[cdc3j]

Just been thinking today about the relevance of guitar solos, and whether they have a place in the church or not. I play guitar at my church along side a guy I've looked up to and respected for years. He didn't attend anywhere until I asked him to sub for me for a month while taking a trip cross country. When I got back we asked him to stay and the rest is history.

Anyways, having two electric players in addition to the leader on an acoustic, we have plenty of space to play. The leader gives us lots of room and we trade out and work really well together.

A couple weeks ago the pastor (who the leader has had issues on and off for years) had a meeting with the leader and her husband (who's also the bass player) and said, amongst several other criticisms, that there are too many solos. It was kind of a blow to the ego. The leader hasn't changed much of anything and things are trucking along like always.

So baring the whole "respect authority" angle which I am very aware of and brought up to the leader, I've been wondering why exactly we even play solos. I mean, they should improve the song and work with the song to bring about a more powerful listening experience. In theory at least. I've been thinking, sometimes... maybe... they serve they players ego more than the song. I totally think God has given the knowledge and experience to be able to play the things we do, however I wonder how it comes across to the audience. We strive to be as tasteful as possible 100% of the time.

On a related note, and what may have sparked these thoughts, I went to a lagre service locally tuesday night and the music was very well produced and arranged, (be that good or bad) the sound was fairly decent for the venue and style, and there were two guitar players. One had a pretty sweet les paul, and there were no solos. Barely even an audible sound of an electric all night. It made me wonder if that's the direction praise and worship is going in? Were the players not interested or able to take a lead? Were they constricted by the venue/pastor/leader's discretion against solos? I wasn't able to talk to either of the players, but this is a weekly service at a large church which draws a huge college age and 30's crowd.

I hope I get some cool discussion going. I just joined tonight and thought this would be a good place to ask fellow players their position. Thanks

[mulletman]

Guitar solos are only acceptable in church if they're a cover of the 'highway to the danger zone' solo.

[Rainer.]

When I play in a praise band, my goal is to make beautiful, tasteful music that the congregation can worship to without being distracted. Sometimes that means a tasteful solo, sometimes it doesn't. It certainly depends on the style of music, the mood of the moment, and the state of the congregation. There's no real right or wrong answer here.

As for if it's feeding the guitarist's ego rather than a more worshipful act, that's in the heart of the musician. But that doesn't just go for a guitar solo, any musician can be up there for themselves and not for the worship.

Welcome to the forums, though. If you head over to our Worship Leading sub-forum, you will see that this is a topic that comes up a lot.

[thesteve]

Just bounced this over to Worship Leading.

Question for you: In your post you say that the pastor complained about too many solos. How many solos are you guys taking? How are they integrated into the music?

[mulletman]

Every good worship song needs a John Petrucci-style solo.

[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by The Phantom Mullet

Every good worship song needs a John Petrucci-style solo.

I aim more for the Steve Lukather/Larry Carlton style of solo, myself...

[6strings21frets]

I honestly don't see any problem with guitar solos in church, as long as the solo doesn't take all the attention from the worship and it actually fits the songs well.

At my last church, we had an American couple come from Michigan. The guy was an amazing guitarist and he'd manage to improvise with a great solo time and time again.

At my current church, we don't really do instrumentals so we don't really get to do solos, but we have a game where you have to try and get a riff from a well-known song (e.g. I play the chorus riff of Welcome Home (Sanitarium) when we play How Great is our God).

But yeah, I'm all for solos in church. I think it shows true devotion to God - being able to use your skills to glorify Him in worship.

[The DA]

I play in large church with 90% under 50 congergation. Our praise team leader (30ish recording engineer / musician, full time music minister) likes lots of guitar and solo's. Even sometimes on the few traditional hymn's we do (think Brad Paisley on "I'll fly Away"). Our pastor does not like guitar, instructed the leader to tone down the guitar and do more traditional music after 2 years (we all started/joined about the same time and a 150 week congergation has grown to 6 to 700) I politely step down from the Team and they had debates over music direction, the Pastor calls and asks me to rejoin and he will stay out of music. But still makes comments during sermon, last week while speaking about people and the church are not perfect and everything in life isn't exactly what you want he turned around, pointed at my guitar and said " I hate that guitar". It was my white Ibanez JEM, so the next week I played my Ibanez S470, The next Week my 81 Kramer and asked him after the service if he liked any of the guitars yet, I only have 2 more! We laughed, shook hands etc ( we're the same age).
So I think if your playing for God (not youself as I did for a long time in Rock bands) and the majority of the congergation worships God during the music, Solo's are just WORSHIP music.
Ever heard anyone complain about a Piano or Sax/trumpet solo in church??

[metropolis4]

Originally Posted by Dread Pirate Roberts

When I play in a praise band, my goal is to make beautiful, tasteful music that the congregation can worship to without being distracted. Sometimes that means a tasteful solo, sometimes it doesn't. It certainly depends on the style of music, the mood of the moment, and the state of the congregation. There's no real right or wrong answer here.

As for if it's feeding the guitarist's ego rather than a more worshipful act, that's in the heart of the musician. But that doesn't just go for a guitar solo, any musician can be up there for themselves and not for the worship.

bingo

I agree, I don't think it's a matter of them being right or wrong, but just how well they fit with the worship style. Sometimes an instrumental section helps to break up parts of a song and tie things together. I personally really enjoy mellow atmospheric solos in certain songs. Sometimes we'll do something like play Amazing Grace instrumentally during a part of the service and use guitar for the lead.

