Category Archives: Musicians

Tips, tricks, videos, articles and resources to help musicians take musicians take their ministry to the next level.

Write For The Music Ministry Coach.com!

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Write For The Music Ministry Coach.com!

One of my goals from day one was to make this website the top destination and absolute authority on the internet for all things pertaining to music ministry coaching and training. But I’ll never be able to do it alone! So I’ve decided to open the doors and invite guest bloggers from all over the world to submit your articles for inclusion on The Music Ministry Coach.com!

What We’re Looking For

The Music Ministry Coach.com is all about helping Christian/Gospel artists, groups, choirs, praise teams and musicians take their music ministry to the next level. We’re looking for experienced musicians, directors, Ministers Of Music, Praise/Worship Leaders who have wisdom, knowledge and a passion for music ministry to submit content for inclusion on the our website.  We only post content that offers some kind of coaching, training or advice that helps people improve their ministry. We’re looking for content on every facet of music ministry, from musical instrument instruction to advice on how to minister effectively and everything in between

Our readers love specific how-to style content that shows or tells them specifically how to improve a certain facet of their ministry. All of our contents falls under one of 3 categories;

Singers
Musicians
General Music Ministry-Related

There are many, many sub-categories under those categories, and all are welcome topics for your article.

Guidelines For Submission

  • Written Posts must be written in English
  • Must be 500 words or more.
  • Must be grammatically correct and spell-checked
  • Must offer coaching, training or advice on some specific aspect of music ministry
  • Absolutely MUST be original (we’ll be checking and will report plagiarism)

Video Tutorials are also highly encouraged. Your video must be hosted on YouTube.  Submit the link to the video and include at least a paragraph explaining what’s covered in the video.

What’s In It For You

If your submission is chosen for inclusion on The Music Ministry Coach.com you will receive full credit for your work with a bio at the bottom of the post. In your bio you can include some information about yourself, your company website and links to your social media pages.

Submit Your Article!

Using the form below, submit your article to us for inclusion on the website. We read every piece of content submitted to insure only the best quality content is submitted for our readers, so it could take a few days depending on the volume of submissions. We’re looking for quality content that offers tips or suggestions about any aspect of music ministry. Please do not submit articles that are primarily one long sales pitch. You can include links to any product you have for sale in your bio. Products related to music ministry are strongly desired and encouraged.

We reserve the right to refuse any article we feel doesn’t meet the above standards or fit the overall theme of our website without notice to you.  We also reserve the right to make any formatting edits required to make the article fit well with our site and theme. These will usually be no more than maybe a picture, title edit or text edits for grammar/punctuation, etc.

Don’t forget to include a short bio with links to your website and/or social media sites, or even .

Please complete the required fields.
Please select your image(s) to upload.

Gospel Guitar 101 with Bobby Griffin

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I found this nice gospel Guitar lesson with Bobby Griffin showing some basic techniques to add some interest to your chords when playing gospel guitar. Now, I knew as soon as I spotted that bookshelf behind him that we’re looking at another great training video from the renowned Gospel music training company Hear And Play.com. If these guys aren’t on your radar, they should be. They offer high quality training videos and DVD’s on just about every instrument commonly found in gospel music and feature some of the best instructors around.

If Gospel Guitar is your main focus though, be sure to Go check out Bobby’s site PlayGospelGuitar.com. Let’s go!!

 

Gospel Guitar 101: Adding spice to your praise song chords

Bobby Griffin explains how to add flavor to your chords when playing gospel praise songs by ear. This is one section out of the entire dvd, which focuses primarily on traditional praise songs on the guitar! Enjoy! www.PlayGospelGuitar.com

Image courtesy of pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Advanced Gospel Bass training video with Sean Shawn

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We’re all about training that helps you take your music ministry to the next level here at The Music Ministry .com, and Gospel Bassist Sean Shawn sure delivers in this incredibly detailed training video for advanced Gospel bass players. At almost 40 minutes this is one of the must generous training videos I’ve seen on YouTube  for Gospel bass or any other instrument. Sean not only shows you the basic Gospel Bass walk line but he really gets behind the music and digs into the theory behind it all. You’ll want to get comfortable and take some note here, Gospel bass players. This is really the equivalent of getting a full length DVD on Gospel bass free. Sean has an entire series on Gospel Bass on his channel, so be sure and follow the links on over there and subscribe.

