Posts Tagged worship
3 Ways To Lead Worship From The Guitar
For those who are new to worshipwithguitar.com, this is a post that was first posted last year. Hope it is helpful.
You have probably figured it out by now: Playing guitar isn’t enough. More is needed than just a guitar part. You are not there to just provide a backing track. You are there to lead your congregation into genuine worship of the Risen Savior.
We have a lot to think about when playing guitar and you might be afraid to add some more things to the plate. Don’t worry. These are small yet very effective things you can do to help lead your church into worship.
1. Smile. This is the biggest thing especially for us electric guitarists. We have a lot to think about when we play. We are always thinking about the settings on our pedals, which strings the pick should be hitting, what fret our hand is on, and, of course, what part is coming up next in the song and what tap-dance we will have to perform to get the right pedals turned on and the wrong pedals turned off. We have quite a job on our hands…and feet.
Because of this we can often look like zombies. Our faces look like we don’t care about what we are doing and why we are there. Of course, this isn’t true. We are concentrating. We have to. But if we learn to smile while managing everything, we keep ourselves from being just a manikin with a Fender. We become worship leaders. We enjoy what we are doing. We enjoy why we are doing it. By smiling we communicate that enjoyment and inspire it in others.
2. Look at the congregation. Don’t ignore them. A worship leader (that’s you) who ignores their church will end up with a church that ignores them. You are there to lead worship, not play a song and hope worship happens.
Engage them with your eyes. Let them know you haven’t forgotten they are there. Suck them in with your smile. Let them see you enjoying worship. You don’t have to make eye contact with an individual necessarily; you can look at them as a whole. But don’t be afraid to make eye contact with a stranger and give them a smile every once in a while. By engaging them in this small yet very effective way, you will inspire your church to also enjoy worship.
3. Think about your guitar parts like a worship leader. Sometimes we can think so much like a guitar player we forget to think like a musician. We can get so wrapped up in a new pedal that we use it all the time. Or we just love the way power chords sound so we use them during songs like “Here I Am To Worship.” What happens is we take away from the song instead of adding to it.
Design your guitar parts to complement or even enhance the song. When this is done well, your instrument begins to lead worship as well.
Jesus is alive; therefore, you be alive when you worship Him and others will follow.
Keep sharp,
-Jed
Conquer The Fear Of Leading Worship With Just An Acoustic
Despite what music videos and worship DVDs may suggest, there will not always be a full band behind the worship leader. This can be a scary thought. It puts us out there, alone with nothing to hide behind.
Whether it is a living room setting or a small retreat, worship with an acoustic guitar is inevitable. As a guitar player who is known for playing worship music, there is a good chance you will be asked to lead it.
Don’t shy away from it. Embrace it. There is something special and precious about leading worship with one instrument and a group of passionate and unprofessional believers. When you get the opportunity, take it. Here are some helpful tips to make you more at ease about leading worship with just an acoustic guitar.
1. Dynamics Are Everything. The acoustic guitar is an incredibly dynamic instrument. Without drums or other instruments helping you out, you need to use every ounce of the dynamic capabilities of your acoustic guitar. The key to making dynamics work in worship is not so much by making the louder parts louder, but by making the quieter parts quieter. When you make the quiet parts quieter, the loud parts will have more emotional impact for you and the people worshiping.
(a) Strum with the wrist, not the forearm. This will improve the contrast of quiet and loud.
(b) Remember your voice. People connect with voices even more than they connect with guitar. I know, it’s weird. People will respond to the dynamics of your voice just as much if not more so than to the dynamics of your guitar. Don’t over do it, but don’t ignore it either.
2. Change your strings.
3. Carefully design transitions. Transitions are some of the most crucial moments in worship. To keep momentum, transitions must be smooth and seamless. Use keys that are related to each other. I like to travel down the road of keys by playing a song in the fifth of the key I’m going to be playing in. So if I’m in B I’ll go to E (B is the 5th of E), A going to D, G going to C and so on.
Don’t be afraid to stay in the same key during the whole set. You may get tired of playing the same chords but there is a good chance that the majority of people you are leading worship for may not even know what a key is. They do, however, know what a good transition feels like. Don’t be afraid to stay in the same key for the sake of transitions.
