[jschrag3]

Trying to join church worship how do I play to the guitar chord progressions?

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by jschrag3

Trying to join church worship how do I play to the guitar chord progressions?

I'm not sure I quite understand the question. If you're playing the bass and given a chord sheet for guitar, then I would make sure to hit the root note or each chord as it happens on whatever beat is appropriate.

[mathminnick31]

If the lead sheet is good, you play the chord when that word is sung. Otherwise, you've gotta know the song well enough to 'feel it.' If, as thesteve said, you are playing bass, it's the same idea. If the chords have a slash, such as G/B or D/F#, the note after the slash is the one to play for bass.

[rattlehead]

Agreed. If it's a "B" chord, play a "B", if it's a Bbm7 play a Bb and so on. If you're a little weak on the whole "root note" thing (I have no idea what your background or playing ability is) there are several sites out there that'll explain the basics of chord construction for you so you can identify the root note quickly and easily; Google is your friend.
One of my favorites:
Guitar Lesson World - Welcome to Guitar Lesson World

[birry]

Try this website. It is an amazingly awesome tool to help see music and get a feel for some of the theoretical stuff that makes music what it is. I highly recommend this for anyone who has never taken music theory courses, or learned the nuts and bolts of music.

musictheory.net - Lessons

[mr_mcbride]

The best way to learn the chords is to learn chord theory so that when you see a specific chord you know what notes that chord is made up of. Here's a hint....practice arpeggios.

You usually, but not always, want to play the root or tonic on beat 1. For the other beats you can play the other notes in the chord.

When first starting out the root and fifth ( fifth note of the scale ) are pretty safe bets. Next, you can add the third, but you will need to know when to play a major third ( third note of the scale ), for example, take the G major chord. G is the root, B is the third, D is the fifth. Once you learn the pattern ( fingering ) you can use the same pattern over any major triad ( three note chord ).

For Gm, the G is still the root, and D is still the fifth. However, now the third is Bb ( a minor third ). This pattern is the same for all minor triads.

7th chords add an extra note, the 7th note from the scale.

I hope this helps.

I can recommend books if you are interested....