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Welcome to the 8chords Worship Guitar Blog

Ryan Stover Student Interview

Hear from Ryan Stover about his journey from student to worship leader at his church!

 

Michigan Homeschool Group Plays Worship Concert with Eric’s Program

Their class met for 40 minutes each week in Michigan.  Let by Carol Waldo, a homeschool mom.  Carol had minimal experience when she took on this challenge of teaching the kids.  She used my videos during class and the students used the worship guitar songbooks and method from my 8chords100songs program.  Now, each class is playing and strumming and singing along with great worship songs.  This video blessed me and I know it will bless you too!

If you have a homeschool group and would like to add music and guitar classes, please contact me to let me know.  I can help you along the way and offer discounts for bulk orders of my books and materials.

On this video, the students are playing along with my play-along CD and it keeps them on track.  It is easy to do once you learn the chords and patterns in my program.

Thanks for watching!
Eric Roberts

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Help! I am stuck in a rut with strumming!

Help! I am stuck in a rut with strumming! 

Ok, most guitar players get stuck with just a few strumming patterns and have a very difficult time moving beyond that to the modern worship strumming patterns of their favorite songs.

First of all, for all strumming patters I have one rule…

If you can’t SAY it, you can’t PLAY it. 

You have to begin to read some rhythmic notation and be able to say or chant the rhythm first.  Then, put it into your hands and get the correct strumming up and down technique for the pattern.

Underneath most patterns, there is a pulsing sixteenth note pattern that sounds like tic-a-tic-a  or  1 ee and ah.

For a new strumming pattern and to break out of your rut, start strumming all down on eighth notes and count   1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

Another pattern that can help you break out is all sixteenth notes strumming up and down with alternating strumming and count 1e+a  2e+a  3e+a  4e+a

When strumming these patterns, you don’t have to strum through all 6 strings on every beat.  You can start by strumming down on the 1 beat through all the strings and then selectively strum the bottom 3 strings on the other rhythms.

Try these new techniques and see if you can break out into some new patterns.  I teach this in-depth in the videos and lessons in the Modern Worship Guitar Lessons Method available from 8chords100songs.com

But just remember, if you can’t SAY it, then you cant PLAY it!

Learning to sing and play at the same time.

Once you know a few chords, you can play many of the songs in the 8chords100songs worship guitar songbook.  What about strumming and singing at the same time?  That takes a bit of skill and sometimes it feels like you have to have 3 brains to do that.  Here is an easy way to begin to develop your skills at singing while strumming.

First: take a song that you know very well with very simple chords.  Learn to strum simple down strums on the quarter notes and switch the chords on time.

Second:  Start to strum the song and HUM the melody along with your strumming.  At some point in this exercise start to forget about your right hand and let it go into a bit of an auto pilot strumming.

Third:  When you are comfortable switching chords and humming, continue that simple pattern and start singing the words.

Once you can do that well, you can begin to hum or use words and add some simple flips or intermediate strumming techniques.

Take it slow and perfect each step along the way.  This is the best and only way to perfect the skill of singing and playing at the same time.  It may take several days or weeks to get comfortable but it will come.    You will find more great tips and strumming patterns in the Modern Worship Guitar Lessons course from 8chords100songs.com

Using a Capo for Leading Worship

If you are leading worship with guitar, be sure to have a capo and learn how to use it!  When I was younger and learning how to play guitar, I never used a capo.  I always used the moveable shapes of chords like Eb and C#m.  Once I began performing and leading worship I found that the capo enabled me to be more free and put my brain power toward the things that really matter.  When I transpose the song to a simple key like G or D and use the capo, several great things happen:

1. I can play the song with simple chords without ever looking at the fretboard.
2. I can focus on leading the people and the band instead of playing the barre form chords.
3. The modern worship songs are much easier to play and sound better with the open chord forms.

I could play every worship song in the key of Eb and use barre chords for the whole worship set, BUT it is not necessary and it is much harder to do.   You see, even though I CAN play the barre chords I choose to transpose to an easier key and play the open chord forms.

