Worship Guitar Class Frequently Asked Questions

On the upper end, there is no age limit. I've taught students in their 80's. I'd teach them older too. One of my 'Grandma' students told me her mother learned to swim at age 90. It's wonderful to always grow and learn!

2. Can you use the videos to teach classes?
Absolutely! There are several churches in the US and Canada that are using the videos to teach. If you want to do that, let me know and I'll send you a sheet on how to use them in a class setting.

3. W hat would you recommend for a beginner's first guitar? Any brands?
Nylon-strings are much easier to learn on than steel strings. I recommend starting with a classical guitar. If you already have an acoustic, by all means use it. If your fingers get too sore, you may want to try light-tension steel strings.

Yamahas and Takamines are quite nice. Their are several nice guitars coming out of Japan and Korea. You should be able to get a decent student guitar between $100 - $200. They will be made with laminated woods. At around $400 the tops are made from a solid piece of wood. Hence they are called 'solid tops'. Of course, they will sound better. At $1000 expect to get a guitar with a solid top, solid side and solid back. I play a Ramirez. They cost around $5000.

For solid tops, the guitars from Spain are excellent. I like Esteve, but there are several brands that are quite good.

I think it's wise to start with a less expensive guitar and then go up as your level a playing and tonal awareness sharpens. Besides it's good to have an inexpensive guitar around to take to the beach, etc.

4. Do you have any advice on what to look for and what to avoid when purchasing a used guitars?
Yes, I recommend starting with a nylon string guitar. It’s easier to play. A couple things to watch for are:

1. Make sure the body and neck are well connected. I’ve seen several cheap instruments where the neck was literally pulling away from the body,
2. Take a business card and see if there is any gap between the bridge and body. The bridge is the little strip of wood where the strings are tied. It’s next to the sound hole. If you can fit a business card, or piece of paper underneath, don’t buy the instrument. It’s expensive to get it repaired.
3. I usually play every note up the fretboard and check for ‘buzzes.’ Sometimes the frets need adjustment, or the neck is warped. Warped necks can’t be fixed and adjusting frets can be costly too.
4. You may also want to see if the ‘machine heads’ work. Those are the mechanical parts on the head of the instrument. If everything else is OK with the guitar, go ahead if they are broken. It’s only about $12 to get new machine heads, and they’re easy to install.

Used guitars range anywhere from $50 to hundreds. You may want to check with a local music store for the retail price of any particular instrument you’re looking at, if you have the model number.

5. What is NTSC? Your shopping cart says the videos are available in this format. What I need is VHS.
The videos are in VHS format. Different countries use different VHS formats. NTSC is the 'National Television Standards Committee' and used in the US, Canada and many countries. Another common format is PAL. This is used in England and South Africa. The videos do not work in this format. Many people in these countries own a video player can also play NTSC formats.

6. Which countries use NTSC?
Good question. Click here for the list of countries running the three most popular video formats.

7. My country uses PAL. Will the videos still work? How can I see them?
Volume One and Two are now available in PAL format. There are many people who opt to buy video players that can view both NTSC and PAL. If you live in a country with a PAL format, I'll be making DVD's in the near future. You may want to sign up for the Newsletter to find out when they will be available.

8. We have a bookstore in our church. Can we order the videos wholesale?
Yes, call or E-mail me and I can give you all the details.

9. How much credit would you issue to a homeschool student for each video?
A semester is 75 hours. They can actually practice as little as half an hour a day to get the credit. A semester is usually 15 to 18 weeks. On the West Coast we talk about 5 credits per class. On the East Coast One Credit is the same as 5 credits on west coast.

Students learn at different rates and there isn't a certain credit per video as much as how much time the student plays. Some lessons are going to be easy and others they may need to stay on for a couple weeks.

10. I'm left-handed. Do I need to get a special guitar? Can I still learn from your videos?
Two comments on playing left-handed... 1. Most of my left-handed players learned the same as a right-handed person then you can play any guitar. One of my best friends in college is left-handed and this is how he learned.

He now has his Master's Degree in Guitar Performance and teaches in 3 colleges in Northern California. So I know this can be done quite successfully. If he just can't get the hang of it, then try it playing the strings with the left-hand.

Most guitars are the same inside and you can restring the strings to make it work. 2. I would suggest just getting any instrument and restringing the strings. It's not going to be a huge difference. If you're going to buy a very expensive guitar, then you might want to request that it's specifically built for playing left-handed.

As for learning with the videos or DVD's, yes you can use them if your right-handed or left-handed.

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"Worship Guitar Class"
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