Church Musos - Introduce Yourself

[tev77]

I know there's a few of us out there, come introduce yourself. Tell us about your worship team, what songs you do, how long you've been playing etc. Also how do you find that the truefire courses and other stuff relates to what you do as a church musician.

Ok, about me. Basically church is where I learnt to play guitar. I joined my church music team when I was 12 and I could only really play a couple of chords. Ten years later I've probably played for 300-400 church services and feel pretty confident in playing any worship song.

My church isn't huge (about 150 people) so we don't have a big music team (probably about 25-30 people for both our sunday morning & youth services). We play a lot of the contemporary worship stuff coming out, quite a lot of Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Passion, Israel Houghton, etc. We don't really do many hymns at all, just a couple of classics like Amazing Grace. I'd probably get bored if we did heaps of hymns (aren't really my style).

Regarding truefire stuff, I find all truefire stuff to be excellent. Brads courses are all great as his approach is more the "Teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime". I find the theory and tips and approaches he teaches can be applied to what I do as a church guitarist. The courses that teach songs and stuff are still great but not as applicable.

But enough about me.

[ryentzer]

Wanted to stop by and say hey. I'm fairly new to guitar been playing off and on for about 3 years although more off than on due to commitments. However, now more than ever I'm really excited about guitar again. Just bought an electric, amp and a few pedals and having a blast. My wife likes it because I play through headphones. ;0

Anyways, Our youth group has started a praise team. Right now there is 1 acoustic player and 3 or 4 singers and that's it. I've become more involved in the youth and saw an opportunity to play for the Lord so I'm stepping in to be the electric player. The youth minister will play bass and we have another guy willing to do drums. So we're just starting out but it should be a blast.

Our church is about 500 members and it's straight traditional, all hymns. The occasional Chris Tomlin song, but very structured and choir driven. Not knocking it but not my thing.

I just ordered the CAGED Cracked after watching the samples and looks to be exactly what I was looking for. How to pull it all together.

Excited to be here!

[tev77]

Good to have you here ryentzer.

Sounds like you're gonna have a lot of fun with your youth group praise team. It'll really help improve your playing by being in a band (especially your timing). I'm sure you'll learn some great stuff from CAGED cracked that will apply to playing electric. I'm a fair way through that course myself and I have learnt so much. When I first got the course it seemed way over my head but I was amazed at how quickly I picked up the stuff. If you have any questions or comments about the course feel free to post them in the forums. CAGED Cracked is one of those courses that most of us seem to be working through.

[slasner]

Regarding truefire stuff, I find all truefire stuff to be excellent. Brads courses are all great as his approach is more the "Teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime". I find the theory and tips and approaches he teaches can be applied to what I do as a church guitarist. The courses that teach songs and stuff are still great but not as applicable.

But enough about me.

I just showed this to Brad Carlton, he also plays in church! He said he was glad folks are benefiting from his courses!!

[ryentzer]

Last night was my first practice with the group and I had a blast. I'm really looking forward to the Caged Cracked. I'm currently working through a Paul Baloche/Ben Gowell Electric guitar DVD and just recently got the Lincoln Brewster DVD. Both are excellent and with the Caged Cracked I should have more than enough to keep me progressing through.

To God be the Glory!

[gadlaw]

I'm looking at one of my Fingerstyle Guitar magazine Web Site for Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine
and there is column written by Rick Foster Rick Foster's Web Site which is about Contemporary Christian Music. Every issue he does a new song or a styling of a older song. It's always good to hear another version of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring after all.

[jrhoden]

I am a member of a small church. We have many people in the church who play guitar as well as other instruments. Most of them play solo guitar as well as sing, but not really a set group to lead any music, that's done by our song leader. I would however like to sstart a small group to perform with at church on a regular basis.

As for my background, I consider myself more of an intermediate player and don't have much experience as far as playing with others. That is one of my goals is to gain the skills necessary to be able to pick my guitar up and play with others with little preperation.

I was glad to see this post and get to know others who share in my passion for playing in a worship environment. One thing I would like to mention, and I hope this isn't tacky of me, but there are a few courses offered by Guitar College geared toward the worship musician. I picked one of them up but don't feel I have used it enough to write a fair review. They can be found at http://www.guitarcollege.net/worship.html The only other thing I have purchased from Guitar College is the Theory for the Road audio program.

