In part two of my review of the Musicademy product “Intermediate Worship Guitar,” which can be found at www.musicademy.com, I want to give you the highlights of disc two and three, and then take a deeper look at the backing tracks which the DVD has to offer.
Disc two is very much just a continuation where disc one left off. In disc one the DVD gave a lot of tricks and chords to use in the keys of G, A, and E. Disc two continues with tips and tricks for the keys of C, and D. What this means is that by the time you finish disc two you should be able to have a variety of chords you can use to create different moods, or sounds for songs in just about any of the major keys! This may not seem like a very significant ability to have, but really it is often the difference between sounding like a competent guitar player, and sounding like an amazing guitar player! Think about it. If you look at many of the songs you play on guitar be they worship or secular songs, you can usually find a way to play the songs using just the “G, C, D, and Em” chords for example. However when you play the song with those chords and then listen to what is on the CD, while the two sound similar, there is still something more full and exciting about the version on the CD. A large part of that would be where these chord variations come in.
While disc two finishes what disc one started, it also paves the way for lessons that will be taught in disc three by introducing proper finger placement and finger motion for finger picking on your guitar. This skill then picks up again on disc three when the DVD introduces a skill called “Travis Picking” which in case you are not sure, is simply a very rhythmic way of finger picking your guitar strings to create a variety of sounds which blend together to create a calming sound for your song, but still allows you to drive the song forward as well. Watching the host perform this style of picking, it looks very difficult, however he breaks it down into six simple finger exercises which will help you to master your finger positioning, movement, and finally the Travis Picking style in general. I have included a short clip demonstrating what I’m referring to at the bottom of this review, courtesy of musicademy.
Other highlights to be found on disc three then cover how to play songs and chords that tend be tricky, such as
Playing open chords in the key of BEasier ways to play barre chords, andPlaying with slightly different tunings on the guitar.I personally was a huge fan of this section of the DVD, since as a guitarist myself I have often tried to avoid songs in the key of B and barre chords all the time!
The last thing I want to share with you about this great DVD course is the backing tracks. The purpose of the backing tracks are to provide a musical background minus the guitar part which allows you to practice the different tricks the DVD teaches you. Each of the tracks consists of three instruments, bass, drums, and piano. Your guitar being the fourth instrument. Through out the whole DVD the song amazing grace is used multiple times, so the backing tracks have amazing grace listed in multiple keys so that you can practice anything you have learned in almost any key be it barre chords, playing with a capo, travis picking, finger picking, different strum patterns, or even bringing out the bass notes on your guitar in your playing. Each song is long enough that if you were trying out something new on the verse of amazing grace, they will come back and play the verse a few more times meaning that you don’t have to start the backing track over again from the beginning each time you want to try something out on the verse or refrain.
In short this DVD set has the ability to meet you at your level of guitar playing and build up your skill and talent from that starting point through the lessons taught, the tools given to help you practice, the tips on how to apply what you learn to actual sessions of worship, and then the ways to encourage you to continue to grow after you finish the DVD course. I would recommend for any of the readers to go get this DVD set, and remember if you use the Catholic Worship Blog Code: “CWB” you get 10% off the price!
Musicademy Intermediate Guitar Course: Travis Picking from Musicademy on Vimeo.
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