Gospel Keys Easy | Helping Gospel Pianists Get Better

Soothing Pad Sounds for Sermons | Peaceful Background Church Music

2025-08-25T10:50:00.001+01:00

This Gospel Song Breakdown Is FREE for a Limited Time! 😱🎹

2025-07-24T17:21:00.001+01:00

Master Tritones Without Learning Theory

2024-07-25T15:19:00.000+01:00

Extended Version - Jason White's All to Jesus I Surrender

2024-07-08T17:57:00.001+01:00

Jason White's 'I Surrender All' Full Breakdown

2024-06-15T20:21:00.001+01:00

Be Exalted by Marvin Sapp - Breakdown

2024-02-14T17:52:00.001+01:00

Learn This Unique Chord 2 Move

2023-10-09T12:21:00.001+01:00

[SPECIAL] Sweet Sweet 3 - 6 Gospel Piano Chord Progression

2020-07-27T21:03:00.001+01:00

LessonTo Worship You I Live | 24Mins Piano Instrumental Meditation Music...

2019-01-31T23:48:00.001+01:00

How to score the Piano part of a song

2014-08-22T01:27:00.003+01:00

One of the best ways to become a pro at playing the Piano is to play the keyboard of your favourite songs exactly as you hear it from the original track. Depending on your skill level, this might take a day or weeks or even months by there is a way to go about doing this.

I have put together some points that will be of help to you and these are methods I have used over the years and they worked for me.

What Scoring Entails
When scoring a song you are trying to play exactly what you hear the keyboardist play on the track, This
means that you learn the intro, progressions, midtro, outro, syncopations and every single movement.
This has an advantage. The advantage is that you are preparing yourself to be able to play like the person playing on the track.
While scoring a song, I always try to imagine myself actually playing at the concert or recording that made the track possible. This is good because it helps me see myself at that level and also capable of playing at that level.

Do not attempt to score a song above your skill level
Listen to the song several times before you attempt to score it
Listen to the song with headphones
Understand the bass lines as you listen to the song
Picking notes off a hard to get chord

Do not attempt to score a song above your skill level

I have seen many beginner or intermediate keyboardists attempting to score a song above their skill level. I always advise them to take up easier songs. Taking a song higher than your skill level is like when a child is jumping from primary school level to university level; he or she will definitely struggle with university level teachings and only get frustrated unless he or she is a genius. If you are not a piano prodigy please try to identify the songs you can do at your skill level.

Listen to the song several times before you attempt to score it

You may hear a very nice song and feel like you really want to learn the progressions and transitions of that song immediately. Pause and listen to the song several times until you can understand some progressions and anticipate the transitions and progressions.

Listen to the Song with Headphones

This helps you to reaaaaallyyyy pick up all the chords and hear the bass lines properly. You CANNOT properly score a song if you only listen to it through your mobile phone speakers. It is better if you listen to it through a proper sound system and best to listen to it through headphones.

Understand the Bass Lines

This is veeeery important. Whenever I get stuck picking a chord, I try as much as possible to nab the bass line (which is also the root) of the song. After getting the bass line then I can proceed to picking individual notes of the chord.

Picking Individual Notes of Chords

Sometimes it is just not very easy to pick a chord. In such a case you try to isolate the single notes that make up the chord one after the other. So lets say you have the root note, the last note of the chord and you manage to pick out one or more notes you can easily tell what the chord is from your chord vocabulary or just try to guess the chord till you get it. I did this a lot and I still do it sometimes.

How to know your skill level for a particular song

If you find yourself spending too much time trying to learn a song then you should probably leave it alone and try simpler songs. Next is to find simpler songs that you can easily learn how to play.

Find Gospel Keys Easy on YouTube at www.youtube.com/GospelKeysEasy and subscribe to view the videos as soon as they are published

Beginner Lesson :: Lesson 1 :: Piano Fingering

2014-05-27T12:46:00.001+01:00

This is the second lesson for the beginner category. View First Lesson if you have not seen it. It is complete with a pdf document for a better explanation
In this lesson, we will be looking at fingering.
In this post we covered all the basics you need to know about a keyboard, the type of keyboard you need and etc.

