HearandPlay.com Monthly Newsletter --- October 2004!
http://www.Hearandplay.com
Serving 103,113 Musicians
Worldwide!
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Contents:
I. Welcome
II. Announcements
III. Online Classroom:
"10
Video Lessons (Mastering Worship Chords)"
Click here to view the
video clip lessons...
* In
exchange for the video clips, all I ask is that you forward
this
newsletter to five people who'd benefit from it the most!
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Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to my October newsletter on how to
master worship chords by ear! This newsletter is so different from any
other issue because I'm literally sharing over 20 minutes of
step-by-step, over-the-shoulder
video clips with you below!
Now let me say this
first...
Just because I title them
"worship chords" doesn't mean they
can't be used in other genres of music. In fact, if you've been a member of
HearandPlay.com for some time, you already know my favorite teaching: "Chords
are recycled. They repeat themselves over and over again in different songs
and even across different genres." And that principle still holds true.
So this newsletter could
have very well been called "How to Master Contemporary Chords." Remember,
it's not what chords you play, it's how you use them.
On one account, I recall a
musician getting in trouble for playing a "secular" song in church. What the
members of the church didn't realize was that he was playing a gospel song
that happened to share the same chords as a particular secular song. I won't
mention any song names in this newsletter but I guarantee you've played at
least a dozen songs from various genres and you didn't even know it (...and
perhaps you still don't)!
However, in this
particular context, I am demonstrating contemporary chords for use in
worship settings. In fact, these 10+ video lessons I'll be sharing with you
are taken directly from my new
GospelKeys 202 video
course: "Mastering Worship Chords!"
Since it's release on
September 1, 2004, thousands of HearandPlay students have grabbed their copies
and based on the responses, have really enjoyed the content (... 3 hours of
pure learning...). I mean thousands of people --- we even ran out of stock for
a while and came across a huge backordering problem because of the demand. But
all is well now.
If you know me by now, you
understand that I get right to the point. I don't put on concerts for you in
my courses ... I don't tell you my life story ... I get right into teaching
and that's what I do best! (I don't sing either ... thank God).
I teach you how to
recognize "patterns"
in songs. Believe it or not, once you learn a set number of chords, there
aren't too many other chords you have to learn or create. It tickles me every
time I see a musician trying to "construct" a new chord when I clearly hear a
"minor" chord or a "dominant" chord. If this sounds like you, then you could
be wasting a lot of your valuable time because:
Once you learn all of your
major, minor, dominant, diminished, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths (and a few more
altered chords), there aren't too many other chords out there!
...Now don't get me wrong:
There are endless possibilities of
voicings and ways to
play chords that may "spice" or "jazz" them up. But, in terms of learning
the basic "outline" of a song, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to
figure out what's going on in a song.
So the
key is to learn patterns.
I'm talking about patterns
like these:
1-4 patterns ... 1-6
patterns ... 2-5 patterns ... 3-6 patterns ... 3-4 patterns ... and the list
goes on and on. (Don't worry if you don't know what these numbers mean.
I will explain all of this to you in this month's classroom lesson below).
You'll find patterns like
these in hundreds of slow worship songs. And you know what? They're even found
in jazz, r&b, and other contemporary styles as well! In GospelKeys 202,
you'll learn tons of these patterns.
I call them
"couples."
