danwins.com » Guitar

Winnie The Pooh

Dan — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:50:09 +0000

I worked out this song on the piano several years ago and I thought it had a really catchy tune to it. One day I was practicing my guitar (like you should be right now!) and stumbled upon a chord progression that reminded me of this song. After a few more minutes I had the gist of it worked out and here it is:

My Father’s World / Jesus Loves Me

Check out GuitarHymnBook.com

Dan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:37:19 +0000

Nearly two years ago I started a guitar website called GodlyGuitarTabs.com to fill a specific need. There really isn’t a good guitar resource for Christians who want to play hymns in church. Many sites that try to fill this need end up being chock full with CCM and other worldly garbage and it is difficult to sift through the mud to get the good stuff.

Well I was trying to change all that with GodlyGuitarTabs.

Now the website has nearly 80 hymns tabbed out for the guitar. Unfortunately though, it was built on the drupal CMS core and was running a strangely modified joomla template. You can guess how many issues that caused when trying to update the website. As many of you know, danwins.com is running wordpress 2.9 which is arguably the best content creation software ever created (in my opinion of course!). So because it was so difficult and time consuming to create tabs and upload them, I was beginning to lose steam on the goal and eventually the project become somewhat dormant.

Now I have just finished porting the site over to wordpress and I have given it a new name that is easier to remember and more appropriate for the content of the site.

Please check it out and let me know what you think of the design.

http://www.guitarhymnbook.com

Come Thou Fount – Video

Dan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:00:56 +0000

Not much to say here. This is regretfully amateurish rendition of Come Thou Fount, but I hope you are blessed anyway. I am disappointed with the camera angle as well and will most likely re-record in the future.

Guitar Recordings!

Why Christians Should Practice Their Instruments!

Dan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:17:31 +0000

I was recently talking to a teenager at my church in Hudson Falls, NY and he was telling me how he had just started learning the French horn.

“Cool!” I said, “How much do you practice?”

He gave me a quizzical stare before saying, “Maybe three hours a week?”

“Pffffffffffffttt……….!! that’s it?”

“Yeah I thought that was a lot!”

Honestly, though he’s right. Three hours is a lot for most people just learning an instrument. But unfortunately mastery of an instrument does not come in three hours a week. How much time do you need? Well there is not definite answer, but one source (Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers) suggests that 10,000 hours is the required amount for mastery. That’s the equivalent of working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 3.5 years. The problem is that most people need to eat, work, attend school, and fulfill other responsibilities during that time.

If this young man wants to become an expert at the French horn, he will need about 65 years to do so if he is going to practice only 3 hours a week.

One of the main reasons that I play and practice the guitar is so that I can use that talent for the Lord. I am a firm believer in doing things for the Lord as first class as possible and that includes playing music. I feel sometimes that Christians will practice more for a recital at school or some other performance and not invest much time or effort in performing at church. This is completely the opposite of the Biblical approach to music.

Remember Psalm 100 that says we are to make a “joyful noise” unto the Lord? This is in the context of sining with our voices and the Lord’s priority is that we are singing and making noise to praise him. That’s biblical and people shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed of their voice when they sing out unto God. However let’s also add another verse into the mix:

Psa 33:3
Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

While we should always be singing and making noise, God wants us to also play skillfully! Do your best for the Lord!

Unfortunately that means a good dose of PRACTICE is in order. What!?!? Yes practice.

I recently posted a video of myself playing “Power in the Blood” and I intend to play this as a special in church. But I decided that I could do much better than my first video and kept at it for a couple of weeks. Now the song has improved quite a bit. I’m still not an expert by any means, but I am a lot closer to “playing skillfully” than I was several weeks ago.

Compare the two versions and let me know what you think:

New:

Old:

Power in the Blood!

Dan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:51:36 +0000

This is a quick “by ear” arrangement of this great hymn inspired by my wife who suggested that I learn how to play it. Thanks babe!

This was my first take, and although it’s not perfect, it does the job.

Nearer My God to Thee

My Father’s World / Jesus Loves Me

Dan — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:24:11 +0000

This is an arrangement of two popular christian hymns I created with a little help from a hymn book and a beginner level guitar tablature book. I’ve been practicing this for several months and decided to post one of my better takes online for the critique of the masses. Let me know what you think in the comments.

I’ve found that video taping your self performing any instrument whether it be the piano, violin, or guitar can help you see where your true weaknesses are and will make you a better player. The first time you hear yourself recorded you will be shocked at how awful it sounds – trust me! The trick is to handle it well and improve where needed. This can also be a good tool for public speaking and other areas of your life.

Visit Godlyguitartabs.com

Nearer My God to Thee

Dan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:09:33 +0000

Here is my latest recording. It is an arrangement of the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” [podcast]http://danwins.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/nearer-my-god-to-thee.mp3[/podcast] Related posts:Guitar Recordings! How To Liquify a Motorcycle Christmas Memories Related posts:

Guitar Recordings!

Dan — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:24:07 +0000

Greetings friends! As some of you may know, I am an avid fan of the acoustic guitar and I am excited to be learning the instrument. I began playing actively and practicing regularly sometime during the summer of 2007 and I have never looked back. Since that day I have been privileged to play and sing in my local church and at the Washington County jail in up-state New York.

After playing for quite some time I have decided to being uploading some amateurish recordings done with a cheap microphone and audacity. I would like to buy a nice condenser microphone in the future and possible turn this into a regular weekly pod-cast, but for now I’ll be content to share some of my music with you.

Amazing Grace
[podcast]http://www.danwins.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast/amazing-grace.mp3[/podcast]

Come Thou Fount – (featuring segments of “And So It Goes…” by Tommy Emmanuel)
[podcast]http://www.danwins.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast/come-thou-fount.mp3[/podcast]

This is My Father’s World/Jesus Loves Me
[podcast]http://www.danwins.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast/my-fathers-world.mp3[/podcast]

Please visit my other website http://www.godlyguitartabs.com for more Christian God-honoring guitar tablature!

Enjoy!

Visit Godlyguitartabs.com

Dan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:16:39 +0000

Hello everyone and thanks for visiting my personal blog. I used to have a more full featured photoshop tutorial site hosted at this domain. I have now decided to fully pursue creating and updating guitar tabs for my other website, godlyguitartabs.com.

I have recently begun playing the guitar in the last year or so and my passion for the instrument has led me to the creation of this website. I am also a Christian and the complete of traditional God-honouring guitar tablature convinced me that I needed to create this website. I have spoken with many people who have told me what a blessing the site has been to their playing already. I have big plans for the site and I’d encourage you to take a look and pass the link on to your friends. Stay tuned for a downloadable PDF version of my first guitar hymn-book complete with transposition guides and index of songs.