worship guitar tutorial?

[joelhunn]

Can anyone recommend a good tutorial for playing worship guitar? I have been playing for about 5 years and play almost exclusively modern fingerstyle, so my rhythm skills are pretty weak. Most of the books I see online seem more about basic chord shapes rather than learning new techniques.

[mr. beaumont]

I don't think there's any particular technique that makes it specifically "worship" guitar, so you might look at any tutorials for strumming. Definitely might want to look at a metronome or cheap drum machine for practice.

As for the chord voicings, there is a particular sub-style in worship music that uses some pretty specific chords, namely those with the 1st and 2nd string ringing open in almost every shape...depending on what your situation calls for, you might need those, in addition to the regular open "cowboy" chords and barre chords up and down the neck.

[Joe F]

Lots of resources on YouTube for this genre.

Two examples:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGn...46mvKCUjFTUXGw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdd...jBQIaRfE93-opA

[rmp]

I think it depends a lot on what you're looking for.

"Worship" music it's a pretty broad topic..

What I would suggest is to go to Chris Brunelle's youtube channel,

https://www.youtube.com/user/bowzer1972

he's got many videos of the standard OCP listed songs and hymns. If you're doing this for Roman Catholic services, he's a great resource.

His vids will give you a real good idea of how to work guitar arrangements to many songs that are used.

You can also go to the OCP web site,
https://www.ocp.org/en-us

and find the guitar charts that have the correct chords, and keys. They are not free, so be selective on what you need.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by joelhunn

Can anyone recommend a good tutorial for playing worship guitar? I have been playing for about 5 years and play almost exclusively modern fingerstyle, so my rhythm skills are pretty weak. Most of the books I see online seem more about basic chord shapes rather than learning new techniques.

Hi joelhunn

Paul Baloche has tons of worship resources for styling, playing, etc. In fact there is an entire video course for worship teams with a unique section for guitarists (both acoustic and electric). On YouTube look up "Paul Baloche Guitar Workshop". Several DOZEN videos specific to guitars.

He has tons of other guitar resources as well…I suggest you google the phrase "paul baloche worship resources" and you'll encounter those.

He is an acoustic worship guitarist and writer. I used his resources to push my acoustic players another notch or two down the tracks over the years. And his electric player in his band is who did the electric guitar training. A lot of what we bought 10 years ago is now free on YouTube.

Good stuff and specific to worship…

In addition on YouTube there are tons of resources. Worship Tutorial's YouTube channel includes (but is not limited to) guitar tutorials.

I think live video is always superior to what is in books when it comes to 'learning' styles and rhythm etc. When I'm in the middle of the stage in the middle of a worship set, and the solo is 16 bars away…I'm not thinking about any books I've read…

Have fun on your journey!

[Bob Womack]

I've got my little page on the subject, HERE.


Bob

[difalkner]

I've been playing for over 50 years and thought I was pretty good at rhythm just doing some picking with my friends. We manage to make it through plenty of songs by JD, CSN&Y, Jim Croce, Simon & Garfunkel, Dan Fogelberg, etc.

And I'm a fairly decent strummer and finger picker so when I started playing in our Praise Band about 5 or 6 years ago I was quite surprised to find that I was all over the map when it came to timing and playing with others. At first it was just me on the guitar and a 75-year old fantastic piano player and she set the timing that I had to follow because a grand piano is sooooo stinkin' loud -

Fast forward 5 years and we have a lot of instruments, no grand piano, and click tracks. I have gotten far, far better at timing and counting when I play and that's the big difference for me.

Playing all the chords has never been an issue but now I can't slow down or speed up whenever I want. I have to stay with the beat or it gets really muddy sounding.

So my advice would be to play along on YouTube with the worship songs you like and see how well you do. Pick some songs by Chris Tomlin, Matt Maher, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill, etc., turn the sound up, and enjoy.

David

[joelhunn]

Thanks guys. You have given me a lot to review. I’ll start to dig in

[Arthur Blake]

Just one song, but a beautiful arrangement, and fairly simple to play.

Seems it's hard to go through just once, because the beauty and emotion of the piece tends to enthrall, so I repeat a couple of times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns5SSxcjiMU

[The Growler]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I've got my little page on the subject, HERE.


Bob

Great advice Bob. Thanks for sharing.

[51 Relic]

For the last nine years playing fingerstyle in a worship setting weekly has been my primary performing and practice platform . I had also been the most rewarding , we play as a trio , keyboard , Uke and myself . For me playing solo fingerstyle during communion is one of the most enjoyable moments . We had a guest keyboard player this week that from the first note just gave real goosebumps. YouTube has some great resources . Good luck with your search . My all time favourite is “ The Water is Wide “

[SunnyDee]

I didn't check all the links to see if someone already posted this guy, but I really like Aaron Tomberlin. He didn't start out with worship music, but moved into it. His videos are older, but he's an accomplished musician, not just a guitar player, so he's able to bring extra musical knowledge to his lessons. I especially like his work with Praise and Worship chord theory, but he also has lots of how to play X videos.

https://www.youtube.com/user/aarontomberlin/videos