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Gospel Piano Book One

Harold Hanson
Dear Musician,

My name is Harold Hanson a.k.a. Worship Fingers. Getting this manual brings the understanding
that you want to learn how to play Gospel Chords, am I correct? If that is so, please read on. If you
happen to have bought the wrong book, meaning that you don’t want to learn Gospel piano playing,
PLEASE RETURN THIS TO THE BOOKSHELF. I guarantee you that if you go any further you’d
pick up techniques that the world’s most talented musicians use as their arsenal.

SO STOP HERE PLEASE!

Hahaha! I’m just fooling with you.

Before I begin, I want to say a huge, ‘mountain sized’ thank you to my instructors, Ubon Ntuk,
Jermaine Griggs [C.E.O. of HearandPlay.com], Ayo Onabolu [Preaching Fingers], and other great
musicians I value as role models for their impact in my life, and making me what I am today. You
all have given me the foundations to becoming a Totally Transformed Gospel Musician, and the
ability to impact my environment with the knowledge base I now possess. It’s because of you I
have the courage and experience to write this manual and help my fellow Gospel Musicians growth
in his/her musical abilities. God bless you all and increase you.

Phew!

The local colleges or music schools don’t offer courses on how to play “praise and worship music”,
or how to ‘backup’ a Preacher while he is preaching, or stuff like that. When you do find a teacher
advertising “Gospel lessons”, you’d soon find out most of them are soulful lessons they try to
package as Gospel music. They do have good intentions, and probably know their music as the
back of their hand, but it’s not authentic Gospel music. Let’s face it…
There’s Christian music.
There’s even “Gospel music”.
Then there’s “Black Gospel Music”. (Ahem!)

Gospel music has some unique variety when compared to other brands of music like Rock, Pop,
Blues, R&B, etc. Most people try to infuse them together, but it’s just not the same. There’s just
this flow that separates them. Maybe it’s because of the fact that it is directed to God that it
becomes so beautiful and rich. I don’t know, but I like it. More so, Gospel music enables the
musician to explore a whole number of chord variety and creativity.

Word!

In this ‘Gospel Piano Book One’, I would be dealing on the secrets that the most talented,
respected and knowledgeable musicians in the world use in their piano play, and how YOU can
begin using these tricks and training in improving yourself and becoming a Total Gospel
Musician. I would also visit chords commonly used in playing “Worship songs”, a sneak look at
“Preacher chords”, the “3-4 principle”, and the phenomenon called “Couples”.
Have fun reading!

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In an earlier manual I wrote, ‘Piano & Keyboarding’, I dealt with the basics of knowing your
keys, a few scale forms, basic music language and writing, identifying chords, the 3-4 principle,
couples, Gospel Worship chords, and lots more. I would advise that you get a hold on that manual
and digest it before this. But if you can’t readily get one, having this is no loss. I would still deal on
the fundamental knowledge, but my focus here would only be teaching you the secrets of playing
Gospel music.

Don’t be afraid! Someone who has not played the piano before can use this book also.

What most musicians don't realize is that chords are recycled over and over again in song after
song! In the last 6 years of playing the piano, I've never (I mean NEVER) had to learn or "invent" a
new chord progression. I've learned new "licks" and "tricks" but the patterns have forever remained
the same. Of course, new songs are released every month BUT EVEN THEY FOLLOW the same
patterns that I'm going to reveal to you. Keep reading below...
Do you have a strong desire to do any of the things below?

-Play any gospel song I hear without relying totally on others, sheet music, lead sheets... or getting
the chords from the Internet.
-Play the piano, organ, or keyboard for my church choir, singing group, or worship service.
-Lead worship service at my church, but also be able to play the piano or organ when I'm available.
-Accompany singers or soloists no matter what song they sing --- or what major or minor key they
happen to be in.
-Be all that God wants me to be as a gospel musician in ALL areas.

If you chose more than one of these desires, then it makes sense to keep reading this book.

...I'll tell you why in a moment.

HINT: I've taken 9 years of tutoring and experience in music, and have carefully handpicked my
best and most proven techniques and tricks to playing the piano by ear... and if you're reading this
page right now, then you can't help but benefit from what I'm about to reveal to you in just a
second...

But let me ask you this first. What If I Could Show You…

*How to take small little chord progressions called "couples" and turn them into complete worship
songs in just minutes --- it's very simple to master?
*How to instantly "makeover" all of your three-fingered chords with full-sounding extended
voicings --- like ninths, elevenths, thirteenths, altered chords, quartal voicings, slash chords,
quintals, secondals, dominant "add 6" chords, and more?
*How to learn slow-paced, harmonious worship songs like "Anointing," "You are the most high,"
"As the Deer," "Halleluya," and others... ALL BY USING small little chord progressions called
"couples?" Once you've learned the secrets to "coupling," your gospel playing will never be the
same!
*How to combine various chord progressions to create endless possibilities e.g. "opening
progressions", "closing progressions", "circular progressions"(2-5-1 patterns, 1-4 patterns, etc)?
*How to play soft, beautiful chords during high periods of worship or while someone is speaking or
ministering?
*How to learn easy-to-understand patterns that will allow you to play hundreds of slow-paced
worship songs by ear... INSTANTLY?
(And a whole lot more!)

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... Now Let Me Ask You, Would That Interest You?
If so, then let's get right to it as you would learn in a few lessons what it takes musicians to learn
in years of trial and error. This is what it all boils down to if you want to learn how to play worship
music by ear...

Truth #1...You Have to Learn Patterns!

Gospel music is all about patterns, my friend. If you ask any experienced musician about
learning new songs, they will agree that the same chords are used over and over again in song after
song. I wish I could brag about how I learn every new chord "that comes out" but you know what?
Chords don't come out. Progressions don't come out. They've been here for decades and they will
always be the same.
New songs will come out with different combinations of chords but what it all boils down to is
getting to the point where you can recognize recurring patterns within any song. These small
patterns, or chord progressions, or "couples" will enable you to learn any song by ear, regardless of
how complex you think the song is.

Truth #2...You Have to Know What Major Key The Patterns Originate From.

See... once you've determined which patterns are at work, the next battle is to determine what
major key the song is being played in. There are twelve major keys just like there are twelve major
scales. A song can only be in one key at a time.
Songs may change keys (for example, from "Db major" to "Eb major") but can only be in one
distinct key at any given time. And trust me... as you listen to a song, you should be able to hum
(with your own voice) this key out loud and it should fit in at all places during the song.
Next, you'd basically transfer what you are humming to the piano and find the single note that
matches your voice. This is what I recommend for people just starting out. Experienced musicians
will find the major key of a song within 3 seconds without humming but there has never been a
time I haven't been able to help a beginning musician understand this concept of key signatures.

Truth #3...You Have to Know How to Hear These Patterns In "Real-life" Songs.

I'm going to repeat myself time and time again. SONGS OPERATE BY PATTERNS and until
you learn to recognize these patterns in songs, you'll be in the same boat. Asking people for chords
to new songs will only help so long. There will come a time when you're going to have to step out
on faith and learn these songs on your own.

... And I'm here to tell you that it's not as hard as you think.

THE PENDING PROBLEMS OF UPCOMING GOSPEL MUSICIANS!

There’s a pending problem spanning decades of the church musician. I would be dealing with the
problem of the musicians themselves, and why most musicians are stingy. I’d start with the
“advanced” Gospel musician [and this does not only apply to the piano alone].

Boy! Do we have a problem at hand!

I won’t say that all the more “advanced” musicians are guilty of these, but most are. About 80% of
them are guilty of these issues I would be talking about. It also seems like its worse in certain
locations…maybe even at yours? I mean it’s so bad, that some church musicians strategically

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manoeuvre their bodies to hide their chords, or use their hands to hide them…probably in fear that
you might steal them and get better than them.

Some will even stop playing the moment you approach them to see what they are doing [even if
you are complimenting their skilful play]. They will just get up and leave, or just sit there and do
something else, feigning tiredness.

I have also experienced musicians who are playing some nice chords and ‘licks’ one moment, and
once they notice another musician/someone who could be one approaching, they start playing
simple chords and making their play so basic and kindergarten.

There’s also this famous line used to feign humility, but is in fact pride at its peak. “I can’t show
you anything…you know it all already!” or “I’m not playing anything special here…just messing
around!” or the famous “I don’t know much…will you teach me?”

If they get to show you a chord or two, they make it so fast and complex, they know you can’t get
it. Even if you got a few notes, not all of it, and you’d forget even the sound of it when the day is
over. Sick!

