Including Hymn Instrumentals in Your Church Service

Although I am very much a big fan of modern worship songs there is certainly a place for more traditional music.  Specifically I think it would be nice to see different instruments such as the guitar playing instrumental traditional songs.  Times where they are appropriate are during the offering or as a prelude or postlude. 

I recently purchased a DVD instructional video called "Hymns for the Guitar" by Pete Huttlinger.  First I definitely do recommend this as a good starting place to put some instrumental hymns into your morning worship lineup.  Below I will list the pros and cons to the DVD and which songs I feel would get you up and running quickly.

Pros:

• Pete is an awesome guitar player.  Learning from him is truly learning from a master.
• The arrangements of the hymns are not your typical piano style traditional arrangements although they do still sound traditional.  Most of the arrangements use drop d  tuning.
• Most of the DVD is for finger style play which I would expect from a finger style guitarist but I did like that he put one song in there for the flat picker called "Be Thou My Vision" and man it is a simple and beautiful arrangement.

Cons:

• Perter is a good teacher but the production of the DVD was not as good as it could be.  For example, a good director would have told him to go into a little more detail in some of the more trickier chord progressions.  For example, in Be Thou My Vision, in the fourth measure, he is using some unusual chord shapes and he is moving up the neck to the 12th fret.  I had to re watch this spot about 10 times and finally ended up going to the tab to piece it together better.

Conclusion:

Definitely buy this DVD.  A good starting point for the intermediate player is "Be Thou My Vision."  This song offers a very nice and simple arrangement using a flat pick which most players are more comfortable using anyway.  If you are an advanced beginner or intermediate player, don't go for the gusto and pick the most difficult piece.  Remember when you get in front of an audience things change quite a bit.  The part that was easy during practice now seems much more difficult and the part that was difficult in practice can be a train wreck live.  Keep it simple and build confidence and playing skills. 

Here is a bit of advice that has helped me get used to playing solos in front of an audience.  Go totally unplugged, show up to church early and just hang out on stage going through some of your pieces.  This is a great, almost no pressure way to get past the nerves and see how well you do under a bit of pressure.   People will begin to come in and sit down and some will walk past you as you play. You may even get the occasional person to sit down and listen to you.  Once you have successfully made it through your songs for several weeks in a row using this method it is then time to go live.  You would be surprised what a difference it makes.  Its all about attaining that comfort level with the music and your audience.

Pete Huttlinger

I recently ran across an acoustic guitar player by the name of Peter Huttlinger.  Peter plays a variety of different styles and genres all on the acoustic guitar.  Over the past year Pete has apparently  had some very difficult health issues and this has caused his family to be burdened with medical bills.  I urge you to visit his site and buy some of his music.  Believe me you won't be disappointed in his playing!  I don't know if Pete is a believer or not but he has put out several instructional videos on playing sacred music that I would recommend.

Here is a sample of his hymn instructional DVDs:

A Season for Change

As part of my daily devotions, I am reading through the book of Ecclesiastes.  Yesterday, I came across the famous verses we all know in chapter 3:1-12.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain has the worker from his toil?
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;"

Solomon is telling us that change happens as part of God's timing and we as believers must be joyful and continue to do good. I could inject any number of trite expressions here, but I think you get the point. 

For the Christian musician, God's timing often means moving from place to place and church to church. Wherever God needs you and leads you.  I am at one of those crossroads now and I must press on, always moving according to what he has planned and not what I have planned.  Right now that means leaving Mountain View Baptist Church and putting more time into The Matt and Buck project.  It is all for the glory of God so let's make it happen.  Perhaps next month God will put me somewhere else, but that is just another season in God's eternal plan for the Baptist Baritone.