Our Praise & Worship Dilemma

As we prepared our worship song chord detail for keyboard and guitar some years ago, I was confronted with a recurring problem.  Before each rehearsal we had to begin with a decision for each song: Do we go with chords appropriate for guitar or with the more complete chords for the keyboard? If the leader was to be a guitarist, well, you probably know which way we went. If the praise and worship leader that week would be leading from keyboard, that leader would insist (gently, of course) on playing the song as written—five chords to a measure, if so indicated.

So, invariably, that week’s guitarist would stare in frustration at the praise & worship chord detail, deciding all he was capable of were some lead licks, maybe an opening chord or two at a line’s beginning, or even a pedal tone lining up with the bass. And of course everyone was very nice about it… but not completely happy.  Basically the rule became: He who leads decides.

After a few months of this, during praise & worship, one guitarist, who didn’t have a great many lead ideas, and who was also pretty frustrated with playing pseudo-bass lines and pedal tones with complex chords in the praise music, moved out onto the harmonic scene and played his guitar chording while the keyboardist played his chord-for-every-note part.  So…

The only thing anyone really noticed was more rhythm sounding from the rhythm section. No one seemed to notice that for a second here or there the guitar might be playing a “G” while the keyboard was sounding a “D.”

What’s our moral here (or do we have one)?

Let me simply explain. We began to look at the guitar more as a rhythmic instrument, rather than as a harmonic instrument.  (You can also look at it as a melodic instrument, but that’ll be another story.) The guitar can now use chords to (more or less) express the harmonic movement of a song, but they don’t have to be perfectly exact.

You’ll see it at a glance…

In your church cell or small group’s praise & worship, the Lyrics & Chords for Guitar sheets can serve a dual purpose. If you have less experience on guitar, you can use them in their open-fretted keys, along with a capo to play in the original key.  If you're a more experienced guitarist, you can use the tabs as a guide to play in the original key, without having to work through all the chord changes of the keyboard part. Either way, now you can put your focus more on the praise song’s rhythmic features, instead of grappling with constant chord changes.

Preview a demo Lead Sheet and Lyrics & Chords sheet.

What you'll receive in each Worship Package...

1) Three-part harmony for your worship team, bass note indications for the bass guitarist, and chords for the keyboardist in the Lead Sheets;
2) a range of key choices for guitarists in the Lyrics & Chords for Guitar sheets, with or without using a capo; 
3) Lyrics Sheets that you can easily copy into your own projection format; and...
4) the song as originally recorded by the composers themselves.

Order some Worship Packages today!