Traditional Gospel Bass

Combining major and minor scales to develop improvisational riffs to enhance traditional gospel, walking bass lines. This lesson focuses on phase 1 of note selection – incorporating major and minor scale elements.

An easy way to learn your keys on the piano

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If you’ve been a regular reader for a while you know I’m a strong advocate of learning your keys on the piano, even if you don’t necessarily want to learn to play. You also know that I believe learning to play will absolutely transform your singing if you’re a vocalist., lol! However, I confess I haven’t spent a lot of time covering this area of ministry, and even though I did do a brief introduction of the keys, this video I found on Youtube does a great job of really making it simple and easy to understand. He makes it easy to understand by showing how to use the black keys as reference points. Check it out and go follow his channel if you’re so inclined. Tell him you heard about him at The Music Ministry Coach.com!

-Ron

Learn Piano Basics – White Piano Keys

Learn piano basics – the layout and the name of white piano keys at www.ZebraKeys.com In this lesson, you will learn seven white keys (C, D, E, F, G, A and B). Learn how to recognize the patterns of these piano keys: groups of three white keys (C, D,…

Now, if you’re serious about learning to play for your church, choir, group or even yourself, I can’t recommend the guys at Hear And Play enough. I’ve bought several of their products and they have tons of free information on-line that really helps you understand and learn how to play by ear. In the interest of full disclosure, the banner below is an affiliate link.

Dear musician, Dear Critic (2 open letters)

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2008.11.12 - The letterDear Musician,

You’ve been on my heart lately. I hope it’s ok if I just talk to you for a minute from there. You see as a music lover and a musician myself I understand what it’s like to be you better than anyone. I know what it’s like to love your craft so much that you spend hours, weeks, months and years enhancing and perfecting it. But I also know the other side. The unfortunate, ugly side. I know that often the same people who silently criticized you for not being up to standard often openly rebuke you once you’ve reached that level of excellence.

I know that other musicians who haven’t reached that level often criticize you of not really being sincere. Playing for self-glorification. Using your gift for personal attention and fame. See, it’s easier to do that than to support and enjoy the gift of God working through you. It’s easier because to do that would mean admitting that you’ve simply worked harder, been more dedicated and practiced more than they have. And that’s very hard for some musicians to admit.
I can only imagine how it must feel to hear someone lambasting you in a round about way over the PA system, apparently for no other reason than because you play with a high level of excellence. I know that you often get criticized because you get so many accolades for your gift. People follow you, become groupies almost. You don’t ask for it, you don’t seek it. But you do get criticized for it.

I want to encourage you, anointed musician, to continue giving God your very best. I know the talk is hard to hear. I know it’s discouraging to hear you peers hate on you. But TD Jakes said once, “favor ain’t fair”. People will talk. People will give their opinion of how sincere you are, or whether you do it for the attention, or for show. But the thing is, nobody could possibly know that but you and God.

So since you know that He knows your heart, be sure that your heart is pure. Play for Him, and only for Him. Accept no glory for what God does through you. When the Complements, Kudos and praises come, take no credit. Deflect them all to Him. Remain humble and always be a team player. If the spotlight is cast your way, make sure it is God who focused it on you and not you yourself.

I’ll be praying for you as you continue to serve God with your gift.

Ron

Dear Critic,

There is something that has been bothering me a little and I hope you’ll allow me to share my heart with you respectfully and in love.  I’ve been at a few church events that you were at also, and I’ve heard you speak pretty passionately about some musicians that were there. You had some pretty tough things to say. I’m not here to say you were wrong, by any means. I believe with all my heart that a musician should play to the glory and honor of God. I believe it should NOT be about show, and I believe that every musician playing in church needs to be doing it as his ministry and service to God,  period. Not for any glory or fame for him.

So my problem isn’t necessarily what you say, but how you go about it. At the end of the day, none of us know from the outside looking on where a musician’s heart is. And I think it’s wrong to assume that every musician who excels to a  high level though hard work and diligence should automatically be labeled as fake, or not sincere, or doing it for show.

