Any recommended guitar course?

[hishandmaiden]

I am mainly learning guitar to learn praise and worship songs. I want to worship God with the guitar.
I had 2 months of guitar instruction back in the past before I stopped due to financial constraints. I learnt the dduudu strum pattern during my guitar instruction class. It is a group instruction class.
I am interested in learning mainly to play praise and worship songs, as well as hymns and gospel songs. 

From justinguitar, I learnt the D chord and A chord, though I struggle with them sometimes. I am currently using justinguitar as a resource. I may consider subscibing to either guitartricks or jamplay, though I am not sure which is better. These guitar sites are good, but they mainly teaches secular songs, and rarely, and most often not, have any praise and worship songs which I can learn.
I will really appreciate if someone can point me to a website that focuses on teaching praise and worship guitar, even if it is a dvd.

I prefer online video site with lifetime subscription, so that I don't have to pay again and again. I know of two websites, worship artistry and worshiponline that focuses on christian praise and worship but they are mainly songs and not techniques or styles or music theory.

I will like to learn guitar music theory, guitar strumming pattern and learn more guitar chords. I also hope to learn to move up and down the guitar fretboard and transpose with capo. As of now, I do not know how to use a capo. 

Also, are there any guitar websites beside guitartricks, jamplay, truefire or artistworks that offer video instructions from beginner to advanced? Especially one that is focus on praise and worship? Or teaches songs that worship artistry and worshiponline doesn't cover?

Thanks for all the recommendations so far, will continue to look at more recommendations. I recently bought a FG830 Yamaha acoustic guitar and wonder if it works with praise and worship songs, or will an electric guitar suits me better? Also, which is better, guitartrick or jamplay or truefire?

Furthermore, I recently inherited a sum of US$1000 and will like to invest them on guitar course. Price is not an issue for me. What are some guitar accesories I should look up for and purchase, besides the capo, that will aid me in learning guitar? My budget after spending on FG830 is US$1000. Any course within that price range and is good will be considered by me. Thanks for reading!

[Dave-regenerated]

I would suggest you find Guitar tablature online from magazines and books (you can get them for free at certain websites) and slog through learning how to read it and play it.  This will be tremendously helpful to you short and long term.  I would get hold a guitar chord chart and learn the chords.  Then you will need to learn scales.  This all takes time and effort.  But once you get going it becomes easier over time.  Once you know the chords and the scales, you can memorise patterns and figure out where all the notes are and how they are connected over the fretboard.  It is also helpful to learn many different styles, but don't do that in the beginning; just stick with the basics and when you are comfortable with them, try different styles of music.

As for worship music, that's not my forte.  But once you know the chords E, A, G, D, F and their minor key variants, you should be able to translate them into music of your own liking.  Electric guitar is easier to play for beginners as the guitar neck and fretboard generally tend to be smaller, but you can start with an acoustic if you like.  Don't buy an expensive guitar to begin with, as you may find you don't progress as much as you like (it is generally more difficult for people to learn the guitar when they get older).  And it's helpful to learn how to play with your fingers as well as with a plectrum.

[Starise]

Alternate chord patterns are helpful too. Especially if you have smaller hands. Some of those finger reaches are for people with long fingers. A smaller guitar can help. Nylon strings don't need as much force to push in and sound more mellow. Guitar string height adjustment is another one. Some guitars come new not very well set up and the strings are far too high.

[Alive]

Kenny is a brother and a very good teacher. Consider reaching out to him.

https://www.kennysmithguitar.com

[OneLight]

I'd pick up a Basic Guitar Chords poster, which can be found on Amazon.  Hang it on the wall where you will be practicing.  There are many sites where you can find christian music with chords and tabs.  I use Ultimate Guitar: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

As for lessons, there are some good teachers on YouTube.  You just have to filter through them.

Edited to add one suggestion.  Ask around your church, or local churches, to see if there is anyone willing to teach you.

