- Guitar Trick – Playing in ‘James Taylor’ tenths
- Drum Work-Outs - online video lessons
- New vocal care products and mic wipes
- We now take Paypal!
- Submit a Musicademy product reviews and get a free Song Learner lesson
- Ask the Expert – Leading worship from keys for the first time
- Keyboard part 3 – Melodic fills
- Worship train wreck confessional
- CRE Harrogate – free tickets to our worship seminar
- New T-Shirt Design - competition
Guitar Trick - Playing in 10ths James Taylor style
Andy has just come back from doing some seminars at the National Worship Leader Conference in Texas. One of the teaching sessions that was really popular was “Cheats, Licks & Tips for Acoustic Guitarists”. So as part of our contemporary guitar styles series, Andy shares this James Taylor style trick with you.
“I was quite surprised that one “trick” I showed that people hadn’t come across before and found really useful was something called “Playing in Tenths.” This is a trick you can primarily use in the key of D but of course can be used in other keys with a capo. Delirious used this trick to craft the voicings to Majesty – the song is actually played in D but to make it slightly more vocal-friendly it was detuned to C#.
All you need to learn is two shapes – one for all the major chords and one for the minor chords. These enable you to play any chord in the key of D in standard tuning with some new and great sounding voicings. The main rule is to only play the lowest four strings i.e. the E,A,D and G strings. You can strum or pick just don’t touch the B and E strings.
Let’s start with D major chord shape. Place your middle finger on string 6 (E), fret 10 (D note) and your ring (3rd) finger on the third (G) string, fret 11. See how this sounds.
The other two major chords in the key of D are G and A. All you do is take the same shape but slide it down the neck so that your middle finger is on fret 3 for G and fret 5 for A. Do make sure that your ring finger is a fret higher to keep the same shape as for D.
For the minor shapes, we’ll start with B minor. Again use strings 6 (E) and 3 (G) but make sure both fingers are on fret 7. Again this one shape works for every minor chord in the key and we can even think of the C# diminished as a minor in this instance. C#m is played on fret 9, F#m is both fingers on fret 2. And lastly for the Em you can either play it up high on fret 12 or down low with all the strings open (i.e. take all your fingers off the fret remembering to only play the bottom four strings with your right hand). If you do play this shape low, just playing the open strings does sound a little mushy so to give it some identity it can be helpful to form a regular Em chord instead.
So try all seven chords and see if you can get it to work with a song in D even in the relative minor which is Bm. For instance, the verse of Majesty starts with Bm, A, G, F#m, G, F#m, C#m and then outside of the key to A#. All you need to do here is choose a minor chord shape on fret 6. The finger picking pattern is simply played with strings 6 and 3 together followed by string 4 over and over. If you would like to know more about playing in tenths here is a guest lesson with Stu G from Delirious on our Intermediate Worship Guitar DVDs and the same technique can be used for bass which again is demonstrated on the Intermediate Worship Bass DVDs.
We’ve created online videos for our three essential drum work-outs. You can buy the work-outs on CD which is audio only but if you’d like to also be watching the 3-camera video footage, then click through to download the workouts online.
Created and presented by Colin Brookes, who also presents the Musicademy Worship Drums DVDs, these work-outs will give you a variety of clicks, rudiments and breaks that will develop your timing, fluidity, break and fill repertoire.
The first work-out (the “Featherweight”) is great for beginners, the other two will give more experienced players something to work on.
Our vocal care products are simply flying off the shelves and we’ve recently added a new throat spray – Pro’s Choice. The spray is an all-natural aloe & glycerin lubricating spray for the throat. Also contains marshmallow root, which has been used traditionally to soothe and support the recovery of soft tissues. Great for dryness caused by desert climates, excessive singing or talking, allergies, traveling, forced air environments (hotels, airplanes, venues, etc.), and other causes. Unlike other lubricating throat sprays, Pro’s Choice contains no chemical preservatives or parabens.
