The Amazing Grace Guitar Study
Young people are often drawn to participate in the Amazing Grace Bible & Guitar Study by their interest in learning to play and receiving a guitar. While we appreciate this, our primary objective is the young person’s spiritual growth.
Many of the youth in our programs have had little success in accomplishing anything requiring them to set a goal, and then having the discipline to follow through. By learning to play guitar, our hope is that our kids gain a sense confidence about what they can accomplish. In turn, this new understanding will hopefully encourage them to try other things that at one time, they were afraid to attempt.
A life changing example
The life of Wayne Johnson, founder of Noteworthy Ministries changed when he begin playing guitar. Learning guitar helped to instill in him the confidence that allowed him to overcome a chronic stuttering problem and to accomplish more than he ever dreamed possible.
Facts about benefits of learning guitar
A 2003 survey that included the parents of children who played music found the following:
• 97 percent of respondents agreed that playing a musical instrument provided a sense of accomplishment.
• 88 percent said playing an instrument taught children discipline.
• 78 percent said learning a musical instrument helped young people to do better in other subjects.
• 71 percent believed that teenagers who played an instrument were less likely to have discipline problems
The Noteworthy approach for teaching guitar
Our approach for teaching guitar is for your kids making music as soon as possible. The faster they learn to play a song, the more confident in their abilities they become. We leave teaching guitar theory to a future time.
We also encourage the kids to sing. Like other talents and abilities, singing improves with practice. The first area of focus is for students to sing on key, and project with enough volume so they can hear themselves.
What about guitar instructional material and songs learned?
Bible and Guitar instructional materials are provided to our partners for them to copy and give to their program participants. Included in the guitar material are three songs with chord sheets and diagrams on how to make the chords. The songs included are two versions of Amazing Grace; a traditional and dynamic beat version, Lord I Lift Your Name on High and Step by Step.
What about practicing their guitar? Do the kids take the guitars home with them?
We leave it up to our partners to decide if/when participants take their guitars home with them. Some partners allow the kids to take their guitars home after two or three sessions. There are situations where a young person taking a guitar into the home where there are few resources and/or other siblings may cause problems. The requirements of each program are different, and we encourage our program leaders to tailor their program in a manner that supports their ministry goals.
What if a participant does not complete the program, do they get to keep the guitar?
It’s the call of the program leader and each situation is different. If the young person is committed to the program and has to leave for reasons beyond their control, we give them the guitar. If there is a question of should we be giving them the guitar or not, let them have it. We had rather look like a fool than a hypocrite.
What happens if one of the guitars get’s destroyed or stolen?
Our partners set their own policies. We recommend that the youth are given the benefit of the doubt. It’s important the guitars are not seen as leverage. If a guitar is lost or stolen we will do our best to provide another. When it doubt, error on the side of grace.