But that’s not even the worst thing for me. For me, it’s the public way we tend to do it. Criticism like this is often said in a very public way, over PA systems and from podiums; often with the musicians still there. You never use names, of course, but it’s usually pretty obvious. To me this is a very sad and unfortunate element of our culture. It does not seek to teach or edify in any way, only to tear down. If your heart is in the right place, why not go to the musician privately if you think there may be an issue with his focus or true motivation? Why not offer a word of prayer or an understanding ear as you speak to him about your concerns in love? Can we stop using public forums to tear each other down and criticize each other?

Finally, I would ask you to do one other thing. Just like nobody could really know the true heart or motivations of the musician (unless you know him personally) only you and God know your true motivation for the criticism. You see, it’s a fact that most criticism musicians get comes from other musicians who play the same instrument. And the fact is, many times the musician doing the criticizing has not reached the skill level of the musician he’s criticizing.

If you’re not a musician but you feel the need to openly criticize and rebuke one, I urge you to ask yourself why. Deep in your heart, are you doing this out of concern, or is it to get a reaction from the congregation? Only you and God know. But I pray the next time you find yourself in the same situation you would pray for guidance before you speak. I pray that you would choose to act with compassion and understanding rather than malice or hatred. At the end of the day, the only reason to publicly rebuke a musician or anyone else, is to draw attention, glory and praise to yourself. And that’s kinda what you’re criticizing the musician for….right?

In love,

Ron

Mixed signals: getting musicians and song teachers on the same page

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If you’re a regular reader you know I’ve been in rehearsal for the last 2 weeks for our annual Family & Friends musical. As such my last couple of blogs have been about subjects along the those lines. Last week I wrote about how to survive a mass choir rehearsal. One of my readers, Tracey, wrote me to say she enjoyed it, but then she brought up a situation I had never thought of. ” Do you have any tips for musicians?”, she asked me. She went on to explain that she has been in mass rehearsals where the instructor taught the song completely wrong musically. Tracey also shared with me that when she tried to tactfully get the instructor back on track there was animosity.
I have to confess, I haven’t had much experience with such situations. I’ve been really blessed to work with the same group of musicians for many years now, and we’re very much in sync. So while I can’t give you much information on what to do in such situations, Tracey, I can tell you how we avoid it at my church. The short answer is we communicate. And we do so often. We do it to insure just such a thing doesn’t happen. We do it to make sure that we’ll all be on the same page at rehearsal.

When we have a rehearsal coming up, my Minister Of Music informs all of us what we’ll be learning. She provides us with the music, lets us know exactly which songs to be ready for and confirms that we’re all learning it in the same key. We all have a copy of the same version of the song also.

Musician’s rehearsal is also something we always, always do before a major event like a big musical. On the night of rehearsal we ask that the director be there along with the key song leaders. We go over all of our songs with these people. This helps us insure that we’re all in sync.

I think though, that Tracey may be dealing with a problem that I’m afraid tips like these won’t help much. The sad truth is, some people simply aren’t very good at teaching songs. To do this and do it well, you really need to have a pretty deep understanding of music, harmony and song structure. There are, unfortunately some people who teach who don’t know much about it. Early meetings and communications whenever possible can go a long way towards at least figuring this out in advance.

If talked about before rehearsals you as a musician might be able to catch potential problems before the actual rehearsal. Express your interest in meeting with the clinician/instructor to insure that you both will be on the same page. If he or she is open to it, you might even listen to the music together and talk about the particulars. All of this assumes, of course, that you’re going to be working with someone you’re not familiar with already.

It’s a touch situation to be sure. But when you find yourself in a situation like this, where the person(s) you’re working with simply doesn’t have the necessary skills, it’s important you maintain a level of professionalism and dignity as much as possible. If there’s nothing you can do to help, simply roll with things as much as possible and help as much as you’re allowed.

Communicate with other personnel as much as you can, get on the same page as much as possible, talk about teaching styles and any other policies that may help you do your part more efficiently. After that all one can do is pray and remain professional.