Electric guitar for worship music? or Acoustic?

I am wondering if electric guitar is too much for worship or should I learn acoustic instead?

Thank you.

Have you considered compromising and getting an acoustic that has pick-ups?

I have an electric and acoustic, but the acoustic can be connected to an amp.

I bought it so I could practice without amplification at home and still hear it just like a regular acoustic but have the option to increase the output.

I love this guitar but there are cheaper options of course:-

https://www.cortguitars.com/product/item.php?ca_id=102030&it_id=152&page=1

Hi Daivd,

Sounds like you are a Christian looking for advice.

As a Christian myself, I'll give my two cents and use the word of God to back up my claims...

I would say as long as your heart is in the right spot it really does not matter what type of guitar you play. Do you desire to serve the Lord Jesus and to bring glory to His name. For Paul says in the letter to the Corinthians that all we as Christians do, do to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31[br]New American Standard Bible

31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God.

Paul says all a Christian should be concerned in is do it to the glory of God. Notice Paul gives us to of the most mundain things we do, for we eat and drink and then ends with do all things for the glory of God.

So if the desire of the heart is to sing and play to the Lord God, then by all means use what ever suits your fancy.

As for me in 56yrs old and I just started playing about 6 weeks ago and I have both...acoustic and electric...and all I desire to do is to bring glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Take Care,

RD

Originally Posted by: DavidNewYork

I am wondering if electric guitar is too much for worship or should I learn acoustic instead?

Thank you.

Hey David, if I were in your situation here's what I would do:

1. Look around at the other worship groups you like and notice if they use electric or acoustic. (That way you can train for the job you want.)

2. Ask yourself which you like the most, because it will keep you motivated.

Then, I'd learn both. :) Because very few people only play one or the other. So many of the basic skills apply to any guitar you pick up.

But I'm no expert on that specific genre, it's just general guitar advice.

If you're asking which you should buy to start learning, acoustics can generally be much harder to play because of the string guage, height, and tension. But it's great training because once you have the strength to play an acoustic, an electric will be that much easier.

-Carl.

Originally Posted by: DavidNewYork

I am wondering if electric guitar is too much for worship or should I learn acoustic instead?

Thank you.

When I read your question I immediately thought of 'church' services...

In my experience, there are many evangelical church services that feature acoustic guitar. Across the street Once guitars are accepted, it makes little difference what type of guitar is used to cover Lenoard Cohen's Hallelujah.

John that is the big issue....man always wants the approval of man. As I am man of God, the God of the bible, I seek approval from no man.

The passage I quoted in no way can be used to say to not play an instrument in worship and praise to the Lord God Almighty...the God of the New Testament, One God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is the same God in the Old Testament and there was music played through out the OT to God...There are some things in the OT that do not pertain to the Christian today, mainly the law given to Moses, the law was given to the nation of Israel to show they could not obtain heaven by their own righteousness...the law does one thing, it exposes the sin of humanity....that is why those redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ are under His grace, for the Christian lives to Him and not to self....grace is the only way to heaven for as the word of God says...if you live by the law you will die by the law...in other words, your works will not gain you entrance to heaven, entance is gained by trusting in the Lord Christ and His work on the cross of Calvary..faith and faith alone...

As for most of the so called Christian music today in no way glorifies the Lord God, if weighed against the word of God it will show that it is used to worship and glorify man and is nothing more then secular music dressed up to sound like worship music.

This is one of the many reasons why I refuse to attend the Christian gatherings today, for they do not serve and glorify Jesus, they are self serving and have set Satan on the throne and removed Christ from their midst.

In this world there is no sitting on the fence, as the Old man Bob Dylan once said, you have to serve someone...his meaning was you either serve God and gloify Him or you serve the devil and glorify Him...I used to serve Satan, that was until the Lord called this broken man out of the darkness of Satan and shone the marvelous glorious Light of Christ into my dark heart and showed me just how wretched this man was...Now I serve the Lord God.

Originally Posted by: RD Wakefield

I am wondering if electric guitar is too much for worship or should I learn acoustic instead?

[/quote]

Depends on your goal. I do find that for most worship music and particularly if you're a little suspect on more current music that falls in to the worship category, pretty muh everything can be done on acoustic.

Still; is your goal just to play for personal reasons or to perform/worship team stuff. In reading this thread, it's not super-clear but sounds like you're not part of a church band/worship team deal. But it's not clear.

However, in my (very) small church, we did most everything on acoustic and it's just fine. I did move to a different state so I no longer attend in person. But if you're more in the beginner stage, electric guitard are easier to play.