When you talked about going to visit the big church it reminded me of the last big church I played at. It was about 5,000 members and we were up on these pedistals on the stage. There were 5 cameras total with a video producer on staff. The worship leader really liked solo's and he'd always have me play them (mostly in places where I didn't think they fit the song). So here I am up on stage with the lights on me, while a guy with a camera is zooming in on my hands and I look up and there I am on all three gigantic movie screens wailing away some cheesy 80's power balad solo for the congregation to rock out to... That was a time when I felt guitar solo's were not conducive to worship

[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by metropolis4

So here I am up on stage with the lights on me, while a guy with a camera is zooming in on my hands and I look up and there I am on all three gigantic movie screens wailing away some cheesy 80's power balad solo for the congregation to rock out to... That was a time when I felt guitar solo's were not conducive to worship

This reminds me of a time not too long ago when I visited a fairly large church down south.
They had by all accounts a very good contempo. praise team and guitar solos were a regular occurrance, which is fine for me since that's what I'm familiar with.
What I wasn't comfortable with, though, was during the solo the camera focused on the guitarist and zoomed in on his guitar and hands. For whatever reason I felt like I was watching a music video instead of being a part of a corporate worship time.
It's something that I've had to search my spirit about, wondering if my discomfort was justified or not. Maybe it was just me at that time and place, I don't know, but it does make me think about how I can receive the information of a solo through my ears and it is usually pleasing (context is king, imho), but how the visual compliment taken through my eyes was not pleasing at all.
Hmmm...

And I have to say that I'm very thankful that my pastor, who is 60 years old, is a rocker at heart and he is our team's #1 cheerleader when it comes to our music style being powerful, dynamic, distorted and full of guitar solos.

[Joe F]

I think they are fine when they are not the norm for every song and when they are not extended excessively and over the top. (Squatting down on your knees at the front of the stage with a spotlight on you etc..) and yes I have seen that in a church.

In moderation, they can be a nice touch. I've been to churches however, where there seemed to be a 2 minute electric guitar breakout in every song. To me, that definitely makes it less about worship and more about sheer performance.

I like the short breakout in this Paul Baloche video at around 3:20 by Ben Gowell. A tasteful solo that is just enough to take a break from the vocals for a short time, but not endless and obnoxious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT_jngwVX3A

[RubberChipmunk]

When I used to lead worship, I didn't sing. I couldn't. I had horrible voice control back then, so all I did was play guitar. I played a lot of solos and melodic licks over the basis of a song. If I couldn't sing my love for God, my mentality was that I'd let my fingers sing for me. I like to think God likes to party and have fun, so I would put on a performance for Him when I played for Him, dancing, rocking, I did even a power slide once. I feel that solos and fancy guitar work certainly do not take away from that aspect. I couldn't even use anything but light overdrive when I played for the whole congregation, though, and not just for the youth groups. The real question, I think, is less whether solos and fancy instrumentation are appropriate in worship, because I feel that pretty much anything is appropriate in worship as long as it is honoring the Lord. The real question is whether such things are appropriate in your place of worship.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by The DA

Ever heard anyone complain about a Piano or Sax/trumpet solo in church??

If our worship team introduced a sax or trumpet, I'd complain about it every week....unless they became a ska band...in which case I'd probably still complain because they're not ministering to the people of OUR city.

[everyman]

The Ben Gowell solo is excellent. It’s quite similar to the solo he plays on the recording. That brings to mind the difference between a crafted solo and jamming. A crafted solo can function as part of the song. Examples are the solos in “God of Wonders,” “Meet With Me,” “Hungry,” “Hosanna (Hillsong).” You can still improvise but generally, you stay within the framework of the crafted solo. Jamming is where the musician ventures beyond the “song” and goes out on his own. Jamming isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you have to use discernment so as to maintain the integrity of the “song.” A solo in a worship setting should be an extension of the song, not an extension of the musician.

[Ethan.Bassist.]

Originally Posted by RubberChipmunk

When I used to lead worship, I didn't sing. I couldn't. I had horrible voice control back then, so all I did was play guitar. I played a lot of solos and melodic licks over the basis of a song. If I couldn't sing my love for God, my mentality was that I'd let my fingers sing for me. I like to think God likes to party and have fun, so I would put on a performance for Him when I played for Him, dancing, rocking, I did even a power slide once. I feel that solos and fancy guitar work certainly do not take away from that aspect. I couldn't even use anything but light overdrive when I played for the whole congregation, though, and not just for the youth groups. The real question, I think, is less whether solos and fancy instrumentation are appropriate in worship, because I feel that pretty much anything is appropriate in worship as long as it is honoring the Lord. The real question is whether such things are appropriate in your place of worship.

The first part. That's exactly how I see it! I can't sing. So I play bass. I worship by playing my bass (not that I ever get any bass solos. . .bass intros sometimes, but rarely bass solos! ).
We should be aloud to worship just as everyone else is! And yeah, I think God likes to party too! My pastor always used to say that when somebody becomes a Christian, God breaks open the Doritos in heaven and they partaaay!