Fingering

Simply put, fingering on the piano is the way you place your fingers on the key. There is a natural and comfortable way to place your fingers on the keyboard. The most natural feeling occurs when you place your five fingers on both hands over the highlighted keys on the keyboard image below.

The numbering above is the number of the finger you place on those keys
The image below explains this better

You will find out that if you place your fingers on the highlighted keys above according to the numbering, it should feel very comfortable.

Now, that's your first exercise. If you are a total beginner, place your fingers on the keyboard according to the numbering.

Try to press the keys one after the other, beginning with your left hand and then you can switch to your right hand.

I have made a video to explain this simple lesson further. Check out the video below

In the next lesson, we will be looking at fingering exercises to help strengthen your fingers.

If you are a total beginner and you want to start learning, try to get yourself familiar with the keys. Please make sure to look at the first lesson. It has foundation information and is very important for your learning experience.

How Much Passion Do I Have For Piano?

2014-05-20T23:35:00.003+01:00

As we all know, our passion for things we do in life motivates us to improve at doing them or just motivates us to do these things. You may really desire to play keyboard better but you might need to ask yourself:

How much passion do I really have for playing?

You may desire to improve your skills as a keyboardist but you may not have the passion to fuel your desire.
From my own point of view, I would also like to state that your passion for something could also be a decision you have made. Even the scriptures says that whatsoever your hand finds doing, do it well.

For me, my passion for playing is more of a decision, that is why at times, when I don't feel like practicing, I just get up, put myself in front of the keyboard and just play something because I just want to get better at playing it.

So this is meant to encourage you make it your passion to play piano/keyboard. Desire to get better and set goals for yourself.
You should also note that when you set goals for yourself, you might not accomplish these goals in the time frame you anticipated, I think that happens to everyone. You just have to keep at it.

How My Passion Fuels My Skills

I will put it this way: "I literally practice all the time"
Yes! As long as I am awake, I am practicing in my head. Sometimes I can learn a whole song mentally and without prior practice, I just jump on the keyboard and play the song. Now this is something I have been doing since I was little and now I have mastered the art of doing it.

If you are a pianist and people have not caught you playing imaginary keys once in a while, you probably do not have that much passion. Now don't get me wrong; I am not saying it has to be like that, but for me, I have been caught several times doing that and it only shows how much I think about piano, and my desire to improve at playing it.

So, I encourage you to develop passion and enthusiasm if you really want to improve. Let it become part of you. Don't ever give yourself an excuse not to practise. If you don't have a keyboard to practice, buy one and just play something everyday.

Also make sure to have a practice plan. On this page on this website, I explained in details how to have a keyboard practice plan. Please have a look at it as it should help you. Do not play the same thing you have been playing, try to play something that challenges you. These tips should help you to play keyboard better.

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Improving your skills as a pianist

2014-05-15T10:44:00.002+01:00

Sometimes we wanna practice and we don't know that to do exactly. And sometimes you wanna practice but you feel lazy.
Many pianists are playing well but they find it hard to get past a certain point. You may be very good or average but discover that you make some little mistakes while playing or you lack speed.
The solution to all these is some exercises.

Let's Go Back to the Basics

You might be playing very well already but did you really go through the basics? Or have you avoided them and thought that everything will be fine?

You should try to go back to the basics. It will surprise you how this can positively affect your playing.

Learn how to play the basic scales

This is very crucial. You are never to skillful to practice your scales. Yes! And if you think it is very easy and because you are already playing fine, then try to run some scales on all the keys. You will discover that it might not be as easy as you think. In subsequent posts, I will talk more about musical scales and how best to play and practice with them

Using the correct fingering

This is very important to your improvement. While running the scales or while playing your chords, it is important to use the right fingering as this will generally help you to play better. In subsequent posts, I will explain further on some of these points.

