Archive for theworshipguitarist basics
Welcome To The Andrae´ Crouch School Of “Pay Attention!”
Posted by: | CommentsAndrae´ Crouch’s 1995 European Tour began with an appearance on German TV.
At this point in the set, Andrae´ would start singing from his amazing repertoire of past hits. Of course the band, nor the singers knew which song he was going to start singing. We just had to be ready for anything. When I first started doing Gospel dates, L.A. drummer, friend and mentor Billy Hill told me, “Always watch the director because you never know what is going to happen.”
At 1:17 in this video, Andrae´ tells Rickey Grundy “C’mon” (take a solo). At 1:56, he then tells me to “C’mon”. Not only was this the first performance of the tour, but it was my first performance with Andrae´ Crouch. Being that this was one of the impromptu songs, I can’t say I was entirely ready for “C’mon” but I knew what to do if the occasion arose. I didn’t respond with my first note until 2:01.
This pause in my response at that first show was just enough to receive a little “ribbing” from Andrae´throughout the tour.
The picture below shows Andrae´s perspective of my “pause” (that’s him holding my guitar saying “Who…me!”).
Word to the wise worship guitarist..always be ready for “C’mon”.
Guitar Solos In Worship
Posted by: | CommentsOn occasion, I get to do guitar solos in worship services. Many times, I am prompted to do the solo during the song by means of a “pointed finger” with just seconds before I need to start. For some worship guitarists, this could be a moment of great expression or a moment of extreme terror.
A guitar solo can be compared to giving a speech. The first thing you need is a “vocabulary” to pull from. This could be in the form of scales, arpeggios, or patterns from your favorite “licks”.
The next important ingredient is “Passion” (or like my guitar teacher Billy Cabrera used to call it…”soul”.)
Learning how to combine Vocabulary with Passion is the recipe for a great speech. It is also the recipe for a great guitar solo.
If anything, favor Passion over Vocabulary because one note played with a lot of “soul” says more than a lot of correct notes without any heart.
And of course, if I get the chance to do this with seconds to spare, I will rifle off my guitar solo prayer which goes “Lord, help me to do this!!”
Tuning Your Guitar Can Be Tricky!
Posted by: | CommentsPrior to the start of a worship service I was playing at, I was listening to the Worship Leader tune his acoustic guitar. When he gave the guitar a good strum, I noticed that some of his strings sounded out of tune.
Why on earth did his guitar sound out of tune since he was using an electronic tuner? Being that I was once his guitar teacher, I kindly asked him to take another shot at tuning. When he started re-tuning, I noticed the problem that led to his guitar being slightly out of tune.
Anytime you strike a guitar string, its initial sound is always slightly sharp. When you use a pick (or your fingers) to strike the guitar strings, the initial “pulling” from your strike briefly makes the string go higher in pitch. The string will then settle into its actual pitch after the initial strike. Now, here is where the problem occurs.
All guitar tuners “hear” slowly. When using an electronic guitar tuner, notice a slight delay from the time you strike the string till the time you receive the pitch readout. The tuner’s pitch reading delay combined with the string’s initial sharpness will cause you to tune incorrectly.
The sound of your strings will sound flat (lower in pitch) because you were trying to tune the guitar to your initial strike – which is always sharp (higher in pitch).
When using an electronic tuner, strike the string you want to tune and wait 3 seconds until you begin tuning that string. By waiting 3 seconds, you are allowing the string to settle into its actual pitch.
Watch what happens to the needle & lights when I play a “tuned” guitar through a electronic tuner.
Lot’s Of Notes
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a page from a song I played this past weekend at Saddleback Church. This example is a great exercise for playing notes in the first position of the guitar neck. The trick in playing this was allowing the notes to ring from one note to the next, very legato and “flowingly”. By all means, take a look at this and play through it.
