Worship Set Ideas

May 7, 2012 By jeanw 4 Comments

Worship Set Ideas: How To Put Together A Good Worship Set

I’m sure there are many ways good worship set ideas. This is one I learned at a worship conference that works very well in helping people to worship our wonderful creator God. It’s good to start with ‘call to worship’ songs. Some good songs are ‘Come Let Us Worship’ or ‘Come, Now Is The Time To Worship’.

In the Lord’s prayer, it begins by focusing on the facts that God is our Father and He is Holy. Start with songs that talk of God’s attributes and greatness. Songs like ‘Indescribable’ or ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ are good songs to use.

My preference, and what they also taught us in the conference, is to start with faster tempo songs, then end the set with slower more intimate songs. A fast song could be something like ‘Today Is The Day’. Slower songs to end a set could be songs like ‘Above All’, ‘Calling Out To You’ or ‘How Great Thou Art’. One of my all time favorite songs to end a set is ‘I Love You Lord.’

To break it down… here are good worship set ideas:

Call To Worship Songs and Songs Of God’s Greatness in quicker more energetic tempos.
Slower more intimate and personal worship songs.

What are some of your favorite worship set ideas or favorite worship songs?

How To Write Worship Songs

January 22, 2012 By jeanw 2 Comments

In the Bible, it says to sing a new song to the Lord in several of the Psalms and in Isaiah 42:10. Have you tried writing a ‘new song’? In this article, I’ll share with you some ideas for writing worship songs. One of the best sources for songwriting ideas is found in the Bible.

The psalms were originally songs sung by writers like King David. Using music to convey the truths in the Bible is a great place to get ideas for the lyrics. If you look at our most popular worship songs, they are based on God’s truths. ‘How Great Thou Art‘ is a beautiful illustration of this. Although the song was written in an earlier century, the song is still sung today and loved in many cultures.

You can put whole sections of the Bible to music or get take some ideas and create a song around specific concepts. A while back I wrote a little song on Jeremiah 9:23-24. That verse talks about not boasting about ourselves but boasting about our relationship with our God who exhibits lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth.

Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

There are simple chord patterns that work well with most songs called the I, IV, and V chords. You can see these in the ‘Common Chord Charts’ that are free with our newsletters and it’s also taught in Volume Two of the Worship Guitar Class lessons.

This one is in the key of ‘D’. A common way to write songs is to alternate between verses and the chorus. Here’s the little song I wrote:

If you would like a few ideas of how to change a song, check out 4 Ways To Change a Song.

Christmas Newsletter 2011

December 13, 2011 By jeanw Leave a Comment

Giving the gift of music is a wonderful gift that has a lifetime of value to individuals. Especially for children… it helps with their brain development! Here is our latest Christmas Newsletter. It also includes inexpensive gift ideas that are either free or cost very little.

We have a good Christian Guitar Lessons program that can be an excellent Christmas gift. And for easy song this Christmas, we are still adding to the Easy Christmas Songs For Guitar program.

In the video above a couple of the items, like the quilted place-mats, were gifts I received this year. What are some fun gift giving ideas that you have?

7 Tips For Making Faster Chord Changes.

November 1, 2011 By jeanw 1 Comment

Changing Chords Quickly

I remember well how difficult it was to originally change to any guitar chord. In particular the ‘C’ chord tends to be a little tricky for new guitarists. With a bit of practice, the chords do get easier to play.

Daniel’s question included help in how to transition quickly between chords. He took the recent Worship Guitar Class Newsletter Survey. Here are some tips that should help any guitar player in changing chords quickly.

Changing Chords Quickly Tips

Put down the bass finger first. For example, for a ‘C’ chord the root note is ‘C’. It’s better to work on placing the 3rd finger down first so you can play the bass of the chord and still have a second to get the rest of the chord down. Eventually try to place all of your fingers down at the same time.
Think ahead to the next chord. Think about where your fingers are moving before they actually move. This is especially true for shifts in position on the guitar. Look to the frets you are moving too before you actually shift your fingers. If there is a shift from the first position to the 7th position, your eyes should be on the 7th fret before beginning to move your fingers from the first fret. [Read more…]