4. Analog Delay. I have recently been experimenting with the MXR Carbon Copy on an acoustic. It a simple analog delay that you can buy just about anywhere. I got mine at Best Buy. This warm delay is as a pad-like layer underneath your acoustic. If you’re playing through a PA, it will give your tone an added depth, yet it is subtle enough that many people will hardly notice it.
5. Mind your pick. The material of your pick plays a huge role in the sound of your acoustic. Pick carefully (no pun intended). Experiment with different textures and materials and how they react with your strings. Then once you have found a magic pick, be picky about your pick (that pun was completely intended).
Keep sharp,
-Jed
What To Do When Nothing Seems To Feel Right In Practice
Have you ever showed up to rehearsal and nothing seemed to jell? It is frustrating. No matter what you do, switch guitars, tweak EQ, change voicings, you can never seem to get things to mesh right.
Worse of all, you can’t seem to get a handle on what is wrong.
When this happens, the best thing to do is to take a take a step back and take a look at the big picture. Often times the problem is that we are looking at the pedal and not seeing the pedalboard.
I like to run through a mental priority checklist to help give insight into the situation and to see if it is me or if there is something wrong.
God First. As Christians and churchgoers we can hear this a lot, but it is important not to let it become cliché. The objective and purpose of making music isn’t really music at all. The objective is to draw people closer to God, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. Worship music does this and our guitar playing and attitude has a pretty important part to play in this.
Application: Pride and ego are out of the picture. We show up to serve not to bless people with our presence, talent and really great tone (even though these are all blessings). Be willing to defer to leadership and other members of the worship team.
Song and Vocals Second. I wish this weren’t true, but Sunday morning music isn’t about our guitar playing. A lot of the music in modern worship music is guitar based.
Application: All musical elements, from stage volume, guitar solos and even delay, should be set to compliment and enhance the worship experience, not distract from it.
Tone Third. Tone should be as good as you can get it without compromising the previously mentioned priorities. The thing with tone is that it can be the difference between a good/average guitar part and a great guitar part. Good tone just makes everything we do better.
Application: Research and Experiment. Ask around on forums, in guitar shops (this will exclude Guitar Center), or with friends you have who just sound good. Searching youtube for clips of pedals or artist interviews is a great way to find tips.
Here is Andy Timmons talking about settings and sounds he uses for his BB Preamp:
Technique Fourth. If you can’t play the perfect Lincoln Brewster solo don’t worry. You can still be a very accomplished worship guitarist. Luckily for us, Hillsong and Passion riffs are quite a bit easier. You don’t have to be a virtuoso, but you do have to have solid technique.
The essential quality to master from a technical standpoint is good timing. You must be able to play a lick or riff evenly, smoothly and with expression. In other words, every note should be deliberate and have the proper dynamic (volume) applied to it.
The best way I know how to acquire this talent is through the use of the metronome. Sit in your little practice space with a metronome set to about 20 to 50 BPMs less than the original tempo of the song. Play it at that tempo until you can play it smoothly while being as relaxed as possible. Then start upping the tempo about 10 BPMs and repeat until you get to the original tempo.
Hope this helps you to keep things straight.
Keep things sharp.
-Jed
The Rehearsal Survival/Excel Guide
1.Be set up and ready to play by start time, even if no one else is. Doing this will communicate volumes about how seriously you take rehearsals. Do this, sound great, and you will be a well-trusted guitar player.
2. Listen to the music, know your parts.
3.Be ready for anything. Changes happen at the last minute. Be flexible and ready for the unexpected. Treat every surprise with a cheerful and optimistic heart and you will be a cherished guitar player.
4. Have your pedal board ready. Double check connections if you need to. Make sure set up will be easy for you. You should only have to plug in a couple cables and a power chord. This will minimize your set up time so you can focus on more important things…like tuning.
5. Tune before every song. Do this quietly without any sound coming out of your amp or PA.
6. Don’t play Metallica Riffs between songs. I may or may not know this from experience.
7. Have a Volume Plan of Attack. We have all heard it before: “Can you turn down?” You know it’s going to happen so come up with a strategy for dealing with volume without hurting your town. There are lots of options so be creative.
