Improving guitar/singing Skill

[seek]

I just thought i would get any advice on improving guitar playing and singing skills.

I currently am responsible for leading worship at a small bible study and I feel like I am stuck, in terms of improving my skill level.

I've been playing guitar off and on for about 5 years, but feel like I can't seem to get any better, no matter how much i practice....then on top of that, throwing in this new thing of singing and playing at the same time has really thrown me off in terms of timing....with strumming and singing....

Any advice on improving these areas?? Practice Tips??

thanks.

 

[tigerboy]

well, play as much as you can...singing and playing at the same time is off-putting for everyone at first. concentrate primarily on the singing part, simplifying your strum pattern until you can do both in rhythm. then, work on a more complex strum.

there ARE good Christian resources out there. Paul Baloche has some excellent training videos for acoustic guitar players, and for worship teams. they can be found at his website, www.leadworship.com

also, vineyard have a variety of resources, the most notable being a book called 'Play' for acoustic guitar players. the book starts with some basics and takes you through to a level of general competency. it comes with a cd.

try some of these things out. remember, it's not really about how awesome you can play...we're to provide just enough music so that people can connect with God. i often find, contrary to popular belief, that the less instrumentation you have, the simpler you should play. people think they have to compensate because there are fewer instruments...this usually leads to a lot of distractions. even if i was jimi hendrix, i'd still simply strum in a small group setting. make sure the attention goes to Him.

 

[wisdom67]

practice, practice, practice. Repetition will conquer your fears. At first I couldn't do anything but play keyboard and couldn't sing together with it.

But once you simplify what you are playing you find that doing both comes easier.

I am even to the point now where I can play keys and sing and look at the congregation and not have to look at the keys. It's important for me because the focus should be on God and not on the notes on a page. Granted, it's taken me years to slowly get better at this, but once you start learning a group of songs and memorize them, then you will have more freedom to sing and play together, and then not even be looking at music. Memorization of music is the key to freedom in worship.