John

[slasner]

I love the old gospel music! My friend Lucky Peterson played B3 on "Wade In The Water" with Mavis Staples singing! Worth searching out and hearing!

[Wolfboy1]

Personaly I don't think it's tacky to mention other sources. If you got something good share it and mention Truefire on your other forums as well. Plus any other product mentions could lead some one to Truefire as I understand it.

[beboy]

I'm not religious but my most favorite songwriter is.

Have you guys ever listened to Neal Morse?

He used to be in Spock's Beard and while working on the album Snow (my favorite of album of all time), he said that God talked to him and told him to accept God and focus on religious music.

So he quit Spock's Beard and went solo.

He found an interesting way to make money. He started a fan club like thing but don't call it a fan club, it is called Inner Circle. I belonged for a couple of years (until it was squeezed out of my budget when my wife got laid off a few months ago - she's working now, btw). It was $10 a month and every month (looks like now he does it bi-monthly) he would send out a CD or sometimes a DVD and also email newsletters. He produced it all in his home. Sometimes old unreleased songs, one time an old broadway musical he wrote and performed and sometimes new stuff he was working on. I thought it was a good way for a musician to keep making money.

He sings, plays keyboards mostly but also plays guitar, bass, drums and who knows what else. He lives in the US and sometimes travels to play at different churches. He also seems to go to Germany a lot to play in churches.

His style is progressive rock. Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater plays drums quite often on Neal's CDs.

I own his CDs:
Testimony
One
?

Yep, that last one is just called "?". They are all very good and he has released a couple more since those.

Here's a couple videos from Testimony, with Mike Portnoy on drums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7h8Rx1pQxc
This one is more spiritual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kHmZ...eature=related

Here's the description of a concept album he did in 2007 called Sola Scripta:
Neal Morse unites his Christian faith and his love of prog rock with this concept album about the German theologian Martin Luther's 16th-century schism with the Catholic Church. Blending odd time signatures, soaring keyboard and guitar arpeggios, and pyrotechnical drumming, Morse's songs portray the complexities of a man struggling to remain true to his faith and to himself while exploring unknown and dangerous religious territory. It's to Morse's credit that with the aid of his cohorts, the drummer Mike Portnoy and the bassist Randy George, he keeps this tricky subject matter both accessible and highly listenable.

Here's a church gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bh8X...eature=related

[jimiclaptoncarl]

[QUOTE=tev77;7810]I know there's a few of us out there, come introduce yourself. Tell us about your worship team, what songs you do, how long you've been playing etc. Also how do you find that the truefire courses and other stuff relates to what you do as a church musician.

Ok, about me. Basically church is where I learnt to play guitar. I joined my church music team when I was 12 and I could only really play a couple of chords. Ten years later I've probably played for 300-400 church services and feel pretty confident in playing any worship song.

My church isn't huge (about 150 people) so we don't have a big music team (probably about 25-30 people for both our sunday morning & youth services). We play a lot of the contemporary worship stuff coming out, quite a lot of Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Passion, Israel Houghton, etc. We don't really do many hymns at all, just a couple of classics like Amazing Grace. I'd probably get bored if we did heaps of hymns (aren't really my style).
[QUOTE]

Hey tev77,

I just found this thread now.

Anyways, I play children's worship right now, we have a schedule that alternates like every 3 weeks we play; we being my mom, me, and my sister.

Right now, We are in the process of practicing for VBS(Vocation Bible School) that is coming up really quickly-August 2-6, 09.

We have a core band that consists of: me(guitar), friend(bass), my sister(drums), and a leader(elect and acoustic/singing). We have like 13 songs to do over 5 nights and we do like 4-5 songs a set. So this is gonna be pretty cool as it will be my first "stage" appearance. :D

My friend lent me his Floorpod XTlive, so that was a real treat.

Have you heard of mysongbase?

Our church is part of it, it is an online music database, pretty cool.

Just thought I would let you know there is another "church" guitarist out there.

[Lefty]

Hey tev77

I just volunteered to give guitar lessons for a church. I’m showing them the CAGED system, which I wish someone would have showed me years ago.