We’ve also taken some stock of a brand new product – Mic Wipes. Have you ever felt like you’re not that keen on singing as closely as you should into an SM58 considering how 15 other people that week have been doing just the same thing? Viruses can live on microphone metal for up to 72 hours. These clean-smelling disinfecting wipes are made with a patented silver technology that has proven antimicrobial action. Mic Wipes are an all natural disinfectant wipes for all surfaces - microphones, keyboards, hands etc.
Nothing like this currently exists in the market. This patented and unique preparation is both FDA and EPA certified. It has been shown to be antimicrobial (killing harmful bacteria, yeast, fungus and viruses).
Several customers have asked us to set up Paypal in our online store so we’ve done just that. We also accept Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards. We do find that over cautious banks still give us a few problems with processing of some international cards. If you ever find that your card is refued just email us, we’ll call you back within 24 hours and process the payment manually. Or you can always use Paypal which doesn’t seem to have any international payment problems at all.
Submit a Musicademy product review and get a free Song Learner lesson
We’re redesigning our website at the moment and would like to refresh the various customer testimonials. If you would be willing to write a few lines by way of a Musicademy product review, we will send you a voucher for a free online Song Learner lesson. The review can be of a whole DVD course, an online lesson, our vocal care products or any of the CDs. We’d ideally love to have a little photo as well so don’t forget to attach one to your review. Email your reviews – constructive criticism is also welcome!
Ask The Expert – Leading worship from keys
Florence Benton from Alaska email to ask for advice on leading worship from keyboards for the first time.
It’s a big jump to go from playing keys as part of a band to leading (and singing) as well. Not only are you leading the congregation in their worship, but you will be needing to lead and communicate with the band, all at the same time as watching your vocal tuning, remembering the words, keeping the rhythm and playing all your notes correctly!
So, how to prepare? The first skill to master is playing and singing at the same time. So we’d suggest that as well as practicing this at home, its something you try to get familiar with while you are playing with the band as part of your normal week to week activities. You don’t need to be miced up – just remember to sing throughout and get your brain used to that level of multi-tasking.
What you’ll immediately notice is that you will struggle to play with the same level of complexity when you are also singing. That’s fine – its quite all right to strip back our playing a little when we’re also leading. Do remember to keep with the groove that the rest of the band are playing though.
When it comes to your first time of leading, I’d make a few suggestions. Firstly, choose simple songs that you can already play with confidence. Secondly, if you can, have a competent guitarist with you who can cover if you need. Likewise, if you have the luxury of other talented musicians, this is perhaps the week to ask a few favours and have your stronger players available. Rehearsing is going to be important. The band need to get to understand your communication signals and start to “feel” the way you will lead. And remember to lead – don’t just get lost in the music and forget to signal to the band where you are going next. In rehearsal you’ll find that once you get going with a song you’ll be fine – it’s the starts, stops and junctions that may challenge you. So how about just rehearsing the starts, stops and junctions between parts of the song, as well as moving seamlessly from one song to another.
Lastly, let’s think about vocals. I’m assuming that you are going to be the main lead singer. Remember to do your vocals warm up exercises first. If you’re a strong singer then you should be fairly comfortable with leading and cueing new songs, repeats and shifts to new sections of the song. If you’re not that strong vocally, then feel free to speak the line that you are next going to. Your band and congregation won’t mind – they would far rather know where you are going next than be left wondering.
Remember too that although you are the worship “leader”, you need to see yourself as a servant both to the band and the congregation. So get your set list out in advance and provide copies of the music to those who need it. If you are a female worship leader and the band is normally led by a male singer, you may find that some of the songs are not so comfortable for your range. Don’t wait until the Sunday morning to discover this. Run through the songs in advance and change them into different keys if you need to. I would typically take songs down a tone or two for comfort (women’s natural range works well with keys like B and men with D). As a guide try to ensure that you aren’t singing any notes above top D.