Plus, when you get comfortable with the simple chords in G and D that I teach in my 8chords program, you can play any song in any key and it sounds modern and amazing.  Just a few minutes of preparation on the chord chart can save you brain power and help you succeed.  It is my opinion that all beginner and intermediate worship leader guitar players should always use the simple chord forms and a capo!

If you are paying attention, you will see that Tomlin, Baloche and every professional worship leader and artist that I have ever seen has used a capo instead of playing the harder moveable chord forms.  Even superstar acts like Taylor Swift will always use a capo and the simple G C and D forms that I teach in the 8chords program.

So, start using the simple chord forms and put your capo on!  If you need further instruction on the capo, you can learn it all in the 3rd method book of the 8chords program along with simple charts to help you transpose all the harder songs to the easy keys.

Student Skip Hoard leading worship twice a month!

Skip Hoard, 8chords student and photographer leads worship twice a month

Hi Eric,

I’ve been trying to learn guitar for many years and never had the discipline to work through all the theory. I’ve taken lessons several times but after months and months I never seemed to get anywhere and quit, I’ve quit more times than I care to admit. Believe it or not I got my first guitar while in the Navy in 1963 and have struggled ever since, laying off for years at a time. Now, at 67, I’m leading worship twice a month with the children’s ministry at my church and loving it!! Your program was just what I’ve been looking for!!

God Bless You,

Skip Hoard

S&H Photography

Read more student testimonies!

Worship The King Music Blog Opens!

New songs, feature downloads and information about the worship band and acoustic songwriter concerts available from WorshiptheKing.com

Plus worship guitar workshops and concerts for your church.  Our music and teaching can help your church move toward a modern worship service.  Learn more about the tour on WTK.

Hey Students, New Moveable Chords Private Lesson DVD Available. Go to the next level!

If you already know your chords and have been wanting to learn to play up and down the neck, this DVD is for YOU!  Once you learn this, you can play every chord up and down the neck!  Chords like Cminor, Eb7 and More!  Just apply the simple method I show you in this new private lesson DVD!

Buy Now DVD Session Now Only $22.99

Question about the G chord, it is new and for modern music

On Apr 28, 2011, at 10:22 AM, Tim wrote:

I am a little slow in following the video courses but, I noticed that your G chord is different than some others, and it looks like there are a number of different ways to play the G chord.  My question to you is, do I need to learn it the way you show, or if it is easier for me another way, will it be ok to learn it differently.  I think I can get it the way you show but the hard part is getting my ring finger and pinky both to be there without muting the string and I can’t seem to consistently place any of my fingers where they need to be without them resting on another string.  I hope that the more I practice the more I will be able to keep my fingers out of the way.

Thanks for the free course and I am going to continue to practice learning these 3 chords before I go on to course #2.
Tim Lelek

_______________________________________________________

Eric Wrote:

Tim, It is ok for you to learn this new more modern form of the G chord.  When most modern songs from worship to country approach the G chord, it looks just like this new shape.  When you are playing an older song, hymn, older country feel or some songs that call for that more traditional G chord, you will know to switch to it but for most songs in modern worship, this new G chord shape is the best and is very popular.   So, just keep practicing it until it feel natural.  Just remember to keep your third finger (ring finger) down when switching between the G, C, D and Em7.  This is your anchor!

Make sure your hand is tilted very nicely to avoid always muting other strings accidently!

That problem is rooted in your posture of your hand.

Hope this helps!

Eric

Chords spelled out for worship song One and Only

hi, i’m looking for the chord forms you use with all the open strings,
like in ‘one and only’..

can you point me in the right direction?

cheers,
tony

I teach this method in the 8chords program,  if you go to my members area, you can download a chord chart with similar chords.

here are the chords spelled out

G = 3X00033
Asus- X0223X
D = XX0232
Bm = X2023X

Hope this helps.