After leading the first verse of classic hymn, And Can It Be, at church this morning, I realised I was a little hazy on the chords and there could be issues in trying to follow those and singing the right words. Fortunately I had a decent band playing with me so I decided to major on leading the congregation through the singing and let the rest take care of the music.

However, I didn’t have to stop playing entirely. I could hit a few chords here and there and, in the fuzzier bits, relying on the fake strum – left hand relaxed over the strings to keep the rhythm going but not pull the harmony somewhere too odd. Hurrah for little techniques like that which allow one to boldly venture out when not every last aspect has been carefully rehearsed!