Dear [[{First name}]],

In this edition:

Ask The Expert – Using a Cut Capo

Many worship leaders are increasingly using the “cut” capo to their guitar tool box. Unlike a full size capo which covers each of the six guitar strings, the cut capo just covers the A D and G strings leaving the others open. The result is a deep, open resonating sound that is also a great tool for beginners as it only requires one or two fingers to play most chords in the key of E. Its also very useful for create huge droning sounds if you are the only musician in a house group or small church and you need to create big sounds to fill up some space.


One of the first worship song written for the cut capo was Billy James Foote’s “You Are My King” (Amazing Love, How Can It Be). In this song the capo is put over the second fret leaving the strings E, B and E open. This effectively creates a new tuning without having to retune the guitar. You have to learn some new chord shapes to play, but the result is a lovely open ringing sound. In fact, many formally difficult chords and chord progressions become simpler with the cut capo.

You can see how the cut capo works by downloading our online lesson of You Are My King. The new chord shapes for the song are below.

     

The cut capo was developed for songs in the key of E but you could also use it in F by placing a full capo on the first fret and the cut capo on fret three. Another idea is to turn the cut capo upside down and place it on the D G and B strings. If you then use shapes like you are playing in the key of G the open strings will give you some really interesting additional drone sounds. Try this on fret two and you’ll be in the key of A, fret five gives you C, Fret seven is D and fret nine for playing in E.

New Stuart Townend and Aaron Keyes hymn

We are delighted to bring you a brand new online worship guitar lesson featuring the new hymn based on Psalm 62 written by Stuart Townend and Aaron Keyes. Stuart is well known for his songs In Christ Alone and How Deep the Father’s Love which are amongst the most sung in the church today. Aaron is a worship leader based in Atlanta and for this Song Learner lesson we were able to interview him and also film him playing and singing the song alongside our own Andy Chamberlain.

We reckon that this song is going to be huge, however some guitarists may find it quite difficult to play as it features lots of tricky chords and a couple of time signature changes. Our song learner lesson unpacks each part of the song showing you plenty of cheat chords to get all the changes in. There is also plenty of learning that you can apply to other hymns and songs in the key of D.

As usual there is a handout to support the lesson in the members area of our website.

If you haven’t heard the song yet, don’t worry. Aaron joins Andy at the end of the lesson to play and sing it through – so you’ll have plenty of chances to get the song down.

Go to our webstore to purchase and download the 30 minute lesson.

Love One Woman … Many Guitars

We’ve just taken on a range of cool music related T-Shirts which you might be interested in The men’s bear the slogans:

  • Love One Woman … Many Guitars
  • Love One Woman … Many Basses
  • Stick With One Woman … Many Drums

    The women’s range includes:

  • Love One Man … Many Guitars

    Check them out on our website. Some of the sizes are a bit limited at the moment but if we haven’t got your size just email us and we’ll order it in.

    Musicademy vocals classes in South London this September

    We are planning to run a worship vocals course in the Elephant & Castle/New Cross area of South London this September. If you live nearby and are interested in attending please e-mail for more information

    More common worship leading mistakes and Musicademy subscriber solutions

    Subscribers enjoyed our article last month on common worship leading mistakes. Here are a couple that were emailed in:

    Patti DeShazo wrote:

    There is often confusion about the roadmap of the song. Much time can be wasted in practice trying to remember what comes next, where the turnarounds are, who comes in where. Very often, the worst mistakes made during worship are due to roadmap confusion, for example, someone leads the team into the chorus instead of the verse and it falls apart.

    A roadmap can also discriminate between soft, loud, driving rhythm, etc. It can help move the team into a new level of dynamics by noting who is playing at which time. It can also be saved as a reminder for the next time the song is used.

    Here is the solution that Patti’s team use:
    Make a simple list for the entire team of the way the song will be played and in each row note which instruments come in and describe the feel or that element. Hand written notes can always be added later.