[Bry50]

While I'm not religious at all I do love this piece of music . It is a bit off the beaten track , but very interesting . It's called Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet .
Here is a link to the origin & a short track of the piece .
http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/jes..._failed_m.html
Tom Waite sings along on this version . Not for everyone , but I like just about every idiom of music .

[Jestme]

Hey Guys

I'm not in the church band or anything but I sometimes dream I'm going to get up and play a fingerstyle arrangement one day... maybe I still will. It could happen.

I once was working up an arrangement of 'As The Deer'... never quite finished it. Maybe I should look it over again.

There's a lot of good music performed in churches. I would someday like to drum up a bunch of fingerstyle arrangements of church songs.

Any suggestions for good songs to consider?

[tev77]

Its nice to see this thread pop up again.

Its cool to hear about what you are doing with worship in your church jimiclaptoncarl. Children's worship can be a lot of fun to do. I think we have a few people who do some songs with the children at my church but we don't have the resources or manpower to have a team which is unfortunate.

A couple of weeks ago I went on a children's holiday camp for a week and played in the worship team for that. Usually theres some other really awesome musos who come so its a lot of fun. This time I got to play with a drummer who studies jazz at university, a bassist who is amazing on any instrument (way better than me on guitar, also plays drums and piano incredibly), I played the electric and one of my mates from church was on acoustic.

I haven't heard of mysongbase before but it looks like it could be quite useful. We have a website for my church and we have all the chords and words for our songs available for our members to download. We also put our rosters and stuff up there.

What exactly is VBS (Vocation Bible School)?

[tev77]

Hey tev77

I just volunteered to give guitar lessons for a church. I’m showing them the CAGED system, which I wish someone would have showed me years ago.

Thats a cool thing to do, you'll have to tell us how you go with that. I also wish I had learnt the CAGED system years earlier, first I heard about it properly was when I found truefire about 1-2 years ago, and I am still in the process of trying to get my head around it.

[tev77]

While I'm not religious at all I do love this piece of music . It is a bit off the beaten track , but very interesting . It's called Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet .
Here is a link to the origin & a short track of the piece .
http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/jes..._failed_m.html
Tom Waite sings along on this version . Not for everyone , but I like just about every idiom of music .

I really like that song, something about it is really catchy to me. I first heard it when a band called Jars of Clay did it on one of their CDs a couple of years ago. I found that the song would just pop into my head as its very repetitive and catchy. Check out the version by Jars of Clay, what do you think of it, heres a youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJNYRzoA1o

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Oops, it's Vacation Bible School.

Wikipedia explains better than me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacation_Bible_School

Look at the Today section.

[tev77]

Hey Guys

I'm not in the church band or anything but I sometimes dream I'm going to get up and play a fingerstyle arrangement one day... maybe I still will. It could happen.

I once was working up an arrangement of 'As The Deer'... never quite finished it. Maybe I should look it over again.

There's a lot of good music performed in churches. I would someday like to drum up a bunch of fingerstyle arrangements of church songs.

Any suggestions for good songs to consider?

If you're keen to play a fingerstyle arrangement in church some time maybe you should ask. Put the idea to your pastor or worship leader (or whoever you think is the most appropriate person to talk to). I'm not sure what your church is like in how they run things but I would hope that they would be able to find a time and space for you to do something like that.

Amazing Grace is one of those songs that is a real classic and makes a great instrumental. Eventually I hope to have a go at the version on truefires "Roots, Rags, & Blues".

[tev77]

Oops, it's Vacation Bible School.

Wikipedia explains better than me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacation_Bible_School

Look at the Today section.

Thanks for the link, looks really good. Never heard anything about it before as we don't have anything like that here in New Zealand. The closest we have is probably school holiday camps like the one I went on the other week. I hope you have a real awesome time at VBS, you'll have to tell us all about it afterwards.

[Jestme]

If you're keen to play a fingerstyle arrangement in church some time maybe you should ask. Put the idea to your pastor or worship leader (or whoever you think is the most appropriate person to talk to). I'm not sure what your church is like in how they run things but I would hope that they would be able to find a time and space for you to do something like that.

Amazing Grace is one of those songs that is a real classic and makes a great instrumental. Eventually I hope to have a go at the version on truefires "Roots, Rags, & Blues".