Understanding basic progressions

So you have been playing keyboard in church and you can play to all the songs very well but do you have that progressions foundation?
Here is another scenario. You have been playing for a while now so you really want to improve fast. You want to play like Mike Bereal or Aaron Lindsey. Hold on!!! You still need to go back to the basics. You need to understand how simple basic progressions work before you can play like the big boys. Sweet progressions is just a replacement of the basic progressions with some voicings and maybe some additional passing tones here and there but you need to understand the basics as this helps your creativity as well.
If you understand the basics, you can hear a song and play to it instantly. I do that all the time. Also I want to emphasize again that you will be really creative

Do not get frustrated

Practicing on the keyboard can be very frustrating. But when your nerves feel like they're going to drive you crazy. Take a 5 minutes break and come back to what you were doing, you will find it easier to do.

Learn new songs

This is the final point for this post. The benefits of learning new songs cannot be over-emphasized. It will help you all round. It will improve your skills, creativity and probably challenge you to learn some new things. If you don't try to learn new songs, how do you know that you are improving. Learning a new song might show you what your level is as an instrumentalist.

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How to play on all keys

2014-04-18T10:40:00.002+01:00

Playing on all keys is one very important aspect in piano playing and I do get lots of questions about this topic. The questions are usually in the form of the example below and if you have one of these questions in mind, this post might just give you a good clue as to how you can start playing on all keys

QUESTIONS

How can I improve on all keys
How do I learn all keys
What is the best way to learn all keys
I know all my chords in a particular key; how can I get the same chords on the other keys
How long does it take to learn all the 12 keys
Which key is the hardest?
etc

Playing on all keys is really easy and straight forward.

I used to play only one key very fluently till I discovered that I had to step up my game by learning all keys. It took me approximately one year to become fluent on all the keys. I was already between the intermediate and professional level before I started learning all the other keys aside C.

To start playing on all keys, please follow the steps below. It's as easy as just following some simple steps. However, you should note that in as much as you could follow some easy steps, you still need to be dedicated to the task of learning all the keys and be very consistent and focused while you are at it.

Another point is that, you should not think that you will get there so fast; it takes time to get used to playing all the keys if you have been used to playing just one or a few of them

Start by running the major scale on all the keys everyday till you are very fluent at doing that. This might take a few weeks or even a few months but exercise some patience while you are at it. By running the scale on all the keys, I mean running the scales at a reasonable speed comfortably
Know all your notes on your most comfortable key as numbers. Also know all your chords as a combination of notes. This means that if I ask you "what are the notes that make up the chord F major 7th?" you should be able to quickly tell me that "it is F A C E"
Start playing the songs you like to play on the new keys
Tackle a key for a given period of time and try to practice the keys almost equally
Practice about 3 keys in a week but choose one to tackle on a Sunday service
Use the transpose feature of your church keyboard to transpose easy songs to the first key you need to master and then repeat the same process for other keys on the other Sundays
Try to do more than one key on a Sunday morning as you improve
Use the transpose feature of your keyboard to practice a single song on all the keys
When you start getting comfortable with the keys, then discipline yourself to never use the transpose feature again even your playing sounds terrible. It will bring pressure which is part of the learning process and helps to build you up

That's it!

Let me now explain further on some of the points above

Running the major scale: Running the major scale makes you familiar with the new keys. Knowing the tonic solfas and being able to strike the accurately every time is the key to understanding that new key and transferring your chords from your favorite key to the new key

Knowing your notes as numbers: For example, on the key of C, the numbers are:

C - 1, D - 2, E - 3, F - 4, G - 5, A - 6, B - 7

Simply put; knowing your notes as numbers means that by the time you start becoming familiar with the new keys, you play the notes as numbers in your head and not as black and white keys on the keyboard. This makes all the keys on the keyboard become as one to you so that you get to that stage that you might be playing a key and you don't even know the key it is unless you pause to check. And if you learn to break chords into notes then you can make your favorite key a point of reference if you ever get stuck so that you can go to it, check the chord, grab the tonic solfas of the chord, and go back to the new key and put tonic solfas in very quickly.

