Mitch Bohannon and Worshiptogether.com have just put together a new resource about using the cut capo in worship settings.  On the DVD it outlines finger placement, chords, and how to play 10 popular songs using this method.  The package is running about $30 right now, and if anyone picks it up, let us know what you think…

“Worship guitarists only play in the keys of G and E, for everything else, they capo.” 

Worship guitarists are a very secretive bunch.  If you listen to a recording, you may hear these really cool chord voicings, which may lead you to question: “How’d they do that?”  It’s as if there is this really cool, obscure way of playing chords that makes a worship guitarist sound like they’re the second coming of Eric Clapton. 

Well, I’m about to expose a huge secret, those cool sounding chords are not as difficult as you may think.  The reality is that many worship rhythm guitarists are pretty simple…  if you throw around terms like an inverted triad with a flatted seventh, many of us will look at you with a blank stare.  In fact, among my worship leading friends, we have an inside joke that one of the biggest worship leaders of our time has only one song, with about two dozen different lyrics.

This post comes from one of my best friends, who’s a worship leader, musician, and a guy with a phenomenal heart, who’s now living and playing in Nashville.   And although this post isn’t strictly guitar related, it has a lot of great info for all of us who play in a worship environment.

I recently had a conversation with my roommate (who is a ridiculously talented musician who’s played Jeremy Camp, Mat Kearny and now with Kate Voegele) about the drummer who had played at our church on a Sunday morning. I mentioned that I really enjoyed this particular drummer because he kept things so simple… no flashy cymbal work or Roto-Tom fills. Just good, clean, tasteful licks that complimented the set. He gave out a little chuckle and told me that the reason he wasn’t flashy is because the guy I was referring to wasn’t really a drummer…or at least hadn’t been playing the drums in many years. Apparently the guy was rusty and a bit nervous the entire time he played that week.

Ok, about a year ago, the guys in my band all chipped in and bought me a Verbzilla for my birthday…  (pretty awesome group, huh?)  Well, having played it for over a year now, the honeymoon has worn off, but the ‘Zilla is now one of my favorite pedals on my board. 

Ok, for a brief overview, the Verbzilla is the reverb modeler from Line 6’s ToneCore line.  It includes 11 different reverb models… blah blah blah… ok now on to what you really want to know.

I have to apologize to all of you faithful WGG readers for my extended absence in the past nine months…  My life’s been in a time of transition, and although I’m playing as much as ever, I haven’t had the time to be over here keeping up with my posting.

 That said, I’m going to do my best to be more reliable in the next few months, starting with a post next week discussing an extremely cool pedal that I’ve been playing with for the past year, the Line 6 Verbzilla.  If you’re into reverb, synth style stuff, or just absolutely tripped out guitar tones, it’s one you won’t want to miss!

 BTW, several of you have contacted me asking if you can help with my “lack of content production” by contributing yourselves.  I’d be very happy to post any articles, thoughts or experiences of yours here… and although I won’t promise that it will definitely make it up, I’d be happy to place some good info from you here and credit you for it!