How to lead worship with just an acoustic guitar. 

Quick correction in this video: when talking about song keys I said the range should be C4 to C5. I called middle C "C5" but middle C is actually "C4." So the range we should be aiming for for a male voice is C3 to C4. If you're a female, you'll probably sing an octave above that. Long story short, shoot for a range from C to C - men will sing one octave, women will sing another octave but everyone has a C to C in their range.

“The congregation is the main instrument.” I love that!

Yes! Too many worship services are now like rock concerts with big lighting and big sound. Too much ego. A smaller, more intimate service, in my opinion, brings you closer to God.

Love this because my WT is a skeleton crew this summer. Women having babies, others going on vacation. The timing of this is divine! p.s. please do more guitar vids. You play very well!

Great Video. Thanks very much. I've got 220 pages of exactly how to create connection and intimacy with just one or zero instruments. It's my in process book called "Learning how to lead - the essentail how to guide for leading "connected worship". Some day I'll maybe finish the second half! ;-) Over and over I talk about how to connect worshipers to God through the lyrics of the songs and how it doesn't matter if you have a lighting, a great band, just a piano or guitar, or just your voice. Its all about helping people connect intimately with God. The how has very little to do with which or how many instruments you have and everything to do with creating connection points between the lyrics/meaning of the songs and peoples hearts and helping them bring their minds and hearts to Him through those songs. In this day of more and more perfect is better, It's so nice to find someone who gets it! Thank you! Serving Him, with you.

Thank you for the encouragement. You have blessed my wife & I with your prioritized focus on what matters in leading worship.

If I have an instance where, if I was leading acoustic only, and I had to go from no capo to capo or vice versa…I would tag on a chorus, but do it a cappella with the congregation. To me, it gives you PLENTY of time to make the change and keeps the flow of the service going. Just another option.

This is one of the best videos I've ever seen on leading. Working with a big band can be fun, but it really doesn't compare to when my wife (vocal) and I lead with vocal and 12-string. It's simple, yet inviting. One major side benefit (just sayin') is the eyes-to-eyes, heart-to-heart communication between the two of us ... we both smile a lot more when we glance into each other's eyes as we're in worship together. The other major side benefit is practicing together as we do a couple songs each day before our rehearsal night: we really get to know the song and what each other is doing: what works and what doesn't.

You have no idea (well, maybe you do 🙂) what a blessing it is to hear the people singing and worshiping without all the fluff!

For worship solo acoustic guitar arrangements, I really like playing with a shubb banjo capo (4-string) on fret 2, turning EADGBE into F#BEABE. It's like a capo on fret two, but the top two strings are open, so you can play cowboy chords when you play chords that fret the top two strings (the the D shape), but you can also let the top two strings ring out as well for easy chord voicing variations. I prefer that for arranging instead of a cut capo that you sometimes see on certain songs that leave the low E string open. By doing this, you also replace the sonically awkward GBE with an ABE, which is a 1 4 5 (E F# G# A B) sound instead of a GBE which is a 1 3b 5 (E F# G A B). It turns a normal "Em" into an airy 244200, but you can fret the top two strings with your index finger as well to make 244222. Power chords on the sixth string can be strummed all the way through because the intervals on the top 3 strings have a 1 4 5 relationship (root plus perfect 4th and perfect 5th harmonize way better). You can also detune the guitar one whole step down to D standard tuning, but use the shubb banjo capo on fret 2 to normalize back up to E standard tuning and still sonically keep things more or less the same on the chart when playing with a larger worship team. Sometimes you capo on fret 1 or 3 in E standard tuning to play songs in key of F or Bb, but if you use D standard tuning with shubb banjo on capo 2, then the equivalent is to put the full capo on frets 3 and 5 to play songs in the key of F or Bb. Takes a while to get comfortable, but I really appreciate the chordal and sonic variety. If you get bored with that, next try out DADGAD. Love your channel and thanks for the hard work!

I'm not the WL at my church, but alternate between an AG or EG on any given Sunday. I do lead one song at a Fri AM bible study, and you are totally correct, as they have asked for a Hymn, and it's a seniors grp! AND they really sing! So you are totally correct. At my church the last 2 Sundays, I was the only musician and played AG, along with a WL singer and harmony singers, while the WL was on vacation, and I do think it went well. Here's what I've seen as the biggest challenge for WT's in general. "to encourage the congregation to be participants rather than spectators".

Oh how I wish the music in my church wasn’t so loud.

I enjoy hearing you play the guitar!

Thanks for uploading this video Spencer, all of these tips are very helpful. I’ve lead worship by myself with just my guitar several times in the past. And I may be doing so in a couple of weeks. I’m going on a Missions trip to Paraguay and our Pastor (A.K.A my Father) asked me to bring some songs both old and new and I’ll be using a travel sized guitar. I’m praying that when the opportunity presents itself, that the Lord will be with me and guide me as I lead the different congregations we will minister to in giving him praise.

I do it every Tuesday!

I’ve been leading worship with only myself as an acoustic guitar (and myself and another individual as a singer.).