Question:
alot of these tabs are just the key or chord..when you guys play do you just play the chords, or do you add in your own riffs..and if you add you own riffs, what scale do you use most often.such as major,.minor..and do you usually use a perticular mode.?...i have alot more questions, as i'm starting to try to figuer out how to do some of the riffs to make the songs more interesting..i am converting from rock music to now playing guitar with my church, and i'm having trouble keeping that rock sound out of some of my songs..we play alot of contempoary christian..and i can't wait to learn it..
Answer:
CCM is basically rock. Like rock ballads, all the time.
Most worship music is also in major keys, occasionally you'll get a minor, but that's just a major key started from a different place (the sixth). You usually can't arbitrarily "pick" what scale to use for a song, that is determined by the key.
As far as riffs go, you'll find that through the history of rock, there have been endless amounts of riffs created on the electric guitar, and you'll just need to find out how to incorporate those into your playing or use your ear to make something up.
As far as playing chords vs "riffs", just use your ears, listen, and determine what the song needs most. If it needs a little riff to go through the song, play it. If it needs some chordal background, play chords. If it doesn't need anything, then don't play. Key here is be tasteful.
Answer:
one thing ive found is that you can pretty much play out of key as long as you play the notes in the chord
so say your playing over a dominant 7 chord
instead of playing straight mixolydian, as long as you play the root, 3rd, 5th, and b7th, you can go out of the key.
it sounds kinda funky but i like it
just be creative