Our purpose of serving is making a difference in the life of others. We are so excited that you completed the Growth Track process, and that now you are ready to be part of one of our teams. In this page you will find some files that you can use for your audition for guitar.
Welcome to the Backstage guitar training, We are so glad you have decided to join our Creative Arts team. At Church on the Rock, we are destined to do great things and we believe it can only be done with your help. My name is Angel Valentin, and I am in charge of your training. I would love to hear how your training is going! So if you have anythoughts, questions or concerns, please contact me at avelentin@cotr.org
But what does it mean to be a guitar player at Church on the Rock?
The first thing you should know is that we value you. You can count on the support of all of the leaders you will find at church. You can participate in our Volunteer Central which is a nice place to share with other volunteers.
We do everything with excellence, simplicity and integrity; these are our core values. It’s important that you think about these values for yourself and when dealing with church guests. Be excellent in all you do, make it simple for people and be a person of integrity.
Lastly, we expect you to do the following things:
Be on time for rehearsals and services
Practice beforehand; this means that the rehearsal will be only for clarifying doubts, we expect you to get there prepared
Make sure you are checking on PCO (this is where we will let you know when we need you to participate)
Be an example of a Christ-like life and have a humble and teachable attitude.
Attend our services
Now, lets get you started on the training!
This first step is a 10 days course for beginners. Here you will learn open chords, play a couple of songs, introduction to a scale and some strumming patterns. All of the videos lasts around 10 or more minutes. Take the next few days to really learn these lessons. Make sure not to go to the next video until you feel really confident about what you just learned. It does not matter if it takes you more than 10 days, a month, or more. What matter is that you really got this and feel good about it. Here are the links for the videos:
Before going to step 2, let’s put what you have learned to the test. I want you to play this song called “Better than Life”. Here you can listen to the audio and follow the sheet below to know when to change between the chords.
You made it! I am proud of you and so glad that you reached to this point. Make sure to write me an email letting me know you are done with the first step. Keep going on to the second step. Can’t wait to play with you!
So, you already know the open major and minor chords, learned some strumming patterns, and even started practicing a scale. On this step, you will learn 8 types of bar chords. With this lesson you will be able to play any song. This time is just 2 videos, but you really need to practice this a lot.
I know this was a lot to take in. Make sure to take your time to really make sense of it. I encourage you to maybe watch these videos one more time. Once you feel like you’re mastered on this subject, I want you to do the following exercises. You can use this link to practice with a metronome (www.metronomeonline.com). Using this metronome you are going to change between the following chords every 4 beats. You can start at a low tempo like 50 bpm (that’s the speed of the metronome), but eventually you want to go as fast as 120 bpm.
Exercise #1: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, B, E, A, D, G (Do all of them as Major)
Exercise #2: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, B, E, A, D, G (Do all of them as Minor)
Exercise #3: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, B, E, A, D, G (Do all of them as Dominant 7)
Exercise #4: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, B, E, A, D, G (Do all of them as Minor 7)
YOU MADE IT THIS FAR! I’m excited! With all you have learned so far, you are ready to take on the challenge of step 3. On this step, I want you to practice the following 3 songs. Do not worry about leads. I want you to focus on the rhythm. Just like you did on step 1, you can play the audio and see the sheet for the chords changes. Once you practice them, write me an email. Let’s meet in person and see how you are doing. Also, we will schedule you for more training. You will find some attachments below which you can start to practice, but we can go in detail once we meet.
Thank you for your effort, Don’t forget to keep checking on Backstage for more videos and updates; and remember GOD IS FOR YOU!
