Being able to talk and play guitar at the same time (and say something that’s actually coherent) is quite a useful skill to have as a worship leader. Having music in the background of spoken word adds a nice atmosphere. Actually pulling it off is a bit difficult – you’re stuck trying to do two fairly complicated things at once (public speaking and public guitar playing), and your brain gets tied up into a pretzel.
With a little practice and a few practical tips, you’ll be able to pull it off in no time. So, here are four tips I’ve learned that have helped:
01. Play a familiar chord progression, and don’t change it
You want your brain to go on auto-pilot when it comes to the guitar playing. The more thought you can put into what you are saying, the better. Make sure what you are doing on guitar follows these rules:
- The progression needs simple. Stick to 2 to 4 basic changes.
- The chords (or notes) you are playing need to be easy. You don’t want to be moving from the 14th fret down to the 2nd during your progression.
- The progression should not change for the duration of your talking. You’ll get lost. Trust me.
02. Think about what you are going to say ahead of time.
The more prep the better. Feel free to memorize, but in many cases you may be following the Spirit or the moment of the song. Even then, before you start talking, at least have a basic roadmap in your mind of what you are going to say. Also remember, the fewer words you can use to communicate your point, the better.
03. Pause during the chord changes.
Pause your speaking during the chord changes. You don’t want to do something so abrupt that it disrupts the cadence of what you are saying, but you will find that with a bit of practice, you’ll be able to let your speaking part flow with the changes of the chord progression.
04. Practice
Trust me – don’t try it for the first time in a congregational worship setting. You might make it through OK, but chances are good that you’ll trip up a bit. Try it at home first. Even better, try carrying on a conversation with somebody while playing a chord progression.
Conclusion
I must confess that I was very afraid of playing while I talked for a long time, so I went years without ever doing it. With just a bit of practice, it will become easier and easier, and the more you do it, the more confident you will become. Good luck!
Question:
Have you ever tried this and said something totally inaccurate (theologically or otherwise)? If so, let us know in the comments.
The latest mistake I made involved the welcome. I lead worship for two different churches every week, so one morning a few months ago I welcomed the congregation to the wrong church 🙂
at this point, I have more trouble coming up with stuff to say. scripture verses don’t roll quite smoothly out of my mouth…. and I tend to pray the same phrases over again… any tips?
I’m right there with you when it comes to praying the same phrases over and over. My biggest piece of advice is to spend significant time in prayer and in scripture during the week. I know it’s almost cliche and certainly something that many have said before, but when we are speaking and praying, we are pouring out. If we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to pour into us consistently, we’ll just keep spouting the same stuff.
Hey Brian, I love your website, I have my first worship leader debut coming up and Im wondering how to put a awesome service together. Often there are pauses btw songs (LONG) or it feels like the worship is just over way to soon, we kinda rush through the songs and get to the end so fat, I would like some advice when choosing the correct songs and also a good service layout.
Regards Phill
Auckland
New Zealand
[email protected]
Hey Phill,
Great question! I totally agree that transitions between songs are a big piece of the flow of worship. When you create a mood or experience, you definitely want to keep it flowing as you change songs. I’m planning on doing a few videos about this, and in the meantime, here are a few things I try to keep in mind.
1. Don’t get in a hurry. You already mentioned how things can feel abrupt at times. Often, though, there is a space between songs (or in the middle of songs) where it feels right to pause for a moment.
2. Use keys to your advantage, Part 1.If you’re songs in a set are all in the same key, flowing between them is seamless. Feel free to change a key slightly to allow this to happen.
3. Use keys to your advantage, Part 2: If you have a keyboard player, ask them to play a pad – the atmospheric pad sound is a great way to transition between songs, and it’s good way to change keys if you have songs in different keys.
4. Sometimes there really isn’t an easy way to transition between songs without a pause in music. In that case, just let the current song end, and just start the next one naturally. If you go to concerts, this is what
happens most of the time.
5. Practice – specifically, practice the transitions.
Ha – this was a LONG response! Looks like I’ve got the draft ready for the
next post, though!
Oh – and forgot to mention – Good luck with your upcoming worship service!
Here’s my awesome comment. I’m currently recording a video as we type.
Hey AlastairVance , what are your tips for talking and playing at the same time?
I’m writing this comment as I am recording a video. How exciting!
Hey Alastair Vance , what are your tips on talking and playing guitar at the same time? .
