7 Guitar Care Tips

November 10, 2015 By admin 5 Comments

7 Guitar Care Tips

When you buy a guitar, here are a few simple tips to keep it in excellent condition. Guitars are made from living wood and can be damaged if they are exposed to too much heat or dryness. There are also a few easy things you can do to keep the strings sounding good, for example just washing your hands before you play.

For those who prefer pictures, here’s a fun info-graphic of the 7 tips shared in the video above:

After you have a guitar of your own it is important to take care of it. The first thing to do for your guitar is to buy a case for it. This seems like such a silly piece of advice but your guitar is more fragile than you think and is easily dented. A decent guitar case can help to protect it.

The softest part of a guitar is the wood is on the top of the instrument. Investing in a good case is a good step towards protecting your investment. If it’s an expensive instrument, hard shell cases provide the best protection. Hard shell cases usually cost over $100. If you have an inexpensive guitar, you should still at least get a guitar gig bag. This will make it easy to carry your guitar and protect it from dust and some dings.

As already mentioned, don’t leave your guitar in a hot car.It can cause the neck of your guitar to warp, which will never play in tune. There is also the risk of the wood cracking.

If you are in a very dry climate, invest in a humidifier that can fit inside the sound hole of the guitar or in the guitar case. Otherwise, the wood can get too dry and crack. I’ve even seen bridges pop off guitars. They can be quite expensive to repair.

Simple habits can help extend the life of both your guitar and strings. Washing you hands before playing washes away the sweat and dirt that could have clogged your strings. Your strings will sound better when they are ‘clean’. Then, getting in the habit of wiping down your instrument after playing will also pick up excess dirt and grease on the instrument. The new microfibers is an excellent choice for cleaning the guitar.

Periodically, it’s a good idea to remove all of your strings and use a fine steel wool pad to removes any grease or dirt that has accumulated around the frets. Wipe around each fret with the steel wool, then wipe it down once more with a soft cloth. Then, you can apply fretboard oil to help keep the wood in great condition.

Guitar wax is another step to insure that the wood on your guitar is protected. You may want to wax the instrument a few times a year. There are several waxes made specifically for guitars.

With a little care, you guitar will look and sound great for a very long time. Hope these tips are helpful and that you enjoy playing your guitar for many years.

7 Guitar Practice Tips

September 22, 2015 By admin Leave a Comment

Struggle finding time to practice? Here are 7 guitar practice tips that you may find helpful. It’s good to have a reason to practice, to know what to practice, and then make it easy to fit in your schedule.

For starters, there are many benefits to learning to play an instrument. Here is an article about the effects playing music has just on your brain.

Playing Music is Good For Your Brain

I believe the type of music you play can also make a difference. Playing worship songs, in my opinion, is one of the best types of music to learn.

You not only experience the physical benefits, but also can grow spiritually.

Here are the 7 guitar practice tips. A lot of what we do is tied to how we think and feel about the activity. Hence, the first few tips are focused with how you think about practicing.

7 Guitar Practice Tips

Connect practicing to worshiping and spending time with God. For me, in times of worship I always sense God is near and am more receptive to hearing from Him. Being close to God is a huge motivation for practicing. You can absolutely use your practice time as worship.
Ask God to help you learn to play the guitar and to help you stay focused on Him. He wants us to keep our hearts and minds connected to Him. Think of practice as a time when He can help you. This is similar to tip #1, but with a shift from worshiping upwards to receiving His help and inspirations.
Know that playing the guitar can reward you with emotional and physical benefits. Music has huge benefits for your brain and emotions. Think of it as a therapeutic session that doesn’t cost a lot of money! One of my guitar students told me playing worship songs on the guitar actually healed a deep emotional wound.
Remember that practicing will help you be a better guitar player. Without practicing you will not improve. You actually do need to spend time with the instrument to get better. If you want to be a good guitar playing, you need to practice.
Know what you want to practice. Have in mind what you want to work on. If you’re using one of our courses, follow the lessons in order and also the practice suggestions. If you don’t know what to practice, it’s hard to start. Have a goal in mind.
Make it a priority. In other words schedule it. One of my guitar students was working full-time and evenings were filled with church activities. She really wanted to play the guitar, so she practiced in her car during lunch breaks for 20 minutes a day. One of the Internet students shared that the whole family worshiped together with their Dad learning to play the guitar. Everyone was shocked at how fast he learned. Where can it fit in your day? Are mornings best, evenings? Plan when to practice and make it a priority.
If possible, have a special place to practice and keep it in view. I’ve always told my students to get a guitar stand and leave their guitars out. It’s also good to have a music stand with the music already on it. Now, in California we do get earthquakes and having the guitars out wasn’t the best idea. In one of our major quakes the guitars fell down and there was some damage to some of the instruments. So, you may want to leave it out inside a guitar case next to the music stand.

Those are the tips I thought might help you. Playing the guitar is not only a wonderful hobby, but can be an amazing vehicle for drawing closer to our Loving Father!

