ELECTRIC
GUITAR
BY KENDALL COMBES
(from
Spin 13, Spring 2000)
First,
have some good gear. My first suggestion would be a good
tuner that works so that when you step on it, it mutes itself
to the PA system, so the audience can't hear you tune. "Boss"
has just come out with one, a "stomp box". That
would be a great plus to any guitar, acoustic or electric,
on the worship team.
You've got to know your instrument. Know your chords very
well so when you're onstage trying to be sensitive to the
Holy Spirit in how to play in the particular moment, you
don't have to be fumbling around on the technical aspects
of the music. I also think that when you're worshiping "in
your closet" or "worshiping against the wall"
when it's no one but you and God, those are times when you
might feel the freedom to step out and experiment with your
instrument to help lead worship, "play it safer"
not taking big risks to that you won't make a mistake or
be a distraction to the people. Play more conservatively
onstage when it comes to technique and chording, to minimize
the risk of making an audible mistake. Your private worship/practice
time is to experiment and try new things.
Play within your skill level onstage. Experiment and try
to expand when you're by yourself. You want to be prepared
for what you're playing onstage. A leader is prepared. When
you're in your room and it's just you worshiping, you're
looking to the Holy Spirit to be your leader, and you are
the follower at that time. We should always look to Him
to be our leader, but when you step out on the platform
and become the onstage leader for the other worshipers in
the room, then you want to be prepared for that.
BY DAN WESTMORELAND
(from Spin 14, Summer 2000)
I practice scales and technique in blues or rock style.
I use Mel Bay's "Rock Technique" book right now.
I highly recommend buying a technique book on rock technique
or blues technique or whatever technique you're looking
for. Mel Bay is an excellent brand. For scales, I use the
"Gigbag Book of Scales". For technique, I use
Mel Bay books. When I have a set schedule, like during the
school year, I practice forty-five minutes to an hour a
day. When I practice with the band, I practice focusing
on a part that fits cool with the band as well as sounds
cool by itself. In other words, I'll try to pick a part
that can stand on it's own, but also sounds great with the
band. You have to work it in where it doesn't make the song
sound cluttered. When you play something, it shouldn't sound
jumbled; you have to play it where it fits. If the bass
player is going off on a lick and you're going off on a
lick, it will sound awful. You have to wait for where everybody
is in "simple-mode" to do your thing. Group practice
with your band is a great time for planning those times
with the other players. For a certain place in the song,
maybe your thing would be like simple "pa-ding",
and it would sound great because it's just one little thing
in just the right place. What I'm trying to convey here
is to NOT OVERPLAY the electric guitar. This is my saying,
"Make them crave it".
I got a GT3 pedal by Boss this summer. It's unbelievable.
It costs $400 to $500. It gives a lot more dimension to
the sound of my guitar. It's amazing how much more I can
do with the pedal. You can express yourself well on the
pedal because you can make your own sound. You can edit
your sounds on it. You can start out from scratch and go
to drive and effects and e-q them and different things like
that. You can pull out different sounds from the pre-programmed
sound banks and try all sorts of things on different songs.
It has eighty-four channels and four settings on each channel.
The display screen shows the sound banks. There are up and
down arrow buttons to switch from bank to bank. I have eighty-four
banks with four settings in each bank. You can copy sounds.
If you like a sound in bank eighty-four and you want it
in bank one, you can copy it to bank one. You can also reverb
sounds. You can change from sound to sound onstage by just
touching it with your feet.
BY KENDALL COMBES
(from Spin 15, Fall 2000)
When playing, learn to be sensitive to what you're playing,
and "play it like you're singing it". When the
song is talking about the sweetness or the kindness or the
gentleness of God, we're probably not beating it out on
the acoustic or screaming it out on the electric, as opposed
to when the song is talking about God's mightiness of His
glory or something like that that would match a stronger
playing style. A good example is the song "Shout to
the Lord" by Darlene Zschech. The verse starts out
suited to a pretty soft playing style, "My Jesus, my
Savior..." and then the chorus comes in much stronger,
"Shout to the Lord, all the earth..." As you're
playing the song, think of it as if you're singing it. When
you want to sing louder, play stronger; when you want to
sing softer, play softer. I heard one time that when it
says in the scriptures that the musicians played skillfully,
it can also be translated to mean musicians playing with
discernment. This is something I've really concentrated
on in the last couple of years: learning to play "in
the moment" and according to what God is wanting to
do right then - playing with discernment as the Spirit is
moving during the time of worship.
