How to Play Easy Christian Guitar Songs

You can learn to play songs on a guitar.

The guitar is a perfect accompaniment for wherever Christians gather. The acoustic guitar is so portable, you can play it at a beach, on a trail or at a Bible study in a small apartment. Its instrumental voice can be impassioned or reflective. It's also relatively easy to learn, giving anybody the opportunity to play.

Instructions

Choose the Best Way to Learn

1. 

   Browse for songbooks or sheet music in a bookstore or library. Any beginner can use songbooks, which list the chords needed for each song. "Fingering charts" are diagrams of how to form common chords and are included in beginning guitar books.

2. 

   Search the Internet for online tutorials or tablature for easy Christian guitar songs.

3. 

   Ask your guitar teacher for help. He may recommend songs, help you play the sheet music, or teach you how to play a song by ear. Most teachers want to know the styles that interest you, especially at the "easy" level, to help inspire you to keep learning. Most easy songs can also be played "by ear," with three basic chords (see Section 3).

4. 

Choose a Song

1. Chose simple melodies if you're playing for a group, so the song will be easy to follow. Songs with a downbeat that you can strum or pick a little louder are also good, helping the group keep time.

2. Choose songs that speak to you, but include songs that run the gamut of tempos and emotional tones.

3. Look through old hymnals for inspiration. Some old songs have simple melodies yet deep meaning, and are ready for "reinvention." What may be overly familiar on an organ, may sound fresh on guitar.

Discern Basic Chords

1. Figure out easy Christian guitar songs by ear, using a standard set of chords such as C, G, F and Am. These chords are fairly easy to finger, and easy to learn from a fingering chart. This progression casts most songs in a comfortable singing range, but you can also buy a capo from a music store to further adjust the pitch.

2. Try the C-G-F-Am progression for "Amazing Love," written by Chris Tomlin. Form a C chord, then draw your fingers downward over the strings. Then, the F chord, and so on:

   Verse 1
   (C) I'm forgiven (F), (C) because you were forsaken (G), (C) I'm accepted (F), (C) You were condemned (G), (C) I'm alive (F) and well (C), your spirit lives within me (G), because (C) you (G) died and rose again (C).

   Chorus
   (C) Amazing love, (F) how can it be, (C) that you my King should die for me? (G) (C) Amazing love, (F) I know it's true, (C) and it's my joy to honor (G) you, in all I (F) do (G), I honor you. (C)

   You are my King. (C)

3. Find the music in a songbook, or watch the song being played in an online tutorial in order to learn to play a version truer to the originals. A version of "Amazing Love" in the key of D progresses:

   Verses
   D, G, D, A or A suspended (repeated)
   "Because (G) you died (A) and rose again. (D)"

   Chorus
   D, G, D, A or Asus

   You are my King. (D)

Develop a Strumming or Picking Pattern

1. Draw your fingers or pick in a down-up pattern that suits the tempo of the song. One easy strumming pattern:

   Down, down, up, up, down, up

2. Try a second, easy strumming pattern. It's the same as the first pattern, except it leaves off the last up-stroke:

   Down, down, up, up, down

3. Play a slower, more reflective song by strumming a chord softly to keep time on the downbeats. Between the "strums," pick three or four sets of three notes each. Because your left hand is still forming a chord, picking any string will do.

References

• Learn Acoustic Guitar: Free guitar-lesson tutorial site