Welcome to The 10 Week Worship Guitar blog.
As well as my recent resurrection of my YouTube channel, on which I’ve now begun sharing a weekly worship guitar focused workshop called ‘Worship Workshop Wednesday’, I’ve also decided to resume blogging here on my website. All of this stems from my ‘why’, and the reason I decided to teach worship guitar in the first place.
Over the next few weeks, here on the blog, I’ll be sharing more about why I teach worship guitar, as opposed to just playing it (which you might expect from someone who’s been a professional musician for over 30 years!)
A new post will be shared here on the blog every Monday, so do ensure that you’re following the journey, and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, where you’ll receive a free workshop every week which will teach you not only a new worship song to add to your repertoire, but also a skill, which will continue to carry you forward in your worship guitar journey.
Why I Teach Guitar: Part One
A while ago I received this comment from a student:
“Absolutely loved learning all the great songs of worship – great for my own faith – my own daily worship”.
Music is a never-ending journey – I figure that’s what draws us on deeper in to it. The phenomenal jazz guitarist Mike Stern says “I’m still plugging away and trying to push whatever potential I have. But it always seems like the more I know the less I know”. (Guitar Player, March 2000, p. 36). If he says that, we (guitarists) are all likely to feel the same.
I went brainstorming. I started with the word “music” in the centre of the page, because that seems to be the cornerstone, and dived in.
From the word “music” I spontaneously wrote five other words radiating from it; I came up with mystery; emotions; moving; sublime and (of course) guitar.
From each of those five I spontaneously wrote five more words/terms:
Mystery: enigma; mystique; puzzle; secret; riddle.
Emotions: the heart; sentiment; reaction; passion; gut-feeling.
Moving: affecting; touching; poignant; inspiring; emotional.
Sublime: out of this world; divine; fantastic; majestic; awe inspiring – This made me think of J.S. Bach.
Guitar: instrument; expression; twang; six-strings and the truth.
That lead me on to a train of thought that included ‘50s rockabilly, ‘60s Beatles mop-tops and suits, 70s disco…
All of these seem to be facets of what I would aspire to.
When I left school I studied sculpture at art-college but dropped out, as many have, to pursue a passion for music. I travelled the world playing the guitar; Europe; Bermuda; The USA, Australia… I then began to feel that I ought to “know” something about music. I took a grade 8 music theory exam, which led to a music A level, which led to a B. Mus. degree, which led to an M.A in ethnomusicology, which led to a Ph.D. “Melodic Improvisation on a Twelve-Bar Blues Model: An Investigation of Physical and Historical Aspects, and Their Contribution to Performance.”
One of my driving passions is to uncover the secrets of music – a never-ending quest.
I recently read that an eminent guitarist was told when he was young that he would have the desire to teach in later life. He didn’t believe it. But he found that it was true…
I too found this to be true for me too.
Join me here on the blog next week as I continue to dive into this journey exploring why I teach worship guitar and what led me to that point many years ago. Have you ever reached a moment like this? A moment where you’ve decided that it was time for you to grow beyond what was ‘familiar’ and move into something bigger? That’s certainly how it felt for me. I’d love to hear your experiences too. How did it feel when God was leading you out of your comfort zone? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.
By the way, if you’ve always wanted to play worship guitar but have never found the time, I’d love to introduce you to learning to play from scratch by going through my FREE 3-part miniseries which will give you not only the skills, but will also give you three new worship songs to add to your repertoire. Click HERE to access the free series and start (or continue!) your worship guitar journey today!