So your goal drives what the answer is. In short, either will work just find and it might be more a preference.

[quote=RD Wakefield]

As for most of the so called Christian music today in no way glorifies the Lord God, if weighed against the word of God it will show that it is used to worship and glorify man and is nothing more then secular music dressed up to sound like worship music.

This is one of the many reasons why I refuse to attend the Christian gatherings today, for they do not serve and glorify Jesus, they are self serving and have set Satan on the throne and removed Christ from their midst.

Not to get too deep in to the theology and modern society but there is truth the much of Christian worship that is getting away from actual doctrine. Since we did move to a different state, we've been looking for a new local church and it is very, very hard to find one that's not 'feel good' Christianity but also a church where the message connects accurate doctrine to where we are in society today.

Note that I was a Lay Pastor in my old church but truly, I took cues from our pastor (and wonderful friend) who did enlighten me on that folly of 'feel good' doctrine, versus actual accurate biblical interperation.

This did extend to song choices. While our music was a balance with more modern music and more traditional hymn derived content, the decision was to have music that was true.

Which meant nothing from Hillsong!

And to be honest, I find a lot of modern so-called Christian music to be a bit samey and formulaic. My wife will sometimes tune to the Christian station and about four songs in, I still think I'm listening to the same song.

I'm totally ok with conveying an emotion and not be so literal in a song lyric. It's what I like in general for music. Like to mentioned Dylan. That 'picture painting' ability is very useful. It just need to be accurate as well.

Interested if 'worship' music is really about the guitar and melody or it's simply lyrics that differentiate. How can you tell difference from any modern music unless lyrics about bible? I've listened to a bit and without the lyrics to know it's about god, sounds like something by any modern mediocre band.

Serve somebody by Dylan (great song..great album) could equally have been singing about his woman steeling his spoon in June by the light of a lemon moon and you wouldn't know...the tune surely doesn't necessarily define the message of the song?

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

Interested if 'worship' music is really about the guitar and melody or it's simply lyrics that differentiate. How can you tell difference from any modern music unless lyrics about bible? I've listened to a bit and without the lyrics to know it's about god, sounds like something by any modern mediocre band.

Serve somebody by Dylan (great song..great album) could equally have been singing about his woman steeling his spoon in June by the light of a lemon moon and you wouldn't know...the tune surely doesn't necessarily define the message of the song?

You're not wrong about this. It is specifically lyrical content that does differentiate. Further, I agree with you on the rather milque-toasty aspect of the music. From my post, it's why I think that four songs in, it's still the same song. However, that 'sound' does largely define the modern worship music genre. All the songs seems to have the 'uplifty' vibe that works in big church settings.

It just does nothing for me. I grew up on 70's rock and on in to 80's metal. The worship much genre would probably never speak to me. I cut my guitar playing teeth on BB King, Led Zep, Iron Maiden and George Lynch.

Things in my old church I liked doing were a somewhat bluesy version of Amazing Grace and stuff like that.

But to your core thought, it is lyrical content and some of the newer worship music tends to skip over what is true to biblical interpretation to make the listener 'feel good' about themselves even though not biblically sound in some lyrical contexts. There's a thing out there called the 'prosperity doctrine' that you see guys like Joel Osteen pushing and it's not sound doctrine. I mean, if you're gonna preach the bible, you gotta stick to what it says otherwise, why are you doing it?

Same goes for some of the modern worship genre.

Originally Posted by: Tinpan

Interested if 'worship' music is really about the guitar and melody or it's simply lyrics that differentiate. How can you tell difference from any modern music unless lyrics about bible? I've listened to a bit and without the lyrics to know it's about god, sounds like something by any modern mediocre band...

Yup. See my post, # 5 https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/thread.php?f=31&t=55941 (and your #6 ).

Similar comments were posted by compart1 six years ago, #2 https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/thread.php?f=31&t=41720

hehe. Yeah...I just don't see how composing tunes based on what you have learned on an instrument, then putting themed lyrics to those tunes makes it a new 'style' of music.

To add my comments although it may be an older question. Our church services split between a "classical" musical service with organ and piano with the occational woodwind or brass treat. Our later service offers a more contemporary "rock" stype of music with multiple electric and acoustic guitarts, bass player, drummer, and again the occational brass or woodwind addition. 

I would suggest chatting with your leaders of the congregration and see if they would be open to a similar format. I can tell you that we have a higher turn out in the later service by many younger families and there is alot of enjoyment of worship with this upbeat style of music.