Machane Machu – Honey Bee

to become a part of you, andas I said earlier, a part of your personal expression of worship. I have worked hard to be able to accomplish this, and it now comes very naturally. In fact, I didn’t even realize it until I was asked to lead communion at my church, and chose to lead a few worship songs both before and during communion. While I led communion and talked about the elements, I underscored what I was saying with quiet finger picking through a simple chord progression. The following week, my pastor told me that he had been distracted by my playing during communion. I have underscored my pastor speaking for years and no one ever mentioned this to me. He went on to explain that my playing was not distracting, but he couldn’t get over the fact that I could play the guitar and speak at the same time. This wasn’t a bad thing, but it was the first time I realized that I was able to do this with little effort. This came from years of practice. I share it only to say, yes, it can be done. Some Practical Issues Hereare some bullet points of things that I have learned over the years. These have been a great help to me in developing as a worship leader on the acoustic guitar. Practice Worshiping with Your Guitar: Practice by yourself. Practice with your worship team. Practice by yourself some more. One thing that I used to do, when I started leading on my guitar, was to go into the church on Saturday night and get everything setup. No one was in the worship center so I would kick on the sound system and work through the next day’s worship set alone. I would think through transitions, sing each song as I planned on leading it, but most importantly, I worshipped the Lord. I remember one occasion where half way through my practice time I opened my eyes and found my senior pastor sitting in the back of the church. I have to admit that I felt pretty weird, but you know what… he was worshipping too. This discipline alone made a huge impact on my ability to lead on my guitar. Learn Ways to Communicatewith the Worship Team: As I mentioned earlier, it’s almost impossible to give hand signals while leading on the guitar. First of all, you need both hands to play and secondly, when you can free up a hand it has a pick in. One major advantage that you have is the ability to move around, unlike a keyboard player who must stay in one place. I learned a long time ago that being able to turn away from the microphone allowed me to verbally communicate as necessary. Once I went to a headset, I gained more freedom in movement, but lost the ability to give those verbal commands. Since I lead the congregation verbally, I had a talk with my team and began to teach them to follow the same cues. I just had to learn to give them a little earlier so they would know where we were going. This worked well, once I learned the skill. One final word on communication is that you have to consider the positioning of the band and vocalists on the platform. I have found that when leading on the guitar, I liketo have the band to my right. This way I can use my right hand to give signals. If the band is on my right, they can see me better than if they were on my left. On the same note, I can communicate better with the vocal team if they are on my left. It’s easy for me to turn and look right at them when I sing a line and easy for me to catch their eye. Know when to Pick and when to Strum: There are a couple of different schools of thought here. First is the general rule that you should strum most of the time so the other band members won’t lose your sense of timing. It’s also easier to sing with strumming than with finger-picking. The flip side is, as a worship leader learning to flow from strumming to finger-picking, you have the ability to change the dynamics and the mood or feel of a song. This is a skill level issue. I encourage you to practice songs while finger picking and singing, so that this becomes as natural as walking and chewing gum. Once you get to this point, you have morefreedom to lead. If you can do both simultaneously, you will not lose your sense of timing. Learn to Effectively Use a Capo: For the worship leader, especially the beginner, the capo can open up a whole new world of music. Now, let me say that learning to use a capo is not an excuse for not learning all of the chords on your instrument. Capo use allows you to play in the more difficult keys in a more natural fashion. Using the capo in the 2nd and 3rd frets will give you access to play in any key very naturally. Take a look at the chart below which should be self explanatory. A Word About Tuning: Just Do it! I use the Korg DTR-1000 tuner in my rack. It’s run inline so my guitar is always running through it. This is a digital chromatic tuner that has a strobe setting. Once I initially tune my guitar, I set the tuner on the strobe setting. This allows me to see that I am in tune while I am playing. The bottom line is that you need to be in tune. Playing with the Band: Leading worship byyourself is easy since all you have to worry about is yourself and the congregation. However, once you start playing with a band, it changes things and you have to consider what everyone is playing, especially when you have other guitar players in the mix. The basic rule here is “less is more”. You can have any array of instruments on the platform as long as everyone is playing a different part. Once you have two guitar players playing the same thing, the sound begins to get muddy. Learn to share the road, one guitar strums and one guitar picks or pick different tonic ranges to play in. Perhaps you have a transition that allows you to drop out completely and the piano can lead into the next song. No matter what, when you play with a band, you have to start thinking about being a team and not just a solo leader. In Conclusion: The acoustic guitar is one of many tools that will help you in your pursuit of leading people into the presence of God. But let’s remember, that it is just that…a tool! Any tool should never be seen as more important, or even as important, as the job that it is doing. Heartfelt worship occurs when God meets us with His presence. This can be accomplished in so many ways: just a voice, just an instrument, or a full band. Our focus remains on God and His glory; not what instruments we are using to lead! May these few tips help you grow in your ability to use the talent that He’s given you towards the goal of leading God centered, God pleasing worship. Please enable JavaScript to view the