Posts tagged as:

chord progressions

Blues Piano Lessons

by Erik Thiede on February 1, 2012

Could you use a crash-course in the blues? These blues piano lessons will get you headed in the right direction. We’ll begin with blues chords, string together a common blues progression, and combine it with a complementing bass line. Excited? Can’t wait to jam? Let’s get started with your blues piano lessons!

Click Here And Learn The Dos And Donts Of A Great Blues Pianist!

Let’s begin with the chords we’ll use for this exercise. To make things easy, we’ll play in the piano-friendly key of C. A C chord consists of the notes C, E and G. To add a blues “flavor” to the chord, make it a seventh by adding a fourth note – B flat – to the top of the chord. Do the same with an F chord and a G chord. These three chords represent the 1-4-5 pattern that is most common in modern music. The pattern is so-named because, C being your root chord or starting point, the F chord is 4 steps up and the G chord is 5 steps up.

Patterns are also known as progressions. Some “chord progressions” are quite familiar. The most popular blues chord progression is the 12-bar blues progression. A bar is also known as a measure. A measure contains a certain number of beats, often four, that determine the pace and rhythm of the music. A phrase consists of the 12 measures, a sort of beginning-to-end section within a song.

Here is how you will play your 12-bar blues tune. Each chord represents a full bar, with four beats per bar:

C | C | C | C7 | F7 | F7 | C | C | G7 | F7 | C | C

Here’s another blues progression you can try. In the last two bars, the chords shown are played for two beats instead of four:

C | F7 | C | C7 | F | F7 | C | C7 | G7 | F7 | C, F | C, G

To add bass to the music, you can simply play the corresponding note; a C chord gets C for the bass, etc. Put it all together and you’re playing the blues! You can play your songs very slowly for one type of mood, or you can pick up the pace for another.

Once you’ve mastered the key of C, work on playing the same progressions in other keys. If you ever join in on a blues jam, for instance, you may need to match the key that the other musicians are playing in. If you are uncertain what the other chords would be, you can find a chord progression chart online that will come in handy.

If you’d like to find more blues piano lessons, click over to some of the great sites I’ve listed on my piano lessons review page. Enjoy!

Click Here And Learn The Dos And Donts Of A Great Blues Pianist!

  • share save 171 16 Blues Piano Lessons

{ 0 comments }

Black Gospel Piano Chords – The Soul of Religious Music

by Erik Thiede on January 28, 2012


Learning to play black gospel piano chords can be spiritually rewarding, especially if you are employed as the piano player or organist in a gospel style church. This style of music really gets people in the mood to move, shout, and express themselves with great conviction.

It’s a good idea to understand basic chord structures before you begin to study this specialized genre. If you are just beginning to learn piano, or your skills are limited, I’d recommend you play in the key of C because, for keyboardists, it is the simplest key to master.

Click Here For A Complete Black Gospel Piano Chords Guide!

First, you need to know some basic terms when referring to chords. The key you are playing in is the tonic. The fourth step up in that scale is the subdominant. The fifth step up in that scale is the dominant.

The three chord progression of C, F and G will come in handy when beginning to play spiritual music. You will want to add 7ths as well as extended chords such as 9ths and 11ths. Gospel music is very expressive to match the enthusiasm of the preacher and the congregation. Compare the sounds of the two following examples of black gospel piano chords. They are shown here as Bass/Chord:

Style One:

C/C F/F C/C G/G C/C

Style Two:

C/C E/C9 F/F7 C/C

I hope you’ll agree, the second example is much more inspiring!

Another device used in gospel music has you matching the bass to the chord; then on the fourth beat, you play the subdominant chord, and then back to the tonic chord. It is difficult to describe in words, but once you hear it, you’ll recognize it. Mix those in once in awhile, but don’t overuse this particular device.

Finally, take your gospel playing to the next level with what is commonly called preaching chords or preacher chords. This is a complex, advanced skill but can be accomplished with memorization of certain elaborate chord progressions. Preacher chords are used when the preacher is in one of his emotional moments; his sentences are more like poetry, he often moans or grunts at the end of each phrase, and the excitement really builds. Your preacher chords are played after each of these phrases to create an audible form of punctuation. They are not intended to be played while the preacher is speaking, but rather to fill in the gaps.

Here is a relatively simple chord progression you can learn to back up a preacher. For this example, I’ll use the key of C.

Your first chord is the tonic 7th (C7). Play the first inversion (begin your chord on the E key). The bass is C.

Your second chord is the subdominant 7th (F7). You don’t need to move much here; begin the chord on E flat. The bass is F.

Now play the tonic diminished. Your thumb doesn’t move, so build the chord from there. The bass is the tonic’s diminished 5th note, or Gb.

The fourth chord is the subdominant again, but this time, play it over the dominant bass, G.

Repeat this progression, or vary it. How about that? You’ve got a great start to your side career of playing black gospel piano chords!

Further Gospel Piano Resources:

Click Here For A Complete Black Gospel Piano Chords Guide!

  • share save 171 16 Black Gospel Piano Chords – The Soul of Religious Music

{ 5 comments }

Chord Progressions – The Basic DNA of Music

December 23, 2011

Many things in life have a pattern. In music, we refer to those patterns as chord progressions. They are simply a sequence of chords that tends to repeat throughout the song. Have you ever noticed how easy it can be to learn a new song you hear on the radio? Sometimes it only takes hearing [...]

Read the full article →

Blues Chords

October 6, 2011

Learning to play blues chords is one of the easiest exercises for any musician that knows how to play at a basic level. Once you learn the basics of playing the blues, you can sit in with the members of just about any blues band and jam right along with them. Click Here To Learn [...]

Read the full article →

Top Five Ways To Play Piano By Ear

May 19, 2011

Learn scales and try to pick them out in the music you hear. One of the top five ways to play piano by ear is by learning (at the very least) what scales are and what they sound like. Scales are a series of octave-specific notes that are played in a particular pattern or order. [...]

Read the full article →

Piano Chord Chart – A Gentle Introduction

February 16, 2009

To make learning chords a little easier, you might want to try using a piano chord chart. This handy reference tool gives you immediate and visual access to some of the most commonly played chords. And although they can be quite complicated for the beginning pianist, this article will describe their fundamentals. Acknowledging that a [...]

Read the full article →