    Here is Patti’s road map for You Never Let Go

    Intro:  4 measures (acoustic/ light drums)

    Verse 1 (vocal comes in on 4th beat of 3rd intro measure) acoustic, brush drums

    PreChorus (add electric and bass)

    Chorus (loud, driving)

    Verse2 (somewhat quiet)

    PreChorus (begin driving at end of prechorus)

    Chorus with 2nd ending (driving)

    Chorus (driving)

    Bridge (keep driving, building)

    Bridge (continue driving)

    Chorus (almost acapella, just very light bass and dampened acoustic, begin driving at turnaround)

    Chorus (big, driving)

    Ending: Tag 1 time

    Patti’s feeling is that this will not take away from spontaneity as typically a song that leads to spontaneous moments of worship will do so after the standard roadmap has been played through. We think this is a great idea, particularly for inexperienced worship bands who perhaps aren’t that great at reading the signals from the worship leader. Patti is pictured playing banjo with her worship team last Sunday in their first old time country-style service.

    Ian Forster from Gateshead in the UK felt that worship leaders can make mistakes in sometimes choosing to sing the same song over and over again. Ian felt that this can mean that the song looses its meaning. His solution is for the song to be sung a maximum of three times before allowing the Holy Spirit to bring you into the next song, listening for people who need to pray in between songs.

    We think this is a very valid suggestion, particularly if the congregation are clearly tiring of the song. Its easy as musicians to get carried away and lose the people they are serving. We also need to bear in mind, however, that some denominations have a culture of lengthy worship times where the repetition is felt to help people draw closer to God. We would suggest that where a song is repeated several times, that the musicians work hard on keeping it fresh by varying the dynamics, repeating just one line, changing the key or using ad libs. Ultimately let’s not fall into the trap of just repeating things because we’re not sure of where to go next. Many people use the meaning of the words rather than just the music to engage with God in their worship times and whilst endless repetition can cause some people to focus in on the words in a Taize-like worship experience, for others the repetition can cause a loss of meaning. It depends on your cultural environment so let’s work hard to be sensitive.

    Have you got some more classic mistakes and suggested solutions or would you like to comment on what our readers have suggested?

    E-mail us and let us know.

    • Competition result

    Cosima Ybarra from Perris Valley California won the five free downloads in the last competition. Here’s what she said about the newsletter and the lessons.

    Being new to the Musicademy newsletter I was pleasantly surprised at the broad spectrum and depth of content. As a worship director I found every one of the articles helpful in some way and can apply most of the information immediately.

    I just downloaded my first Song Learner Series videos and want to send you a note of thanks for providing some great resources for worship guitar players. Downloading was easy, and after just a few minutes I was ready to watch and learn some new techniques.

    I had a chance to view the instructional videos Let My Words Be Few by Matt Redman and Yesterday Today Forever by Vicki Beeching. Both videos were very comprehensive and easy to follow while addressing both beginning and more experienced acoustic guitarists. Andy Chamberlain does a nice job of explaining each part and helps you put it all together.

    I especially appreciated learning the various chord shapes not seen on the usual song chord charts. Using the chords shapes that were originally written for the songs preserves the mood intended by the writer. And, learning new ways to play a simple D chord can make a big difference by helping keep it "fresh". After all, you can play a whole worship set in the key of D but that would become mundane. With the different chord shapes to help you, you can change it up a notch!

    Thanks Musicademy, for putting some great tools in our hands.

    You can check out Cosima’s website at www.worshipone.org

    Win Five Free Song Learner Downloads

    We really like to know what you think of our newsletter and the Musicademy products so please take a couple of minutes to answer these questions and e-mail them to us. One respondent will win five free song learner downloads and we’ll let you know what they think of them in the next issue.

    1. What did you think of this newsletter?
    2. Which articles did you particularly enjoy?
    3. Any questions for our “Ask the Expert” feature?
    4. Any suggestions for content that you would like to read in the future?
    5. Any suggestions for websites we could recommend people?
    6. Have you bought a Musicademy product or downloaded a lesson and what did you think of it?

    Please e-mail your responses to enter the draw!

    Having trouble reading this?
    If for some reason you can't see the pictures, or the newsletter doesn't appear correctly, you can see a copy of it here.
    Privacy Notice
    We never loan or sell our customer information to others, however, if you would prefer not to receive information from Musicademy, please e-mail us with the word REMOVE in both the subject and body of the email.