July 25th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
July 21 was the shipping date for Concordia Publishing House’s Lutheran Service Book: Guitar Chord edition, according to the LCMS Reporter. Samples are available at CPH.org.
I first learned keyboarding with left-hand chords. Chording wasn’t bad as long as the chords were standard majors or minors, but something like Dm7b5 required a little bit of study to see which keys to play. As I’m moving to two-staff playing, I don’t have to figure out what the hymn writer wanted.
I could see how a guitar edition might be handy on Boy Scout campouts, for those troops that want more than the standard “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” Sing “Salvation Unto Us Has Come,” and a troop could forgo the Scoutmaster’s Minute.
This might have been handy in Edmond, OK, when I didn’t recognize any of the songs they sang in that “unstructured” service.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Dan, Edmond, OK is where I went to HS and College (UCO). Right now I’m serving about 70 NNW of there. Which congregation did you attend?
July 26th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Dan,
I could see it being handy at home for a couple of reasons. We like to sing hymns, but the piano is in a different room than we have our devotions (maybe we should rethink that, but none of us are that good at it). I’ve also been supposed to learn to play guitar for the last 16 years now (since my dad got me one because I asked, but I have to give it back if I don’t learn. He didn’t put a time limit on it). And I’d rather learn to play hymns than the traditional folk song.
Besides, while I am not for contemporary worship in the least, organists are becoming more and more rare, and more expensive. There’s nothing unholy about a guitar for a congregation that isn’t up to acapella (and with our lack of music education in the schools…most aren’t).