CAPO GUITAR
CREATE AN EFFECTIVE ACOUSTIC SERVICE | Mitch Bohannon
Do you ever mix things up with your worship set or service ? Certainly , you introduce new songs on a regular basis , but do you have the same five or six-piece band and platform presentation ?
There are several reasons right off the bat that I would encourage you to change things up . First of which being that volunteer musicians and tech need a break regularly . When I was a worship pastor , my goal was to have more than one person to serve in each position . I did not want to create an “ A ” and “ B ” team . It ’ s a good thought that the musicians would become comfortable playing together , but I believe that type of rotation creates an “ us ” and “ them ” mentality . The congregation would notice as well and could easily form preferences between the two . Creating an organic flow on the platform will benefit the experience as a whole both for those on the platform and for the congregation .
However , maybe you ’ re like me and just have been unable to find a double for every position so that your drummer or your electric guitar player seem to never get a break . It ’ s so easy to get into this cycle and for the most part , the same folks will show up and continue to overcommit . I encourage leaders to watch for this and provide scheduled breaks for your team members if they never seem to blackout any dates on Planning Center . creative . For this article , let ’ s scale it back to just acoustic guitars … yours and maybe one or two more . We are living in a season saturated with pads and swells and I often encourage people to use the AutoPad app with their acoustic . It certainly sounds nice , but we ’ re here talking about a change . What do you do with your guitar ?
If you ’ re playing by yourself , try double patching . It ’ s a technique used in recording all the time , but it could be very beneficial if you ’ re acoustic guitar is the only instrument playing . If you have a digital soundboard like our Allen & Heath dLive , it ’ s easy to make multiple channels of the same input . If you ’ ve got an analog board , a simple “ Y ” cable can turn your XLR input into two . Once you have multiple , use different EQ settings on them , boosting the low end on one channel and the high frequencies on the other . Add a slap-back delay to one and play around with some reverbs on the other . In other words , play around with the options you have on your board until you create the sound of two different guitars . You ’ ll be creating some separation between the two channels and not just creating a louder version of the guitar .
If you have more than one guitar player , you can always use double patching on one or all of the guitar channels . However , it ’ s very important that with more than one acoustic guitar , they need to be separated by capos or strings .
( also called High Strung ). You can also take a set of 12-string strings and use the even number strings ( small guage ) on one guitar for Nashville Tuning and the odd number strings would be a regular 6-string set . It ’ s a beautiful sound and can add an incredible texture when blending acoustic guitars in worship .
As for capos … that ’ s my favorite topic . Capos create awesome and flexible separation . You can have one guitar playing in the key of “ D ” and then the second guitar playing capo 2 in the key of “ C ” and they would be sonically close yet voiced differently . Or if you ’ d like more separation , have the second guitar play at capo 5 in the key of “ A .” There are so many options . Adding the Short-Cut Capo to the mix creates even more depth . It ’ s like painting with a wider brush .
I challenge you to try something different by the end of next month . Don ’ t make it overly complex so that it takes weeks and weeks of planning and preparation . Scale back and see what the Lord will do !
Mitch Bohannon Mitch developed the Short-Cut Capo for Kyser and is the Director of Live Production at Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles , Louisiana .
So , what do you do if you give your team a break ? Try creating a different instrument mix on platform … only guitars , or maybe guitar and keys , or possibly guitar ( s ) and percussion … be
What does that mean ? Good question . Regarding strings , have one of your guitars setup with Nashville Tuning . D ’ Addario makes the EJ38H set of strings for Nashville tuning 64 September 2023 Subscribe for Free ...