Tev

I don't think my church would have any problem with me playing a song... the bigger problem is on my side I need to put together the arrangement and master it before I would discuss doing it with anyone.

The problem I have with arranging instrumentals is repeating myself for each verse... so I try to build the arrangement so that each time through is different than the other times.

BTW Tim Sparks arrangement of Amazing Grace is a fun tune to learn. I got a lot of it down before I roamed on to something else. You should gve it a whirl.

[Bry50]

I really like that song, something about it is really catchy to me. I first heard it when a band called Jars of Clay did it on one of their CDs a couple of years ago. I found that the song would just pop into my head as its very repetitive and catchy. Check out the version by Jars of Clay, what do you think of it, heres a youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJNYRzoA1o

Interesting version , but I have to say that the homeless guy from the London street recordings has something in his voice that just grabs me ; very pure . His pitch control and feeling are so great . I worked the in the dowtown east side of vancouver when I was in my twenties dealing with the drug addicts and alcoholics . It was an amazing expierience and has stayed with all my life since . Like the old guy who sang on Gavin Bryar's arrangment of this song you would run into the most unusual people on the street . I guess I'm struck by the image of the old guy , in my imagination , coupled with his voice that makes me like Gavin Bryar's version . Since I posted about this piece I have had an ear worm of Jesus Blood ever since . I can hear the old guy so clearly in my head .

[wvgman]

That reminds me of a Tom Hanks line in one of his old movies about a gang of bank robbers, but it is true for me.
I play each Sunday with our praise team. The church has about 120 folks and no choir. We have two guys and three to four young ladies that sing with the keyboard player, a percussionist (congas), me on guitar, and another guitar player (every other week due to his work schedule). We play mostly contemporary praise and worship songs (Tim Hughes, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Newsboys, etc.) with a few older hymns. I have never bothered to count the songs in our three ring binders, but we try to add new ones frequently. It keeps me busy and I like that the keyboard player who leads us is very well schooled in music and keeps it challenging.
:guitare2:

[torr71]

Ya I’m one of those Church Geetar players too…been doing it for about six or so years,
all Contemporary / Modern Worship. Pretty much play every week to an audience of 1..Usually with about 200 plus Praising him as well…

If there was one thing about this from the music side of things. That would be, we are always bring in new material and we only practice for about an hour each week and a quick run through and sound check before the service..
It really forces the brain to pick things up fast. And it never fails that, that morning there will be a key change or new song…. keeps you on your toes or knees (Lord Please just let me hit the right notes)


Glad to see all you Church Geetar Players..:thrasher:

[Jestme]

Hey

I was a wonderin'... If there was say a TF course that might be useful to aspiring Church playing guitarists... perhaps to get them started with some songs and hymns...

What would be the best stuff to put on it...

Perhaps even a tip section...

[Jestme]

One more question...

Are any of you familiar with John Standefer?

He has a video series [and does workshops] on Praise and Worship music for guitar.

[beboy]

Tev: Was the Childrens Holiday Camp the same place you went a while ago? I remember you posted a picture of a place on a lake and it looked like lots of fun.

[torr71]

Hey Jestme,

This is something that I have thought about time and time again..
but more related to a band/worship team...

How to work as a team and not have everyone over play and stay out of the vocalist’s way, and such...as well as how to mix and Eq Vocals/Instruments. there are tons of sound issues that can come up..

I had thought about suggesting such an animal, but never got around to it…

Peace

[Jestme]

Hey Jestme,

This is something that I have thought about time and time again..
but more related to a band/worship team...

How to work as a team and not have everyone over play and stay out of the vocalist’s way, and such...as well as how to mix and Eq Vocals/Instruments. there are tons of sound issues that can come up..

I had thought about suggesting such an animal, but never got around to it…

Peace

Do you mean in general or more geared for worship teams?

Sounds like [no pun intended ] useful information, and useful for all that play in a band, worship related or not. Might be worth putting something together on it.

What would you list as topics for it... maybe a new thread would be worthwhile and spur some discussion... perhaps listing your thought and soliciting others for their experiences and thoughts.

[torr71]

Do you mean in general or more geared for worship teams?

