bar chord in various families up and down the neck. This instrumental version has some new bar chords to practice. I wanted something for newer students too, so the music includes an arrangement with easier chords too. You can download the music for free below the video.

Click here for the music.

You might also like our Music Theory For Guitar course for learning more about making song arrangements.

Prayer

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At the CBA Show a man told me that he had tried to play the guitar for years without succeeding. He asked me if I thought my DVD’s could help him. I responded, “For starters, have you ever asked God to help you play the guitar?” He, with wide eyes of astonishment, said “No, I never have. It never even occurred to me to ask!” He then told me that he would do that.

Could it actually be true that we are supposed to lean on God and not on our own understanding? Is it really OK to pray about all things? Yes, I think that’s supported in Scripture.

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” (Ps. 55:22) “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

I just have a gut feeling that this is a prayer God would delight in answering. If your purpose is to use the guitar to worship Him, don’t you think He might grant that request? If that’s the desire of your heart, ask Him. I bet it will surprise you how he does delight in answering requests that draw others close to Him!

6 Picking Patterns + Writing Songs

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I often get emails from guitarists that are stuck in a rut using the same strumming pattern for every song. Here are 6 finger-picking patterns that you can use with 4/4 time songs. I wanted to teach them to you with a song, but I can’t use popular worship songs because most are copyrighted.

You can learn with popular worship songs in my Worship Guitar Class series. All the copyrights have been paid for in this series. The copyrights cost more than duplicating the DVD’s. That’s probably why most guitar instructional DVD’s don’t use copyrighted songs. (Worship Guitar Class Lessons)

As a teacher, I know you learn a new skill better if you can apply it. I was trying to figure out a way to teach you these patterns using a song or songs without worrying about the copyrights. It occurred to me that I could just write a simple song and that it might even be a springboard to help you write songs too!

Opening up the Bible, my eyes caught Psalm 56:3,4. A melody popped in my head and in minutes the song was ready. It’s my hearts desire that this blog entry may encourage you to write songs too. God loves new songs and it encourages our own hearts to be reminded of His Promises.

You can find the music under the video. Download and print that off first, then watch the video. If you’re newer to playing the guitar, I suggest you listen to the entire video, but only work on one finger-picking pattern at a time. The easiest is the first one.

Click the image below to view the 9 minute Video

[S3VIDEO file=’jw/6strums-movieSm_Prog001.flv’]

Click here to download the music