Greetings Fellow Worshipper,

Blessings to you in the Lord

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NEWSLETTER CONTENTS

1. Burning Desire…
2. Good Training…
3. Practice, Practice, Practice…
4. C Scales
5. Support
6. Compete
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1) Burning Desire…
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Okay, maybe I got a little carried away with the title, ‘How to
be an Olympian Guitarist,’ but help with technique got the
largest response from the survey last month.

I’ve been watching some of the Olympic Games and was
struck by what it takes to be a champion athlete. The first
quality I see is a Burning Desire to be the best.

To be an Olympian Guitarist for Christ you need to have a
strong desire. What are your reasons for playing? Is it to use
the guitar for leading worship in children’s church?…to lead
worship in your church or small home group? Is it because
you love God and want to express that with music?

Without a reason, or strong desire, playing guitar well will
not happen. If you have the desire and make time to play,
you will reap the rewards.

2) Good Training…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every Olympic athlete has training. They have coaches,
they study, they watch fellow athletes. I had many private
guitar teachers, participated in many Master’s Classes,
bought every guitar album I could find. I learned something
from each teacher, book, record.

You can seek out good teachers, guitar classes, books,
training DVDs, etc. (I offer a good course for learning
worship guitar on DVD or video and also want to help
you through these Newsletters!)

Good technique will make a big difference in how easy
it is for you play. Look how easy the trained gymnasts,
swimmers, runners, etc., make it look.

3) Practice, Practice, Practice…
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Okay, you have a burning desire and have access to good
training materials. Those Olympic athletes get good because
they practice …a lot.

” I don’t have time to practice!,” said a student in one of my
worship guitar classes. One of the other students answered
him, “Practice? It’s my worship time!”

This woman discovered the joy of making her practice time
a worship time. She told him that her morning worship, with
the guitar, gave her the strength for each day.

So this is where I suggest veering off from the ‘Olympian Model.’
Don’t just practice, practice, practice…but worship. Focus your
heart and worship on Him. Ask Him to help you in your playing.

One way to ‘practice’ in your ‘worship time’ is to isolate any difficult
chord changes and play them at least 20 times. Keep relaxed,
focused and confident that you can get it. For example, change
20 times between D and G, or D and Bm, or whatever.

4) C Scales…
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Since there were so many requests for scales in the survey,
here are a couple C scales that you can practice.

The music is in both musical notes and tab. You can find it here.
Click to download the music

5) Support…
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Listening to the various Olympian athlete’s stories it’s easy
to see that they had support. It was from parents, coaches,
countries, etc. There are two points I’d like to make here.

One, you have the best supportive Father in the Universe.
The One that created it!

Two, think of how you can support the musical efforts of
your kids, friends, etc.

6) Compete…
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Meanwhile, as you get comfortable playing, do play for
others. You can’t put a price on leading others into worship.
And the metals? Only GOLD.

My friend, for all your service to the King, you’ll receive the
Gold Crown of life, also called the crown of glory, or
righteousness. And this one lasts forever!

Praise Him with all your heart, because He loves you with
all of His!

Love & Blessings in the LORD,

Jean Welles