Today’s guitar practice is an easy version of Katy Nichole’s song “In Jesus Name, God of Possible”. It’s just the four basic beginner chords of G, C, Em, and D, so it’s not about learning new chords or practicing difficult ones. If you saw my previous video, the assignment was to play a familiar song with easy chords to practice other aspects of playing guitar, like strumming, playing chords all the way through, and connecting with the song (not always looking down at the fret board, but instead making eye contact and expressing emotion). The challenge this time is playing an unfamiliar song (unfamiliar to me, I didn’t know this one until I looked for something new – you’d need to choose something else if you already know this song well).
Even when we don’t know already the music, after a short while of getting to know the song’s message, story, and rhythm, we should still be able to engage with the listener and express passion. We can’t always play songs that we have on our playlists and know almost entirely by memory, so it’s good to practice playing something new – while keeping the chords simple so there’s not too many things to think about at once.
After some time doing these versions of songs containing few chords, the assignments will resume to more difficult (advanced beginner and early intermediate) songs, but this time around, it’s a continuation of trying to keep the passion and engagement, strumming style, and other elements we’ve been practicing while the chords are in our easy zone. If you’ve been on this journey alongside me to learn to play the guitar, it’s getting more fun now, isn’t it? There’s nothing stopping us. Let’s keep going and practice, practice, practice!
Natalie, It is always a pleasure to hear your singing and strumming your guitars and watching your art advance as well. Your videos are very fresh and inspiriting. Thank you so much. Sincerely, Chaplain Al