Worship Musician Magazine November 2021 | Page 121

You could also opt to treat this 4 chord as an add2 chord . This would mean that you play the 3 ^rd of the chord , E , as well as the second , D . This voicing gets a little muddy to my ear , especially if the root of the chord , C , is being played . If you ’ re holding the G on top , this stacked voicing could result :

G fifth E third D second C root

That ’ s a dense voicing , and as mentioned earlier , very different from the usual open intervals heard when pad parts are recorded . So , use these dense or thick voicings carefully .

Remember , too , that notes can be arranged in other ways than stacked directly over each other . For example , here are several other stacked voicings you could use when you play the notes of the Cadd2 chord for a very different effect . ( Fig . 1 )

Are you noticing a pattern throughout this article ? I ’ m consistently ignoring the strict naming of chords in my chord chart . Though some chord charts these days will get specific and state things like C2 or Dadd4 , many stick to the basic names when showing the chords of a song . The 1,4,5,6 chords , like our G-C- D-Em here , are called just that without any colortul description allowing for these notes I ’ ve talked about here .

Listen really closely to your favorite recordings as you follow along on a chord chart . Ask yourself if what you ’ re hearing throughout the arrangement is just the notes defined by those chord names . More often than not you ’ ll hear some of these color tones being played here and there . I study modern worship arrangements so that I can bring some of these colors to my worship team through the keyboard parts I play and the ways I coach the other instrumentalists on the team to approach the part creation .

I ’ ll just give one more example of a color note you can add to your 4 chord . Continuing in the key of G with our 4 chord of C , I ’ m going to suggest that the 6 above the C is a beautiful option . I ’ ll notate the example without getting too clinical in describing it . Let ’ s say your progression moves from the 1 chord to the 4 chord . Here ’ s an option that adds the 6 to the C chord .

I hope you ’ ll begin exploring ways to add color to your pad parts . Please understand that my intent in this article is by no means to imply that if you opt for playing pad parts that only use the 1 ^st and 5 ^th notes of the scale your parts are lifeless and colorless . There are too many beautiful recordings featuring pad parts like this to believe that holding the 1 ^st and 5 ^th notes of scale can ’ t work well . I ’ m simply showing some of the ways you can expand your palette to add sonically rich colors to your parts .

Spend some time trying the voicings I ’ ve described here on your own keyboard using a pad sound . Try holding down the 1 ^st and 5 ^th notes of the scale and then add other notes from the scale . Add notes above your first two notes . Between them . Below them . Create some movement between your held notes . The colors and beauty that can result are as infinite as the colors of a sunrise or a rainbow . Pick up your brush and paint !

To illustrate the colors the voicings I ’ ve explored in this article , I want you to hear these various voicings with pad sounds being played . Please visit www . kerrtunes . com and follow the link there . You ’ ll find each example discussed here available there for you to hear .

Ed Kerr Ed Kerr lives in Seattle with his family . He serves as worship arts director at First Free Methodist Church , teaches keyboards in Paul Baloche ’ s leadworship workshops and is a clinician with Yamaha ’ s House of Worship . He also manages the Yamaha Worship Facebook group and invites you to join the group . www . KerrTunes . com

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