Although I love the mellow sound of a guitar being strummed by the fire or under a tree on a sunny day, I never considered buying one for the children. The learning programs seemed to involve secular, modern music and I’m not interested in immersing my children (or myself) in that.
But all that changed when we were asked to review Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class for the Homeschool Review Crew. This Christian course focuses on learning guitar while praising God. We received both the Volume One DVD and the accompanying Instructional Book.
In the quality video, Jean Welles, a highly-trained worship guitarist, joyfully enters our living room with a message of music, faith, and praise. She teaches guitar basics right from the beginning, including how to hold the guitar, what the different parts are called, and how to tune it. In each of the seven lessons, she clearly teaches how to play different chords and different strumming patterns, and she applies all of a lesson’s information to a praise song that she plays and sings. The information and the song are also in the accompanying book. Sometimes we try to play along with Jean, but often we head off to the basement to practice, practice, and practice some more. The great thing about having our teacher on DVD is that we can come back to compare our playing with hers or even to play along with her…at no extra cost and without embarrassment.
Four of us worked on the course, each at our own pace. As expected, Miss 17 took charge and helped the rest of us along. Miss 9 spent hours and hours the first few days, strumming away and learning fingering for the first few chords. After that we had to pop the DVD in again to learn more. Miss 7, who is really too young for this, is allowed to touch the guitar only with supervision, but she’s learning as well! The real surprise is that even I have started the guitar. Slowly, to be sure, and with sore fingers, but I’m actually learning. Of course, there’s a lot of instruction involved in the course, and we have not gotten very far, partly because of the Christmas holidays. I, for example, have tuned our guitar with the help of the DVD, and can play 3 chords with prompting. Obviously this will be a long-term project for me. (Grin.) Miss 17 and Miss 9, on the other hand, have meandered through the entire course and know a fair bit about all of the chords and strumming patterns taught. They do still need significant practice, though.
What makes this course absolutely unique is Jean Welles’ approach. For her, playing guitar is all about worshipping God and about keeping our hearts and minds focussed on Him. She has tips to make the praise songs more personal, and she writes,
“Are you remembering to pray? Use your practice as real worship. Remember to ask God’s help in both keeping your focus on Him and in playing the guitar. You can be an excellent guitarist/musician for Him.”
What really inspires me is that the lessons I’m watching have been used in over sixty countries! Throughout the world, people are being encouraged and equipped to make music to God. That is so exciting.
To get an idea of the quality of the instruction, try out the sample lesson on the website and view the other videos. Also, be sure to check out the articles and past newsletters on the website. For newbie guitarists, the articles on guitar care, tuning the guitar, sore fingers, and more are very helpful. There’s also an opportunity to sign up for a free chord book and the newsletter.
Note that each DVD comes in both English and Spanish. A Worship Guitar Class for Kids is also available for ages 5 to 9.
To read the opinions of other homeschooling families, you can visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog. Testimonies from all over the world are also available on Jean Welles’ website.
Level One of the Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class, including DVD and book, is available for $29.95 US. Three more levels are available at the same price to take a student to an advanced level, and package deals are available if you wish to buy all of the levels at once.
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Disclosure Policy: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received Level One of the Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class, including DVD and Instructional Book, for free in order to review it.
This looks really good. I think we may give it a try. Thanks for the review!
Carmen