8. Prepare yourself to play what the songs needs, not necessarily what you first want to play. Put the needs of the song above your own. I just put a put a Proco Rat on my pedal board. For those who don’t know, the Rat spits out gain like a fire hose. I showed up to rehearsal with anticipation of testing it out just to find out that we had a pretty mellow set that Sunday. The new pedal got no playing time that weekend, but the songs got what they needed. As much as it hurts for me to say, the song takes priority over personal preference.
9. Play John Mayer Riffs, but only on occasion.
Stay sharp.
-Jed
What the Playstation 3 taught me about playing guitar
Posted by Jed in Technique And Practice on September 29th, 2009
Like many of you, I just discovered that we can buy a Playstation 3 for $299.99. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles.
This caught my attention. Sweet action-packed excitement in full 1080p glory. Not to mention it can read Blu Rays.
When this historically low price came out, I told a friend that I might have to finally get one. Why not? It’s a historically low price.
A couple weeks passed and I still didn’t get one. Maybe I was waiting for some magical leprechaun to drop an extra 300 bucks in my money clip, or maybe I was waiting for the price to drop another hundred bucks.
My friend recently asked me if I had bought one. After telling him that I hadn’t, he asked why. “It just doesn’t seem worth the money, I guess.”
“Did you ever buy games systems when you were younger?” This seemed like a random question to me, but I went with it.
“Not really. I never spent much money on games systems. I was always buying guitar pedals. I guess playing guitar just seemed more fun.”
My friend laughed, “And that’s why you can play like Lincoln Brewster and the rest of us can’t.” (This is not to say that I am the only one in the world who can play like Lincoln or that I can even really be put on the same level of playing as Lincoln. I can personally say that I know five people who can mimic his playing well, and I am acquainted with two who could really give him a run for his money. It is just that my friend and I were with a select group of people, many of whom couldn’t play guitar, none of which had a chance of sounding like Lincoln Brewster.)
The Attitudes That Automatically Improve Your Playing
There are two mentalities my friend illustrated in that discussion that can turn you (and me and anyone else who may be reading) into a really good and proficient guitarist. I have seen time and again that when these attitudes are adopted players start to improve by leaps and bounds.
Attitude #1: Love picking up the guitar.
This is elemental yet profound. When picking up the guitar is more fascinating than picking up an Xbox controller, improvement will happen.
I have a theory: We don’t just get better at things we do often, we get better at things we love to do. When we really enjoy playing guitar our mind is more relaxed, open to new things, and more alert to what it is experiencing.
If we don’t enjoy playing guitar then we never get past feeling like it is a chore. All of our energy is taken up thinking how much we don’t like doing what we are doing.
Attitude #2: Love pushing the limits.
When you do pick up the guitar, find excitement in pushing yourself. Stay relaxed, but don’t be afraid to sound bad while trying something new and more challenging.
This is sort of like the gamer who plays a Tony Hawk game. Every time he plays the game, he polishes some old tricks then attempts some new ones. The little Tony Hawk icon falls with a bone-crushing splatter, but that doesn’t stop our gamer (his bones are fine).
In seconds, the gamer has revaluated how to perform the trick and is trying it again. This process for the gamer is fun and exciting.
When we adopt this attitude it makes making progress fun and accelerates our playing.
Love Conquers All
When we love picking up the guitar more than the Playstation controller, not only will we enjoy practicing, but practicing will become more productive.
“Can You Turn Down?” Simple Ways To Master Stage Volume
“Can you turn down?” has to be the four most irritating words we can hear as guitarist. It seems like no matter what we do, we either compromise our tone or become number two on our sound engineers most wanted list (second to the drummer).
Getting good tone at a manageable volume can be difficult and frustrating, but not impossible. Lucky for us there are some very useful tools in helping us to achieve this sometimes allusive goal.
GETTING GOOD TONE AT LOW VOLUME
Low Wattage Tube Amps
These little tanks of tone can produce a lot of sound. Both good tone and loud volume. Some of the best tone I have heard has been from little low wattage tube amps. Because they are using a low amount of wattage you will able to push the tubes more giving that great alive tube sound.
