I am in way over my head. Our church praise team was asked to lead an old fashioned hymn sing at a community worship next Sunday. I thought it would be mostly the same songs we play Sunday mornings. Nope. Old Time Gospel. And no chord notation.
Now, I've got enough music theory under my belt that when they said, 'Don't worry, most gospels are based on I, IV and V,' I knew what they meant. The major chords built on the first, fourth and fifth tone in a given scale. That's all well and good. It's another thing to play by ear to it. Especially if it's some weird a** key like A flat.
Thankfully, I'm not the only one in the group who feels completely unprepared. Another fella in the group plays exclusively off of chord notation. So, we're going to stand in the back and do the strumming equivalent of mouthing "watermelon watermelon" during the service. :^)
Wish me luck. I'm gonna work on I, IV, V in the more common keys this week.
Hoo boy.
Labels: anxiety, church, guitar, hymn, performance
At least you weren't on camera, eh?
Did I mention that the service is being held at a county park festival? I probably should have so that sentence about the parks dept. made sense.
It'll be better than doing by ear, but it does mean sight reading. As long as the chords are simple I think I'll do o.k.