LIVE WORSHIP GUITAR LESSONS
Christian Guitar courses and a Songwriting course on Zoom

The autumn term live, online worship guitar lessons start up on Zoom September, 2023.

If permitted we’ll have an end of term party where people can come together and meet face to face.

See the Course Schedule

If you would like to begin to play worship guitar, or already play and would like to make progress – 10WWG online guitar lessons, group sessions, or one to one. 
You can make a start today
Simple step by step lessons in the comfort of your own home
No experience necessary
You will need a guitar to practise on
Private lessons – £40.00 per hour – 10% discount on 10 lessons

The Rhythm Guitar Worship Courses

Rhythm guitar is using the guitar to accompany the voice. It deals with chords, rhythm and finger-picking. In a church band this is usually done by the worship leader.

• There are currently 6 levels of Rhythm guitar courses – Beginners; Improvers; Intermediate; Advanced; Advanced 2 (The Black Run); Advanced 3 (Next Steps)

The Lead Guitar Worship Courses

Lead guitar is finding something to play to accompany the rhythm guitarist it includes power chords, scales, partial chords, playing melody… and can involve improvised solos in various styles too. This is often done by a second guitarist in a worship band, sometimes on electric guitar.

• There are 5 levels of Lead Guitar – Intro to Lead; Lead Guitar 2; Lead Guitar 3, Lead Guitar 4, Lead Guitar 5

The Worship Songwriting course

The course will look at: crafting a melody, putting chords to a melody. Ideas for producing lyrics. Song form. And more. 

See The Worship Guitar Courses

Pre-Filmed Courses Beginners and Improvers

Watch the intro now for free!
Sign up here!

BEGINNERS

The beginners worship guitar course, based in London, is a very practical, song-based introduction to worship guitar playing. The course requires no previous knowledge of the instrument.

IMPROVERS

The Improvers Course is for anyone who can play a few chords on the guitar but wants to improve their skills and learn a few tricks. In the first few sessions the entire of the Beginners course is revised.

INTERMEDIATE

The Intermediate worship guitar course consolidates musical material that was introduced on the Improvers worship guitar course.

ADVANCED

For those people who have completed the Intermediate worship guitar course, are starting to take the guitar more seriously, and fancy progressing further.

ADVANCED 2

The Advanced 2 worship guitar course builds on material covered in earlier courses and is designed for those that are committed to playing the guitar and want to push their skills further.

Intro to LEAD GUITAR

We will look at playing solos, of course, but that doesn’t happen so often in the worship context – It’s often more a matter of finding something that compliments the song and adds to what the rhythm player is doing.

Lead Guitar 2

LEAD GUITAR 2; playing solos

The Lead Guitar 2 worship guitar course builds on material covered in earlier courses and is all about being able to play a guitar solo in various styles..

LEAD GUITAR 3; Exploring Modes

… Or Playing Second Guitar While Someone Else is Playing Rhythm
… Or Venturing Up Past the 3rd Fret
… Or Understanding the CAGED Layout on the Guitar

Songwriting

So how do you get started with writing a song? We’ll look at some very practical, hands-on ways of getting kick-started with songwriting. We’ll look at techniques to craft melody, chord sequences, rhythm and lyrics.

Advanced 3 Next Steps

The course is aimed at a similar technical level to Advanced 2, but has different material.

The hope is that the course will encourage a creative approach to guitar playing and working out your own version of songs

LEAD GUITAR 4; Consolidation

Lead Guitar 4 is about consolidation of material from the previous lead guitar courses.

We have a thorough examination of the 5 pentatonic positions using songs in relevant keys.

LEAD GUITAR 5; From Scales to Music

On Lead 5 we’ll be be focussed solely on creating improvised melodies on worship songs.

Worship guitar lessons were developed at HTB church, London because of an awareness that there are never enough musicians to lead the worship in home groups, connect groups, churches…

The worship guitar lessons run three times a year at HTB and other London churches during term times.

Some people want to learn the guitar for their own personal worship, whereas some would like to go on to lead others.

Over 1,000 guitarists have made a start on the HTB worship guitar course. Many of these have progressed to the improvers and advanced worship guitar lessons, to lead worship in local churches, play in church bands, lead worship in a variety of contexts, even play in the band at major London churches!
These music courses are a hands-on/practical training resource to complement theological teaching on worship.
They are not just guitar lessons but worship guitar lessons.
At the worship guitar lessons students learn a repertoire of worship songs and in doing so learn the basic, rudimentary skills necessary to get going as a worship leader.

NEW! check out the details for the new term here.

SIMON NELSON, GUITAR TEACHER

B. Mus., M.A., Ph. D.

Simon Nelson has been a professional guitarist for 30 years. Simon has lived and toured all over the world, including the USA, Bermuda and Australia.

Initially self taught, he later felt he ought to “know” something about music, and took a Bachelor of Music degree at Goldsmiths College, a Master of Arts at City University and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at City University. For the latter he wrote a thesis on the origins and evolution of blues guitar.

As a session musician Simon has recorded for the ABC in Australia, and the BBC in the UK. He has played in a touring band at Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Belfast and Newcastle Arenas, the O2 and the Albert Hall with Joss Stone, Ms. Dynamite, Heather Small, Beverley Knight, Paul Jones (Manfred Mann), Des’ree, Alexandra Burke, Helen Shapiro, Candi Staton, Mavis Staples,Tony Hadley and Jocelyn Brown.

In a worship context Simon has played in band