Attenuators
These handy little devices are placed in between the amp and the speaker and allow you to push your tubes without blasting a lot of volume through the speaker. Great for situations when you want great tone at lower volume.
KEEPING VOLUME UNDER CONTROL
Point the amp right at your face.
This sounds overly simple, but can make a big difference. If you are not playing at a church with an Aviom system and you use your amp as a monitor then pointing the speaker at your ears can go a long way towards allowing you to hear yourself clearly while minimizing the volume you need to use.
Enter the Amp Stand. You can get one at just about any music store (ironically enough, the Guitar Center closest to me never seems to have these in stock).
If you use it right you will be able to hear your glorious tone without inspiring any tension between you and the sound engineer.
A Box
For those of you who use Aviom systems, a sound dampening box that encloses the amp is one of the most effective ways to keep your amp’s volume in check. I know some people and churches that have built these for themselves and they work great (of course, they put space in the box for microphones).
AxeTrak
This thing is pretty cool. It is a fully enclosed speaker cabinet with a microphone built into it. It is not the most pretty thing on the market, but it works. Originally it was designed for people who wanted to record quality tube amps at low volumes, but it can also work great live. Take a look at Marc Seal demoing the AxeTrak
It was created by a guitarist named Jeff Harris who plays mainly for his church.
Solving this problem is worth the hassle. It will help provide a great mix for your congregation while giving them the best guitar tone possible.
Keep it up and keep sharp.
-Jed
How To Keep Your Guitar Parts Fresh
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on June 25th, 2009
Fresh Chips are good. So are fresh guitar parts.
When things are fresh, things are good. When things are stale: not so good.
We can have a similar challenge when keeping our guitar parts fresh and new. If we only play on Sundays things can stay fresh, but then you throw in youth group, college ministry, the two prayer meetings a week (shout-out to all my Furnace friends), things get old fast.
-Change Guitars
There is nothing like changing instruments to help change your perspective on a song. Different guitars have different personalities. That different personality can be the first spark to a firestorm of inspiration.
I have noticed in my own playing that I tend to play differently depending on the guitar I have in my hands. My playing is dependent upon the personality of the instrument.
Use that to your advantage. If things are getting stale, freshen them up by borrowing a guitar from a friend, or taking that 80’s Fender out of your closet that you haven’t played in forever.
-Treat Effects like an Instrument (Your guitar isn’t the only instrument you have.)
It can be very easy for us to take a guitar part and just attach an effect on to it. This isn’t a “creative” way of looking at things. Effects are not just something to tack on to the guitar. They should fundamentally change the way you play. Don’t just play the guitar, play the effect.
Believe it or not you do this already. Think about how you play clean tones versus how you play overdriven or distorted tones. You play the guitar very differently. You use different voicings. You play differently based on the effect you use.
Now expand this way of thinking to all your other effects. Delay, phaser, whammy, octave…the list goes on. All of these effects are little gold mines of new ways of playing, waiting to be unlocked with a fresh perspective.
-Rip something off of Sigur Ros
If you are having a hard time thinking of something fresh and new, do what we all do: Steal it from someone else. Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland that is doing some really exciting things on guitar (Be warned: I think the band’s latest album cover features rear nudity), but they are not the only ones . Even if you aren’t a U2 fan, the Edge is always doing something worth looking at. There is inspiration out there, it’s just a matter of finding it.
-Change Stings
This is one of the most overlooked ways of keeping parts fresh. If there was one way to turn stale chips into fresh crunchy snacks, it is this. Changing strings will make the same old “Mighty To Save” lick sound better than you thought it could. It takes some work, but the reward is worth it.
If you have to play the same licks over and over again, at least make them sound as good as they can.
-Grab Inspiration from the imagery in the song
This can be fun, tricky, and demanding of your imagination. You will have to pay attention to lyrics, catch some imagery or mood from the lyrics and translate it into a guitar part.
This can be difficult, but is the ultimate example of great musicianship. A mournful bend during the second verse of “Blessed Be Your Name,” a thunderous swell when “Indescribable” refers to lightning– use your instrument to make the lyrics pop in people’s minds so the truth of those lyrics becomes more real and less cliché.