Playing YOUR favorite Songs in all Keys

This is a key aspect of grasping the mastery of playing all keys. Why? It is easy to master your favorite songs because you know them so well and this means that you will not be thinking hard while doing your transitions. Hopefully, they are the songs you do in church on a regular basis. This will accelerate the learning process.

Using the transpose feature of your keyboard to your advantage

You might have been using the transpose feature to playing on just a single key. Now use it to your advantage. You simply learn a song, (You can try these songs; they are pretty simple and good for practice) Then transpose your keyboard to play the song on all the keys. This really helps. Trust me!

In conclusion, there are numerous benefits to playing all keys. It helps your soloing, boosts your confidence, boosts your creativity. That's to mention but a few, the advantages are endless. So, the time to start is now.

PS: If you are beginner-intermediate and you want to learn some popular songs easily, you can download this tutorial: Intermediate Lessons Introduction pt. 2

Or simply get the lessons by clicking the button below

Introduction Pt. 2 | Intermediate Lessons

2013-10-28T14:22:00.000+01:00

In Introduction pt. 1 lesson we covered the basic progressions below

Circle of Fifths
The 2-5-1 progression
The 7-3-6 progression
The 3-6-2-5-1 progression

The above lesson is complete with a pdf documentation with the chords for the progressions and a video demonstration that is very easy to grab.
In Introduction pt. 2 we are looking at the five songs below

God will make a way – Don Moen
Thank You Lord – Don Moen
I am a friend of God – Israel Houghton
I call you holy – Donnie McClurkin
You are – Ron Kenoly

For the songs above I will show you how to play them.
You can access the videos from this post as soon as they are available. Please check the Facebook fan page for updates.
Please scroll down to listen to the songs directly from here through the embedded Spotify widgets.

Download Videos

The Yamaha MOTIF XF Review

2013-09-19T07:20:00.002+01:00

The Yamaha MOTIF XF8 is a flagship top-of-the-line music workstation from Yamaha. It is the latest workstation from world renowned musical instruments manufacturer and one of the best keyboards available out there for stage performance as well as music production.

A Brief History of the Motif Series

The MOTIF series started with the release of the MOTIF in 2001 and it was recognized as the best sounding, top selling and most requested music workstation.

MOTIF has since then evolved from the MOTIF to the MOTIF ES series, to the XF series with loads of improvement and added functionality that keeps the brand on top of many other brands.

The main MOTIF lineup starts from MOTIF, the MOTIF ES, XS to the XF series
There are currently other flavors of the MOTIF that bring you sound and functionality of the mainstream MOTIF synths in affordable package such as MOTIF MX series, the MO series and the MM series.

Features of The MOTIF XF

Main Features

An enormous 741MB of waveforms
An additional 128 Voices and 8 drum kits, for a total of 1,353 high-quality Voices
Up to 2GB of additional content available through flash memory expansion
Realization of unique instrument performance methods through the XA (Expanded Articulation) tone generation system
Reproduction of the unique, natural, warm sounds of vintage instruments through VCM effects
384 types of performances based on approximately 7800 types of arpeggiators
Enhanced sampling through 128MB of onboard SD-RAM
DAW integration through remote control, an editor software
Scalability through standard-equipped USB and Ethernet and the FW16E option

Sound

The XF boasts a rich collection of instrument Voices in the following categories:
Pianos, EPs, strings, wind instruments, orchestral sounds, guitars, basses, and drums, and a wide variety of vintage and modern synth sounds.
The pianos are sampled from Yamaha 9' CFIII and a 7' S6 acoustic pianos

Memory Expansion

The Motif XF gives you 2 flash board slots to accommodate two proprietary Yamaha flash board
Options -- a 512MB board and 1GB board. You can install a total of re-writable 2GB on each of the slots

You can also install third-party sample and Voice libraries which can be purchased at MOTIFATOR.com.

XF Sound Engine

The tone generator that the XF has makes an 8-element-per-voice structure possible.

