Gospel & Praise Break Guitar

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This thread brings up another of my long time favorite guitar player Phil Keaggy. If you've never heard of him or his playing and interested in checking him out I'd recommend his 220 album for starters.

P.S. I sold the Chibson Thunderbird guitar I got from eESGe a while back to a local praise and worship guy, awesome guitarist by the way, who invited me to come see it in action as he was planning on playing in at the next service at his church. I've seen/heard him play a few years back a couple times. Freak'n great/versatile guitarist to say the least.
 
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Drumoid said:
This thread brings up another of my long time favorite guitar player Phil Keaggy. If you've never heard of him or his playing and interested in checking him out I'd recommend his 220 album for starters.

P.S. I sold the Chibson Thunderbird guitar I got from eESGe a while back to a local praise and worship guy, awesome guitarist by the way, who invited me to come see it in action as he was planning on playing in at the next service at his church. I've seen/heard him play a few years back a couple times. Freak'n great/versatile guitarist to say the least.
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That was the big neck Firebird???
 
They must have kept me on a farm a lot longer than I thought. I have not heard of most of these guitar players. That church bast or church smash suff is cool for a minute. Get to 61 seconds and I'm out the door. Fast, yes. Crazy and hard to follow yes, just like trying to keep up with my crazy blind aunt on the express way.
 
smitty_p said:
I'll say this, then get off the topic because I do understand the forum's rules against religious/political discussions.

In addition to occasionally gigging out, I've played in P&W (praise and worship) teams for years.

I have never experienced anything close to what is being described here. I've used my Les Pauls, my Washburn HB-30, my Stratocaster, my son's red Stratocaster, my Gibson SGs, and even my Jackson without any pushback from the leader or anyone. In one church I used to play in, one guitar player would often play his Gibson Explorer. It was the really nice koa model. I loved that guitar.

No one has ever dictated a single piece of my equipment - from the guitar to a single pedal to the amplifier.

True, there is the expectation that you more or less perform the pieces as performed by the original artist, but the degree of replication is more a matter of the personality of the leader. I try to capture the gist of the recorded guitar parts because many times they do form a pretty important hook to the song, but I don't feel slavishly bound to them. Our team is always introducing new songs, so as each member practices on their own, the recording is the baseline so we more or less know what to expect from each other.

Sometimes, our leader will turn to me and give me a sign to break into a guitar solo. During any given Sunday, what I personally play will run the gamut from very clean finger-plucked parts to full-on, mid-scooped distorted crunch. I sometimes improvise subtle accents on the spot. Our leader has no issues with this as long as everything fits the context and character of the song. Sometimes he'll hear me do this stuff and turn and give me a wink and nod. I've even thrown in Floyd Rose dive-bombs and Zack Wylde inspired pinch harmonics.

So, maybe I've just been lucky this whole time. But, I do have fun.
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Please understand that my experiences most certainly cannot be considered universal in nature.

My first P & W job up near Fresno was very laid back. No restrictions on equipment at all. But, down here in SoCal, its a different world.

Of course, when we were attending this particular church, Jeremy Camp (and a few other big P & W names) would frequently pop in and be the guest worship leader, so there is a real movement to sound just like _______.

Ironically, Camp has been playing custom made B. Hefner's recently, which is a huge deviation from the Stratocaster scene in general down here.

B. Hefner in Whittier does all my custom wood work and finishes.
 
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What amazes me most about P & W are the effects. I saw a guy carrying, what I believed to be, two guitar cases, but one was actually the pedal board, and this is common place down here.

I do not know exactly how many pedals they have, but its a guitar case long and no gaps.

I've never seen a pedal case that big for sale, so I assume they must be custom made.
 
The link below is from 1982 concert by Slim & The Supreme Angels. The Strat wielding guitar player is the late Robt. “Sugar” Hightower. He is the band leader and you know by they way he ques the band on the next song with his “hint” at :30 into this. The hook type lick he comes up with just is so perfect for this number. That's why I dig that style that is just guitar and amp along with the player's own imagination. He's worth investigating on some of this groups old YT videos.





Stratstrangler
 
Fellow forum members, I realize that it is a fine line to tread, but please try to keep the topic on the music and not religion, or the politics of music played in a religious context. I guess this is sort of like asking to refrain from talking about black sabbaths while talking about Black Sabbath.
 
I guess that as OP I should have realized that the subject matter would eventually prompt the inappropriate responses to sound uneducated and insensitive; for that, blame me. It was my intent to share a recent “discovery” about another particular style of music and how the guitar plays a role in it.

The guitar style is sometimes referred to as “pocket” or “quartet” guitar; which is slightly different, but at much faster tempos is referred to in the thread title.

I’ve begun to learn the finer points of how to play this style using my Strats. What I've found is that you can learn a lot about the fingerboard and positions for chords with their inversions (all played at a rapid tempo) and where the positions interweave with one another.....and that is a good thing, for the knowledge gained you will find, will translate right over into any other style of guitar you like to play. Some, as myself, will probably struggle with the tempos, but the real point is that you will find yourself learning how all the runs tie into chords and how all your chords can easily fall back into your runs. If you consider yourself an intermediate to advanced player, you have a head start already.



Stratstrangler
 
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Robert Herndon said:
That was the big neck Firebird???
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I'm not sure if it was the big neck or not - what ever one eESGe got shipped from China and didn't care for. It wasn't a perfect guitar, but I thought it actually played pretty nice. Me and eESGe have hands that are kind of opposite of each other when it comes to guitar necks. The necks that fit his hands good don't fit mine and vice versa - lol.
 
This thread has moved from the discussion of music in the church (which is acceptable in TTR) to discussion of politics and business within the church (which is NOT acceptable in TTR). For this reason this thread is now closed.
 
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