The problem is that this happens in CHURCH. Secular guys are always playing or jamming
together, improving themselves. Gospel musicians, it’s usually every man for himself. That’s
weird. To think that in a place where there’s so much spirituality it would not be all about who is
better, or who is getting paid more, or about ‘tricks’ and ‘licks’. It apparently depicts that it is not
about furthering the gospel. To some of them, the name “Gospel Musician” is a title/promotion.
Like they are defending a belt or something.

To be fair, I guess their perspective, or excuse for these behaviours would be any of these:
 I did all the work to get to where I am, so I won’t give it to you for free. Why should I?
 They better work as hard as I did to get this, or they are not that hungry for it, and don’t
deserve it.
 Nobody showed me what to play, so why should I show what I know to someone else?
 If I teach them what I know, they’d go get better than me and possibly take my job.
 I like the attention. I’m not sharing with anybody. There’s love in sharing, but there’s joy in
eating alone.
This is how many of them think. If that’s true, then let them be.

Another problem is with the mediocre, or those who are just coming up. Theirs is worse. The level
of pride here is outrageous. I mean, you are supposed to be on the journey to becoming the Total
Gospel Musician, but then you put up an attitude. Listen to a few comments I have heard
personally:
 I’m going to learn on my own. No one can teach me the Keyboard.
 What can he play that I can’t play?
 I rather stick to what I know. All these new stuff is not necessary.
 I’m going to learn these new chords and use them to punish my friends and choir members.
 I don’t want to meet anyone to teach me, so that they won’t start using me to ‘shine’.
…And many more so far!

Some of these people are just not teachable. Most of them are so lazy and lax you’d rather be
talking to a baby about quantum physics than teaching them anything. It’s true that you have to
exercise patience when dealing with people, but HEY? You can’t help someone up a ladder if he
doesn’t attempt to climb it first. [I feel good with that saying!]

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Some of these guys even get jealous, or angry, or envious, I don’t know, when you come to teach
them how to improve themselves. I know this by experience as I have been privileged to host
trainings outside my usual training classes in other churches and ministries. You’d be surprised at
the tense atmosphere you receive from most of these guys. Absurd!

Then you wonder why most talented musicians don’t even bother trying to help.

Regardless of that, I believe that effort should still be made to guide these lost fellows. If you as an
advanced Gospel Musician refuse to teach, you’d be missing out a vital point in life. This is what I
mean. You can either have an “abundance mindset” or a “scarcity mindset”.
The ‘abundance mindset’ says: “there is enough_______(fill in the blanks)_____out there for
everyone. I will give freely knowing that good measure will come back to me in due season”.
That’s how I think though. I always found myself in a position to impact knowledge on others,
even while I was still in my early playing years. I had this pre-knowledge that “when you teach
what you learn, it becomes more a part of you”. This has helped me grow musically. So it is
true…God blesses those who bless others.
Helping others, passing your knowledge to someone not only helps the beneficiary but also helps
you who teach in ways that you cannot fathom. Look at this for a minute:

It basically tells you how much information you should expect to remember when using certain
modalities of learning.
If you read something, you are sure to remember 10% of it in time. If you see and hear it
[audiovisual], that’s about 20% memory retain-ability. If you’re demonstrated something, that is
30% of memory. If you involve yourself in a discussion, then you’ve just passed the 50% mark.
Practice makes up for 75%, and that’s why you must also practice and not rely on seeing, reading
or hearing alone. Two of my mentors [Adlan Cruz and Jermaine Griggs] have instilled this notion
in me that “it’s not practice that makes perfect, but PERFECT practice”.
When you practice the wrong stuff, or you practice wrongly, you’d naturally get perfect at playing
wrongly. When you want to learn something, it’s always better to slow it down, learn it right…then
speed it up.
The highest quality of learning comes when you can put yourself in a position to teach others. I’ve
become a better musician since I started teaching others. By putting myself in a position to teach
you, it helps me more than it helps you because articulating all that knowledge and replicating them
over and over has further solidified them in my being. So yes, I have had a selfish motive ever
since I found out about this technique. It’s a win-win situation.

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Knowing that there are enough chords, ‘licks’, tricks, ‘voicings’, patterns, ‘runs’ and more out there
for everyone should keep you away from the scarcity mindset, because you have more to fear
from the ‘underdog’ if you do that.

Which mindset would you rather have?

THE ‘SECRET FORMULA’ THAT WILL TRANSFORM YOUR GOSPEL

MUSIC PLAYING FOR LIFE!

Believe it or not! There’s a ‘secret formula’ when it comes to playing Gospel music, or any music.
If you don’t know the right ‘formula’, you’ll continue to have ‘hits’ and ‘misses’. Sometimes you’ll
sound good, sometimes you won’t. Some songs you’ll be able to pick up on your own, and some
you won’t. The truth about this formula is that it ‘produces’ every time. This has been proven.
Now, my guess is it’s either this magic formula is so easy to follow, even a dumb person can’t mess
it up, or there really is nothing to it. Maybe it’s just a mixture of the same chords everyone else
uses…but meshed up in a way that produces a totally new masterpiece. Perhaps both are true.

But how can something so good and colourful be so easy?

I can guess that will be your question. In a few seconds, I would show you the formula called
“MUSICIAN TRANSFORMATION”. It’s the one system that I believe every gospel musician
needs to experience transformative growth. Geometric, exponential improvement I dare say. And
by mastering this one system, you’d have what it takes to take your playing to the next peak level.

Each of the abbreviations stands for something:

1. Fundamentals fluency
2. Chordal command
3. Pattern proficiency
4. Song solidity
5. Ear efficiency

As I explain each component, I’d also tell you what happens when you lack that component of the
‘magic formula’. I mean to say that even if you’ve mastered four of the other components and miss
out in any one of them, you’d be hindered from becoming the Total Transformed Gospel Musician.

MUSICIAN #1: “The one who doesn’t know a thing they are playing”.

This is the musician who lacks the first formula component, FUNDAMENTALS FLUENCY.
Everyone knows this musician. God has blessed them to just PLAY. They learned by hearing
everything. They’ve learned chords by playing notes and listening to where they fit. They may very
well be playing the same major and minor chords you are playing, but they will not be able to tell
you that. The end result is…they have about a dozen ‘unnamed’ chords and patterns they picked up
years ago and they fit everything into these familiarities.

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Have you ever been to a church where they are singing a very hip, modern song that just came out,
but the musician was giving the song a whole different vibe? I mean a totally different
vibe…groove…rhythm…style.
This is a world not fluent in the basics and fundamentals. This is a world that skipped all the
foundational stuff and went right to playing. “PLAY IT AND FIGURE IT OUT LATER” seems to
be the motto for these folks. Some folks “don’t know what they don’t know”.

There are four stages when it comes to mastering something:

Level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence: This is basically when you don’t
know that you don’t know something. You literally have no idea that there
is something that you must learn.

Level 2 – Conscious Incompetence: This is the “I know that I don’t

know” stage. It’s a step in the right direction…IF ACTED UPON.

Level 3 – Conscious Competence: At this stage, you have attained the

skills and know that you are good. “You know that you know”. You are
still working at getting to the next level.

Level 4 – Unconscious Competence: You become so good at what you do,

you don’t even have to think about it anymore. It is a habit, and you
perform your task with automatic ease and without conscious effort.

So if you lack the missing ingredient in the formula above, Fundamentals Fluency, then you’d
always struggle with these issues:
 You probably won’t know half of the stuff you are playing and what other roles the same
chords can play to make your music sound more creative.
 You probably won’t be able to play on all 12 keys because you are missing the fundamental
building blocks that allow for easy transitioning in and out of various keys.
 You probably won’t get into playing more intricate patterns and movements and you’ll
probably stick with the same few ‘primary’ chords that always work.
 You probably won’t be able to communicate with other musicians because you don’t know
if you are playing a major 7 or dominant 9 chord…let’s not talk of other extended voicings.
 You’ll probably have a hard time picking out the exact chords and patterns to songs and
would most likely make every song fit into the box you find yourself stuck in.
And these are just a few of the many frustrations.

