Guitarmann Blog

Easter is just around the corner, and I've put together some resources that will help you prepare to lead worship or just play through your favorite Easter song. These songs have themes of the resurrection and themes of hope. Some of them are newer and others are classics. 

In this lesson I'll show you how I combine two of my very favorite finger warm up exercises into one. You'll see the chromatic scale and the whole note scale combined to help loosen up your fingers before you play. 

In this acoustic tutorial of "Gratitude" by Brandon Lake (Bethel Music), you'll learn exactly how to tune your guitar to the alternate tuning used in the "Chosen Performance", and you'll learn the exact chord shapes and picking pattern used. This will take a little time to learn, but it's a beautiful song and worth the effort! Make sure to download the free chord charts and guitar TAB to see exactly what's happening in the song. You can also check out my cover of the song as well to hear it in action!   

In this acoustic cover of "Gratitude" by Brandon Lake, you'll see the unique picking pattern and alternate tuning in action! The original song is in the key of B and uses a capo on the 2nd fret; however, this cover doesn't use the capo, which puts it in the key of A. Enjoy, and make sure to also check out the tutorial! 

"We Praise You" by Bethel Music and Brandon Lake (also Matt Redman) has taken off, recently in churches as a go-to worship song. You can try it out in multiple keys with these free charts:  

"Goodness of God" by Bethel Worship is a great worship song, especially for a female lead! The verses and choruses are singable and the bridge builds with a lot of energy. "Your goodness is running after me." 

Play along with this cover of "Build My Life" by Pat Barrett! This song is in the key of G, but you can check out multiple keys below.

In the last lesson, we covered how to play the song Death Was Arrested. In case you'd like to try to play along with the Nashville Numbers, you can try out this lesson! Nashville Numbers will help you in many different ways, such as song writing and quickly transposing songs. I cover more about that in the Intermediate Course. Check out the lesson and download number chart for free!

Today's lesson is on a great worship song: "Death Was Arrested" by North Point Worship. This is a great Easter song! The chords are fairly easy, but you'll learn how to tackle the 6/8 picking and strumming pattern. As a bonus, you'll also see a really cool trick you can do with your capo to match the intro lick exactly. 

In this acoustic cover of "Death Was Arrested" by NorthPoint Worship, you'll see how you can play the intro lick along with the chords. This will also work with the verses of the song. You can also check out the tutorial in the next post! 

In the last lesson, we covered how to play the song Yes I Will. Once you have the hang of it, try this lesson so you can keep getting better and better at "reading numbers." Nashville Numbers will help you in many different ways, such as song writing and quickly transposing songs. I cover more about that in the Intermediate Course. Check out the lesson and download number chart for free!

Today's lesson is on one of my current favorite worship songs: Yes I Will by Vertical Worship. The chord progression is the same almost throughout the whole song, and I'll explain a songwriting technique they used for this song. Your right hand will have practice with the "pushed eighth" strum pattern that you can learn in the Intermediate Course. Check out the lesson and download the charts for free!

In this acoustic cover of Yes I Will, by Vertical Worship, you'll see the "pushed 8th" strum pattern in action and will also see how a simple chord pattern can carry through an entire song. This cover is using capo 2 and G chord shapes, which puts it in the key of A; however, the original song was recorded in the key of C. Check out the cover and charts.

In the previous tutorial, you learned how to play this song using letter shapes. In today's lesson, you'll get some more practice with Nashville Numbers. After you feel comfortable with playing through the song, try using this video and playing along with numbers. Notice that a 1 chord represents a G chord. A 4 chord represents a C chord, and a 5 chord represents a D chord. For more on Nashville Numbers, check out the Intermediate Guitar Course.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to play the acoustic guitar part of Graves into Gardens by Elevation Worship. There are two ways to play the intro part of G suspended into a G open chord. This change is what makes the song recognizable. We'll also have a full play-along with the song. You can download the charts for that below.