new site!

Just wanted to let you all know that the new WorshipTeamCoach.com is now up and running. That means this is the last post here at WorshipGuitarWorkshop. It's all integrated together now. All future posts will be at WorshipTeamCoach.com. And all the past posts that you've read are there, too.

You may need to reload/refresh to get rid of the old pages cached in your computer. And some of the past blogs need to be cleaned up, so be patient with some "wonkiness" and cleanup.

See you there...~jon

Groovin' an Old Hymn

In this video, I demonstrate and walk you through a new arrangement of Blessed Be The Name. You'll learn some inversions, some walking bassline stuff and how to use the "Jimi Hendrix" chord in church.


You can download the leadsheet here. And tab will be coming, hopefully before the second coming.

Beginning Guitar Series: Lesson #1 - A, D, & E

In this beginning guitar lesson, you'll learn how to read chord diagrams, and create three basic open chords: D, A and E. Not only will you learn how to play the chords, but by the end of the video, you'll know how to connect them without losing your place on the fretboard.

Also in this video is a practice technique you'll love: TV practicing.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to drop me an email, put it in the comment section, or send me a message on Twitter (@jonnicol).

And if you know someone who's just starting off on guitar (or who's been wanting to) send them a link to this series.

For you experienced players: give some encouragement in the comment section for the newbies. And maybe answer this: What helped you to start to move smoothly from chord to chord?

Beginning Guitar - An Introduction

Are you a novice guitar player, an absolute beginner, than this guitar lesson (and this series) is for you. You'll learn the basic parts of the guitar as well the three sets of numbers you need to play. If you've got a few chords down already, this video might be too basic for you, but then again, you may learn something you missed.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to drop me an email, put it in the comment section, or send me a message on Twitter (@jonnicol).

And if you know someone who's just starting off on guitar (or who's been wanting to) send them a link to blog/video.

For you experienced players: give some encouragement in the comment section for the newbies. And maybe answer this: What were some things that helped you climb the learning curve?

14 Ways To Escape the First Four Frets - #11: The Major Scale

In this video lesson, I dive into Position Scales - specifically G Major. "Position Scales" is an approach to playing scales by which we build a new "shape" or position scale from each note in the key. So this first G major scale is built on the root, or G. After this, you would move to the A on the 6th string (5th fret) and play the G major scale from there, and so one.

This position scale method will break you out of the gravitational pull of the first 4 frets. You'll also figure out some great scale shapes for soloing (and give your fingers a brutal workout). And don't forget, these are all movable shapes - that is, once you learn them in one key, you simply need to start on a new root note to play in a different key. At the bottom of this post is the tab and scale diagram for this scale.

If you'd like to learn more of these position scales, check out my new DVD training, Lead: Step One. It dives deep into not only Major Scales, but Pentatonic Scales as well. And we don't just look at one apporach to playing scales. The DVD lessons will help you understand how to connect the various position shapes to move up the neck fluidly.

And best of all, this is practical. I help you connect scales to what you would do on the worship team, from improv and solos, to filling and intro riffs.



Here is the tab and scale diagram I use in this video:

(Click to make larger)

You'll also see this chord written as F#m11, F#m7add4, etc. This is my "go-to" chord for most songs calling for F#m7. It works best in the key of A (6m) and the key of E (2m). It can also work in the key of D, but you don't see 3m chords used as often as the 6m and 2m.

Trust your ear, because sometimes doesn't that 4th interval doesn't work. If you see an F#m, you can give this F#m7(4) chord a try. But you may want to stick with the straight F#m. Sometimes the straight minor sounds the best.

Emulate Vs. Duplicate

To keep things consistent, I try to use a specific arrangement for each song in my team's repertoire. So, for example, on Everlasting God we use the Lincoln Brewster version. For Today is the Day, we opt for Paul Baloche's version of it. (Except we speed it up to Brewster's tempo, because Paul does everything slow.)

It definitely comes in handy on song that lands on different albums. Chris Tomlin stuff often ends up on his album and whatever Passion release comes near it. That's triply the case for Our God. It debuted live on Passion:Awakening, got an "80s meets lush strings" treatment on Tomlin's "and if Our God is For Us" and showed up as a hybrid of the two on Passion: Here for You - complete with a rap added in the middle (try that at your church). Oh yeah, and there's an acoustic version added on the end of 'and if Our God...'.

So I like to pick out the album version that works best for my team and then tweak it to make it our own. One of the first tweaks is to make the song realistic for our band. Studio recordings contain overdubs of multiple guitars and keys and who knows what other voodoo. And live versions are often just as thick with loops and multiple instruments. (I think the Hillsong band on any given Sunday has more people than the entire attendance of many churches.)

Rather than throw out the whole arrangement, I encourage my players to emulate vs. duplicate what's going in the arrangement. This is the case for "Our God."

So we use the Passion: Awaking album version, but strip it down to fit our band. The melodic hook that happens in the intro and instrumental is a simple four note riff - easy to play on piano or guitar. The below video demonstrates how to play the riff, but make it fit for your setting.