You’ve seen people like Paul Baloche and Phil Wickham, and now you want to be like them. You dream of having enough guitar skills to dig up a stash of chord charts and play. You want to one day stand behind a microphone and play a guitar without making any mistakes. And you hope to do all this by teaching yourself. Challenging? Maybe. Impossible? No. You can also learn worship guitar on your own. Keep reading to know more.
I’m going to assume you already know a thing or two about guitar and music theory. If you want to learn to love the guitar on your own, it is essential that you know how to tune your guitar, what the different strings are, and how to strum the basic patterns. You should also be familiar with chords, scales, and timing in music. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, get a music theory book and a basic guitar book and check out all of the above.
If you already know how to play the guitar or are fairly familiar with how the instrument works, you can skip right to worship songs. Go over as many chords as possible, especially the major and minor ones in the keys of C, G, and D. You’ll also need to find some chord charts with letters that you can follow. These guitar chord charts are easily available on the internet for free on many websites. Alternatively, you can also get guitar chord charts in books that are sold in most music stores.
Learning to play the guitar is as simple as learning the song’s melody, chord progression, and strum pattern. If you can sing the song in key and time without music, you should have no problem learning to play the chords along with it. However, if you really don’t know the song or are having a hard time signing it, it would be best to find a recording or video of the song and learn how to play it. Most of the time, having someone show you how to learn and play the guitar will be easier than figuring it out on your own.
For students hoping to learn worship guitar on their own, videos and recordings of other worship songs will be most beneficial. Seeing and hearing other people play helps formulate and establish the various chord progressions, strumming patterns, melodies, and rhythms. Listen closely, observe closely, and practice wholeheartedly. You can do it!