Sounds like a plan...
I would say it could work either way but if you made it specific to Worship you would have a narrower targeted group however my guess is some churches would shy away from something that might sound to worldly. You would probably use songs that would related to the subject so Stairway to Heaven might not work for a worship song .
There is a large market for contemporary worship as many churches have move to this type of service and now have a full band for music..

Start A thread and lets see what comes of it..

[Jestme]

I may be confusing us. I was initially interested in what songs people are playing in church... are there 'standards' that every church uses, ... that kind of thing...

I thought you were looking at more of the logistics of accompaniment... not fighting each other for space, volume, ... giving each person some space ... in more generic terms ...

I think both could lead to interesting discussions...

[gadlaw]

Hey

I was a wonderin'... If there was say a TF course that might be useful to aspiring Church playing guitarists... perhaps to get them started with some songs and hymns...

What would be the best stuff to put on it...

Perhaps even a tip section...

Joe Dalton does Church playing as I recall, it's one of the reasons he doesn't 'Twitter' or 'Facebook' - bad influences and risky people could easily make things embarrassing for someone associated with a Church I believe he said. But anyways, he's already a Truefire instructor and he's a church playing on Sunday kind of guy. Seems like a natural choice for him to do if we get that far with a future Church Music Truefire Course. And is that word 'Musos' a word for music the way that 'Grande' in Starbucks means medium?

[wvgman]

I think that when the Jeff Sheetz Jam Night course is finished, it may address some things about playing with a group in an impromptu sort of setting. I know most church music tends to be more structured than a jam night, but as was mentioned, there are the inevitable last minute key changes, song substitutions, and other unforeseeable things that make church guitar much like other forms of guitar.
I find myself applying the things I learn from my TrueFire courses when playing with the praise team. (Where else would I use them? That is the only playing I do anymore for the most part.)
It is all music and you just want to give it your best. In fact, I need to go practice now. Have a great weekend, friends!
:guitare2:

[torr71]

Hey Jestme,

I'm like an old Dog that when he catches the ball runs off with ...Plus is easy to send me in the wrong direction…:mariole:

Back to the songs. We use a Service call Song Select that we use to download all of our Chord charts and Lead sheets. I cut and pasted the top 25 downloads to give you an Idea..
A lot of these songs have been done and re-done by various artist and styles.

This helps me cause I usually make all the Geetar Parts my own. Rather that trying to do what someone else has done…However the Chords used in a lot of the songs are Add9 and sus4 ,sus2 and not a lot of Dom7 so a -7 will always sound out of place…there a few songs that we do once in a while but rare..

Most of these songs to me are what I would call Pop-Rock

Intro 4-8 bars
Verse 1 4-8 Bars
Verse 2
Sometimes a pre-chorus 4-bars maybe 8
Chorus 1 8-bars
Verse 3
Chorus 2
Bridge - can be used to bring the song way down and build it really big
Chorus 3 - Sometime a short Break into the first bar of the chorus
Outro - could be the last line in the chorus repeated a couple of time with a drum break near the end…

Hey Wvgman

think that when the Jeff Sheetz Jam Night course is finished, it may address some things about playing with a group in an impromptu sort of setting

I was thinking that vary thang...
I Do think that a TF course geared for a church type setting could sell..
That covers the in's and out's of a band ..

TOP CCLI SONGS
1. How Great Is Our God
2. Blessed Be Your Name
3. Here I Am To Worship
4. Mighty To Save
5. Open The Eyes Of My Hear...
6. Everlasting God
7. Shout To The Lord
8. Holy Is The Lord
9. Amazing Grace (My Chains...
10. Forever
11. Come Now Is The Time To ...
12. Lord I Lift Your Name On...
13. Your Grace Is Enough
14. You Are My King
15. God Of Wonders
16. The Heart Of Worship
17. Beautiful One
18. We Fall Down
19. Trading My Sorrows
20. You Are My All In All
21. In Christ Alone
22. Breathe
23. Days Of Elijah
24. How Great Thou Art
25. You're Worthy Of My Prai...

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Hey Jestme,
However the Chords used in a lot of the songs are Add9 and sus4 ,sus2 and not a lot of Dom7 so a -7 will always sound out of place…

Most of these songs to me are what I would call Pop-Rock

Bingo!!!