Mastering FUNDAMENTALS FLUENCY involves:

1. Understanding all the note names and sharps/flats.
2. A mastery of simple intervals of whole steps and half steps, and how they really work.
3. Understanding the major scales and the use of them. (It’s deeper than 7 simple notes)
4. A mastery of the number system, which is essential to playing by ear, without sheet music.
(This goes along with playing scales)
5. Understanding how major scales can easily create minor scales and how every major scale
has a relative minor scale. (Moving in and out of minor keys is essential in gospel since
many worship songs use minor-sounding chords and movements)
6. Intervals [distance], how to name them, and why they are important to playing lots of
chords and progressions.
And all these are easy to master because each point builds on the previous one.
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Once you know the note names and the sharps and flats (which are the black keys, but “sharps” and
“flats” don’t always have to be black keys... they can be white keys, but this is an advanced topic),
it’s easy to organize these notes into scales... which are a series of notes played one after the other.
A half step is from key to key with no keys in between. A whole step always skips a key with
one key in between.
In other words, just by knowing this one simple rule, you can tell me the distance between “C” and
“D” (assuming you know the note names). It’s a whole step because there’s one key in between
(which is the black key, “Db”). The distance between “E” and “F” would be a half step because
there are no keys in between.
The same goes for the distance between any white key and the black key right next to it. That
distance will always be a half step.

Ok! So another big fundamental taken care of in just 2 minutes worth of reading. How about that?
(Of course it gets deeper so keep reading...)

Then you take that fundamental and you use it to learn scales:

“WHY WON’T HE WEAR WHITE WHEN HOT”

This is a formula I got from my teacher and I’ve taught tons of people. Just take the first letter of
every word and it will tell you how to form a major scale.

WWHWWWH
W stands for whole step.
H stands for half step.

As easy as that! To play any scale, you simply start on any note you want (like “C” or “F”...
whatever you want) and start applying this easy formula.

And get this --- to master the “NUMBER SYSTEM” (which was my next point on the list), you
just simply NUMBER THE SCALE! That’s it!

That means: You just take out a pencil and put a “1” under C, a “2” under D, a “3” under E, a “4”
under F, a “5” under G, a “6” under A, and a “7” under B.

So now, when someone says you should play a 7-3-6 chord, you won’t be moping around anymore.
Just follow the numbering system. I’d cover the accompanying chords later in the book.

Do you know the part about major scales creating minor scales (#5 on my list above)? What if I
told you that you could play any minor scale by simply playing ANY major scale starting and
ending on the 6th tone.
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That’s it. Doesn’t that sound easy?

So if you know your numbers, you’ll be good at determining the 6th tone of any scale very quickly.
Then, you simply play that SAME major scale (do NOT change a thing about the scale... play the
same notes) starting and ending on that 6th tone.

See how we did that? The picture above shows a C major scale repeated two octaves (which means
it repeats itself again with higher sounding notes). I repeated the scale so that I can show you this
simple strategy to learn the “relative” minor scale that goes along with C major. Take note that
every major scale has a minor scale that’s related to it. You can call it a “sister” or “brother” scale
or a “cousin”... it doesn’t matter. They are related.

They share the SAME NOTES.

They share the SAME NUMBER OF SHARPS & FLATS.
They share the SAME KEY SIGNATURE.
They share the SAME CHORDS.

So now, you’ve added another fundamental...and it took all of 3 minutes!

REMEMBER: “IF YOU KNOW YOUR MAJOR, YOU KNOW YOUR MINOR.”

So I wanted to demonstrate all these secret shortcuts to prove to you that there is no excuse to be
missing the “FF” part of the formula (“Fundamentals Fluency”). It’s one thing to be at the stage of
unconscious incompetence where you don’t know what you don’t know. But just by reading this
report, you’ve passed that stage. YOU NOW KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO.

The question is: “Will you put in the effort to master these fundamentals?”

MUSICIAN #2: “The one who knows the fundamentals, but is still stuck with the same basic
‘textbook’ chords”.

This musician knows their scales, may even know the number system, has a good grip on minor
scales and the relationships, and understands intervals.

All that stuff is good. But they lack CHORDS.

They tend to play all their songs with the same kind of chords. They put everything into this same
typical (and predictable) structure. Perhaps they even sound good. But everything sounds the same
and while they are good “at their level,” they can’t dare step to an advanced player who has truly
harnessed the power of all the various chords and voicings available.
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These “basic types” (don’t get me wrong), know what they are doing. But they haven’t gotten a
solid grasp over all the chords out there (and believe me, there are a lot).
And when it comes to music, chords rule.

So chords are really that important.

You can spit all the theory you want... but if you haven’t built up your chordal vocabulary, you’ll
hit a glass ceiling that’ll be hard to shatter. You’ll just be the smart person who can’t play. That’s
why the second piece of the formula is “CHORDAL COMMAND.” And when you’re missing this
element, your playing will sound basic, boring, and like it’s lacking something. And even if you’re
playing the right chords but not the precise voicing, while you can get away with playing the same
“canned” chords for everything, people will still know that it doesn’t sound quite like it should.
Accuracy and precision is key at this stage.

Have you ever been somewhere and heard someone play a song that just wasn’t quite right? I
mean, you knew what they were trying to play. It sounded good enough. But it just wasn’t quite
there? That’s a classic case of a lack of CHORDAL COMMAND.

Here are all the chords you’ll use in gospel music:

Major triads Minor triads Diminished triads Augmented triads
CEG C Eb G C Eb Gb C E G#
Major 7th Minor 9th Dominant 11th Augmented Major 7th
CEGB C Eb G Bb D C Eb G Bb D F C E G# B
Major (add 9) Minor 7th (b5) Diminished 7th Augmented 7th
CEGD C Eb Gb Bb C Eb Gb Bbb (or A) C E G# Bb
Major 6th Minor 7th Half-Diminished 7th Sus4
CEGA C Eb G Bb C Eb Gb Bb CFG
Major 9th Minor 13th Dominant 7th Sus2
CEGBD C Eb G Bb D F A C E G Bb CDG
Major 11th Minor 6th Dominant 9th Secondals
CEGBDF C Eb G A C E G Bb D CDE
Major 13th Minor 11th Dominant 7th (#9#5) Slash chords
CEGBDFA C Eb G Bb D F C E G# Bb Db (Bb D F) over ‘C’ bass
Quartals Minor-Major 7th Dominant 13th Tritones/Ditones
C F Bb C Eb G B C E G Bb D F A E Bb (with ‘C’ bass)
Quintals Dominant 7th (b9#5) Dominant 7th sus4
CGD C E G# B b D b C F G Bb

And there’re tons more where these came from (when you include more altered chords, the list is
endless). BUT THESE ARE THE ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS. And when you include all the many
inversions (which is just a fancy way of saying “another way to rearrange chords”), then it gets
really interesting.

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Mastering CHORDAL COMMAND involves:

1) Understanding chord qualities and the difference between “quality” vs. “quantity” in music.
2) How TERTIAN chords work (most chords fall under this type).
3) The different types of chord classes and how to easily master all of them.
4) Primary chords vs. secondary chords and the roles both play in real songs. (VITAL!)
5) Understanding how altered chords are formed and where they’re most utilized.
6) How extended chords (ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths) work and when to take advantage of
them.
7) The art of chord inversions, why they differ from voicings, and how to use both.
8) How to use easy formulas and shortcuts to remember every chord so that you don’t have to rely
on your memory. (VERY IMPORTANT)

But what if I told you that you could play all of those chords by simply knowing just FOUR main
chords: major, minor, augmented, and diminished.

That’s it!

See, that’s the type of insider shortcuts I’m talking about. Music is tough. Yes! People go to college
for years to study it. But there are SHORTCUTS. Trust me. Just like we learned how to play minor
scales by using what we already know (i.e. – “major scales”), this concept is similar. You use a
concept called “POLY-CHORDS” which combines multiple smaller chords together to form all the
“big” and “bad” chords you see on my list. Let me prove it to you.

Poly = more than one. ⇒ “more than one” + chords = POLY + chords = THE SECRET.
Here are the four basic chords in the key of C major:
C Major

C Minor

C Diminished

C Augmented

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Now, with these 4 simple chords that take about 2 minutes to remember, you can combine them
together to play all types of bigger chords.
DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A “MAJOR 7” CHORD?
1) Hit any root note (like “C”). That will be the keynote (title) of your chord.
2) Go to the third tone of its scale. Simply play a minor chord on that tone. Bam! There’s a C major
7 chord.
C + E minor chord = C Major 7

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A “DOMINANT 7” CHORD?

Similar trick. You’ll still be working off the 3rd tone of the scale but instead of playing a minor
chord, play a diminished chord.
C + E Diminished = C Dominant 7 [C7]

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A “C MINOR 9” CHORD?

No need to learn any new chords. Let’s combine two smaller chords.
1) Hit any root note (like “C”). That will be the keynote (title) of your chord.
2) Combine a minor chord on the 1st tone of the scale with a minor chord on the 5th tone of the
scale. Bam! There’s your minor 9. And all you needed to know was basic minor chords. Example:
If I want to find out how to play a nice “C minor 9” chord, all I have to do is combine a regular C
minor chord with a G minor chord and I’m done. That’s it. You’re stacking the “G minor” chord on
top of the “C minor” chord.

