Month: April 2020

Hi folks,

In this post I touch briefly on Part E on praise music from my post. These are techniques you can master by following HearAndPlay’s Gospel Music 300 course. Part E can be thought as a vamp or rendition of Part A. You play what you feel here. Some songs just consist only of Part E throughout.

Bass run is based on 1 and 4 tone of the key, unlike Part A where we use 1 and 5.

The ascending bass run look like:

A_♭ B_♭ B C D_♭ F G_♭ G A_♭…

Descending bass run can look like

A_♭ G_♭ E_♭ D D_♭ F G_♭ G A_♭…

On right hand, you can play 1-4 chord pogression

A_{♭7 add13} (G_♭ C F / A_♭)

D_♭9 (F B E_♭ / D_♭)

A lick you can use on the right hand is to play

B_♭ B F, A_♭, F, A_♭. That is, 2 ♭3 6, 1, 6 1.

You repeat this in a rhythmic fashion.

An alternate way of playing part E is to play a 4-part progression.

You start with a slow bass run first on the left, hand then change to a fast bass run.

They are as follows:

E_{♭ min9} (G_♭ B_♭ D_♭ F / E_♭)

A_{♭9 add13} (G_♭ B_♭ C F / A_♭)

D_{♭ min9} (E A_♭ B E_♭ / D_♭)

G_{♭9 add13} (E A_♭ B_♭ E_♭ / G_♭)

E_{♭ min9} can be thought of as playing a major 7 of the 3rd tone of the E_♭ scale on top of E_{♭ min9}. i.e. playing G_{♭ maj7} / E_♭

When you switch from E_{♭ min9} to A_{♭13 add9}, all you do on the right hand is to lower the third note of the chord by a half step, i.e. from B_♭ to A.

When you want to end a song from Part E, just transition to Part D, i.e. a 6 2 5 1 progression.

Hi folks,

In this post I touch briefly on Part D on praise music from my post. These are techniques you can master by following HearAndPlay’s Gospel Music 300 course.

Part D is a 6 2 5 1 progression and follows Part C. When you end Part C, you will be on a 5 chord.

So, on the left hand you can walk up to the 6th tone in half steps. i.e. 5 ♭6 6.

13 chords

For the 6 2 5 1 in the key of A_♭, we can use all 13th chords:

F7 add13 (E_♭ A D / F)

B_♭ add13 (A_♭ D G / B)

E_♭ add13 (D_♭ G C / E)

A_♭ add13 (G_♭ C F / A_♭)

Another way to play it is:

F7 add13 (E_♭ A D / F)

B_♭ add13 (A_♭ D G / B)

E_♭7 ♯9 (G D_♭ G_♭ / E)

A_♭ add13 (G_♭ C F / A_♭)

Note that to play the E_♭7 chord, on the right hand you just move all the notes down a half step.

Tritones

If you have a bass player, you can play tritones based on the 3rd tone of the chord key you’re playing on (think of it as playing a 7th chord without the 5 note, i.e. 1st tone, 3rd tone and ♭tone).
So for A♭ major, you would use:

6 – A + E♭ / F
2 – A♭ + D / B♭
5 – G + D♭ / E♭
1 – G♭ + C / A♭

Note that as you go from one tritone to another you just lower each of the 2 fingers down by 1 half step.

Right hand lick

If you have a bass player playing base run, you can play tritones on left and the following lick on the right hand:

<F E D♭ D> <F A♭ B B_♭> <A_♭ F A_♭>

Chromatically dropping minor chords

On the right hand you can play chromatically dropping minor chords including the 3 minor chord, ♭3 minor chord, 2 minor chord. After these 3, you can wrap up with a 1 diminished chord, and finally a 1 chord: So

3 minor – ♭3 minor – 2 minor – 1 diminished – 1.

E.g. In key of A_♭, you can play

C minor – E_♭ G C
B minor – D F_♯ B
B_♭ minor – D_♭ F B_♭

A_♭ dim – B D F A_♭
A_♭ – C E_♭ A_♭

How to transition from part D back to A

You can do a walk up on the left hand from 3 to 5. 3 4 ♭5 5.

