from Worship Musician Magazine - July/August 2013
One of my favorite things about Church is the fact that it allows so many people to share the gift of music that has been birthed within. That said, I’ve run into a few too many Worship guitar players who struggle with feeling they are somehow stuck in a rut and can’t see past the trees. So let’s whip out the chain saw and chop some wood!!!
Whether you choose to work on one at a time or several simultaneously, setting some short, medium, and long term goals is a great way to grow beyond the Sunday-to-Sunday continuum. So let’s take a look at some areas that always move me closer to feeling more prepared and inspired on the instrument.
Living with the Songs
I encounter an ever-increasing number of people who are finding it hard to strike a healthy balance between work, family, and finding quality practice time—myself included. This is one of the reasons I repeatedly emphasize the value of living with songs. Whether it’s on your way to work, on the treadmill, or in the background when you get home, the more you let those songs into your subconscious, the more you begin to feel the motion of the parts as they ebb and flow throughout an arrangement. If you think about your favorite songs, it’s easy to recall the order and duration of the sections because you’ve heard them so many times. Living with songs is a great way to move toward this same sense of knowing, and is quite attainable without a guitar in your hands. It’s always amazes me how much more prepared I feel when I live with the songs. This directly translates to feeling more confident as I shift from section to section within arrangements, even on weeks where practice time is limited.
Learning New Chords
The guitar has a tremendous range, which is one of the main reasons I don’t spend a lot of time using a capo. I’ll be the first to say there are some gorgeous sounds up and down the neck that can only be created by using a capo. However, there are far more sounds that can be created by NOT constricting the harmonic range of the instrument. Learning new chord shapes inspires me to find different approaches for playing song, thus allowing me to capture new textures and sounds, regardless of the key. I, for one, am the most inspired when I find something that is totally new for me to play and can then begin the journey of making it my own. I can’t say enough about the benefits of learning lots of chords. It’s kind of like having all the right tools in the shed—you’re always ready to pull the exact one you need to get the job done right.
Teach Some Lessons
I never cease being amazed at how much I learn through teaching others. If there are players on your team who might benefit from a few hours of your time, it’s a worthy investment that has the added benefit of providing internal clarity about what and why you do what you do. More than semantics, once I can articulate why I do something, I really begin to realize how purposeful the things I don’t consciously think about actually are. The more I can teach other players about playing with dynamics, the more it causes me to focus on them in my own playing.
Recording
As I was picking up some gear at a local recording studio I was reminded of my first recording experience on a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder. I remember excitedly hitting the record button for the first time, just to taste bitter and total defeat upon playing the track back. The good news is that we guitar players aren’t much for giving up, and through that experience I learned that my time really needed some fine-tuning. As I worked with the metronome, my skill grew to the point where the recording process became a thing of joy and inspiration. Because recording takes a brutally honest snapshot of our playing, it bursts the bubble in which we might otherwise believe things about our playing that just aren’t true—yet. I’ll admit that as much as I love the things I do well, I still notice every note or chord I play that is slightly out of time or just out of tune. While obsessing to the point of losing all the joy is never a good thing, recording allows me to clearly hear my inadequacies without an instrument in my hands. In this fashion, the next time I pick up the instrument I’ve learned something that I otherwise might not have.
In closing I’d like to add that the phrase, “no pain, no gain” seems to be highly applicable to “getting there” with the guitar. Out of the ashes of my most frustrating experiences something new was birthed in my spirit. My Pastor recently did a great teaching on not letting our feelings get in the way of what needs to be done. While we might not feel like going to work on a Monday, it just needs to get done. The same thing applies to growing on the instrument. Practicing new ideas might not always feel good, but in the long run it benefits you, your congregation, and the greatest audience of all—the Lord Himself.
God Bless ~ Doug
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