C minor + G minor = C minor 9

The good news is 90% of chords can be created and remembered using simple little tricks like this.
Now try to identify the chord combinations in the table of chord listings I gave 2 pages ago. I bet
you’d have many revelations.

Incorporate these chords when you are playing, and you’d never sound dull again. Ever!

MUSICIAN #3: “The one who can’t play in all 12 keys, and approaches each song they learn
from scratch, failing to realize that most songs follow the same familiar patterns.”

12
This is probably the gospel musician with the greatest potential because they know their
fundamentals and have good chord command, but they fail to connect everything together. They
mistakenly learn new songs note-by-note and chord-by-chord, instead of ‘pattern’ by ‘pattern’.
One common way songs end is in the pattern called the 2-5-1, which naturally means that you play
a form of the 2nd chord, followed by a form of the 5th, and finally a form of the 1st. This is where
your knowledge of the number system comes to play.

The reason people can’t play on all 12 keys is because they probably are not viewing what they
play as patterns, or their fingers have not gotten used to the key formations yet. If I told you to play
the following chords in all 12 keys immediately (without prior practice or preparation), would you
be able to do it?

Key of C major

C major > A minor > D minor > G major > E minor > A minor > D7 > G7 > C major

If you were proficient in pattern recognition, you would be able to. That’s what “P.P.,” the next
element of the formula, is: Pattern Proficiency.

Here’s how I would approach playing this progression in all 12 keys IMMEDIATELY, without
hesitation:

Step 1: I would already know all of my chords using the techniques from the last section, C.C.
(“Chordal Command”). At the least, I should know all my major, minor, diminished, and
augmented chords... and have tackled some of the formulas to play other chords on that list. (If you
really take this serious, then the goal is to master ALL of those chords in all 12 keys.)
Step 2: In my head, I then proceed to convert the string of chords above into NUMBERS.

So, to me, it’s no longer just:

C major > A minor > D minor > G major > E minor > A minor > D7 > G7 > C major

So instead of thinking in terms of LETTERS, I’ve transformed my thinking by relating everything

to the UNIVERSAL MUSIC LANGUAGE ---- NUMBERS!

1 major > 6 minor > 2 minor > 5 major > 3 minor > 6 minor > 2 dominant 7 > 5 dominant 7 > 1 major

Step 3: Assuming, I know all my major scales and have made it a point to master the “numbers” of
every scale, then this will be easy. I can easily move this to any key by replacing the numbers with
the actual notes from any given major scale.

[If you’re skipping stuff and not following my advice, then you deserve to be confused right now]
(MESSAGE!!!)
Key of D major

D major > B minor > E minor > A major > F# minor > B minor > E dominant 7 > A dominant 7 > D major

Key of G major

G major > E minor > A minor > D major > B minor > E minor > A dominant 7 > D dominant 7 > G major

The ear is always the final judge.

13
But I have good news. There is a system that tells you what chords MOST LIKELY will occur on
each tone of the scale. These chords don’t always appear 100% of the time... but they do majority
of the time. Here they are:

1st tone of the scale: Will usually carry a major chord (can be a 3-fingered major triad or a big
major 9th... but the point is that most likely it’ll be major).

2nd tone of the scale: Will usually feature a minor chord (again, this can be a 3-fingered minor
triad or a huge minor 9, 11, or 13... but it will usually be some type of minor quality).

3rd tone of the scale: Just like the 2nd tone of the scale... minor.

4th tone of the scale: Just like the 1st tone... major.

5th tone of the scale: Almost like the 1st and 4th tones since it can be major. But it’ll most likely
be dominant and bluesy-sounding. The “5” chord is usually going to help you in ending your songs.
It has that strong push back home to the “1” chord. Notice in the famous “2-5-1” progression that
the “5” is progressing to the “1.” This is one of the most common progressions in music.

6th tone of the scale: Just like the 2nd and 3rd tones... minor.

7th tone of the scale: Unlike the other scale tones, this one is going to be either diminished (if
you’re playing 3-fingered chords) or a half-diminished 7th chord.

But here’s the real secret. Are you ready for it?
It’s called the “CIRCLE OF FIFTHS” and if you use it, you’ll notice most of the songs you play
follow it.

Let me explain...

This chart is probably one of the most important things you’ll ever learn when it comes to playing
and recognizing patterns.

This chart basically organizes keys in 4ths and 5ths.

14
For example, you’ll see C at the very top. If you look to the right, you’ll see G, which is a 5th up
from C. (You can also simply look at this as G being the 5th of C major).

And it keeps going... D is the 5th of G major... A is the 5th of D... and so forth.

The REAL magic happens, however, when you go the OTHER DIRECTION. That is, from C to F
to Bb to Eb and so on (like I illustrated above with the arrow).

THIS IS THE REAL FLOW OF MUSIC.

And I guarantee you, if you compare some of the songs you know, you’ll find a lot of movement in
accordance with this circle of fifths chart.
Remember the classic “2-5-1?” Well... circle any three notes that are neighbors on this circle in an
anti-clockwise manner, and there’s your 2-5-1!

And when you master patterns, the circle of fifths, and understand the chords that naturally fall on
every tone of the scale, you’re that much closer to being a TRANSFORMED MUSICIAN.

MUSICIAN #4: “The one who has a hard time playing exactly what they hear on an album
within minutes.”

This musician is having a hard time applying what they know to learning songs quickly. Yes, they
know their scales. They know their chords. They even know all the common patterns. But still, for
whatever reason, they cannot learn songs on their own and if they do, it takes DAYS. They are
struggling in the “SONG SOLIDITY” (S.S.) department.
The problem is not hearing what’s going on in the song. Once you’ve gotten to a certain level, this
will come easy. If anything, the problem is just keeping up with where each part goes and how
many times to repeat this or that --- and after practicing enough, you’ll remember little nuances of
the songs over time.

But the goal is to see the BIG PICTURE. To see how the patterns connect over and over again to
create real songs.

Here’s a little saying I use a lot:

Notes create scales.

Scales create chords.
Chords create progressions (or patterns).
Progressions create songs.

Here’s what you should focus on:

• Determining the melody of the song!

Often times, the melody can provide a roadmap for what chords to play. The melody will never
clash with the chord. In fact, usually the melody of the song is kept up top. (In some circumstances,
it doesn’t matter... but most of the time, the melody is preserved as the highest note of the chord).

So just by knowing the HIGHEST NOTE, this will rule out many chords. For example, if I’m in the
15
key of C major and I figure out the melody of a song starts on “E” (which is the 3rd tone of the
scale), there’re only so many chords that immediately come to mind:
Because I know a “C major” chord is most likely to start this song (because most songs start
on the 1st degree of the scale), I’m automatically going to assume that this melody note “E”
is simply the “E” from my standard “C major” chord.

In other words, if the C major chord is “C + E + G,” I’m just going to invert (rearrange) this chord
so that “E” is on top --- “G + C + E”. If it works, I’m good to go.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll say to myself: “What other commonly occurring chords in this key
have “E” in them?

E minor (E + G + B: the chord which naturally occurs on the 3rd tone of the scale anyway... see
CHORDAL COMMAND section). I can rearrange this chord to put “E” on top (G+B+E).

F major 7 (F + A + C + E: This chord already has “E” on top so if my other chords don’t work, I
can certainly try this one.

D minor 9 (D + F + A + C + E: If you paid attention to the CHORDAL COMMAND section,

you’ll remember that all bigger chords are composed of smaller chords. So if a major chord usually
works, there is a corresponding minor chord that will probably work too, because they pretty much
share the same notes except for the bass. In this case, this D minor 9 chord is basically the previous
F major 7 chord with “D” in the bass.

• Determining bass of the song

With the last technique, you were looking at the highest note and drawing potential options from it.
With this technique, you’re clueing in on the bass instead. Well, I shouldn’t say “instead.” These
techniques go together.

What you would learn here is:

 Learning how to combine separate patterns together to play real songs.

 How to expand your initial chords and play them more advanced once you’ve figured out the
basic blueprint of the song.

 How to use what you know about the number system and patterns to play the same song in all
12 keys QUICKLY.

 How to interweave the melody in and out of your chords to produce a recognizable rendition
of the song that people will quickly catch on to (even without a singer present).

MUSICIAN #5: “The one who can’t add their own flavour and creativity to songs, and lacks
the skill to improvise and choose other alternate routes to play.”