I'm glad you understand that torr71.

There are some churches out there who have guitarists try to be Jimi Hendrix on stage, and it usually sounds terrible.

I notice our church's guitar player trys to be more melodic, and I think that is the key. There are some songs like you said that a b7 will fit but that is pretty rare.

Main goal of a church guitarist: Make the song more pleasing to the listener; not throwing in a bunch of diminished arpeggios just because you can!

[torr71]

Hey Jimi...

I'm glad you understand that torr71

What can I say I'm TrueFire Trained...Oh believe Me I will try to sneak some jimi in when I can...

Here is one of the songs we're doing this Sunday..I play this one pretty much just like the vid..

My Savior Lives
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_SB-SpNm00

[Jestme]

wow lots of good stuff going on in here...

Torr - thanks for the list of songs. I have been curious if other churches used the same 'set list'. It's nice to see I know quite a few from your list. Or perhaps I shouldn't say know, at least not in the sense that I play them but they are played at my church.

I have toyed with the idea of coming up with a bunch of fingerstyle arrangements for some of these songs.

Some years ago I had a friend [not a player] that was really into CCM. Through his influence I built up a small supply of CCM CDs. Alas I no longer have a source of CCM music and have thus fallen behind in the genre. Mostly I listen to solo fingerstyle stuff that is probably obscure to the rest of the known world.

Nice youtube vid... you have a big church!!! Just kidding I know that is not you or your church in the vid. LOL

So if someone were to put together a praise guitar course with a bunch of vids [not that we can but just as a what if we could...] What should it have on it....

Should it have some praise songs - teach some songs to play...
Should it be a 'plays well with others' insight into not stepping on each other...
Specifics on ahhh miking the guitar... equipment....

What would be special about a Praise Guitar course as opposed to any other guitar course... Is there sufficient specific materials...

WHere would the market be? Perhaps church bands might retain a copy so new members and backup members could brush up.

[jimiclaptoncarl]

I think some sort of "Church Band or Church Guitarist" course would be quite a hit. Think of all the worship teams out there.

It could cover: how to come up with parts that suit a particular song

Show some popular songs, how you could play them

How to setup your gear,

And maybe making your own charts. Like to remind you when to come in and pull out, maybe dynamic markings?

These are just some ideas.

[tev77]

Tev: Was the Childrens Holiday Camp the same place you went a while ago? I remember you posted a picture of a place on a lake and it looked like lots of fun.

Yeah, it was the same camp beboy. Its a place I've been going to for years, I started going there when I was 10 and I love going.

I don't get on the computer for a day and I miss a massive conversation. I think a truefire course related to church guitarists would be really good. Judging by the number of church guitarists in the forum I reckon theres a ton of other church guitarists out there who dig truefire and would be keen for a course like this. A praise course would probably be more down my interests than hymns. Maybe even a couple of courses for church guitarists, one aimed towards acoustic and the other for electric guitar.

Of the top 25 CCLI songs that you listed we currently do 14 of those in my church and I know most of the others and have played them at some stage. We try to keep new songs coming into our church, we're having a music jam after church next week where we are going to learn a couple of new songs:
Hillsong United - No Reason To Hide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xtUs...eature=related
Israel Houghton - Say So
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WF9VtKaONA
It will be interesting to see how we go with those songs.

[wvgman]

Wow, Torr71, we play all the songs you listed except numbers 13, 17, 19, and 22. For those who have little access to Contemporary Christian Music, you can go on-line to K-Love radio and listen on-line. I usually just follow the keyboard player and "play between the cracks" as I call it. Sometimes, when appropriate, I will add some licks that stand out, but it is like JCC said, you want it to be appropriate. There are some songs on that list that really let you "rock out" if you are so inclined. I just want to play in a manner that is consistent with what the song seeks to express whether is soft and pensive or driving and forceful. Mostly I just want to stay in time and on key. It's all good.
:guitare2:

[Jestme]

I have been surprised by the number of church guitarists there seem to be around here.

Thanks for the info in the threads and K-Love and the YouTube vids... I'll have to check them out later as my nap time is approaching rapidly. ZZzzzz....