Getting Bored? Good
Before you find something new, things have to feel old. If everything you played felt fresh all the time, you would never feel the urge to push for something new and exciting. Embrace your boredom. You might be about to unlock something really exciting.
Keep sharp.
-Jed
Why We Can Worship
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on June 19th, 2009
We all have certain passages of the Bible that are close to our hearts. There is something about passages which depict powerful encounters with God that have always caught my attention. Most of the Bible deals with our humanity and a fallen race living on a tainted planet; however, every once in a while we see a picture of life beyond the earthly. It’s like looking through a crack in the fence of the physical and limited into the heavenly and infinite.
Every once in a while we see God. Unfiltered. Shining in His limitless glory.
One of these instances is Isaiah 6. Isaiah is swept up in a vision into the throne room of heaven and he sees God as he really is. His limited eyes behold unlimited glory. And it terrifies him.
He responds, “Woe to me. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (6:5).
There he is standing in front of the one true Almighty God and all he can think about is his own failure.
Immediately, before anything else happens, an atonement process is underway to make up for Isaiah’s failings. Isaiah’s encounter with God was characterized by his own guilt and shame.
So often we can come to worship on Sunday morning and instead of encountering God, we are reminded of our sin, failings and short-comings. Our own guilt and shame characterize our worship rather than His attributes.
Now skip to the back of the Bible to Revelation 1 and we see a very similar encounter. This time John is swept up in a vision and sees Jesus in His glorified state.
The encounter is surprisingly similar to the one in Isaiah. Yet there is a distinct difference in how John reacts to seeing God. He isn’t concerned with his own sin, like Isaiah. There is no fit of guilt and shame. He doesn’t even confess his own sin. He just falls “at his feet as though dead” (1:17). He is completely consumed with the glory of Jesus.
Why the difference? John couldn’t have been more righteous than Isaiah. Both see God in his throne room filled with glory yet he reacts differently. What has changed?
The difference is Jesus. The Son of God on the cross saying, “It is finished.”
Because of Jesus we can react to God like John did, uninhibited by our own failure. Christ is our success for the Christian life and He frees us to encounter Him without restraint.
The Lamb has touched you and your guilt has been taken away and your sin has been atoned for.
When we come to worship we don’t need to be distracted by our failings and short-comings. Christ has dealt with that definitively once and for all. When we come to worship we are free to be consumed by the glory of God.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
What To Do With A Rival Guitar Player
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on May 5th, 2009
Your probably thinking, “Jed, that picture is dumb.” To which I say “Yes, you are right. Is the guy in the center wearing eye shadow?” Unfortunately, it was the best pic I could find to illustrate the problem of rivalries among musicians.
Most of the time this isn’t a problem (guitar player rivalries, that is, finding a good pic for your blog is quite an ordeal), but at some point of time we will have to deal with this if you haven’t already. Your worship ministry gets another guitarist. Something else happens: a rivalry. Maybe just in your mind or maybe just in theirs, but either way you are constantly sizing them up and you feel they are doing the same.
It doesn’t take you long before you start thinking “maybe this isn’t healthy?” After all we are called to love one another and what is happening between you two doesn’t seem to be love.
You always know something is up when interactions with the ‘Opposition’ become awkward, uncomfortably short or even hostile. Something has to change. Here are some thinking patterns to help you through this and to get past it.
Playing guitar is a position of service, not ownership. This is the point that is very true and will have everyone nodding their heads to the computer screen but doesn’t really make anyone feel better. That’s okay; it’s still true.
If you are a lone guitar player in your worship ministry it is very easy to start thinking your position of playing electric guitar (or acoustic) is your right, not your privilege. Obviously the opposite is true. Your ultimate motivation for playing guitar for your church is to fill a gap when needed, to serve when it is called upon. If you are playing because it is your position and your right than you have lost spirit of service necessary for worship ministry.
Two Types Of Bad Competition
There are two types of unhealthy competition that can develop in this type of situation.
1. The “I will beat you at all cost” competition.
This one almost always manifests itself as passive aggressiveness in churches. It is when one of you wants nothing more than to prove yourself better than the other person so much that it eats away at you.