[Jedi4Yahweh]

@hishandmaiden

There are a lot of guitar worship tutorial sites on the innerwebs and YouTube.   Here are some that I recommend for worship music:

https://www.youtube.com/c/Worshiptutorials/featured
https://www.youtube.com/c/SimplifiedGuitar
https://www.youtube.com/c/acousticselection

Guitar Tools:

Metronomus - the best free online metronome
Guitar Chord Analyzer (Chord Namer/Identifier) | Oolimo.com

 

 

[AnOrangeCat]

1 hour ago, Jedi4Yahweh said:

There are a lot of guitar worship tutorial sites on the innerwebs and YouTube.   Here are some that I recommend for worship music:

I have absolutely no experience with guitar playing so I can't recommend anything but I do want to second the Youtube recommendation. I've definitely learned some good things to know from Youtube.

[NCAP]

4 hours ago, hishandmaiden said:

 

I will like to learn guitar music theory, guitar strumming pattern and learn more guitar chords. I also hope to learn to move up and down the guitar fretboard and transpose with capo. As of now, I do not know how to use a capo. 

Also, are there any guitar websites beside guitartricks, jamplay, truefire or artistworks that offer video instructions from beginner to advanced? Especially one that is focus on praise and worship? Or teaches songs that worship artistry and worshiponline doesn't cover?

Thanks for posting. I happen to be somewhat of a newbie at guitar, too.

One thing that has really helped me in learning about chords and chord progressions is YouTube videos. So let me give you a few that helped me out and might help you out also.

Let me say one thing right up front: I don't like the way I have to position my fingers to try and hit certain chords. I feel like I have to morph into a person with a bad case of arthritis in my hands. I can't get my fingers, it seems, into the right positions on the fret board to hit those chords.  So, what is the answer?

1. Well, I stumbled across one video in which a guitarist shows how to use one finger shape to hit every triad chord in any major and minor scale. How do you like switching from a Cmajor, to a Dminor and then to a Eminor and then to a Gmajor? It sucks! So, yeah, one shape can do the trick for all those chords, and that trick is called a guitar hack. So, the link to that video is embedded in this sentence.

2. You need to learn and know the notes on your fret board.

3. Another video I found very helpful is the one by a guitar teacher who uploads videos under the YouTube channel called, Signals Music Studio. In one of his videos entitled: How to Write Chord Progressions, he shows you the three rules for writing chord progressions. This is probably one of my favorite videos on chord progressions. The link to that video is embedded in this sentence.

4. When it comes to a triad (chord consisting of three tones), it may help to know the difference between a minor 3rd and a Major 3rd.

A minor 3rd is an interval consisting of three half-steps.
A Major 3rd is an interval consisting of 4 half-steps. 
(Just like function is a core concept in mathematics, 
so too interval is a core concept in music theory.)

Example: The C Major scale is C D E F G A B C.
The C Major chord consists of the 1st note, C (called the root or tonic), the 3rd note, E (called the mediant), and the fifth note, G (called the perfect fifth or dominant). So here is a question: Is the interval from C to E a Major 3rd or a minor 3rd?

To answer this question, it helps to look at either an image of a piano keyboard, or at least look at the chromatic scale itself. Let's take a look at the chromatic scale, which consist of 12 tones:

C  C#  D  D#  E  F  F#  G  G#  A  A#  B

The interval (distance) between each consecutive tone on this scale is a half-step. From C to C# is a half-step.   From C# to D is a half-step and so on....

So, the distance from C to E is 4 half-steps, and 4 half-steps is called a Major 3rd. 

What is the distance from E to G? Count the half-steps! From E to F is a half-step, from F to F# is a half-step, and from F# to G is a half-step. So, the distance from E to G is 3 half-steps, and 3 half-steps is called a minor 3rd.

That said, a major triad chord consists of the following from the Chromatic scale: the root + Major 3rd + minor 3rd.

