Worship guitar
The guitar idiom of contemporary church music, built on ambient effects, delay-heavy clean tones and textural rather than soloistic playing.
Modern worship music treats the guitar as part of an atmospheric bed rather than as a lead instrument, so the vocabulary is volume swells, dotted-eighth delays locked to the song's tempo, shimmer and reverb washes, and sustained notes that fill space without obscuring the vocal. Parts are usually sparse and repeated, and the arrangement builds by layering rather than by increasing complexity. It is one of the most common places for a guitarist to learn to play for the song rather than for themselves.
Example: A clean guitar part of swelling sustained chords with a tempo-synced delay, sitting under a vocal rather than soloing, is worship guitar.
See also
Related
- PageVolume swell
- PageShimmer reverb
- PageDelay
- PageAmericana
- PageBebop
- PageBluegrass
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley