Attention Gospel Musicians: Do You Face These Three Problems When Learning New Songs?

Attention Gospel Musicians:

Do You Face These Three Problems?

Problem #1: NO WHERE TO GO

Most educational institutes and schools just don’t teach our style of music so where do we go to improve our skills? Whether you agree or not, gospel musicians have ALWAYS had to go to the “school of hard-knocks.” In other words,playing gospel music in a church involved getting tips, a lot of advice, and lessons from WHOEVER you could (if you couldn’t learn it on your own). After all, when have you ever heard of getting a degree in playing “hand-clapping” “toe-tapping, praise songs by ear? Plain and simple — in the past, if you wanted to learn, you had to go above and beyond to get the help that you needed.

Problem #2: NO ONE TO ASK

Even if there are talented musicians in your area, most of them are not willing to “share” tips, chords, progressions, and advice with others for fear of losing their own music job. This unfortunately occurs more frequently in certain locations than in others. For some reason, musicians feel that they must compete with one another. — This leads to an “every-musician-for-themselves” type of environment. Am I not right? Have you experienced this type of reaction to a simple call for help? If you haven’t, then hopefully you are very thankful for the musician who is helping you…because many musicians keep their secrets close to their vest.

Problem #3: MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT LEARNING NEW SONGS

In my experiences of teaching and speaking to thousands of gospel musicians, I’ve come to recognize that there are still tons of people who don’t realize that many songs share the SAME EXACT chords, bass-runs, progressions and more. I say this time and time again — IT IS NOT A MATTER OF LEARNING HUNDREDS OF NEW SONGS BY EAR … it’s a matter of recognizing similar chords and progressions that are present in MULTIPLE songs. I can easily name over 100 praise songs that share the same exact progression.