As a prerequisite to this tip, you've got to know your instrument
and have your chording and the technical aspect down. There's
nothing unspiritual about practicing the chords you need
to know and the transitions you need to know over and over
and over, because this will make you a more versatile, usable
instrument in God's hands when you're onstage leading others
in worship without distractions like losing rhythm or fumbling
for the right notes for the chord. Spend lots of time privately
mastering the technical aspects of your instrument so that
you can be free to focus more on the spiritual aspects while
onstage.
BY KENDALL COMBES
(from Spin 16, Winter 2000)
The strategy for playing an instrument that ENHANCES the
music-driven worship experience (like electric guitar, bass,
and drums) is different than the mindset for playing an
instrument that is LEADING the music of the worship experience
(like acoustic guitar or keyboard). If you're playing electric
guitar in a praise band, think of your role as not only
that of a lead-worshiper onstage, but also as a servant
leader. Think of how to play what's being sung so that there's
a unity in the music as well as the lyrics. I want the sound
of my guitar to be saying the same thing as the lyrics at
all times. A praise band is not a collection of four or
five musicians all doing their own thing. There are no "side
shows". This is an abstract concept, but if you can
grasp it, then you and your band can communicate the same
thing musically that's being sung musically, and the result
is a much more unified sound, and a better worship experience
for the audience.
For me, an electric guitar player, this concept of musical
unity means two things: how much I am playing and what I
am playing. For instance, if we're singing songs about the
love of God, or "I Love You, God", then I can
focus in on the word "love", and play according
to that. Sometimes your playing is enhanced by the sound
you're choosing for your instrument. I may choose an ethereal
or airy sound from my GT-5 pedal that would depict the meaning
of the lyrics in a more accurate way than just my standard
electric guitar sound. Remember that with enhancement instruments
like electric guitar, often less is more. If a song is boldly
proclaiming the truth about God, or talking about His power,
I may choose to play a more aggressive or vibrant part on
my electric guitar to match the meaning of the lyrics. You
want to communicate the same thing with your instrument
that the lyrics are communicating with words. You should
make the musical sounds from your instrument go along with
the meaning of the words being sung.
There are a couple of ways to practice doing this when you
are alone practicing. In your quiet time with the Lord,
use your guitar. "God, I want to worship you on my
instrument today, and I want to play to You how much I love
You". Practice this a lot privately so that you're
comfortable with your instrument being an expression of
your personal worship when you're onstage. The more you
get used to your instrument being this extension of yourself
to the Lord in private, the less susceptible you'll be onstage
to the distractions of the audience, the lights, and the
sound system. In your "closet times" with God,
use your guitar and try playing about different aspects
of God, such as His tender love, or His mighty power, or
His faithfulness or His glory. If nothing comes to mind,
go to Galatians 5 and play an expression of some of the
different fruits of the Spirit.
A last example of making your playing match the lyrics is
this: "waves of mercy" (From "Every Move
I Make", SPIN Vol. 7). These words not only give us
a concept of God, which is mercy, but they also give us
a physical picture, which is waves. Think of "waves"
before you play that. Waves can crash powerfully or waves
can roll into the shore peacefully. Think about which image
best fits the context of the song (really, it could be either
in this case, but make sure all band members are going to
see it the same way before you play the somg together).
On your guitar, you may want to play out the meaning of
"waves" with some swells. A swell is when you
strike a note or chord with your volume down, and then bring
your volume up. So you don't hear the attack, but you just
hear the swell or the rising of the volume. Also sometimes
I like to use delay to depict some "softer" lyrical
meanings, like love and mercy. A delay pedal gives a nice,
fading echo to the sound you play. A delay pedal is a less
expensive "stomp box" you can buy, whereas the
GT-5 I mentioned earlier is a more expensive effects-processing
pedal. Boss DD-5 or DD-3 are good delay pedals.
BY
DAN WESTMORELAND
(from Spin 17, Spring 2001)
1) Pray about God increasing your talents when you practice.
2) Play with people better than you.
3) Surrender to God and worship Him while playing.
4) Find the groove: play with drum tracks or CDs.
5) Practice all the scales you can get your hands on and
apply them to the neck.
6) Take guitar lessons no matter how good you are. It always
helps and there is always someone better than you.
