Gospel Piano Lessons - How To
Play Gospel Piano
Beginning
gospel piano lessons can
require a lot of commitment. If you don’t have the time and would like
to learn the basics, print this page, set it up between you and a piano
or electric keyboard, and get ready to play gospel in a few short
moments!
Gospel music certainly differs from popular forms of
music. Knowing the basics will get you started, but if you want to back
up your church minister, you will want to follow up this lesson with
others that get deeper into gospel chord theory,
progressions, timing, etc.
When learning a new skill, it’s always considered a good idea to start
as basically as possible. On piano, that means playing in the key of C.
A C
chord is made up of the notes C-E-G
in ascending order. Now, chords are usually played with the right hand.
Sometimes, chords are also played with the left hand, however, when
learning the basics, I recommend using a single bass note for the left
hand.
Gospel chords tend to be
expressive to match the conviction and enthusiasm of church goers.
Therefore, you will want to enhance the sound of your chords by playing
sevenths and ninths. The seventh adds a “minor seventh” or flattened
seventh to the basic chord. This is accomplished by counting up seven
steps from the root note of a chord (or that chord’s
scale) and playing the note one half
step down along with your chord. On a C chord, you would add a B flat.
A
ninth chord will include the
seventh as illustrated
previously as well as the ninth note in a scale. The ninth note is the
same note as the second note of a scale, only one octave up.
Here is a chord progression that you can use in a
gospel setting. I’ve combined it
with bass notes. Each bass and chord combination is shown here as
Bass/Chord:C/C E/C9 F/F7 C/CYou can use this basic set of
chords to play your first gospel melody. If you have the ability to
improvise, feel free to experiment with inversions, other bass/chord
combinations, etc. There’s so much more to explore when learning gospel
piano. You will definitely want to learn about preacher chords,
for example. They are essential when backing up a preacher.
If
you really like this genre of music, taking online
gospel
piano lessons will be very rewarding
and get you to the next level as quickly as possible depending on
how much time you devote to practicing what you learn. Good luck!
Further Gospel Piano Lessons Resources:
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