I’ve written a lot of songs with Paul Baloche
often chords change. In “Living Hope”, for and the other musicians on your team give your example the harmonic rhythm of the verse is chorus some contrast from the verse that was mostly whole notes, one chord per bar, with just heard? You can do what you just did in that occasional half notes, two chords per bar. exercise. Limit yourself to longer note values in Take a moment and sit at your piano or your your verse and then move to faster note values keyboard using an acoustic piano sound. Set on the chorus. enough how this experience molded me as a
“Living Hope”. Then, in the key of A, play the One of the great things about creating more than capable of creating tons of rhythmic
chords shown in these four measures with a contrasts between sections like this is that steady quarter note pulse, playing a chord on when you return to the verse after the chorus every beat. Each slash represents a beat in the you can return to the longer note values, too. measure. This happened yesterday when the guitarist
of worship conferences. One of the first things
he and I did together, though, was just play our
instruments together. I can’t express strongly
musician. Paul is an outstanding guitarist, and
your metronome for a slow tempo like that of
was playing with me. When we got to verse
Graphic 1
through the years and taught with him at tons
3 we went for very significant contrast and
played whole notes and half notes. The only
and melodic interest on his instrument by
himself. But when he and I played together, a
beautiful mutual surrender took place. Each
of us were hyper-alert to what the other was
playing. We were listening to each other.
Responding to each other. Giving each other
space to be featured at one moment and then
being willing to take more of a supporting role.
Now play the same progression, but only play activity played occurred when a chord change when a chord changes. Alternately playing the came along. That created major contrast to the one measure with the quarter note pulse and chorus that had been driven by eighth notes. I hope that sometime during your regular
until a chord change comes. This gives you a Don’t forget to factor dynamics into your parts moments to play like this. Broaden your focus to
great sense of the term harmonic rhythm. You as well. Let’s say you opted to play a quarter could take this a step further and play quarter note pulse in both the verse and the chorus. notes in the first and third measure, and eighth That could get tedious or, by playing these notes in the second and fourth. Like this: pulses softly for the verse and noticeably louder
then, in the next measure, hold out each chord
worship services or rehearsals you find some
include not just what you’re doing but listening
and responding to what the other musicians
on your team are doing. Like me, you may find
satisfaction you haven’t discovered before.
for the chorus, definite contrast would be heard.
Graphic 2
So, whether you’re playing on your own or with
another player or a full team of musicians, be
Sometimes the harmonic rhythm of a song sure you’re letting dynamics build highs and
doesn’t change when a chorus comes around lows into your performance.
after a verse. If that’s the case, how can you
September 2019
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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