Here are some questions to ask yourself if you are suffering from this condition.
-Do you give them advice when they ask?
-Do you ask them for advice?
-Are you willing to share your “secrets” with them?
-Are you happy for them when they succeed or grow?
If you answer no to any of these, take an honest look at yourself to see if you are the cause of an unhealthy rivalry.
2. The “There is no competition” competition.
This is the competition-phobic response to competition. It is when one of you just tries to ignore or avoid any and all types of comparison between you and the other guitar player(s). Your playing and your attitude should improve when another guitar player comes on the scene because you should be learning from them. Ask yourself these questions:
-Do you two ever have conversations that lead to one of you two playing a little differently?
-Are you ever motivated to get better because of them?
-Are you motivated to improve your tone?
If the answer is no to any of these, start looking for things they are doing well, things you can pick up on and learn from.
The Good Kind Of Competition: Iron Sharpens Iron.
Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Having two or more guitar players in your worship ministry should motivate healthy growth from both of you. Your relationship becomes about both of you growing rather than trying to beat the other person.
If you are not motivated to get better or learning from what they are doing then you need to work on creating a relationship that sharpens each other. If you are simply trying to become sharper simply to cut another person down then that needs to stop right now.
They are not your enemy, they are your partners in crime (sort of). Together you can create a stronger, better quality worship ministry.
-Jed
Why Your Worship Ministry Matters to Your Church
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on April 21st, 2009
I remember when I first started serving my church’s worship ministry. I had been playing guitar for almost two years and had just gotten my hands on a brand new Carvin SC-90. Church needed an electric guitarist and I had a knack for putting in nice little touches in songs.
I also had a knack for putting huge horrible waste baskets in songs, but that’s another post.
Serving in the worship ministry brought me a lot of fulfillment. When Sunday morning came, I wouldn’t be hitting snooze button, like I did the rest of the week. I would often think of a famous John Piper quote: “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him.”
That’s the way I felt. I felt most satisfied in God when I was helping leading people in worshiping Him.
I would occasionally have the opportunity to play at other churches or other worship events outside of the Sunday morning service at my church. Every once in a while I would witness something I didn’t possess myself: a higher sense of urgency. This baffled me at first. I would see people operating as if there were more at stake.
All I knew was glorifying God and enjoying Him. What more was at stake?
You may have noticed this yourself. Now and then you come across a worship band, ministry or team that seems to be operating at a different level than you are. And it demands the question: WHY?
The key is motivation. When we answer the question of what is motivating that person we can answer why they are operating at another level than we are. When we have deeper motivation it can lead to deeper service and a greater sense of urgency.
There is a famous story in Acts that serves as a great illustration.
Acts 16:16 starts the story of Paul and Silas minding their own business on their way to a place of prayer. On the way they get heckled in the street by a demon-possessed woman shouting at them and mocking them.
Paul is at the end of his rope and casts the demon from her. He then realizes that this is not the best way to make friends. A mob forms and drags Paul and Silas to the local authorities. The authorities have them beaten and thrown in a damp prison cell.
And there they are–cold from the prison cell, humiliated from the public mocking, and probably still bleeding from their wounds. And around midnight they do what many of us do when we are up against a wall, alone, with nowhere to go.
They worship.
The two of them start singing hymns to God and will I bet you $10 right now that they were a little flat and a little pitchy. If Simon Cowell heard them he would not be impressed, but the other prisoners didn’t mind, they just listened.
An astounding thing happens. An earthquake rumbles through the place shaking the foundations of the prison, breaking the chains and opening the doors that held them captive.
I propose that where there is worship there is rescue.
We have all experienced it. We have been stretched too thin throughout the week and when we come to worship God we find divine comfort. We have experience renewed hope when we thought all hope was lost. We get convicted of sin and it becomes evident to us that we need to get rid of something in our lives.
This is all forms of God’s rescue during worship.
The reason we need a high sense of urgency when it comes to worship ministry is because there are people who will be walking through you church doors this Sunday who desperately need that rescue.
Serving a worship ministry is much deeper than just our own enjoyment, even though that needs to be there. It is about providing people an atmosphere where they can meet God, the One who rescues.
-Jed