How to Modernize a Hymn – Part one of a two part series

I don’t think there are many Christians, even those who use nothing but Contemporary music, that doubt or question the depth and the beauty of the lyrics contained in our wealth of hymns. But sometimes, they are difficult to comprehend or are just too musically foreign to those that we are Called to reach. There [...]

The 9, 11 and 13 Chords

The 9, 11 and 13 Chords Guitar Level: Intermediate The 9, 11 and 13 chords are complex chords that are often times used in jazz.  However, they can become beautiful tools to color your worship music if you know a little about them, and how to form them on the guitar neck. Let’s use the [...]

A Major to Minor Chord Trick

A Major to Minor Chord Trick Guitar Level: Advanced The circle of fifths tells us that certain major keys are related to certain minor keys.  For example, the key of C major and A minor have no sharps or flats.  Similarly, the keys of G major and E minor both have only one sharp – [...]

Do More than Tap Your Foot

I have mentioned in the past that timing is critical when it comes to accompanying congregational music.  Bad timing is the biggest reason why a particular song might not be working in a live setting.  Bad timing separates beginners from seasoned artists. One of the first things I look for in any song that I [...]

Magic with the SUS4 Chord

Magic with the SUS4 Chord  A suspended 4 chord (sus4) is formed by taking a major chord and replacing the third with a forth.  The formula is therefore 1,4,5.  There’s a really neat trick to play these.  We will use the F chord as an example but the pattern is easily moved up the neck [...]

Arpeggio Scale Pattern

Guitar Level: Intermediate   Most beginning guitarists start playing solos by memorizing a few pentatonic scale patterns and using them over a chord progression.  This is actually a really nice place to start but when playing solos over a chord progression; it is helpful to know which notes to dwell on; to resolve to, and [...]

Climbing the D Scale with Chords

Guitar Level: Intermediate  Here’s some alternative ways to play some interesting sounding chords in the key of D (two sharps) that employ the use of triads and a D as the base note for each chord.  This is actually called a “pedal tone” in musical lingo and it can produce some really nice sound effects.  [...]

Ten Tips for Beginning Guitarists

Look at the sheet music, not your hands or the fret board. Watch your tempo.  If you are playing a song at 60 bpm in 4/4 time, this means that each beat gets 1 second.  So don’t strum your chord four times real fast and then find yourself waiting for the measure to end.  At [...]

The Nine Chord

The nine chords have a real funky sound when strummed with a quick up/down motion.  You can memorize all the 9 chords by just knowing one finger pattern because they are almost always used in barred positions.  The formula for the nine chord is 1-3-5-b7-9.  Here are the finger patterns using the root at the [...]

1-4-5

1-4-5 (actually it’s I-IV-V) Guitar Level: Beginner You’ve probably heard that it’s easy to learn to play the guitar.  “Teach me three chords and I’ll play almost any song.”  This is obviously an exaggeration but many songs are based on a progression involving three chords.  The formula for these three magical chords is usually 1-4-5. [...]