If the piano is the only instrument, then the pianist can play anything he wants with his left hand. This might include an octave chord octave chord pattern or a left hand walking bass. However, with the bass guitar, the piano player has to stay off of the bass notes and just play chords in the left hand or there will be a conflict with the bass guitar.

Roger uses Scott Fowler, the bass player for the group, to assist him in this piano lesson on rhythm. Scott plays on beats one and three and Roger plays left hand chords on beats two and four. This is difficult to do without practice so you may want to begin by not playing anything in the right hand until you get proficient at playing this piano rhythm.

Roger also discusses playing in the hole. The hole is spots where the group is not singing words. Roger shows some piano licks that he uses to play in the holes. Roger says that playing in the hole is playing piano licks where they should be played.

The song used in the piano lesson on rhythm is “Wedding Music”. Listen to “Wedding Music” by The Cathedrals. You can hear Roger’s piano licks better when the bass singer George Younce is singing.

I hope that you enjoyed this piano lesson on rhythm by Roger Bennett. Spend some time on this and improve your piano accompanying skills.

Please let us know your thoughts on this piano lesson on rhythm. Did you have any problems playing this on the piano? Do you have any suggestions or did you have some additional ideas to share with other gospel pianists.

Would someone write the notes for some of the piano licks used in this lesson and share with us? Thanks!

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Play the root of the chord in the bass and play the chord in the right hand.

The second phrase may begin with the I chord, go to the V7 chord and then back to the I chord. So you could practice the I V7 I chord progression.

In music theory class in college we were required to play the I IV I6/4 V7 I chord progression for all 12 keys and also play all three inversions in each key.

Let’s look at this progression in the key of C. From the C scale, the 1 is C, 4 is F, and 5 is G. So the chord progressions mentioned in the last paragraph for the key of C would be C F C6/4 G7 and C.

The I6/4 chord is where the I chord has the lowest bass note played on the fifth note of the scale or the upper note of the chord in root position. There are two notes (intervals of a sixth and a fourth) above the bass note. For example, if you play a G in the left hand and an E + G + C in the right hand then you are playing a C6/4 chord. The E note is a 6th above the G note and the C note is a 4th above the G note. Thus the C major chord with the G note being the lowest in the bass then the chord is referred to as a C6/4.

Practice these chord progressions for the key of C.

After you have mastered these progressions for the key of C, then choose another key and master the progressions for that key. Learn these progressions for other keys as time permits.

This will also help in transposing later. Since most hymns use just these three primary chords this will also help you as you begin to play piano by ear.

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You should play an introduction that is easy to follow so that the congregation will know just when to begin singing! Of course, they will be following the worship leader.

The hymn introductions play a vital role in congregation singing. We serve a living God! Therefore, the church pianist’s introduction should reflect this message. Remember that we express emotion through music.

Most modern hymnals have brackets located above the score that suggest a suitable piano or organ introduction.

Before playing a hymn introduction, scan it to make sure that you see the complete introduction. You may want to highlight the brackets in your personal hymnbook, especially if the introduction marked is in more than one place or the final phrase of the introduction does not happen to be at the end of the hymn.

Some introductions are at the beginning of the hymn or completely at the end of the hymn. These are the easiest to play. Some introductions will include a phrase at the beginning and a phrase at the end of the song. Look at the brackets before you begin playing to make sure that it is clear to you where to make the skip from the first phrase to the last.

In the following hymn it is a little more difficult to play the hymn introduction because the jump is made in the middle of a phrase. It is recommended that you practice this intro until you are comfortable playing it. In measure six you play the notes for the first two beats and then you go to measure 14 for the third beat. Then you finish the introduction with the last two measures of the song.

It is OK to shorten or lengthen the suggested introduction. If the hymn is unfamiliar to the congregation, you might want to play the hymn completely through so that the congregation will feel more comfortable with it. If the hymn is well known, the last line or phrase may be a sufficient introduction.

Other Tips For Playing hymn Introductions

1. Be excited about each song you introduce!
2. Give a rousing, loud introduction which will encourage the congregation to join in song.
3. Keep the introduction moving to the very end and do not observe any holds.
4. Don’t slow down because this will destroy the singing tempo and my cause confusion for the initial entry of the singers.
5. Don’t play an arpeggio of cascading notes to end the introduction.
6. Keep the introduction moving
7. Make sure that the introduction ends with the chord that the song will use to begin.
8. You probably want to play a rousing introduction for peppy songs and a more subdued mood for devotion type hymns.

When the church pianist applies these tips for playing hymn introductions it should make a huge difference in the congregation singing.

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The chords are based on the 1st, 4th, and 5th notes of the scale are numbered using I, IV, and V.

