I have a question for the luthiers among us.

I sometimes play the guitar to accompany hymn at church. Those hymns are usually too high for the group. Trouble is, I don't know a whole lot of chords and have never been able to play a barre chord.

So if a song is in D, I find myself going all the way down to A, and that can be too low.

Would it put too much tension on my guitar if I tuned every string up a step? I think I could use the same hand positions as for A, but it would actually be playing in B. I think.

There are two guitars I could use. One is a half-size classical about a year old and another is a full-size Global which I got in an antique shop. It is not what you would call top of the line, but it sounds nice. Both have nylon strings.