4. BE ABLE TO TRANSPOSE. What does it mean to transpose music? It basically means: to play a song in a key other than the original key. Why would this be necessary? Well, in my experience, a lot of worship artists out there sing a little too high for congregational singing, but also, men tend to sing in different keys than women do. If you’ re a guy playing guitar, and you have a female worship leader, she may sing songs in a totally different key than you do, and if you’ re a gal playing guitar, you might have a male worship leader who sings in a different key than you would want to. So, the ability to transpose songs can be super valuable. Could you take the above table and transpose it to the key of G Major?
5. KNOW HOW TO USE YOUR CAPO. The capo, which is an abbreviation of the Italian“ Capotasto,” can be used to transpose a song, OR find a better voicing. But the capo is only as useful as the mind of the person using it, right? Let’ s say I have a song in C Major, and the chords are C, A minor, F, and G. That’ s 1, 6m, 4 and 5. What if I want to play those same chords, but I don’ t want to use those shapes? Well, I can use my capo on the 5 th fret and play G shape, E minor shape, C shape and D shape. Why did I say shape? Because those aren’ t the actual chords; they’ re shapes. But when I play those shapes with the capo on the 5 th fret, I can play the same chords I just played. Don’ t believe me? Watch the accompanying video for a side-by-side jam.
6. BECOME A SOLID STRUMMER. Strumming is something that is essential for our rhythm guitar journeys, especially on the worship team. Developing the ability to have a good groove without rushing or dragging, is absolutely essential. Someone once told me“ We are all drummers in disguise.” That means that we’ re either working with our band mates, or we’ re working against them. I’ d much rather work with them, wouldn’ t you? It’ s also important to have a solid collection of various strumming patterns, so our grooves don’ t all sound the same. So just by way of a strumming pattern I use on a regular basis, here’ s one I call the“ Triple Down” strum. I named it that. Other people use it and don’ t have that name for it. But it describes the 3 down-strums at the beginning of the pattern, which goes like this:( Figure 3)
Catch the accompanying video for a demonstration of this pattern.
Hopefully this article and video gave you some insights into essential skills to acquire and
cultivate as you aspire to play on the worship team. If you’ re already on the team, you may have discovered some areas you could work on. Keep bringing glory to God with your gifts!
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David Harsh David Harsh is a nationally touring worship leader, songwriter and performing artist. He is passionate about equipping guitarists to discover their potential. Learn more and join now at www. GuitarSuccess4U. com
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