5. Learn the circle of fifths and the circle of thirds to give you a better picture of how to make triads. Embedded in this sentence is a link on how to make the circle of thirds, which is useful for making chords called triads.

6. Item #4 of this post concerns itself with music theory. So, you need a book on music theory. I recommend that you go to academia.edu, register for an account (it's free), and then download (also free) a book on music theory. That is what I did. You don't have to pay any premium to download an article or pdf of any kind. All you need to do is sign up (register) for an account, just like you had to sign up here before you could post anything.  I recommend the book entitled: Understanding Basic Music Theory by Open Textbooks for Hong Kong. That's one of the books on music theory I downloaded. 

7. You might be interested too in learning the chord progression for the song entitled: "Hallelujah" Easy Guitar Tutorial - No barre chords! (This is a very popular song by Leonard Cohen).

Thanks for reading, and I hope you and others find some of these links useful.

Edited September 20, 2022 by NCAP

[NCAP]

11 hours ago, Dave-regenerated said:

I would get hold a guitar chord chart and learn the chords.  Then you will need to learn scales.  This all takes time and effort. 

Let's go a step further and show the poster of the OP how to build a diatonic scale.
For example: How do we build a D Major Scale?

(After this, I'm taking a break from lessons.)

Building Major and Minor Scales
Let's look again at the Chromatic Scale. But this time, for convenience sake, let's view a chromatic scale that includes two octaves:

C    C#  D   D#   E    F    F#   G   G#   A    A#   B    C    C#  D   D#   E    F    F#   G   G#   A    A#   B

To build a Major scale, we use a pattern of whole and half-steps.

A half-step (h) = A half-step (h)
A whole step = one half-step (h) + one half-step (h)

So, the pattern used to build a major scale is as follows:

|  Tonic  |  Whole  |  Whole  |  (h)  |  Whole  |  Whole  |  Whole  |  (h)  |

That's a total of 5 whole steps and 2 half-steps for a total of 7 notes, not including the tonic (or root) note. Let's look again at the chromatic scale with 2 octaves to build the D Major Diatonic Scale:

C    C#  D   D#   E    F    F#   G   G#   A    A#   B    C    C#  D   D#   E    F    F#   G   G#   A    A#   B   

D Major Diatonic Scale
D - The tonic (or root) note for the D Major Diatonic Scale is D.
E - From D to E is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is E.
F#- From E to F# is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is F#.
G - From F# to G is a half-step (h). So, the next note in the scale is G.
A- From G to A is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is A.
B - From A to B is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is B.
C#- From B to C# is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is C#.
D - From C# to D is a half-step (h). So, the next note in the scale is D.

So, the D Major Diatonic Scale is as follows:
D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#  D

D Major Relative Scale
You go through the same steps to build a relative minor scale, but this time you start the relative minor scale on the 6th degree of the D major scale. So, the 6th degree of the D major scale is B. (Note: Every Major scale has a minor scale. And the minor scale always begins on the 6th degree of the Major scale.)

To build a minor diatonic scale, we use the following pattern:

|  Tonic  |  Whole  |  (h)  |  Whole  |  Whole  |  (h)  |  Whole  |  Whole  | 

Chromatic scale again...(2 octaves)

C    C#  D   D#   E    F    F#   G   G#   A    A#   B    C    C#  D   D#   E    F    F#   G   G#   A    A#   B

Building the B Minor Diatonic Scale

B - The tonic (or root) note for the B minor scale is B.
C# - From B to C# is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is C#.
D - From C# to D is a half-step (h). So, the next note in the scale is D.
E - From D to E is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is E.
F# - From E to F# is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is F#.
G - From F# to G is a half-step (h). So, the next note in the scale is G.
A - From G to A is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is A.
B - From A to B is a whole step. So, the next note in the scale is B.

Grand Purpose
Any of the 1-6 degree triad chords of the Major scale works nicely with any of the 1-6 degree triad chords of its relative minor scale.

I'm taking a break. Thanks for reading.

Edited September 21, 2022 by NCAP