JW Worship Guitar Class Lessons

Step-by-step guitar lessons for learning to play worship songs on your guitar. Click here to Learn More

Personal Prayer Journal

September 5, 2015 By admin Leave a Comment

Personal Prayer Journal

Have you ever forgotten to pray? Our prayers do indeed make a difference in this world. Here’s a short video:

In my prayer group, we usually end the year by reviewing all of the answered prayers. Some have been pretty amazing!

In looking back at my own life, there were some very difficult times but I wouldn’t trade any of them. God is working on our characters and sometimes that just means we go through difficult times.

Everyone of us will go through the valley of the shadow but we don’t need to camp there… just walk on through.

The most important thing is that we don’t need to walk through this life alone! As it says in Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

If you would like to use a personal prayer journal in your walk, here’s a good option:

Personal Prayer Journal

PS. I don’t know how it works, but God uses our prayers to accomplish His will. Besides praying, daily time in the Word and worship are also wonderful ways to connect with Him. 🙂

PPS. The books are also available on Amazon. Click Here for Personal Prayer Journal .

7 Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners

August 11, 2015 By admin 8 Comments

These are the first seven basic guitar chords we teach in the Worship Guitar Class course. They are excellent chords to learn for beginner guitar students. If you don’t know how to read guitar chord charts, there is an article here on How To Read Chord Charts that may be helpful.

1. A Chord

The first chord is called an ‘A chord’. Here is the chord chart as well as a photo of how to hold it down on the strings. It’s best to have short nails on the hand holding down the strings. Play on the tips of your fingers, right behind the frets. If you press down on the top of the frets the strings will sound muffled and if you press too far from the frets the strings can buzz.

To get a sense of how to hold down the chords, I suggest watching the first lesson of our course. It’s free on the website. You can find it about 1/4 of the way down the page – Click here. My training is with classical guitar and you can certainly avoid hand injuries with good guitar technique.

2. E7 Chord

The next chord to learn is called ‘E7’. Here is the chord chart and photo of the chord. Chords are made up of 3 specific notes and when anything else is added you add the number of the note to the chord. An ‘E7 chord’ is an ‘E chord’ with the ‘7th’ note added. Once you can play the chords and are getting used to the guitar, you may want to eventually learn Music Theory for the Guitar.

To really learn the chords, it takes practice. Play 4 strums on the ‘A chord then change to ‘E7’ and strum 4 times. Practice changing between ‘A’ and ‘E7’ until it’s easy and comfortable for you.

3. D Chord

The next chord is called a ‘D chord’. The 6th string open is not a part of the ‘D chord’. Notice the little ‘x’ underneath the 6th string. That means you do not strum that string. This is what often distinguishes experienced guitar players from beginning guitar players. They know what strings to avoid.

With the chords ‘A’, ‘D’, and ‘E7’, you can literally play hundreds of songs. Practice changing between these three chords and when you can change them without hesitating add the next one, a ‘G chord’.

Don’t rush immediately to the ‘G’ chord until you feel confident with the first three chords. It’s better to memorize them and feel confident about the chords before taking on too much. Then, when you do try the ‘G’ chord it will be easier because you’ve already had success with the previous three chords. Here’s a quick chart of all seven chords.

4. G Chord

I have found that ‘G’ tends to be a bit more awkward for beginner guitar students to learn. Once mastered it often becomes one of their favorite chords to play. It may be because whenever you overcome a challenge you feel good about it. One of the tricks to playing it well is to make sure your thumb is behind the middle of the fretboard. This is especially true for people with shorter fingers.

The chords ‘G’, ‘A’, and ‘D’ also fit for many songs. When this gets easier, move on to the ‘C chord’.

5. C Chord

Like the ‘G’, this is a chord that many people find awkward in the beginning. Most people make the chord by placing the index finger down first. You’ll actually be able to change faster if you hold down the 5th string first. Place your 3rd finger on the 5th string and then add the other two. Eventually all of your fingers should go down at the same time.

The chords ‘G’, ‘C’, and ‘D’ are also used for hundreds of songs.

Next, we’ll learn some minor chords. There are four basic types of chords – major, minor, augmented, and diminished. These two chords will probably be like a breath of fresh air. They are easy chords to learn and to play.

6. Am Chord

The ‘Am chord’ is very easy to change to from a ‘C chord’. You simple move one finger. The 3rd finger shifts from the 5th string, 3rd fret, to the 3rd string, 2nd fret. The first two fingers don’t need to move. It’s also very closely related to the ‘A chord’. It’s just one finger different from ‘A’.

The last chord is the chord ‘Em’.

7. Em Chord

It’s quite easy to change to from an ‘Am chord’ to ‘Em’. Pick up all three fingers and bring the 2nd and 3rd fingers up one string each. Here is the chord chart for ‘Em’. Look at the two chord charts and you can also see how the 2nd and 3rd fingers just shift up and down one string.

There you have it. 7 basic chords that are useful for all beginner guitar players.

For easy step-by-step guitar lessons with worship songs check out our course.

JW Worship Guitar Class Lessons

Step-by-step guitar lessons for learning to play worship songs on your guitar. Click here to Learn More