The Keyboard is also equipped withYamaha’s XA (Expanded Articulation). This 8-element structure allows you to achieve very accurate acoustic instruments including expressive articulations.

For synthesizer sounds, the 18 different filter types, advanced 6-stage pitch, filter and amplitude envelopes, unique Wave Cycle feature and assignable modulation Control Sets make the MOTIF capable of reproducing any synth sound from vintage to modern.

The tone generator also supports half damper pedaling through the use of the separately sold FC3 foot pedal.

VCM Effects

Yamaha’s proprietary VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) technology simulates the effects of vintage EQs, compressors, and phasers at the circuit level. This has enabled Yamaha to increase the MOTIF’s instrument quality by modeling the "texture" of vintage analog compressors, EQs and stomp boxes right down to the component transistors and resistors.

Also, the MOTIF XF is equipped with vocoder effects. By connecting a microphone to the MOTIF’s A/D input terminal, you can apply effects to your voice or use your own voice to create harmonies.

Keyboards

The XF line comes in three variants: XF8, XF7 and XF6

The XF8 has a balanced hammer keyboard (weighted) with 88 keyd

The XF7 and XF6 both have high quality FSX keyskeyboards with 76 keys and 61 keys respectively

For more information, visit here

Yamaha Motif XF Images

Gospel Keys Easy Introduces Keys/Musical Instruments Reviews

2013-08-26T15:17:00.001+01:00

One of the main purpose of this website is to bring you great and juicy reviews of Keyboards, Synths, Pianos, Organs, other instruments that make use of black and white keys and even other musical instruments.

From now on, we will be looking at the top keyboards; giving you in-depth awareness about them as well as accurate specifications and detailed information about them.

The reviews will cover new and old keyboards or new and old musical instruments generally.
For starters, we will give you updates and reviews on the top keyboards from the major brands such as Yamaha, Korg, Roland, etc

This is a great way to learn about these keyboards. You will also be able to learn about their pros and cons so you can know which product best suites your needs as a musician.

Ok, so I'm going to be giving you review of the Yamaha Motif XF8 first just because I've played with it very well, and I like it, and I think many people will be interested in a review of the product.

So, once again, we are officially launching the

Gospel Keys Easy Musical Instruments Review Category

Make sure to Like Gospel Keys Easy on Facebook as well as Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Intermediate Lessons

2013-07-22T13:05:00.000+01:00

How to access Intermediate lessons

Lessons will be added to this page based on the Intermediate Lessons category

All Intermediate lessons can be accessed from this page

You are advised to bookmark this page so you can come back at any time to check for updated lessons

LESSONS

Introduction | Beginner Lessons

2013-06-27T04:56:00.002+01:00

Gospel Keys Easy has now moved up to the next level by giving lessons based on three levels of playing which are beginner, intermediate and advanced.

Over the years Gospel Keys Easy (formerly Play Keyboard Better) has helped gospel pianists and I appreciate the positive feedback I get from the regular users of this site.

Now we take things to the next level by offering full lessons meant to educate you systematically based on your level of playing.

What I will be offering on this site is unique. It is a very unique approach to teaching gospel piano online. I have seen what is done on many other sites and I promise to make what you get here a unique one.

I always tell myself

"I'm gonna offer the best gospel piano lessons on my site"

So yea, you will get the best from here :)

It is my joy writing this post. It is the first one which is meant for the absolute beginner in piano-playing
Below are download links to an article for you to read and a video to explain things.

For posts found under the lessons category and beginner sub-category you will get a downloadable article and video but not for all posts. Details will always be stated for more information on what is contained therein.

Downloadable document highlights:

What you should do in order to start playing the piano and being a gospel musician that you desire to be
Features To Look Out For In a Keyboard For A Beginner Examples of keyboards you can get as a beginner
An overview of the keyboard
How to count the number of octaves on a keyboard Piano Keys
How notes on the keyboard are named
Getting Started Playing the Keyboard

Download Link

Click to visit second lesson which is titled Piano Fingering
Please send an email to GospelKeysEasy@gmail.com to report broken download link

Beginner Lessons

2013-06-24T14:20:00.001+01:00

How to access Beginner Lessons

Lessons will be added to this page based on the Beginner Lessons category

All Beginner lessons can be accessed from this page

You are advised to bookmark this page so you can come back at any time to check for updated lessons

LESSONS

Introduction

Two ways to play a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 Progression

2013-04-05T21:02:00.001+01:00

The progressions to be played to songs are not static and fixed. There are probably a hundred and one ways in which you can play a single song depending on your creativity and skills.

