Christian Guitar Lessons and More
Most worship leaders use an acoustic steel-string guitar. The video in the post will show you the tools you need to use. It’s much easier to change steel-strings with a string winder.
Most string winders, like the one in this picture have an end that can help you remove the pegs that are seated in the bridge.
It helps to have nice guitar strings too. Here’s the video:
Guitar Tuners are easy to use. Some even play the pitches of each string, like the Qwiktune guitar tuner pictured to the right.. Most tuners simple tell you when the string is in tune by watching the needle. When it’s in the middle, that means the string is tuned. Using guitar tuners is the easiest way to tune your guitar.
My favorite guitar tuner is the Intellitouch tuner. What I love about this tuner is that you can tune your guitar accurately in a very noisy room. It literally clamps to the headstock of your guitar and senses the pitches by the vibration of the instrument.
Another nice feature is that is a chromatic tuner. That means it can sense any note, not just the regular six strings of the guitar. This means it will work on any instrument with a headstock. You can use it to tune a violin, a banjo, bass, etc. Plus, if you want to use alternate tuning for your guitar, it’s quite easy to tune with this tuner.
You can get the first pitch with a tuning fork, or pitch pipe, or simple tune your guitar to itself.
This diagram shows where on the fretboard you hold down the place to tune the open string. For example, there is a ‘5’ on the 6th string, 5th fret to show it is the same pitch as the Fifth string open.
As you can see, you hold down the 5th fret of the string above the one you are tuning, except for the relationship between the 2nd and 3rd strings. You hold down the 4th fret of the 3rd string to get the sound of the 2nd string open.
One of the best ways to warm-up before you start playing is by playing guitar scales. It gives you an opportunity to concentrate on your guitar technique without thinking about a song or chords.
Here is a video showing you how 2 ways to play a C-Scale. It has a one and two octave version of the scale. There are many types of guitar scales. There are blues scales, jazz scales and scales built on major and minor keys.
These are the first guitar scales I learned. It’s a great place to start. And if you’ve been playing for years, it’s still helpful to warm-up with scales like these.
Regardless of the type of music you play, playing scales can be an excellent vehicle to improve your technique. Great musicians of very instrument, including the voice, have honed their skills by working on scales.
Hope you enjoy the video and apply what you learn.
God Bless,
Jean Welles
The music for two C scales is here. c-scale.pdf
If not secured, nylon strings can easily slip. Here’s a brief video showing you a secure way of stringing a classical guitar.
It’s good to change the strings at least once a year. Some professional player change them every month, or even every few weeks. I even know a professional guitarist that kills strings in a day. There is something in his body oil that causes strings to quickly sound dead.
New strings will make your guitar sound like a ‘new’ instrument. Here’s a short video giving showing you how to change nylon guitar strings. It has a bit too much reverb, but it should help you with learning to change your strings.