On the right hand you can play

B_♭ quartal chord / C (B_♭ E_♭ A_♭ / C)

D_♭9 (B E_♭ F A_♭ / D_♭)

D_dim (B D F A_♭ / D)

A_♭maj / E_♭ (C E_♭ A_♭ / E_♭)

E_{♭7 ♯9♯5} (G B D_♭ G_♭ / E_♭) – hold this connector chord for a moment.

 

 

Hi folks,

In this post I touch briefly on Part C on praise music from my post. These are techniques you can master by following HearAndPlay’s Gospel Music 300 course.

In Part C you play a 7 3 6 progression, followed by a walk up from 3 to 5 (in half steps) i.e.

For the 7 3 6 progression, you can use any of the chords from our Cool Chords for Gospel Music page.

For example you can use
2 minor chord / 7
3 chord (#9 #5)
6 _min9 chord

In the key of A_♭, that would be:

B♭min / G (F B_♭ D_♭ / G)
C₇ (#9 #5) (E G_# A_# D_# / C)
F_min9 (E_♭ G A_♭ C / F)

Then, for the 3 4 ♭5 5 progression,

one way to play the walk-up is as follows:

A♭maj add9 / C (E_♭ A_♭ B_♭ C / C)

D♭min6 (E A_♭ B_♭ D_♭ / D_♭)

D_dim (F A_♭ B D / D)

A_♭ / E_♭ (A_♭ C E_♭ / E_♭)

Hi folks,

This post touches lightly on Part B of praise music as taught in HearAndPlay’s Gospel Keys 300. The main post is here. Part B is just like part A except it is based on the 4th tone of the key of the song.
So, if your song is in he key of A♭, your bass run will be based on the fourth tone, which is D♭

On the right hand you can play 9 chord on the 4th tone of the scale. So, if playing in A_♭, that is a D_♭9 chord i.e.

D_♭9 (B E_♭ F A_♭ / D_♭)

You can also use licks like in part A.

To get the full details, go get Gospel Keys 300 from HearAndPlay.

How to transition from Part B back to Part A

Usually when you play Part B, you transition back to Part A. One way to do this is to use 3 chords

– ♭9 of the 4 chord
– dim7 of the ♭5 chord
– 1 major chord / 5

So in the key of A♭ that will be

D_♭9 (B E_♭ F A_♭ / D_♭)
Ddim7 (B D F A_♭ / D)
A_♭maj / E_♭ (C E_♭ A_♭ / E_♭)

Note: you play the first chord twice quickly, the second chord quickly and the third chord quickly. After these  3 chords, then you start playing your Part A progression.

Hi folks,

In his post I go over how to play Part A of praise music, discussed here. Part A consists of a base run and some notes on the right hand side.

For this exercise we assume we’re in the key of A♭ major.

In A♭ that will be

A_♭ C D_♭ D E_♭ F G_♭ G …

then it repeats to the A and cycles on.

It’s easy to play. A base run hinges between the 1 tone (A_♭) and the 5 tone (E_♭) of the key of the key of the song.

So, in the key of A♭ major, you start with the 1 tone A_♭, then you play the 3 notes leading to the 5 tone (C D_♭ D), then you play the 5 tone E_♭, then you play the 3 notes leading back to the 1 tone (F G_♭ G), then you play the 1 tone and continue.

On the right hand you can play a 13 chord, i.e. a A_{♭ 13} chord in a rhythmic fashion.

you can also play a pentatonic scale with a ♭3 tone added to it.

You can play a 2 part chord from diminished to major chord.

3-part Chord Progression for Right hand

One chord progression you can play on your right hand during Part A is called the 3 part chord progression.

i.e.

1. Flat3 chord in second inversion
2. 4 chord in first inversion,
3. 1 chord in second inversion.

So in Aflat major, that would be

Bmajor (F♯ B D♯)
D♭ major (F A♭ D♭)
A♭ major (E♭ A♭ C)

You play these quickly in a rhythmic fasion.