The chords you use for a particular progression for a song also largely depends on the style and or genre of the song you are playing.
So, lets say you are playing to a simple pop song, you 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 progression would probably be just normal major chords and minor chords.

So, the chords to use for a gospel progression with the numbers 1 through 7 could be one of the following; on the key of C

C G/C D E G
D A C/E F A C
E G C/D G C
F C/E G A C
G/C E G C
A F/C F G A
B G/D G A D

OR

C G B/E G B E
D C/F Bb C F
E B D/G C D G
F C E/A C E A
G D/G B D G
A E/B C D G
B/A D G

So, you have two flavors of a 1 to 7 chord progression. You can play with the chord variations between the two sets.

This post was put up in response to someone's question from our Facebook fan page.
Join our fan page now for updates. You can also ask your questions there and they will definitely be attended to

Lessons

2013-04-04T16:55:00.000+01:00

Click to Open Beginner Lessons

Click to Open Intermediate Lessons

No Lessons Yet

Learn Various, Scales, Progressions and more with this cool Piano Learning Software

2013-04-01T22:41:00.001+01:00

Explore various chords, progressions and over sixty (60) piano scales from all around the world... Yes! over 60 scales.
Imagine what this software could do to your piano skills

What you can do with this piece of cool software

watch the scale being transposed accordingly
Instantly create your own scale by clicking with your mouse on a piano key on the screen
Create scales by entering notes manually in the input field
Change the root note (Tonic) on piano keys

This software is ideal for anyone with interest in chord inversions, intervals, scales and exploring chord progressions.
It's good for you as a gospel pianist no matter what level you are; you should find this software very useful.

Note that this software is absolutely free.

Download Software

Having trouble downloading?

Falling in Love with Jesus: Complete Progressions

2013-03-26T14:09:00.000+01:00

Hello,
This is my third video on the blog and I hope you have gained some things from the previous ones I put up here. In case you have not seen them. Here they are:

The song 'Falling in Love with Jesus' is a popular song. The chords are easy and straight forward as well.

So, below are the chords for reference purpose. You also have the video as well as a download link to get the full video. This is a good option for your if you are using a low bandwidth internet connection.

I played the song on the key of F

Chords for Falling in Love with Jesus

F C E/A C E A

C G/Bb Ab G Bb

F Eb/A D Gb A

Bb F/A D F

A F/G C F

G D/F A Bb

C G D/G Bb D G

Db A/B E A

.... .... .... .... .... ....

Other Chords

G D/F B F

Watch the Video here or

Download Full Tutorial Video Now (15MB)

How to Play 'You Deserve the Glory' :: Complete Chord Progressions

2013-03-23T13:36:00.001+01:00

You deserve the glory is one popular worship song we sing church. It's a lovely song. One of my best worship songs, actually.
There is a regular progression most of us are used to but today I present to you another version that you that I believe you should like. There is just a few additions of some passing tones. That's all.

You have the video below but I would also like to give you the chords used in the progression just in case
you don't catch them well from the video, though I spelled out the chords one by one in the video

Chords for 'You Deserve the Glory' on the key of C
C E/G B D E G
E D/Ab C E G
A E G/B C D G
D A F/G C E G
G D/F A F D F
G D F/Ab B E G
.... .... .... .... .... ....
C G A/D E G C
B Eb/D F A D
Ab B/D F Ab B
A E G/C D E G A C
E B/D G B D
A E/C D E G B
D E/C E F A
G D/
.... .... .... .... .... ....

G D/B E Ab B

Watch the video or

Download Tutorial Video