In the GospelKeysTM
202 video course:
2004 Newsletter Archive Available at https://www.hearandplay.com/newsletters.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Online Classroom: "10 Video Lessons (Mastering Worship Chords)" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note: You might want to print this lesson out for easier reading... In this month's online classroom, I'm going to share with you a few video clip lessons from the GospelKeysTM 202 video course. I've selectively pulled out clips that I think you'll benefit from, whether you consider the entire course or not. Before I introduce the video clips, it is important that you understand the whole concept of learning worships songs (or any song for that matter) by ear: It all starts with major scales. You should already know that there are 12 different major scales. When someone is singing, they've either knowingly picked ONE of the twelve keys to sing in (which might be their favorite key or a predetermined key for the song they're singing) OR they have just started singing in whatever range that is comfortable for them. In this instance, they don't really know their major key and it is your job to figure out what key they're singing in. A singer can't be in two keys at once. At any given time, you will only be in one major key. Songs may modulate or go to another major key, but will only be in one major key at a time. We focus on Db major in the GospelKeysTM 202 video course. I start the course by teaching you several different chords that you can play on each tone of the major scale. Just to break down the concept for you, here is a Db major scale: Db major scale Db __ Eb __ F __ Gb __ Ab __ Bb __ C __ Db __ In other words, I teach you several chords to play on each one of these tones. Since every major key on the piano has its own major scale, these same chords can be applied to all 12 major keys! Always transfer what you learn from ONE key to all TWELVE keys. This is a very very smart and effective habit to develop, especially if you're just starting out! Also, it is important to understand each note of a major scale by its corresponding number. In other words: Db = 1 Eb = 2 F = 3 Gb = 4 Ab = 5 Bb = 6 C = 7 Db = 8 (or the same as 1 basically). Majority of the time, a song is progressing from one of these tones to another. I'd say more than 80% of the time, you're playing chords that correspond with notes of the major scale. Yes, there are times when, in the key of Db, you'll hit a B major chord. Notice that "B" is not a part of the Db major scale. In this instance, "B" is actually the flat 7 note of the scale. "How do you create a flat 7," you may ask? Simply go to the 7th note of the scale (which is "C" in this example) and lower it one-half step (or one note). Remember, only lower it one note. Don't skip any notes, whatsoever. I say that because some people don't realize that black keys are a part of the piano just as well as white keys. In other words, when you lower a note, don't skip any black notes. In this case, since C doesn't have a black key behind it, you'd lower it directly to B. B is the flat seventh of Db major. This is just one example where you'd play a note or chord that may not necessarily align with the notes of your major scale. This will happen but not nearly as much as regular progressions within the notes of the major scale. Most of the time, you'll be playing from a 1 chord to a 3 chord, or a 1 chord to a 5 chord, or a 3 chord to a 6 chord, or a 6 chord to a 2 chord, just to give a few examples. Most songs stay with the number patterns. Now that you understand the number system, I can talk in GospelKeysTM language. Patterns like "1-3", "3-6", "6-2", "2-5-1", and others all come from major scales. Db = 1 Eb = 2 F = 3 Gb = 4 Ab = 5 Bb = 6 C = 7 Db = 8 Just to make sure you understand, let's take a short quiz: 1) In the key of Db major, a 1-3 progression consists of what two keynotes? ____ (1) **** ____ (3) 2) In the key of Db major, a 2-5 progression consists of what two keynotes? ____ (2) **** ____ (5) 3) In the key of Db major, a 7-3-6 progression consists of what three keynotes? ____ (7) **** ____ (3) **** ____ (6) 4) In the key of Db major, a 1-4 progression consists of what two keynotes? ____ (1) **** ____ (4) Ok, now grade yourself: Answers: 1) Db to F 2) Eb to Ab 3) C to F to Bb 4) Db to Gb Note: Of course, all of these notes will be connected with chords. But for this example, I just wanted you to know the keynotes involved (the title of the chords). Ok, so now that you have a crash course on what I call "couples" (just another way of saying very small chord progression), we can move on to the video clips.
Explore these chord types along with the GospelKeys 202 video course:
Well, I hope you enjoyed my October newsletter and I'll be back in November! Take care! This concludes your October Online Classroom Lesson If you were intrigued by the online classroom lesson above, then you would definitely benefit from my course! *** “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300-pg Course *** With 20 chapters and over 300 pages, the home piano course provides several resources, techniques, tips, principles, and theories to playing the piano by ear. Along with hundreds of chords and scales, you'll also learn how to turn them into gospel, jazz and blues chord progressions and better yet, how to use them to play ABSOLUTELY any song you want ... IN VIRTUALLY MINUTES! Again, don't miss this opportunity. I've even added an additional bonus if you purchase the course this week --- You can read more about the course at: https://www.hearandplay.com/course Enjoy this edition? Visit our message board and let us know! https://www.hearandplay.com/board Please Let a friend know about HearandPlay.com! PLEASE FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER TO YOUR ENTIRE E-MAIL ADDRESS BOOK. Yours Truly, Jermaine Griggs www.HearandPlay.com www.GospelKeys.com
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