One thing that holds true for many gospel songs or for any genre of music for that matter, is that there are certain patterns that you hear often. What I mean is that harmonically songs are similar or the chord progressions are similar from song to song.

 

Let me give you an example.

 Lets say a song consist of

Cmaj    Emin7   Amin7

 

This is a 1- 3- 6 chord progression

 

It is 1- 3- 6 because in the key C major

the major scale is  CDEFGABC

C=1

D=2

E=3

F=4

G=5

A=6

B=7

so in a different key (lets use the key of F)

The F major scale would be F G A Bb C D E

What would the 1-3-6 be?

It would F-A-D

Specifically Fmaj  Amin7  Dmin7

 

So how can you use this?

 

It helps in alot of ways.

1) It helps in transposing from one key to another because you are thinking numbers as opposed to notes

It is a whole lot easier to think 1maj – 3min – 6min

than CEG -EGBD- ACEG

If you are using the number system the key of the song will not matter to you.

It will completely free you up. At that point it is just mathmatical.

one is always one no matter what key you are in.

six is always six no matter what key you are in.

flat seven is always flat seven no matter what key you are in.

 

So I encourage all musicians to

#1 Learn all of your major scales fluently and know the corresponding number to each note of the scale

#2 Learn all of your major chords (1,3,5) in all 12 keys

and then I have a method of figuring out all other chords if you know your major chords. It’s easy.

For example you have to first play the major chord in root position meaning the 1st then the 3rd then the 5th from left to right.

 

If you take the 3rd of a major chord and lower it a half step then it becomes a minor chord.

If you take the 1st of a major chord and lower a whole step ( 2keys ) it becomes a dominant seven chord.

This is the idea. It is simple.

So the point is you put the scale number and the type of chord it is together and you can start to applying it to other keys.

If you are interested in this further you should get my Gospel Piano Basics Deluxe DVD. It explains this is detail. Until next time

Be Blessed,

Kenny Hollins

www.hmpi.net