There’s advice on leading worship from keyboards on both our Intermediate Worship Keyboard DVDs and our Vocals DVDs.
Introduction to worship keyboard – part 3 - Understanding how to form and use melodic fills
After forming chords and using rhythm well the next step is to add colour using melodic fills. As the title suggest these fill in where there is a gap rather than going on all the time. Look for opportunities in songs where there is no singing or when there are sustained notes to play a fill. There are three main ways of finding good notes to play for fills. The first is to use chord notes. Whenever you play any of the notes of the chord written in the music they will fit. You can play chord notes going up (ascending) or going down (descending). They don’t even have to be the next note in the arpeggio—you could miss one out. Here are some chord notes you could use over a C major chord:
Using chord notes is good but it will always sound a little clichéd on its own because you don’t introduce any tension of clashing notes into the music. The next step on from chord notes is to use the notes of the scale in between them. These are added in between notes are called passing notes. Again they can be ascending or descending. The passing notes in the example below are larger than the chord notes. Again these would fit with a C major chord:
The last melodic feature you can use for fills is the auxiliary note. An auxiliary note is a note above or below a chord note. This is similar to a passing note but instead of going up (or down) to the next chord note you return to the one you’ve just played. The examples below would fit with a C major chord again:
The best way of using these techniques is to combine them. Chord notes with a leap followed by passing notes or auxiliary notes are very effective. Too many passing notes just becomes like scale practice so try combining leaps to chord notes and a few auxiliary notes.
Once you are familiar with all of these devices you can try two things to push your playing further:
Combine these devices with the use of a different rhythm Try playing in 3rds and 6ths (that is playing a note either 3 or 6 notes below the one you’re starting on) Both of these will add colour and variety to your playing. Have a go and good luck!
Worship train wreck confessional
You remember those train wreck moments when it all goes horribly wrong – your band starts in different keys, you sing the wrong lyrics or worse. Do you have any of these moments you would like to confess either on audio or video? If so please please send them our way. We’ll reward any we publish with some free stuff from our store. We’re also really happy to have You Tube code if you’ve found something great online.
We’re in the process of redesigning our website at the moment and will include a section with loads of free video and blog-style resources as well as links to other sites so do get involved with the worship train wreck confessional.
Free tickets for Musicademy workshops at the Christian Resources Exhibition
Musicademy will be at the UK’s Christian Resources Exhibition in Harrogate, Yorkshire on 25-27 September. As well as exhibiting in the resources area Marie, Andy and vocals tutor Nicki Rodgers will be running a number of training seminars and workshops. Tickets are normally £5 on the door but you can order them free-of-charge through our webstore.
On the Saturday afternoon, we will be running a 2.5 hour workshop delivering practical training for the whole worship team. It will be packed with ideas to help your worship team play together more cohesively and improve their sound and skills. Suitable for the whole team, the workshop is in four parts:
Vocals training – improve your vocal skills and learn to communicate the meaning of the words by exploring how we sing Building the groove – a practical session on how to make your band sound together and improve their arrangements by deconstructing rhythm patterns (bring guitars if you like) Tips and discussion on worship leading skills, musical communication, creating a unified team and maximizing the effectiveness of your sound checks and rehearsals Worship team Q & A - bring your questions Click through to our webstore to order your free tickets and exhibition brochure.
New T-shirt Slogan/Design Competition - Win 2 DVD Box Sets!
We are launching a competition to win two Musicademy DVD box sets worth over $160. We are looking for a cool/funny slogan or if you’re feeling arty a funky design. It might feature the Musicademy name but doesn’t have to. So have a brainstorm and send in your slogan ideas – we’re happy to receive more than one entry per person.
We mainly sell t-shirts at worship festivals and conferences and the average buyer is male aged 18-40. Any entry which ends up made into a t-shirt will win two box sets of their choice. Email your entries before the end of August 2008.
You can view current entries on our blog. Do email us and let us know which you like best.
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