Transcript below…
Today we’re going to talk about what it means to love our listener as we play the guitar.
At the school where our children attend, one of the values that is consistently brought forward when writing papers is the idea of “Loving your reader.”
This means writing clearly, and writing well. In fact, they even give out penmanship awards for the younger students to affirm their work in this area.
I’d say that as guitarists, loving our listener is tremendously important, whether the listener is enjoying our guitar live in person, over a live stream, or on some sort of audio or video recording.
Today, during this brief discussion, I’ll offer five ways to love your listener. There will always be more, and your suggestions are welcome in the comments, but let’s start with these five.
1. Tune your guitar.
I offer this suggestion because a significant portion of the song offerings I’ve heard over time have been played well, but on guitars that are slightly out of tune.
This actually undermines the entire offering.
There are a variety of ways to tune, from using a tuner, to a tuning fork, to referencing a piano, to using the highly advanced method of equal temperament with harmonics and beats.
But even a simple smartphone app can act as a bridge from being out of tune to being in tune. People may not know which string is out of tune, but they’ll know intuitively if a guitar is not in tune.
Your listener likes to listen to guitars that are in tune.
2. Want to play well.
What does this mean? I basically desire to inspire you to play your guitar well. Some folks I’ve heard are basically “phoning it in.”
They grab their guitar, start strumming, and are generally ok with what comes out.
But here’s the thing: they may be playing some unnecessary strings with their chords (E.G. the low open E under a D chord.)
Or they may be strumming too aggressively for the interpretation of the song.
Or they may be ignoring the opportunity for dynamic variation. So, I encourage you to play cleanly, accurately, and artistically.
3. Desire variety within limitations.
Within the scope of artistic interpretation, we can vary our chords, strumming patterns, and picking patterns, even within the song. Some folks default to just a handful of strumming patterns for their entire worship repertoire, rather than thinking through what the song might need.
And color chords or different voicings can add so much. Think about what the limitations are of the song, and work within those, but bring variety and elegance, based on what you can offer in this season. This applies to worship leading, but also songwriting.
4. Wave the flag of quality over quantity.
In GuitarSuccess4U, I teach my highly unique “Chord Kite Diagram” strategy, where my members are able to zoom in on just four chords and their combined transitions, for clean movements between them.
This translates to a much more pleasing offering. Contrast playing four chords well, with someone who can play 40 chords…sloppily. I think you know what would show love to your listener here: quality over quantity, especially with music. Lastly…
5. Don’t be a perfectionist.
Perfectionism can be the enemy of progress. If we refuse to offer our gifts until they’re “perfect,” we could be missing out on all sorts of opportunities. But if we stay “human” in our delivery, considering these other ways of bringing quality and elegance, we’ll provide something very enjoyable.
People enjoy hearing music from people. Not machines, not A.I., not something mechanical, but real people playing real music.
Tom Jackson, a gifted performance coach with whom I have studied, once said that “Going from bad to good is easy; going from good to great is really tedious.”
Basically, to really buckle down and work towards a quality delivery with your guitar playing won’t necessarily take hours, days, weeks, or even months. It may take years or even decades.
But the good news is that we’re in this for the long game. We’re going to play our guitars for many, many, many, many years, Lord willing.
So, will all this hard work be worth it? Yes.
Don’t let the long game discourage you. Think about how well you want to play, and do what you can today to love your listener. And enjoy the process.
And then, more opportunities will open up for you to play your guitar, and you’ll get better, and better…and better.
And then more doors will open.
Proverbs 22:29 says: “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.”
And Psalm 33:3 says: “Sing to the Lord a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”
And yes, there will be joy.
I hope these thoughts gave you some ideas for how to enhance your playing. If you’re ready for the next level and a clear, battle-tested success path that leads to loving your listener even more, as you discover the guitar and the joy of music in a Christ-honoring community, please check out GuitarSuccess4U.com.
Trust me – there’s more wisdom, encouragement, and inspiration waiting for you here than you can imagine.
Keep playing your guitar, keep having serious fun, and I’ll see you next time.
Loving Your Listener - Playing Well