This musician can play songs. Can play patterns. Knows chords too! But they can’t use their ear to
come up with other routes and alternatives to what they’re playing. They have “EAR
EFFICIENCY” (E.E.) problems. And truth be told, it’s probably only 50% ear with the remaining
16
recipe being knowledge and reinforcement of patterns and how the circle of fifths chart works.

I want you to take a look at key ‘C’ in this format. It’s out of your common knowledge, but it’s
important. Also refer to the chart of the circle of fifths I drew earlier.

When you learn every major scale this way (which isn’t hard because they all overlap), you’re
already training your brain to think in this new musical direction. And since I estimate majority of
songs move “CIRCULARLY”, you have tapped into something that few musicians know or
understand.

But here’s where creativity and improvisation come in!

Say you’ve picked out the bass to a song in the key of C. Say your bass is:

C >B >A

That means it starts on some type of chord on C... then moves to some type of chord on B... then
finally to some type of chord on A.

Knowing what you know about circular movements and how great they sound, you can insert
chords into this progression and it would sound even better!

Why don’t we add “E” after the “B?”

Why? Because if you look at the circle of fifths, “E” is actually in between “B” and “A.”

B>E>A>D>G>C>F

At the moment, the song is going from B to A, which is fine. It’s just moving down the C major
scale, which happens a lot too (we call this “stepwise motion” ...Very close movements from one
scale tone to the next). But if we wanted to make this progression more appealing, we could insert
some type of “E” chord after the B chord and it will give us an even stronger connection to the A
chord.

C>B>E>A

This is exactly how songs like “Thank You Lord” work.

Keep in mind that we are just talking about bass notes. We haven’t established any specific chords
yet. But if we wanted to establish chords, we would simply ask our self: “Self, what chords are
most likely to occur on these tones of the scale?” And based on previous training (see P.P. –
“Pattern Proficiency”), you’d know that these chords could work:

C major 7 > B half-diminished 7 > E minor 7 > A minor 7

17
PLAYING BY EAR IS ALL ABOUT HAVING OPTIONS.

Now, here’s one last tip...

When a collection of chords sound really good and are almost predictable even before you hear
them (there are many songs like this), chances are it’s moving in a circular fashion. When it sounds
like something you’ve heard before... when the pattern is just very familiar to you... then it’s
probably circular.

You can probably pick out the bass notes by literally taking out a few chunks of the circle.
Seriously.

Now, of course, the circle doesn’t ALWAYS work. Notes skip around. Passing chords are injected
between “main” movements.

But it’s usually at work under the hood and at least if you take the time to understand it, the “ear”
part of playing will come a lot easier.

In tennis, I’m told a lot has to do with mental strategy.

Yeah, you may be able to hit the ball hard by brute strength.

But the best players are strategic.

So there you have it! The formula to transform you into a complete musician has been exposed. Let
me leave you with a complete chart showing the different phases of the musicians earlier stated as
compared to the Total Gospel Musician.

* There would be complimentary videos of these teachings so you can see the lessons in action, so
keep your eyes and ears open for them.

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 MASTERING WORSHIP CHORDS

I had already listed most of the chords used in worship songs. I would visit those chords more
elaborately here, noting when and where to use them.

In this section, we are going to explore seven sets [the seven tones in the major scale], and the five
‘accidentals’ [the other notes not on the major scale]. Each set has a number of two chord
progressions called ‘couples’ that go with it. Now, one set may utilize a certain set from one
progression, and another set may utilize that from a different progression. The important thing to
note is that once you combine certain couples with others, you create worship songs. Remember
my formula?
Tones form scales
Scales form chords
Chords form patterns or progressions
Patterns form songs

You have to be able to recognize the sets in a song and learn how to play them.
Like I said earlier in this book, playing by ear is all about having different options and not being
stuck with basic ‘textbook’ chords, so when I introduce each tone of the scale, I’d provide several
options which I would use myself when I am playing. It’s up to you to master them and manipulate
them anyhow you like. You don’t have to sound like me. Play as you deem fit, according to what
you hear. Remember that the ear is always the final judge when it comes to playing songs.
For each tone I’d list out six variations. If you get my previous manual, “Piano & Keyboarding”,
you’d see many other variations that can be used in music playing. These chords listed here are
those commonly played in gospel worship music. Practice them till you get accustomed to them.

Tone #1 – ‘do’
These are tones that can be played on the first tone of the scale, ‘do’.

dsd/sdrm dsd/lrs

dsd/rsd d s to / m l to r

dst/trms dst/dmst

* The first quartal chord selection on the top right – d s d / l r s can be led to using the quartal chord
selection of de se de / to mo se.
* The slash (/) between chords indicates that the left hand plays the notes on the left, and the right
hand plays those on the right.

19
 Tone #2 – ‘re’
These are chords selections that can be played with the ‘re’ tone as the root.

rld/fldm r l d / fe t d m

r l d / m fe l r l d / se t r f

r l d / se d r f r l d / to d r f

Tone #3 – ‘mi’
These are chords used on the third tone ‘mi’.

mtr/rsd m t r / se d r s

m t r / se de f m t r / f se t r

m t r / m s to r m t r / t r fe l

Another chord selection that can go with the ‘mi’ root is your ‘do’ major ‘add 9’ note [d r m s].

The ‘mi’ note is one of the most unique notes on the piano as it can share the same major chords
with the ‘do’ note, and the ‘sol’ note.

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 Tone #4 – ‘fa’
These are the chords that will usually accompany the fourth tone of the scale.

fdm/mld fdm/fsld

fdm/lrml f d f / mo s l r

f d m / se d r f f d m / se d m

Tone #5 – ‘sol’
These are the accompanying chords for the fifth tone of the scale. The pronunciation is ‘sol’ as in
‘sew’ if sewing a cloth, not ‘soh’ as that will mean a flattened fifth tone ‘fe’.

srf/fldm srs/sltr

srs/drms s r f / f l to r

s r s / se d r s s r s / t m se

Tone #6 – ‘la’

lms/stdm lms/fld

21
 l m s / s to de m l m s / t r fe l

l m s / l t de m lml/drms

Tone #7 – ‘ti’

tst/str tst/ldf

t s t / l r fe t r fe / l de m

t f l / t mo fe l t m s / t r fe l

There are more extended voicings that can be used in playing each note listed here. Earlier in this
book, I made mention of how chords are formed, and how they can be easily remembered. If you
want to extend your voicings, just simply combine chords upon chords. Super-impose if you like.
Just make sure your chords are not far away from the melody of the song being played.

I want to now deal on the ‘accidentals’. There are five in number, all having two names each,
depending on how you are naming them, whether based on the note/key in front of them, or that
behind them. The simple rule is: When naming the accidentals, based on sharps, you replace the
original name with ‘e’ to the first letter of the tone name. Naming it based on flats, you replace
with ‘o.’ So, ‘do’ becomes ‘de’ when sharpened, and ‘mi’ becomes ‘mo’ when flattened.

Tone #1 sharp – ‘de’ or ‘ro’

de se de / to mo se de se de / t m se

22
 de se de / s to de m

Tone #2 sharp – ‘re’ or ‘mo’

mo to de / de f fe to mo to de / mo fe to r

mo to de / fe l d m

Tone #4 sharp – ‘fe’ or ‘so’

fe de m / to r m l fe de m / mo fe l d

fe de m / t d m l

Tone #5 sharp – ‘se’ or ‘lo’

se mo fe / d mo f se mo s / se d r s

se mo s / t r m se

23
 Tone #6 sharp – ‘le’ or ‘to’
o o
t ft /sdrm to f to / se d r s

to f se / l d r f

Some of these chords can be used as part of the chord progressions themselves. Mostly, they are
what we call ‘passing’ chords to another tone on the progression. For example, the chord selection
of (se mo s / se d r s) is a passing chord instead of the 3rd to the 6th tone, i.e. ‘mi’ to ‘la’.

Explore! Use your imagination. You have been given some beautiful chord selections to make your
piano play richer and more exciting.

The 3 – 4 Principle

I want to talk about the ‘3-4 principle’ a little here before we enter into anything else, as this is
important for you to harness the power of your chords better. This is the underlying principle of
patterns. Like the ‘circle of fifths’, it shows a simple patterned movement around the tones of the
scale, but unlike the circle, it focuses on the major scale of the key in question alone.
It is important for you to memorise these laws, both of the ‘3-4’ and the ‘circle of fifths’, for you to
be able to fully master the flow in which music in general follows.

Now listen!

