I'm Craig. I'm married to Laura. I live in Nashville and make music for a living. I play guitar, write songs, and produce records.

Lead Guitar in Worship - Filling the Space

For the past 2 years, I have been incredibly privileged to teach a class at the Inspire Worship Conference on Electric Guitar in Worship. In that class, my main point is always that electric guitar in worship is supposed to supplement what the rest of the instruments are doing.

In my opinion, lead electric guitar is the least important instrument on a worship team. Take out bass, drums, or rhythm guitar and people will notice (unless it’s an acoustic service). The lead however, is not necessary. Too often when I visit churches, I’ll see an electric guitar player ignoring the rest of the team and playing what they want. I admit that I’m not perfect in this area either. Yet every time I step into a new worship setting, I should try to survey the musical space being taken up by other instruments first, then decide what I’m going to play.

For instance, two weeks ago I was serving on the worship team at my home church. It was a big weekend for the church so we had all 4 worship leaders leading together plus a choir. That’s 2 worship leaders leading from acoustic guitar, one from electric, one from piano, a choir, plus bass, drums, another keyboard player, and me. With 3 rhythm guitars and piano, I knew that there was no point in playing any rhythm parts whatsoever. I stuck to mostly moving lead lines or arpeggiated notes.

This past weekend, the band was much more sparse. One worship leader on acoustic, bass, drums, keys, and me. Unlike 2 weeks before, the keys were primarily rhodes and B3 sounds. In that case I chose to play more pad like sounds on my guitar during more quiet songs, and more rhythm to fill out the sound during bigger moments. I played lead lines when necessary, but for the most part I stayed simple. I avoided arpeggiated lines because that was being covered by the rhodes.

It’s easy to get a big head as lead guitar players. We think we’re cool and want others to think so too. I want to challenge all of us to take our egos out of being the lead guitarist and ask what we can do to contribute exactly what the rest of the team needs, not what makes us stand out.

Greg Wells: A Worship EP Kickstarter Fund

Last year, one of my favorite Nashville bands tweeted a link asking for help in making their next album. I was taken to a site called Kickstarter which allowed me to give support to the band in exchange for a reward. I chose the reward that gave me a copy the album when it was completed. I would have purchased it anyway, so giving the money in advance to insure that the album was made was a no brainer.

Fast-forward to today, and seeing kickstarter funds being advertised on Facebook and Twitter seems like an every day occurrence. I’m worried that people are becoming jaded with the site and losing interest in supporting great art.

In light of this, I want to share why I believe in Greg Wells’ project so much and want to see it made.

I’ve known Greg for over 2 years, and have seen his heart for leading others to know Christ through music. This spring we began talking about making an EP as the next step for him and his ministry. He had a vision for the message he wanted to convey about the Lord and an album seemed like the best way to help share that.

He came up to Nashville early this fall to begin the writing process for this EP. I am so excited about the songs that we (along with Brian Yak, Matt Armstrong, Brett Rutledge, and Jeromy Deibler) wrote. I love the truths that they speak about Christ. They are truths that I want to be reminded of. They’re truths that I really want to share.

I don’t just want to see this album created because I’ll be producing it. I want to see it made because I believe in it. I want to share these songs with you. So please, consider donating. You can pledge $10 and get a digital download of the album before it’s available anywhere else. You can think of it as a preorder, but it will help us actually be able to create the EP.

We’ve put a lot of work into this project so far, and desperately want to see it completed. This can only happen by the generosity of friends, family, and even you kind strangers out there. We so appreciate all of the support. You can click the title of this post to be taken to Greg’s kickstarter.

Thanks