Does anyone play guitar?

[No2Flesh]

Im less than a year into it and find it hard to find instructions on how to play
hymn type stuff.

Recently I bought the Jean Welles volume 1 worship music dvd after seeing some of her stuff on youtube. I think its going to be very helpful.

Meanwhile Ive learned to fingerpick Amazing Grace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus, and the Star Spangled Banner...among a few other riffs and parts of songs.

The DVD will help me strum chords and has some songs to learn too.

I have a Seagull S6, 2 actually...one with a Dean Markley pickup that I play with an amp. Ok..actually I have 4 guitars heheh...a Hohner Ovangkol Folk and a Fender electric but the acoustics are my favorites.

My intention is to play for the Glory of God, songs that lift people up and point them toward Our Lord. Or at the very least to play worship music for my family and self.

My wifes grandmother came down to visit us a while back, I fingerpicked Amazing Grace while she played chords...it sound great and was a lot of fun.
At her wedding a bunch of old folks jammed on their guitars and I was so impressed I decided if at their age they can make music then at 45 I can learn.

A couple of the musicians at our church have invited me to play with them, I told them when I can really contribute I will...but not yet.

Anyway, hello to any other guitar players out there.
Any tips for a noobie are appreciated, or any Christian guitar related conversation.

:thumb

[Bluelew]

I do, I play worship music & hymns, I'm a worship leader. I love acoustics too. Check this out http://69.41.173.82/forums/index.php
Here's some of my stuff....I'm a Taylor fanatic...
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r273/Bluelew/IMG_0142.jpg

[Praise Warrior]

I've been playing for around two years now and have been involved in worship leading for three. I also have a vocal background. Most of what I've done is contemporary Christian or Messianic from the '60s on but do some of southern Gospel and hymns as well.

When I learned how to play guitar I had to do it relatively quickly in less than two months because of the needs of my church. I had to learn guitar in around two to three months during a summer on the fast track to lead worship in the Fall. Although I had a vocal background I didn't know anything about guitar. I learned by drawing all the main chord diagrams on a piece of paper, picking several simple easy slow praise choruses, and just worked on them for awhile, and just also going back and forth between the different chords until they sounded good.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you take the others up on their offer to play with them to get used to playing with others and sounding good. To learn how to count/come in at the right times/play along with others and complement other musicians. They will stretch you more than you would otherwise and it will get you playing at church faster. I started off playing a lot with others almost as much as I was playing by myself--not doing as complex strumming patterns but just hitting the chords when they came up in the song along with the other person just trying to sound good. Slowly but eventually I'd be able to match the other person's strumming.

At the beginning when we started in the Fall, our pastor would play with us, but at first he never practiced with us beforehand. So he'd come in and do the songs his own way, didn't count the same, didn't adjust himself to us, etc. and it made things so much more difficult (especially for me since I wasn't that experienced anyway) because we didn't know what he was going to do ahead of time and we didn't even get a chance to practice doing it with him.

Try to match as closely as possible what you'd like to eventually be doing. If you want to lead worship at church practice playing standing up using a strap, playing with others, singing out loud along with it, etc. Also learning how to transpose music and to use a capo is a help because then you can play most anything. Learning cheats/shortcuts (which chords you can substitute for harder ones, different fingerings, etc) is a big help. Listen to different versions of praise songs--they'll give you different ideas on strumming patterns, rhythms (and also vocal harmonies).

What you'd probably want to practice with a lot is developing your muscle memory. Since many hymns have a lot of very fast progressions--so what would be most helpful is just going back and forth between the chords as quick as you can even faster than they go. Some songs have faster and/or more complicated strumming patterns so you'd also want to do the same with your wrist muscles. Without playing. practice moving your wrist as if you were strumming along with the recording--that way when you do strum more complicated or faster patterns you and your wrist will "remember" it.