@brianwahl Alastair Vance I reiterate what you say – keep the progression simple so you don’t have to think at all about the guitar part.
It gets trickier when you have a full band involved. I advise that you speak to the band in advance and plan the parts that you will speak, and even what chord progression you will play. And DO plan what you will say, because as soon as you start sputtering nonsense, you can be sure your guitar playing will follow and it will just get messy.
Another way around it, is to have someone else in the band speak or read instead. Sometimes I will have a vocalist read a passage of scripture between songs while I concentrate on playing.
If I have a keyboard player, I would rather not play at all and just have a pad run over the transition were I would speak. That way I can relax a little, lift up my bible if needed and read from it.
I think the key is, and I’m still learning to do this, is to relax with the congregation. It’s not necessary to fly through the set as fast as possible. Don’t be afraid to pause between sentences and work to the rhythm of the chord progression.
@AlastairVance Alastair Vance Thanks, Al!
I definitely agree with all these points. I really like trying to involve other members of the church or worship team in speaking roles. It allows more people to be involved, and keeps things flowing nicely.
I had two motives for asking you this – one was to get your input on the subject, and the other was to test out the social tagging function of the new comment plugin I’m using. I see that both of them worked 🙂
@brianwahl I had considered adding LiveFyre a while back, but was afraid it would mess things up like other comment systems had done in the past. How are you liking it so far? Does it make the page ‘heavier’?
@AlastairVance So far I’m loving it. I have noticed some lag, but I’m not sure if it’s LiveFyre or my host (Bluehost). LiveFyre does mention several times that they’ve been rated as one of the fastest 3rd party plugins available for wordpress. Does the site feel sluggish to you?
@AlastairVance Oh, and I was also making a video about how to tag and leave comments here while I tagged you. Hope you don’t mind, ha 🙂
@brianwahl No, it doesn’t. Seems to load quite quickly.
@brianwahl Not at all. 🙂
@AlastairVance Awesome. I think being able to pull people in to posts via social media is pretty slick – just feels like how the internet is supposed to work.
This has been the scary thing I’ve avoided for years! Last summer one of my students came back from college, and had bought a guitar. I put him on stage that week and told him to both sing and play guitar! Totally stretched him. During practice he said “You should say something before we go in the bridge”, and I stammered “I’m not really comfortable talking and playing. . .” His look back at me said it all! LOL that week I practiced, and started learning how to talk and play. These are great tips!
One thing to watch out for: If you’re talking during the intro to a song it’s really tempting and easy for some reason to totally forget the right tempo. By the time you’re half way into the verse it’s too late to fix it and your “Happy day” isn’t so happy 🙂 You can fix this by stopping playing and having your drummer count you in right before you start singing.
@pastorhudson Good call on the drummer counting in! When we do new songs, I’ll often intro them and let people know it’s new and that we’ll sing the chorus, etc. It’s true – getting off tempo is really easy. Great advice.
@brianwahl Can you please do a tutorial to the song Spirit Waltz by Something Like Silas?
@Polo1594 I haven’t heard of that one before – I’ll check it out.
hi… God bless you… let me tell you that you are amazing… i have a request: can u teach how to play with slow song? plz
@Martha Ruiz Thank you Martha. I’m not sure I understand what you are asking – what do you mean by ‘slow song’?
Hi Brian, amazing tutorial .. I learned a lots, especially in “Our God Tutorial”. It helps me how to play guitar as simply as possible with minimize movement of chords. I’ve been looking for this kind of chords movement, I found yours is the simplest and very easy. God bless. Please do tutorial for “We Fall Down – Chris Tomlin”.
Do these tips apply to singing and playing at the same time as well?
Sure – the biggest thing is to practice a lot and really know the song – memorize every part of it both on guitar and vocally.
I once tried to quote John 3:16-17 while playing guitar to transition between songs, and totally botched the verse. Great our worship leader doesn’t even know John 3:16…
HI Brian
I’m a big fan, from South Africa, you make things seem so easy,bought the the new PADS 2 set, gonna be trying them out next week…
just a suggestion or more like a request, i would love to see a blooper tutorial soon….
LOL
Thanks again for all the awesome tutorials, love you man
Bless you
Francois Theron
South Africa
Eastern Cape
Thanks Francois! Trust me – I get enough footage to make a blooper video, ha. I’ll have to put one together soon!