For example, in the key of C the the three primary chords are: I = C Major, IV = F Major, and V = G Major (will usually be a G7 chord). We will leave off the word major when referring to these chords and call them the C, F, and G chords.

F Major Scale -
The 1 st degree of the scale is F, so that’s the first chord – F Major or C.
The 4 th degree of the scale is Bb, so that’s the second chord – Bb Major or Bb.
The 5 th degree of the scale is C, so that’s the third chord – C Major or C.

Therefore, the primary chords in G Major, are G Major, C Major and D Major.

G Major Scale -
The 1 st degree of the scale is G, so that’s the first chord – G.
The 4 th degree of the scale is C, so that’s the second chord – C.
The 5 th degree of the scale is D, so that’s the third chord – D.]

Therefore, the primary chords in G Major, are G Major, C Major and D Major.

You can do the same thing for all 12 keys. Determine the notes in the major scale for that key. Then choose the first, fourth, and fifth notes of this scale. The three primary chords for that key are based on these notes and uses that name for the name of the chord.

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He said that, so many people “talk” about wanting to become better piano players. They “talk” about their aspirations, goals, and dreams. Even though they “talk” about what they want to do, what they want to become, and what they can achieve … but they don’t “walk” the “walk”.

In his 10 years of teaching piano online, Jermaine said that he had come across so many “talkers”.

They talk about not having enough time to devote to their piano practice. When he asks them how much TV they watch each day or what are their favorite television shows they are able to list a whole bunch.

Jermaine says, that’s backwards. They’re watching their favorite actors and actresses live their dreams but falling further and further away from their own dreams.

(And this isn’t just musicians… according to Nielsen Research, the whole world’s got this problem. Their research shows that the average person watches 4.58 hours of television a day.)

Jermaine said that his struck him. Four and a half hours EVERY DAY watching television?

Just add that up … that’s 32 hours a week, 128 hours a month, and 1,538 hours a year (or 64 whole days if you watched TV non-stop … or put it this way, 192 eight-hour work days). That is over half a year in work hours wasted.

So those folks that give excuse after excuse are full of it. The time is there. No one takes full advantage of their time every day. Worse, we waste it.

Jermaine said that he spends about an hour a night watching TV and he don’t consider himself a big TV watcher.

He constantly reminds himself to simply turn off the television and the time he needs will manifest itself right there! Simple. When he changes focus, he always finds the time.

Jermaine gave the quote by Wayne Dyer which says it best: “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”

He applauds people who join training clubs. They are acknowledging that they have the time to put into things that matter instead of wasting time on things that don’t matter.

If *your* dream is to play the piano, then don’t let anyone else (the actors we’re watching 64 days a year on TV) get in the way of YOUR dream that you could be LIVING in real-life.

If you really want to learn to play the piano, or improve your piano playing, then set aside time on a regular basis to practice.

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The site will focus on how to add chords, fills, and runs based on music theory. It is not a play piano be ear site, but people who play by ear can still pick up some very useful information. The main target group are people who can read music and want to learn to enhance their piano playing by adding these exciting embellishments to their piano playing.

Most piano teachers only teach students how to read music and do not teach how to add anything extra to a student’s playing. Of course they teach other valuable things such as phrasing, fingering, proper use of the pedal and other techniques.

They just don’t teach students how to add chords, runs, and fills to their playing. When playing classical music, you should play the pieces as written and not improvise. But, that is not the purpose of this blog.

Our desire is that you will begin to be able to add chords to your piano playing without so much effort on your part. It will be surprising how easy you will begin to add chords to your piano playing.

You will also learn music theory and the way you add the chords, runs, and fills will be based on music theory. You will be doing the same thing that the people who play by ear do except that you will be learning a piano chording system.

There will be some things that you will need to memorize. However, you will begin with the basics and build upon this. The basic building blocks are chords and scales. You will learn to recognize chords by looking at the notes on the music staff. Some popular music has the chords written in the music.

Everything will be explained about how to determine what the chord is. You begin by learning the scales, the main chords, and the chord inversions for one key. Then you learn how to add these to your piano playing.

This is not a “play piano by ear” piano blog but when you learn the system, people will think that you are playing by ear because you are playing all those notes that are not written on the paper.

The most important thing for you to do is to make a commitment to learn how to play gospel piano. This means practicing on a regular basis, learning the piano theory taught, and applying it to your piano playing.

Even though this blog discusses playing gospel piano, the techniques can be applied to other genres of music. Most of the hymns that will discussed are from public domain. Also, it is easier to learn to recognize the chords when you are given all four parts.

Please let us know what your frustrations are in trying to add additional notes and chords to your piano playing. Also, tell us what are some things that you need help with in playing the piano, especially in playing the piano for church.

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