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Well, we are finished with VBS. It all went pretty smoothly, no major glitches or problems. I'm just a bit worn out though as it was my first "public performance."

Now, I am getting ready to play on Sunday. The whole VBS team will be leading the congregation through 6 songs, 3 VBS songs and 3 standard church songs.

I'm a little bit nervous as now we will be playing in front of adults instead of kids.

Once Sunday comes and goes, I can officially rest up.

[tev77]

Well, we are finished with VBS. It all went pretty smoothly, no major glitches or problems. I'm just a bit worn out though as it was my first "public performance."

Now, I am getting ready to play on Sunday. The whole VBS team will be leading the congregation through 6 songs, 3 VBS songs and 3 standard church songs.

I'm a little bit nervous as now we will be playing in front of adults instead of kids.

Once Sunday comes and goes, I can officially rest up.

Good to hear that VBS went well, congrats on getting through your first "public performance" any stories/interesting moments? Hope it goes well for you on sunday.

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Thanks tev77

Hmm... Intresting moments?....

Well here's something a noob would do:

The entire VBS team uses in ear moniters, and they aren't wireless, so we are basically "chained" to our monitor. We can go a few feet away but what happened to me, I went to far and so my whole stand(the mic is also hooked to the mixer) fell off the stage. Pretty funny. :mariole:

Another one was, as I was kicking in the wah pedal(I was using a Line 6 floor pod xt) I bumped the music stand and so my stand and all my music(sheets/charts) went flying off the stage. So it took a minute or two sorting it all out. :mariole:

If I think of anything else I'll let you know.

[wvgman]

Hey, JCC. I am sure you will do well on Sunday. You have had all your glitches out of the way on the VBS circuit so now that they are done, it is time to "play skillfully and with a loud noise" Ps 33:3. I sometimes say that if I can't comply to the skillfully part, at least I can do the loud noise.:mariole:

[Lefty]

Practice with the church on Thursday of this week, for the first time. They play hill songs. What are hill songs exactly. What are general progressions in church songs, general stuff or more complex chords?

New to this style. Thanks

[jimiclaptoncarl]

I'm sorry to say I don't know what hill songs are either. :(

But I do know that church music (at least at my church) can very from simple progressions to complex progressions that are filled with slash chords, modulations, and more. The complex songs are usually keyboard/piano oriented. So it is challenging to come up with a guitar part that fits.

[Jestme]

Hey JCC

Break a leg - that's showbiz talk for knock 'em dead. I think you're gonna do fine as wvgman said you already got it down and played for the younger crowd now you just have to repeat it for the main crowd. You can do it.

I suggest keeping an eye on the music stands though ;)

[jrhoden]

Sounds like your VBS was a success and thank goodness noone was hurt We just had ours too and everyone had a blast. I didn;t get to perform, but I did get to see a friend of mine make a fool out of herself. That made it all worthwhile by its self.

[tev77]

Practice with the church on Thursday of this week, for the first time. They play hill songs. What are hill songs exactly. What are general progressions in church songs, general stuff or more complex chords?

New to this style. Thanks

Very cool, hope that goes well for you. I think "hill song" is probably a reference to Hillsong. Hillsong is a very big church in Australia, they are very big in modern/contemporary praise and worship and their songs are sung worldwide in churches. They release a couple of albums every year and are always coming out with new songs (I think they have about 20 cds out now). In my church we do quite a lot of songs from Hillsong.

Progressions for worship songs are generally relatively simple. Worship songs will generally stick to chords derived from the major scale. Variations of I, IV, V, VIm are very common in my experience, the IIm is probably the next most common chord to go to and the IIIm is not so common although sometimes used. Its very rare to get worship songs that go outside of the chords built from the major scale.

In terms of chords, worship music doesn't really used extended chords at all (unless you're getting into more complex gospel etc). Generally worship sticks to the the basic major and minor chords, the suspended chords (sus4, and sus2) are also used frequently with the sus4 being the more common of the two. Dominant 7ths and major 7ths are very rarely used and chords that are extended further are almost never used. Minor 7ths are probably the only chord containing more than 3 notes that is used in any frequency.

Hope that helps, that is my experience from the songs I have played in church. Every church has a slightly different style and repertoire but I think those are some things that you will find in common with most modern praise & worship songs.