[No2Flesh]

I do, I play worship music & hymns, I'm a worship leader. I love acoustics too. Check this out http://69.41.173.82/forums/index.php
Here's some of my stuff....I'm a Taylor fanatic...
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r273/Bluelew/IMG_0142.jpg

Wow, nice guitars!
Thanks for the link also.
When I can play good enough a Taylor might be in my future.

lol at how many guitars we tend to have.

[No2Flesh]

I've been playing for around two years now and have been involved in worship leading for three. I also have a vocal background. Most of what I've done is contemporary Christian or Messianic from the '60s on but do some of southern Gospel and hymns as well.

When I learned how to play guitar I had to do it relatively quickly in less than two months because of the needs of my church. I had to learn guitar in around two to three months during a summer on the fast track to lead worship in the Fall. Although I had a vocal background I didn't know anything about guitar. I learned by drawing all the main chord diagrams on a piece of paper, picking several simple easy slow praise choruses, and just worked on them for awhile, and just also going back and forth between the different chords until they sounded good.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you take the others up on their offer to play with them to get used to playing with others and sounding good. To learn how to count/come in at the right times/play along with others and complement other musicians. They will stretch you more than you would otherwise and it will get you playing at church faster. I started off playing a lot with others almost as much as I was playing by myself--not doing as complex strumming patterns but just hitting the chords when they came up in the song along with the other person just trying to sound good. Slowly but eventually I'd be able to match the other person's strumming.

At the beginning when we started in the Fall, our pastor would play with us, but at first he never practiced with us beforehand. So he'd come in and do the songs his own way, didn't count the same, didn't adjust himself to us, etc. and it made things so much more difficult (especially for me since I wasn't that experienced anyway) because we didn't know what he was going to do ahead of time and we didn't even get a chance to practice doing it with him.

Try to match as closely as possible what you'd like to eventually be doing. If you want to lead worship at church practice playing standing up using a strap, playing with others, singing out loud along with it, etc. Also learning how to transpose music and to use a capo is a help because then you can play most anything. Learning cheats/shortcuts (which chords you can substitute for harder ones, different fingerings, etc) is a big help. Listen to different versions of praise songs--they'll give you different ideas on strumming patterns, rhythms (and also vocal harmonies).

What you'd probably want to practice with a lot is developing your muscle memory. Since many hymns have a lot of very fast progressions--so what would be most helpful is just going back and forth between the chords as quick as you can even faster than they go. Some songs have faster and/or more complicated strumming patterns so you'd also want to do the same with your wrist muscles. Without playing. practice moving your wrist as if you were strumming along with the recording--that way when you do strum more complicated or faster patterns you and your wrist will "remember" it.

Great advice, I really appreciate it and am sure to read this repeatedly and try to apply it.
Maybe if they offer again I will take them up on it.
At this point I am thinking about doing simple songs for childrens church or something.
I know I can learn a lot from the church musicians but fear being a burden on them at this point.
Once I can change chords quickly I will be in a better position to contribute.
With a job and 3 kids I cant practice as much as id like.

Again, thanks for taking the time to give me this advice.:wave

[Bluelew]

You already play good enough for a Taylor man, just gotta save up up the $.
keep playing for Jesus!:thumb

[No2Flesh]

Im probably driving my family crazy by wearing out the 3 songs I do know.

[ShannonWallace]

Is there a way to play that doesn't hurt your fingers?

I've tried to learn, but it hurts.

[Bluelew]

It's gonna hurt until you get callouses, also your instrument may need to be set up by a guitar tech, it makes a big difference.
The more you play the easier it gets, but some guitars have really high action, (the distance between the strings & the fretboard) making it difficult to press them down, Have someone check yours out.
Here's a cool site.. http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/pagelist.html#Musician

[ShannonWallace]

Callouses?

!

I'll just piddle. Yipes.

It's a very old guitar - a vintage (I think) Orlando - and I think that's the problem. I can't push the strings down. Even my husband who is enormously huge and strong says that it is, indeed, difficult to press them down. I didn't know there was something that could be done about that, so thank you!