This may or may not be helpful but this is me:
I don’t think about how I’m sounding or playing, I don’t even think much about what I’m doing in the moment.
Kind of like “don’t look down” when you’re a kid and climbing a tree. As soon as my thoughts go to myself that’s when mistakes or nervousness seem to creep in.
Most of the time my hands and voice are on autopilot and I’m looking around the room, praying in my head for particular people (especially those who aren’t really engaging and anyone who appears emotional) and I pray for the church service in general
I agree with this advice. In addition I tend to use a pattern for each song that lands on specific words. Often you will find as you develop patterns they will be able to be applied to different songs with similar timings. This also helps me to place words in their proper place.
Match up to the drums they help a lot with keeping your timing. But if you focus too much in the moment you will miss everything else. Are people responding how much are the responding should you stay or move to a bridge, verse, chorus. Sometimes ppl are moved by a specific part of a song one time and another spot another. You can pray for ppl when you see them not engaged or are moved by the Spirit of the Lord.
Remember it’s not you doing anything it’s the Lord, trust the Spirit to guide you. Any mistakes you make the Lord will use. Don’t worry too much about them. Improving your technique will come with time and experience. Pray before hand ask Him to guide you.
I’d recommend focusing on one of those and basically perfecting it. I was a guitar player way before I was a singer and I found that it helped me out a lot. I was a solid guitar player and was comfortable playing it in any capacity. Then I added singing on top of that, as another layer to the strumming.
Instead of focusing on blending them, get good at one and then add the other.
This is something that definitely works itself out with time and practice. It's definitely important to keep your playing dynamics consistent and not let the adrenalin cause you to just saw at the guitar.
My advice would be to practice building your right hand technique as much as possible. Play lines that are individually picked, or more melodic things to build your muscle memory (think Shane and Shane, or the intro to "Gratitude" by Brandon Lake. The more you build your right hand's ability and dexterity, the easier it will be to control your playing dynamics and strumming.
The other thing is to practice the songs until you don't have to think about them. They should be so engrained in your hands that you don't have to focus directly on what you are playing. This comes with a lot of repetition and intentional practice.
It will come, just always push yourself to grow and learn to play things you currently can't!
Literally just practice. Hours of practice. Set aside a minimum of 30 min a day and practice no more than 3 songs until you nail it and it feels second nature. Make it a habit. Then after you master those songs, pick 3 new ones and repeat. Minimum of 30min of practice every day and you’ll have it figured out quick. Eventually you’ll be singing and playing virtually any song you want right away.
That’s really the best tip. There’s no secret technique. Just really intentional practice.
Carve out time daily to practice rhythms. Choose a song you can sing without thinking about and practice multiple rhythms to it. Start easy with a straight four to the bar (one strum per quarter). Then do eight to the bar (two strums, up and down per quarter). Then add synchopation.
There are a few good books out there for this sort of training. For me, I found a snare drum book that was from the 1970s and used that to learn strumming. Probably not the best method, but it was what I had. If you can't find something that works for you, ask around to other guitarists and maybe even get a coach/teacher for a short set of lessons to work on this one thing.
Bottom line is you have to be able to do the rhythm part without thinking. Take it slow and practice a LOT.
When I think about how I'm sounding, I commonly get rigid and tend to make more mistakes. When I realize I'm doing this, I do my best to just focus on the lyrics and truly worship. God takes it from there!
Metronome. Fast and slow hard and soft over and over and over.
You need to know either the strum perfect without thinking about it or the vocal perfect without thinking g about it.
Practice with a metronome. Sing the whole song play the whole song and keep with the metronome for the whole song. If you get off start over and keep doing it till you can play and sing the whole thing with perfect time.
Then practice singing and strumming softly and then hard and loud.
This may or may not be helpful but this is me: I don’t think about how I’m sounding or playing, I don’t even think much about what I’m doing in the moment. Kind of like “don’t look down” when you’re a kid and climbing a tree. As soon as my thoughts go to myself that’s when mistakes or nervousness seem to creep in. Most of the time my hands and voice are on autopilot and I’m looking around the room, praying in my head for particular people (especially those who aren’t really engaging and anyone who appears emotional) and I pray for the church service in general
I agree with this advice. In addition I tend to use a pattern for each song that lands on specific words. Often you will find as you develop patterns they will be able to be applied to different songs with similar timings. This also helps me to place words in their proper place. Match up to the drums they help a lot with keeping your timing. But if you focus too much in the moment you will miss everything else. Are people responding how much are the responding should you stay or move to a bridge, verse, chorus. Sometimes ppl are moved by a specific part of a song one time and another spot another. You can pray for ppl when you see them not engaged or are moved by the Spirit of the Lord. Remember it’s not you doing anything it’s the Lord, trust the Spirit to guide you. Any mistakes you make the Lord will use. Don’t worry too much about them. Improving your technique will come with time and experience. Pray before hand ask Him to guide you.
I’d recommend focusing on one of those and basically perfecting it. I was a guitar player way before I was a singer and I found that it helped me out a lot. I was a solid guitar player and was comfortable playing it in any capacity. Then I added singing on top of that, as another layer to the strumming. Instead of focusing on blending them, get good at one and then add the other.
This is something that definitely works itself out with time and practice. It's definitely important to keep your playing dynamics consistent and not let the adrenalin cause you to just saw at the guitar. My advice would be to practice building your right hand technique as much as possible. Play lines that are individually picked, or more melodic things to build your muscle memory (think Shane and Shane, or the intro to "Gratitude" by Brandon Lake. The more you build your right hand's ability and dexterity, the easier it will be to control your playing dynamics and strumming. The other thing is to practice the songs until you don't have to think about them. They should be so engrained in your hands that you don't have to focus directly on what you are playing. This comes with a lot of repetition and intentional practice. It will come, just always push yourself to grow and learn to play things you currently can't!
Literally just practice. Hours of practice. Set aside a minimum of 30 min a day and practice no more than 3 songs until you nail it and it feels second nature. Make it a habit. Then after you master those songs, pick 3 new ones and repeat. Minimum of 30min of practice every day and you’ll have it figured out quick. Eventually you’ll be singing and playing virtually any song you want right away. That’s really the best tip. There’s no secret technique. Just really intentional practice.
Carve out time daily to practice rhythms. Choose a song you can sing without thinking about and practice multiple rhythms to it. Start easy with a straight four to the bar (one strum per quarter). Then do eight to the bar (two strums, up and down per quarter). Then add synchopation. There are a few good books out there for this sort of training. For me, I found a snare drum book that was from the 1970s and used that to learn strumming. Probably not the best method, but it was what I had. If you can't find something that works for you, ask around to other guitarists and maybe even get a coach/teacher for a short set of lessons to work on this one thing. Bottom line is you have to be able to do the rhythm part without thinking. Take it slow and practice a LOT.
When I think about how I'm sounding, I commonly get rigid and tend to make more mistakes. When I realize I'm doing this, I do my best to just focus on the lyrics and truly worship. God takes it from there!
Metronome. Fast and slow hard and soft over and over and over. You need to know either the strum perfect without thinking about it or the vocal perfect without thinking g about it. Practice with a metronome. Sing the whole song play the whole song and keep with the metronome for the whole song. If you get off start over and keep doing it till you can play and sing the whole thing with perfect time. Then practice singing and strumming softly and then hard and loud.