The ‘3-4 principle’ states simply: “3 goes up and 4 goes down!” Repeat that after me. “3 goes up,
and 4 goes down!” And why this is so important is because if you want to know or remember
which chords are commonly preceded by certain chords, just remember the ‘3-4 principle’. Now if
you recall the number system ‘7-3-6-2-5-1-4’, then you’re fine because that’s basically the pattern.
A circular progression! That tells us that the ‘7’ tone has a strong tendency to lead to the ‘3’, and
the ‘3’ has the tendency to lead to the ‘6’, and the ‘6’ to the ‘2’, and so on. That’s a pattern on it’s
own. It is important to remember that this flow has to follow the count of scale tones, not just tones
on the piano. They have to be tones on the major scale.

So if I am on tone ‘2’, I would count three tones up to get me to tone ‘5’. Then if on ‘7’, I would
count four tones down to ‘3’. What I am trying to do is not exceed the number seven in my
additions, i.e. 1 + 3, 2 + 3, 3 + 3, 4 + 3, 5 – 4, 6 – 4, and 7 – 4. So just turn the numbers into scale
tones: d [1], r [2], m [3], f [4], s [5], l [6], and t [7].

What I am putting across is that, take for instance I am on the 7th tone of the scale which is ‘ti’, it
would lead me to the 3rd which is ‘mi’ because the 7th has a strong tendency of leading to the 3rd,
and the 3rd to the 6th, following the additions and subtractions.

Are you following?

24
I know this is somewhat mathematical, but you have to understand these movements. Yes! You
can’t escape the presence of math in everything. Ha! Ha!!

COUPLES

Now, we would take these chords that we’ve learned and put them together.

COUPLES DON’T MEAN HUSBAND AND WIFE in this context.

What we mean by ‘couples’ is “a group of chords related in progression”. What I mean is any two
or more chords that follow each other closely, or have a strong flow relationship. These chords kind
of link, and that’s why they are couples. Coupling is what we would call pattern building.
Remember I said patterns build songs? ‘Couples’ is the idea behind patterns.

I would be talking about the seven sets of couples.

Couple one
The first set of couples will cover anything that can be played coming away from the first chord.
That is, any chord that can be played after the first chord. At least by now you should know what
the first tone is and the chords associated with it.

1 – 2 [d – r]
This couple progression is used in songs like “There is a name”, “Majesty”, “I will sing”, and more.

d/drms - r/fldm d/dmst - r/fld d / s d r m - r / fe l d m

Another option would be to play the 1 sharp before heading to 2 [1 – 1#/2b – 2]

d / d r m s – de / s to de m – r / f l d m d / s d r m – de / to mo se – r / f l d m

1 – 3 [d – m]
This couple progression is common to songs like “Thank you lord”, “I need you”, “Praise is what I
do”, “Jesus, at the mention of your name”, “You are the only living God”, and more.

d / d r m s - m / se d r s d/rsd - m/rsd

1 – 4 [d – f]
This is used in songs like “Halleluya”, “Praise Jehovah”, “Draw me close”, and more.

d/drms - f/fsld d/dmst - f/lrml *d / s to d m - f / f l d mo

(The * chord is just another variety of the 4 - 1 progression)
You can also connect your 3 to 4 as a passing chord from your 1

d/rsd - m/rsd - f/lrms d/drms - m/dmst - f/ldm

1 – 5 [d – s]
Used in “Bigger than what people say”, “I simply live for you”, “More of you”, and more.

d/drms - s/str

25
1 – 6 [d – l]
Used in songs like “You are awesome in this place”, “Anointing”, “I take pleasure”, and more.

d/drms - l/dmst d/rsd - l/ldms

1 – 7 [d – t]
Used in songs like “As the deer”, “Heart of worship”, “Here I am to worship”, and more.

d/sdrm - t/str

The bottom line is tone 1 can lead naturally into any other tone on the scale.

Couple two
The second set of couples will cover anything that can be played coming away from the second
chord. That is, any chord that can be played after the second chord.

2 – 5 [r – s]
This is the most common movement of the 2nd tone, because the 2nd tone has a very strong tendency
above other tones to lead to the 5th tone following the ‘3-4 principle’. This progression is used
usually to take you one step away from home, i.e. it leads you to 5, which will take you home to 1.
So it’s common in rounding up songs.

r / fe l d m - s / f l d m r/fldm - s/fldm r / fe t d m - s / f l d m

2 – 6# – 5 [r – to – s]
The 6# here acts as a passing chord to the 5th tone. This movement is also common in some songs.

r / f l d m - to / f t o r - s / f l d m

Couple three
The third set of couples will cover anything that can be played coming away from the third chord.
That is, any chord that can be played after the third chord.

3 – 6 [m – l]
You probably came to a 3rd by playing a 7th first or a 1st. Either way, this is the strongest couple of
the 3rd tone if you follow the principle. Most likely, a run from the 3rd to the 6th is played in some
music e.g. m – fe – se – l. Or you can just play the 3rd straight into the 6th.

m / se d r s - l / s t d m m / f se t r - l / s t d m m / t r fe l - l / t mo s to

Another way of playing this movement is in connecting the 3rd and 6th with the 5#.

m / f se t r - se / se d r s - l / l d m s

3 – 4 [m – f]
This movement is common in songs like “Praise Jehovah”, “Halleluya to the King”, and more.

m/dmst - f/lrml m/drms - f/ldm m/rsd - f/msld

26
 Couple four
The fourth set of couples will cover anything that can be played coming away from the fourth
chord. That is, any chord that can be played after the fourth chord. This is famous too.

4 – 5 [f – s]
This progression is basically what you are going to do the most. This movement can be seen in
songs like “You said”, and more.

f/fsld - s/str f/lrms - f/str

Another connection to the 5th would be through the 6#. [f – to – s]

f / f s l d - to / f to d r - s / f l d m f / l d m s - to / se d r s - s / s d r m

4 – 7 [f – t]

f / l r m l - t / mo fe l r f / s l d m - t / l r fe

There is another connection we can take, which is bringing 4# before the 7th. [f – fe – t]

f / m s l d - fe / fe to d m - t / mo fe l r

4 – 6 [f – l]
This movement is seen in “Worship experience”, “More than anything”, and more.

f/fsld - l/stdm f/lrms - l/ldms

4 – 3 [f – m]
This movement is common in many songs.

f/mld - m/rsd f / se d m - m / m s to r f / mo s l r - m / s t r m

4 – 1 [f – d]
Used in songs like “Our God is an awesome God”, “Breathe”, “You are the most high”, and more.

f/ldm - d/rsd f/lrms - d/drms f / f se d r - d / l r s

Couple five
The five is the second most important note on the scale. It is the melody of the root major triad. It
gets you to both the ending of a song, and the beginning of a song.

5 – 1 [s – d]
Used in almost every song on the planet.

s/fldm - d/drms s / f l to r - d / m l to r s / se d r s - d / d m s t

5 – 3 [s – m]
Used in many, many songs.

s / d r m s - m / se d r s s / s d r m - f / mo s l r - m / s t d m

27
5 – 4 [s – f]

s/sltr - f/fsld s / d r m s - f / se d m s/strm - f/lrml

You can also connect a 1 chord between the 5th and the 4th as a passing chord. [5 – 1 – 4]

s / f l to r - d / m l to r - f / l r m s s / to m l - d / t r m l - f / l r s

5 – 6 [s – l]

s/str - l/dmst s/drms - l/ldms

5 – 7 [s – t]
This is popularly used to end some worship songs, rather than just maintaining the 5th tone alone.

s/fsld - t/sltr s/dfl - s/sdm - t/rst

Couple six

6 – 2 [l – r]
The 6th has a very strong tendency to lead to the 2nd.

l / s to de m - r / f l d m l / s t d m - l r / fe l d m l / de f fe to - r / f l d m

You can connect the 1# to the 6 – 2 movement also. [6 – 1# - 2]

l / s t r fe l - de / s to de m - r / f l d m
6 – 3 [l – m]
As the 3rd can lead to the 6th, so can the 6th to the 3rd.

l/stdm - m/rsd

6 – 4 [l – f]
This is common in “All glory”, “Heal me o lord”, “ Let it rain”, and more.

l/stdm - f/lrms l/dmst - f/ldm

6 – 5 [l – s]
This can be used with the same root note, or not. You would see these in songs like “All glory”,
“We worship you today”, and more.

l/ldms - l/sltr l/stdm - s/str

6 – 7[l – t]
Used in rounding up songs also.

l/dfsl - t/rslt

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 Couple seven
This 7th tone can be used over a 5 since it is part of the 5th tone chord. The chords associated with
the 7th are usually diminished or half-diminished in nature.

