KEYS
BUILD YOUR SKILLS WITH THIS EXERCISE | Ed Kerr
I ’ ve written lots of worship songs through the years . Like most modern worship songs you and I play at our churches these days , my songs usually utilize the familiar group of chords often referred to as 1-4-5-6 . This means that the harmonies heard in the song are built on the first , fourth , fifth and sixth notes of the scale in a given key . For example , in the key of A , the 1-4-5-6 chords are A , D , E and F # minor .
I ’ m working on a solo piano piece that takes a very different approach harmonically . There are very few measures that don ’ t have accidentals , indicating that lots of chords and notes presented are not in the key . Here are a few measures from the piece . ( FIG . 1 )
Even though I ’ m writing the piece and have played it many times , it still takes a lot of concentration for me to play it accurately . That ’ s because a lot of what happens in the piece melodically and harmonically isn ’ t expected . It doesn ’ t do what you ’ d normally hear within the key of the piece .
( FIG . 1 )
On the other hand , as you and I play on our worship teams , there ’ s a different kind of concentration called for . Rather than carefully reading a score with lots of accidentals and melodic surprises , we can be confident that our songs based on 1-4-5-6 chords will be built on notes in our scale . As long as we play one of those chord tones and avoid any note not in the current key , our part will likely fit in our arrangement . We can concentrate on creating a keyboard part that works well with everything else going on within the band and the vocal group .
One of the keyboard players I ’ ve been coaching online has asked for some exercises to help develop her confidence on her worship team . She feels limited when it comes to creating something other than solid voicings of her chords . For example , when playing a verse for “ Way Maker ”, how can she move from playing quarter note pulses , like Example A below , to something with more melodic movement like Example B ?
I ’ ve suggested that she make an exercise out of this . If her goal is to be more comfortable creating melodic activity within the notes of a chord , build an exercise around the concept . So , rather than playing the notes of a chord at the same time as what I call a block chord , start on a single note of the scale in your right hand and then move to the next chord tone above or below that starting note . At some point in the string of notes you might choose to reverse direction , perhaps skipping a chord tone as I did above .
Besides skipping from chord tone to chord tone in your right hand ’ s string of notes , you could also use what ’ s called a “ passing tone ”. This is a note that you find as you “ pass ” from one chord tone to one above or below it . In Example C I ’ m circling the passing tones involved .
Notice that in the last two examples I ’ m playng less activity when the vocal line has activity . This is an important concept for you and I to respect , especially when playing an acoustic
EX . A