Here are a few tips to getting a clean chords on your guitar, so your worship songs sound great

1. Trim your left-hand fingernails. If you have nails it’s impossible to hold the strings down cleanly.

2. Hold a string down with the tip, or pad, of your finger right behind the frets. If you hold a string down on top of a fret it can produce a muffled tone. If you hold down a string too far from the fret it can produce a buzzing sound. Stay on the tips of your fingers and hold each string firmly, as close to the frets as you can.

3. Only strum the strings that are actually part of the chords. For example, avoid strumming the 6th string when playing a D chord. The bass of a D chord is the 4th string. It sounds the cleanest to strum the top four strings for this chord. Strum just the strings in the chord and preferable with the bass string as the lowest. Here are a couple examples with number for the frets to hold down on each string:

D should not be strummed with 0 0 0 2 3 2, instead use x x 0 2 3 2
C should not be strummed with 0 3 2 0 1 0, instead use x 3 2 0 1 0

4. Keep your guitar in Tune. Invest in a good guitar tuner and use it every day. My favorite is the Headstock tuner since it tunes by the vibration of your instrument and not the audio sound. Hence, it doesn’t matter how noisy the environment is, it still works great.

These are a few simple tips that can improve the 'sound' of your playing.

(My Nephew took this picture in Africa. Beautiful!)

In looking at the questions it occurred to me a better question is "How to play with confidence."

Years ago I learned that even when the poles are far apart, there were a lot of people hitting telephone or electrical poles in accidents. Before the accident, turns out their predominant thought was 'I can't hit that pole!' You naturally head towards what you're focused on.

"How to control stage fright" presupposes you will have stage fright. When I first started playing the guitar, I was very nervous playing in front of people, so I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I does. You can experience stage fright, but you don't have to stay there. Stage fright can become a distant memory. Yes, every one of you can learn to play with full confidence.

Here are my suggestions for playing with full confidence:

1. Pick a song that is easy for you to play.

Only play songs that you've been playing for a while and that are easy for you to play. If you are learning a new song, wait until it's easy before using it in public settings.

2. Focus on the Music.

Musicians are artists. Some artists paint with brushes, but we paint on the canvas of sound. I remember playing in a Master's Class and was so into the magic of the music I forgot there was an audience watching. The applause startled me.

3. Focus on the Creator of Music.

As a Christian, I view life as a gift from our Creator. Regardless of the genre of music, I like playing for Him even when there are lots of other ears listening.

If the music is worship music and it's in a worship setting, God is the Audience. It's not about you.

4. Perform often.

Play in front of groups often and you'll gain confidence through your experience.

5. Pray.

This is the most important. Ask your friend to pray for you too. Pray that God would bless and use your music to touch others.

I know that Billy Graham Crusades were always so successful because they got Churches praying together months before each event. You can tell the difference when there has been a lot of prayer.

God has given you wonderful gifts. Go play and create beautiful music with His confidence!

1. Make Time To Practice.
We each have the same 24 hours a day. Only God is omnipresent so we need to be making choices of how to spent this gift of time we each have.

It's a good idea to think about where you could cut back to open up a half an hour, or more, to spending on playing. I have a good friend who decided to cut out 2 hours of TV in the evenings. I also know a number of famlies that use their family devotional time for a perfect opportunity to add worship songs played on the guitar.

2. Make It Easy To Practice.
Set up a 'practice area.' Get a music stand to hold your music, a chair without arms and a convenient place for your guitar. I used to recommend leaving your guitar on a guitar stand, but in earthquake areas like California that wasn't the best idea. A nearby case can keep it more protected. (I keep my good instrument in a case but still leave out an inexpensive one on a guitar stand just because it's so convenient to get to.)

3.. Start With Prayer.
Our minds can be full of distractions. It's good to get them quieted and focused on the task at thand, plus, as a Christian we can ask for resources beyond our own for help in all areas of our lives. This definitely includes help with learning to play the guitar.

For more ideas check out - How to Practice the Guitar

If you have some more tips on practicing, just add them to the comments.