7 – 1 [t – d]
t/str - d/drms

7 – 2 [t – r]
This is common in songs like “Heart of worship”, and few others.

t/sltr - r/fldm

7 – 3 [t – m]
This is where the 7th would usually lead to if you follow the principle.

t / r fe l d e m - m / s e d r s t / l r f - m / f se t r

7 – 6 [t – l]
t/strm - l/stdm

Other couples you can harness which are not listed here:

1 – 5#, 1 – 6#, 2 – 1# - 1, 2 – 4# – 5, 2 – 3 – 4, 2 – 4, 2 – 6, 2 – 1 – 7, 2 – 7, 2 – 2# – 3, 3 – 2# – 2,
3 – 5, 4 – 2, 5 – 4# – 4, 5 – 1# – 1, 6 – 1, etc.

Alright! So we are done with couples now. I guarantee you that with these, you’d be playing songs
in no time. Take note also that nothing comes over-night, so you have to keep practicing till you
master these movements in and out. Have fun in your practice time.

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 PREACHER CHORDS
This topic will be covered more elaborately in the video complimenting this book, as these chords
are better heard than read. What I would do though is list out a few tone signatures and two or three
chord progressions that can be coupled with them.

Preacher chords are not usually on a fast tempo, though the tempo is solely based on what you are
trying to achieve. You could switch between tempos if you like.

Preacher chords make use of extended voicings, quartals, quintals, secondals, tritones/ditones, and
a whole lot of licks and scale runs. The summary is that you will put all your ‘dangerous’ chords
and movements together in patterns.

If you like, you could select songs in slow tempo that go with what the speaker [Preacher, testifier,
whatever] is saying. Remix the flow of the song with your ‘voicings’ [chord representation], play
the melody, explore the song beyond its boundaries.

Here are a few you could use.

l m s / t r fe l - t mo s to - s to de m

l m s / de f fe to - s to de m

lms/lrs - rsd

f d m / l r m s - t mo fe l m t r / s to m se

t r fe / l de m m t r / f se t r - l r m fe

m t r / l r fe - se de f l m s / l de f - t r fe l

t s t / t r fe l rld/fldm

l r / f l d mo - de f fe to

m s t / f se t r se mo s / se d r s - se d r f - m se t r l m s / s de f

s r f / d f l – d - t m se – t d s t / to mo se - l r s

d m / to de se de f / t r l m to / t o r s

l de / l de fe se r / r fe t de s / s t m

d. m. f. fe. s. l. to. t. d / to r s - m to f. l. to. t. d. r. mo. m. f / mo s d - l mo

Check out the video for more Preacher chords, licks and runs.

Play these selections in patterns underground when someone is speaking/preaching, and see the
effect your chords will create.

Have fun out there!

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 “How To Get The Most Out Of Your Practice”
I want to cover some concepts that I hope will stick with you for a long time. Actually, they are
“ATTITUDES” you should possess when it comes to practicing. There are 8.

Practice must be:

1) Purposed
You’ve heard it before... “Without a vision, the people perish.” It’s true here too. It’s absolutely
impossible to reach for GREATNESS without a clear vision of where you want to go. It’s one thing
to just get out of the house and lollygag aimlessly down the coast to get some fresh air, not
knowing where you’re headed. It’s another thing when that approach constantly gets applied to
your playing.

And sadly, that’s what most of us do... not just for some “fresh air”... but ALL THE TIME. We pull
out our instruments and lollygag pointlessly, hoping to get better. We just sit down and play
something in the name of “practicing.”

I have news for you...

If you’re always sitting down and playing only stuff you already know, then it’s not practice... it’s
REHEARSAL. It’s PROCRASTINATION. There are times and places for “rehearsal” but if you
want true momentum, it starts with having a long term vision (purpose) that you can break into
smaller, more digestible chunks (goals) you can work on during each 30-90 minute practice
session.

You know that feeling you get when your room is just messy? When things get out of control?
(Come on! Don’t act like things don’t get disorganized in your life!!!)
Now... you know the feeling when you finally get things straightened up, organized, nice-looking.

Feels good doesn’t it?

What if practice felt that way? What if there was a strategic plan and every time you sat down, you
knew you were positioning yourself closer and closer to the end goal? Wouldn’t that feel good?
Having “purpose” and organizing everything around it feels good and is the first step to effective
practice.

2) Planned
There’s another saying... “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I know some people are
spontaneous and being on the edge works for them. And I also know there are many ways to peel
an “orange.”
Having purpose and vision will only go so far if you don’t take action by planning your practice.
Research studies actually show that when you carefully plan a routine activity (like exercising,
laundry days) and do it as close to the same time, EVERY TIME, something magical happens.
You “habitualize” the activity and it becomes a part of your life rather than a “chore” you have to
do. So, if you can (and I realize everyone’s schedule is different), try to pick a time and make it an
“event”... Something you plan and keep and watch your growth skyrocket!

3) Pushed
Practice must also be “pushed.” This means you have to get outside your comfort zone and
challenge yourself. Most musicians want to merely “rehearse” what they already know rather than
push themselves to learn new stuff (like playing in unfamiliar keys, learning bigger chords that are

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hard to reach or weird for the fingers to play). For some reason, there’s just something about
“harder stuff” that gets boring for musicians who fall into the rehearsal trance. They feel good
knowing they can play what they know (remember “CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE”?). But when
it comes to playing something that’s challenging, if they can’t do it in 5 minutes, practice is over.

Does this sound familiar?

If so, make it one of your priorities to consciously keep practice PUSHED and watch how far you
get.

4) Pumped
This one may sound foolish but keeping high energy is important. Have a spirit of expectation and
anticipation, knowing that you’re going to tackle something you’ve never tackled before (...well,
that is, if you’re making your practice “pushed”).
Be excited about practicing. Don’t look at the 30-90 minutes per day as a mundane task.
Get pumped up!
Change the association your mind has to practicing. In fact, it’s the same thing as exercising. If the
mind links the part of your exercise where you feel like you can’t go on…(you know? That part at
the “tail end” when you’re thinking about giving in)... well if the mind links that to “pain,” then the
experience will be gruesome and you probably won’t stick with it for long. But if your mind links
that part of the exercise to “triumph” and “overcoming this last part of the battle,” then what was
seen as pain is now a meaningful goal to reach... a battle to conquer.

If you want to shatter the glass ceiling that’s holding you back from getting to the next level, you
must first get pumped or you won’t build enough passionate momentum to ram through the glass.
“You’ll end up with a big knot upside your head.”

5) Patient
I know you’ve heard this one before but it’s true. Practice must be patient. Results don’t come
overnight. But one thing that doesn’t fail is that they do COME... if you’re patient.
The master musicians didn’t get there overnight. We see their “glory” (as I always say), but don’t
understand their “story.” And that story is usually a story of patience. And patience takes faith. You
have to be able to keep practicing - and even though you may not see immediate results - you have
to be able to know they will come.
Faith means believing in something that isn’t there. Patience is key in everything we do, not just
music (and you already know this... but just REMEMBER it.)

6) Persistent
With your patience must come persistence! You have to stay on the course. This also goes hand-in-
hand with “planned” practice. If you schedule your practice for everyday at 7 pm, then stick with
everyday at 7 pm because when you break the pattern, then your mind will tell you to break it
again... and again.
But something supernatural happens when you become more and more persistent. The mind almost
does the opposite. For example, let’s say you’ve exercised nonstop for 100 days in a row without
breaking one single day. I mean the same time (6:30 am) everyday... rain, sleet, or snow — what
does the mind tell you when you have the slightest thought of not exercising the next day? It says,
“You mean to tell me you’ve done this nonstop for 100 days and you want to ruin everything and
start all over?” (Maybe your brain doesn’t sound like that but mine does).
So compounding persistence works for you where inconsistency works against you (the more you
break commitments, the more your mind tells you that you’re not reliable and that you’ve broken
tons in the past so why not this new one). If that’s you, BREAK THAT CYCLE TODAY.
President John F. Kennedy said: “We Choose To Go To The Moon!”
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You have a moon too! Nothing is impossible. You just have to “choose” to go there.

7) Perfect
There’s a saying, “practice makes perfect.” They’re right and wrong. Practice does make perfect. If
you practice sounding bad, you’ll be perfect at sounding bad. If you practice bad habits, you’ll be
perfect at bad habits. So I guess, they are right. Practice does make perfect. But I prefer “PERFECT
PRACTICE.” That way, I get perfect results. Perfect practice makes perfect. And the only way you
do this is by slowing stuff down. SLOW IT DOWN! One of the biggest frustrations I hear is from
folks saying they can’t play it exactly like “this” or “that.” Then I ask them if they’ve slowed it
down to TURTLE SPEED. They say “no.” I say, that’s the problem.
When you see players ripping up and down the board, much of that is muscle memory. They’ve
done it so much their fingers have a mind of their own (that’s called “UNCONSCIOUS
COMPETENCE”). The problem is the fingers can’t memorize something that keeps happening a
different way each time. And that’s what happens when you attempt to mimic something at the
same speed you hear it. It always leads to frustration.

