…well, okay, just by marse3 saying “BRING THE SISTER BACK!!!” (thanks, marse3) I am back to hijack the blog.  It’s been 2 months.  Mind you, I know how crazy worshipguitarguy’s life has been in the past 2 months because we share a lot of demands on our time, etc., being family and all, but still, 2 months is just way too long.  I’ve managed to update my own blog more often than that.

So, consider the blog hijacked.  Not that I’m going to be able to enlighten you about much related to guitars, but I’ll do what I can.

How about some guitar fashion?  Will that do?  For example, a few years ago I bought Gerry the best guitar strap - everyone says so and a few people have even tried to steal it.  (Can’t trust those worship guys, ya know…)  But there’s a story behind the guitar strap.  Let me explain.

One of Gerry’s guitars is a Telecaster.  It looks like this:

And while playing it, he was using a sun guitar strap that looks like this:

As you can see, they clash.  Terribly.  Red and yellow are generally not colors that you would pair with teal, and in this case it was quite the eyesore.  So what is a sister to do for her guitar-fashion-challenged big brother?  I rectified the situation.

He needed a strap that wasn’t too girly (Believe me, I was tempted to buy the sparkly silver and teal strap I saw…) and yet would compliment his Telecaster.  Here is my solution:

Sadly, I could not find a good image of the strap itself, and this is the best image I have of WGG using it with the teal guitar.  But, if you were able to see the details of this Jimi Hendrix strap (if any of you can find pictures, please let me know!!) you’d see that it is a multi-colored, striped strap with shades of teal.  It compliments the guitar quite nicely, and as I said before, is quite popular among WGG’s guitar-playing friends.

So, Guitar Fashion Tip #1: Make sure your guitar strap does not clash with your guitar, because if you’re playing in front of people like me, they’ll be so distracted by the mismatch that they won’t be able to pay attention to your playing.  (Tip #1.5 - If you’re still learning the guitar and kinda stink, get either a guitar strap that totally clashes, or one that’s way cool, so that people will be so distracted by your gear that they don’t notice how bad you are!)

Until next time…

-naz

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…

In our look at each of these keys, we’ll look at ways to fret each of these chords, often in ways that are simple, yet unique for that key’s voicing.

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.

As a worship leader, this got me thinking of two major issues that often plague the platforms of even some of the most established worship programs around the nation.

1. Keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing.
Unlike any other art form, Worship music is not meant to focus on the person actually making the music. A Pastor friend of mine and WGG once said “the worship band should be in the back of the room with the people reading words on a screen looking the opposite direction”.
 
With that said, our number one focus should always be removing anything that might be a distraction from keeping the main thing, the main thing…and that of course is the reverent focus of our minds attention and our hearts affection on God in that moment.  These distractions come in all different forms… from an over zealous guitar player to how small the words appear on the screen.  As corporate worship leaders we have the responsibility and privilege of organizing ourselves enough, with excellence our goal beforehand, so that once our worship experience begins we can let go and let God take over.

2. He Wasn’t a Rock Star…
But he was solid! He complimented the lyric by building during words of proclamation and resolving in moments of surrender. He might not have had the chops…but he had the right frame of mind and the right heart. He cared enough about the role he played as a part of a team to know when NOT to play which is crucial to creating a really expressive worship environment. Someone once said that music is not defined by the notes on a page or melodies floating through the air…rather it’s by the space between the notes and the room to breathe that creates such wonderful intervals and brings the melody to life.

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.

First, although I’ve heard some complaints about its durablity… I’ve been running ToneCore units for over two years and I’ve never had a problem.  Their chassis are made of metal and very solid, (although heavy…)  With the ToneCore series, the actual effects are small “plug-in” modules, that you can swap in and out by removing the screws from the back of the pedal chassis.  The modules themselves are mostly plastic and printed circuit boards, and the dials are pretty small, so some reliability issues may exist there, however if you secure your pedals, and don’t abuse them when turning them on and off, you’ll be fine.

Tonally the Verbzilla is really solid.  My Vox amp has reverb on it, but I’ve never been too excited with it, that’s why I’ve gone the pedal route.  Settings like the “63 Spring”, and “Spring” sound good, although there’s a bit less tonal “depth” in them than you’d find in a true vintage Fender Deluxe spring reverb.  The Hall, Plate and Chamber verbs are all good, solid sounds, with the Hall and Chamber really standing out on lead tones with higher gain levels.  I use the plate or hall setting quite a bit when playing softer arpeggiated chords, like in the verse of a slow worship song.

But the thing that stands out the most to me with the Verbzilla are two models found past 12 o’clock on the dial… the Octo and Cave settings.  First, the Octo is based on an octave reverb from a rack effects unit called the Eventide Eclipse.  The effect takes the repeats of the main guitar signal and moves each subsequent one up an octave.  It’s an effect the Edge from U2 is famous for using, (by way of Brian Eno I’m sure).  The sound it creates is a hauntingly ghostly sound that gently trails behind your tone.  Mixed with a good delay, it might make you think there’s two instruments there instead of one.

The other setting, the Cave setting, is an uber thick reverb sound that can create violin style swell effects.  To do this, first I roll down my tone control a bit.  Next, I turn my volume all the way down, fret and play a chord, (you only need two or three strings), then quickly turn my guitar volume up…  Instant volume swell, a la an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo.  You can do the same thing with a volume pedal, but if its at the end of your chain of effects, it will sound a bit different than it does run before your effects.  

