Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

Musicademy is based in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire and was established in 2003 by musician and guitar tutor Andy Chamberlain, together with business partner Marie Page. At the last count, the college runs around 50 music-based courses teaching vocals, keyboards, bass, drums, DJ skills and music production and is ever growing with over 275 students per term. This chunky DVD release focuses in on the area of guitar playing in a worship environment and contains over six hours of step by step tuition from Chamberlain himself and other features peppered throughout the course. Chamberlain makes it clear from the outset that this course is aimed at intermediate guitar players who have perhaps found themselves at a plateau and need help to progress as a guitarist and worship leader. Following on from Musicademy's beginners course for worship guitar, this is a very accessible and user friendly resource which will no doubt benefit countless musicians and worship groups throughout the country. As all good training programmes should, the course employs several styles of presentation, keeping the proceedings fresh and constantly maintaining the learner's attention. Roughly 60 per cent of the course is tutor-led and thoroughly covers subjects such as pentatonic scales, strumming patterns, playing by ear, riff patterns, transcribing and the impressive sounding Nashville numbering system plus much more. Chamberlain's teaching style is extremely approachable and any budding guitarist will find it hard not to learn from him. At times, Chamberlain gives the impression that he could simply be a friend who just happens to be a great guitarist and has taken time out to show you a thing or two - nevertheless, he never fails to maintain ultimate professionalism throughout. What is equally as valuable as Chamberlain's music theory lessons are the interviews with various worship leaders which give an insight into topics ranging from moving from acoustic to electric guitar playing and putting together worship set lists to questions such as "is there a place for soloing in worship?" and what to do when things go wrong. Contributors to this area of the course include Matt Redman, David Crowder, Noel Robinson and Tim Hughes and their words of wisdom will help develop worship leaders in this vastly important area of serving God. Three masterclasses by Delirious? guitarist Stu G have been thrown in for good measure plus a lesson on the DADGAD tuning by Tre Sheppard of Onehundredhours which again provides more variety for the learner. In addition to all of this, Chamberlain adds several short tips designed to give advice on changing key, talking when leading worship and choosing the right key for singers, etc - all of which give the student a very rounded education in conjunction with the features already mentioned. My only point of contention is that the course relates more to electric guitar playing and some more acoustic lessons would have been beneficial but this is a minor grumble. All in all, this is a very important piece of work which will help you develop as a guitarist whilst enhancing your worship group and, as a result, the quality of worship in your church. This box set does not come cheap but it will certainly be an investment for those who partake in the course. More information can be found at www.musicademy.co.uk .

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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\r\nThe Box Set contains volumes 1 to 3 in one package.