So slow it down. Get a metronome at the local music store and put it at 60 beats per minute (the
same speed your clock moves at), or use a keyboard beat. Go as slow as it takes for you to play
whatever you’re learning PERFECTLY. To go fast, you must first go slowly. Attempt to play what
you’re playing 20, 30, 50, or 100 times with PERFECT ACCURACY. If you mess up --- even if
you’re at 99 about to finish --- start over.

Once you’ve mastered it at one tempo, speed it up.

Do you want to see growth? Do this kind of stuff.

8) Partitioned
This is the last “P” and I saved it for last (not because it’s a big word... but) because it leads
perfectly into the next part of this book.
Practice should be split into easily “digestible” sections. If you have 60 minutes, you shouldn’t look
at it as a full block of time. You should look at it as smaller chunks of time that combine together to
make up your full session. For example, if I’ve allocated 2 hours for practicing (notice I said
“allocate” because practice should be “PLANNED”), it may look something like this:

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Of course, you don’t have to sit there with a stopwatch, making sure you don’t go a second over 18
minutes. It’s just a general rule. But this is the idea.

And of course, expounding on each one of these sections is what we’ll turn to next.

How to divide your limited ‘practice time’ for maximum productivity...

As we just discussed, practice must be broken into strategic “chunks.”

They say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite (chunk) at a time.

Here’s the cool part.

By reading this book from the beginning, you now know the 5 elements necessary to become a
TRANSFORMED GOSPEL MUSICIAN.

But now, we’ll take it a step further and give you a specific roadmap that incorporates the 5
elements into your practice.
So let’s start with the elements:

• Fundamentals Fluency (F.F.)

• Chordal Command (C.C.)
• Pattern Proficiency (P.P.)
• Song Solidity (S.S.)
• Ear Efficiency (E.E.)

Each one of these must be a focus during EACH and EVERY practice session.

There are many ways to do it depending on your skill level and experience, but here’s the route I’d
take:

9 mins 12 mins 12 mins 15 mins 12 mins = 1hour

18 mins 24 mins 24 mins 30 mins 24 mins = 2 hours

27 mins 36 mins 36 mins 45 mins 36 mins = 3 hours

Essentially, with this plan, we’re giving 15% of our allotted practice time to the fundamentals...
20% to deepening and reinforcing our understanding of chords... another 20% to doing the same
with patterns... 25% to systematically learning songs... and 20% to building and using our ear skills
to enhance and alter songs and patterns.

But the idea is to break practice into chunks like this, give or take a few minutes here or there.

For most of you, this will be a TOTAL SHIFT from what you do now... and practice will finally
feel purposed, productive, and organized.

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 How to use the secret Musician Transformation formula (FF + CC +
PP + SS + EE) to effectively structure your practice!

1] Fundamental Fluency (F.F.)

Start your practice by warming up with major scales. Make sure to use a metronome or a beat from
your keyboard. You can purchase one at any music store for cheap. It will keep your rhythm.

Start at a comfortable speed.

REMEMBER: It’s not about speed as much as it’s about accuracy. PERFECT PRACTICE
MAKES PERFECT, so start at a speed that is comfortable enough for your fingers to move without
constantly messing up. Build that muscle memory first. Then “PUSH” yourself (one of the P’s)
over time to speed it up.

Once you play the major scales, do the same thing with the minor scales.

2] Chordal Command (C.C.)

One of the big themes you’ll find repeated over and over in this guide is the use of the “CIRCLE
OF FIFTHS.” By practicing scales and, now, CHORDS in this direction, you’re basically preparing
yourself for “real world” scenarios where this will really happen.

Unlike most repetitious exercises that have no real world value, practicing stuff with the circle of
fifths is like practicing chords in the same ways they’ll be used in the future. And this isn’t obvious
because many people practice stuff CHROMATICALLY. For example, they’ll learn C major, then
C# major, then D major, then D# major.

That’s great and all but you’ll rarely see songs moving in that direction. YOU WILL see songs
moving from C to F to Bb. Heck, that one movement happens COMMONLY in several different
major keys.

It’s a 2 – 5 – 1 chord pattern in the key of Bb.

It’s a 3 – 6 – 2 chord pattern in the key of Ab.
It’s a 5 – 1 – 4 chord pattern in the key of F.
It’s a 6 – 2 – 5 chord pattern in the key of Eb.
It’s a 7 – 3 – 6 chord pattern in the key of Db.

And even though Bb is not in the key of C, it happens a lot as a 1 – 4 – 7b chord pattern too!

So basically what I’m saying is by getting this circle in your system and practicing every chord you
know in this direction (counter clockwise), you’re already setting yourself up for success in
advance.

3] Pattern Proficiency (P.P.)

This is where you’re continually working on mastering patterns in ALL 12 keys. You’ll start with
diatonic chords. All that means is the chords that are naturally built on each tone of the major scale.
So all you do is eventually master how to play these set of chords in every key.

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Step #1 – Know your scales (easy)

Step #2 – Know your numbers (piece of cake)

Step #3 – Apply these chords on every tone. Example: In F major, I would play a major chord on F,
a minor chord on G, another minor chord on A, a major chord on Bb, and so forth.

Step #4 – Wash! Rinse! Repeat!

So eventually, if you take this part of your practice seriously, you’ll be able to play every chord on
every tone of the scale just as fluently as you play the scales themselves. In other words, if you can
play your scales at a certain tempo (using a metronome I hope), then the goal is to get so good at
these diatonic chords, that you can play them in rhythm at a nice speed, up and down the scale.

Of course, once you’ve mastered the diatonic triads (which are 3-toned chords), you’ll want to
upgrade them to seventh chords... major 7ths, minor 7ths, half-diminished 7ths. (All you’re doing is
adding an extra finger).
Now, chords are nothing if you don’t know how they’re used.

4] Song Solidity (S.S.)

This is where you put EVERYTHING together.

Learning songs is critical. After all, it’s the end result.

Everything else is GREAT. Don’t get me wrong. But all of the other things we’ve done are to
prepare us for easy song learning.
We know our scales.
We know our numbers.
We’re comfortable playing.
We know our chords.
We know our patterns... both circular and close movements (step).

Now, we tackle songs.

When I sit down to learn a song, I ALWAYS begin with finding the key. Once you find the key,
the next step is the melody. Since melodies come from scales, you shouldn’t be guessing at random
notes. You should be using the scale of whatever key you’re in to rule out certain notes.

And remember, most melodies move CLOSE together (stepwise motion). And if they do skip (or
“leap”), it’s not usually far and almost always to another note of the melody --- rarely outside of the
scale and if it is, it’s very distinguishable.

As you learned earlier, the melody helps you to determine chords. And if you don’t get the chords
from the melody, you’ll certainly get them once you move on to the next step, which is determining
the bass. Similar to melodies, the bass notes will usually come from the scale (but as we learned
last time, there can be passing tones that are outside of the scale so be careful).

Don’t approach this randomly either. REMEMBER WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT
PATTERNS AND STEPWISE MOTION.

Use your ear to hear where the bass is going. A lot of this is trial and error but not “random.” We’re
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passed random. We now know what we’re doing and can eliminate a lot of the random stuff we
used to do. If one chord doesn’t work, we now have other possibilities to consider. One WILL
work.

Once you have the right chords, now it’s time to cover any specific nuances or passing chords you
didn’t cover when you were figuring out the MAIN pattern. See, you don’t always have to figure
out every little chord... especially when you’ve determined the main pattern at work. Once you
have that, you can always go back and catch the quick passing chords.

Most of your time should be dedicated to mastering this process.

You may choose to work on a single song for a week. That’s fine... as long as you’re fine-tuning
the process as you go and not going at things randomly.

5] Ear Efficiency (E.E.)

Out of all the elements, this one can happen away from the piano… at least most of it. Just doing a
few ear-training exercises a day can have a tremendous impact.
What you’re doing is asking yourself two questions:

1) Where I am right now... what leads to this tone?

2) Where I am right now... what comes next... where does it commonly lead to?

Knowing the answers to these questions right on the spot can always provide you with a potential
route to take (if it’s not the one being used already... that is, if the pattern isn’t already circular).

Harold Hanson [Worship Fingers]

Copyright 2010

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