Now the real reason I love the Verbzilla…  have you ever reached the end of one of those soft worship songs that led into prayer?  Usually, that’s the time where a wonderful synth player takes over and plays these gentle, very spacey sounds.  Well, as electric guitarists, gentle and soft aren’t often in our vocabulary.  But… the Verbzilla can fix that.  Set the pedal for instance on the octo or cave setting, and turn the mix knob all the way up.  Your initial pick attack disappears and all that’s there is the post reverb decay.  Now by playing with your overdrives and delays, (and also a wah pedal), that’s run before your Verbzilla, you can begin to use your guitar in a way that you could mistake for one of those extremely cool synth pads.  Your tone will be very subtle with sustain, and by adjusting the decay and time settings, you’ll change the sustain characteristics of your tone.  I do this all the time now, especially if I’m playing in a three piece or four piece group (acoustic, electric, bass, and drums).  It really adds alot to the end of the set. 

But, instead of listening to me, check out some pretty good demos of the Verbzilla 

Pro Guitar Shop’s Verbzilla Demo:  Featuring a good demo of the Octo setting
Line 6’s Official Verbzilla Demo: With a brief example of the Cave Volume Swell technique.

A couple of other thoughts on the Verbzilla:
It’s not just for guitars:  I have a good friend who is a keyboard player, and he loves running his 73 Fender Rhodes through the ‘Zilla.  It really tweaks the sound and does some interesting things.
Split your Signal into Stereo:  Here’s one I haven’t had time to try but I’ve been wanting to.  Take your guitar signal and split it into a stereo signal after your boost/compression/overdrive pedals.  Then run one side through the modulation/delay side of your board, and the other side through the Verbzilla alone.  (ex. your mods/delays are on the right side, and your ‘Zilla is on the left.)  You can then recombine the two stereo signals back into one mono, or run them to two different sources.  Now turn the mix all the way up on the ‘Zilla, and you can use either the cave or octo setting, The depth of the effect will be much greater, yet you’ll still have the sound of your initial attack on the other side. 

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! 

Hey everyone, this is Worship Guitar Guy’s sister - better known to the online community as naz.  It has come to my attention that my brother has been decidedly absent from the Worship Guitar Guy scene.  In fact, I do believe I have visited this blog more in the past month than he has, and considering the frequency with which I visit anything guitar related, that’s a supremely sad statement.

 I’ll be honest with you - I know practically nothing about guitars.  I know the difference between an electric and an acoustic, and that Gerry’s Strat is black while his Telecaster is teal, but that’s about it.  Pedals all look the same to me, and this talent/hobbie/obsession seems to require far more money than I’m willing to invest in something that does not require gasoline or an operating system.

So why am I posting on Worship Guitar Guy?  The answer is quite simple, really.  I’m tired of seeing the same post from the end of January, and if I’m tired of it then surely you loyal readers who actually have an interest in all things guitardom (a new word of mine - feel free to use it anywhere) must be sick of awaiting an update.

Thus, here is your update.  I can’t tell you anything about chords or gear or methods or any of that other madness, but I really just wanted to see how long it takes my brother and his associates to realize that this particular blog has been hijacked and resort to such drastic measures as posting themselves to resolve the issue of inactivity in this cyber domain.  (I’m such a pirate.)

So, place your bets, people…  How long do you think it’ll take for Gerry to realize his blog has been updated?  How long do you think it’ll be before you can read of my untimely demise at the hands of my brother online?

Even if I do not survive this not-so-clandestine effort, if it resulted in bringing a smile to your face and motivating my brother to resume his blogging activities, it was well worth the sacrifice.

If you don’t hear from Gerry soon, expect to hear from me!

-naz

Dear Loyal WGG Readers,

We would like to apologize for the lack of posts over the past month and just want everyone to know that the blog is indeed still up and running and will continue to stay that way. We are alive and well, but I know that myself and Gerry have been extremely busy over the past few weeks! We just want everyone to know that we’ve got some cool posts planned for the next month and we appreciate all the comments and support!

Jon

Worship Guitar Guy Blog

Ok, I know I’m a couple of days late for this…  the last two weekends I’ve been playing alot around the area here…

But  have run across a phenomenal resource that’s too good not to share. 

Paul Baloche’s Acoustic Guitar DVD is a phenomenal resource I’ve been benefitting alot from lately.  If you don’t know who Paul is, he’s a worship leader who’s known for writing many of the songs you may sing week in and week out in your church.  One thing he really stands out in doing though is developing practical and easy to understand resources to help worship guitarists improve in their playing.

What I absolutely love about this DVD is Paul teaches you all kinds of alternate chords and voicings for you to incorporate in your playing.  Most of these additional voicings are easy for a beginner/intermediate player to pick up and start using pretty quickly, and it will add a ton of color to your sets.  (You can see most of the chord charts included in the companion workbook PDF link.)  And these chord voicings are extremely helpful for even electric guitar players, since it will help you explore more of the neck on your guitar, as a way of expanding your tonal vocabulary beyond just root position chords.

It just might be the best $30 you can spend right now…

Ok, Ok… I know I’ve been gone for a while.  And you’ve spoken… I’ve heard…  I’ll be back next week with a new post.