Gospel Piano Harmony

Lesson Goal: To quickly internalize commonly used ideas that are unique to Gospel Piano Harmony… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…

Prerequisites

Basic music reading skills… the LOVE of music… and the discipline to study and practice.

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The Gospel Dominant Seventh Chord

A definitive aspect of Gospel piano harmony is the unique voicing of the dominant 7 chord…

The Classical V7 Chord

For the sake of comparison, here’s the classical version of the V7 chord resolved to the tonic chord…

piano music notation for the classical dominant 7 chord

The Gospel “V7” Chord

And now the gospel version of the “V7” chord resolved to the tonic chord (Notice the curious absence of the leading tone B, which is otherwise so essential to defining a V7 chord. Advice: Don’t try to explain it; enjoy it!)…

music notation for the gospel dominant 7 chord a staple of gospel piano harmony

Study & Practice Notes: (1) Don’t merely memorize this. Instead, internalize the patterns, (2) The pattern is straightforward: Left Hand = chord root in octaves, Right Hand = Major triad whose root is a major second below, (3) Conceive of the Gospel G7 chord as an F major triad in the right hand with a G in the bass. For this reason, it is often notated as F/G, (4) The left hand is almost always played as an octave for a full sound so typical of gospel.

Gospel “V7” Chord, All Keys

Using your knowledge of scales and chords (and your ears, eyes, and muscles of course) work this pattern out for all the major keys you’d like to play in. [Any interest in a score or play along MP3s?]

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Major Triad Neighbor Chords

Neighbor Chords are a great way to expand and embellish a single chord that is played for an extended length of time…

Neighbor Chord Pattern #1

One way to embellish each of the big three chords (I, IV, and V) is to play “the IV” of the prevailing chord as follows…

music score showing the neighbor chords for a c major triad f major triad and g major triad

Study-Practice Notes:

Don’t forget to swing the eighth notes!
Notice that the notes on the weak and back beats in the left hand are “ghosted”, more felt than heard.
Use your knowledge of chord theory to work this pattern our for all major triads.
This device almost always works for the big three chords in a major key (I, IV, and V) and sometimes as an embellishment of Secondary Dominants as well.

Neighbor Chord Pattern #2

Another bread and butter way to embellish each of the big three chords (I, IV, and V) is to play “the ii” of the prevailing chord as follows…

Practice & Performance Notes

Don’t forget to swing the eighth notes!
Notice that the notes on the weak and back beats in the left hand are “ghosted”, more felt than heard.
Use your knowledge of chord theory to work this pattern our for all major triads.
This device almost always works for the big three chords in a major key (I, IV, and V) and sometimes as an embellishment of Secondary Dominants as well.

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The I-I/3-IV Progression

A definitive pattern in Gospel Piano Harmony is to connect the I chord to the IV chord by inserting the first inversion of the I chord in between…

Doing so creates both melodic interest in the bass and an irresistible sense of forward harmonic motion…

Notice the strength of the melodic motion in the bass, creating a powerful sense of direction and anticipation… it is appropriate to conceive and perceive the E as the leading tone into the F chord.

gospel piano music score showing a c major triad to a c major triad over e to an f major triad chord progression

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Major/Minor Mixture

Another defining feature of gospel piano harmony is the simultaneous mixture of major and minor tonalities, derived from the Blues…

Enjoy this definitive example…

gospel piano music score showing how major and minor tonalities can be mixed together

Practice and Performance Notes

Don’t try to explain these delicious gospel piano harmonies using conventional music theory.
Don’t fuss over the names of the chords. Is the first chord a Cm7? How about Eb/C? Who cares?
The dotted 1/8th and 1/32nd note pair are only an approximation of the actual time. It’s not about counting, but about the syncopated feel!

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Mixolydian Triads

Another feature of gospel piano harmony is the liberal usage of Mixolydian Triads (triads derived from the Mixolydian Scale) for adding bluesy harmonic and melodic interest when playing over a dominant 7th chord. Here’s the concept applies to a C7 chord (Notice that each chord has the very same characteristic triad “shape” and that all notes are derived from the Mixolydian Scale)…

Practice Suggestion: Experiment playing bits and pieces, change direction, and play in different rhythms to suit your own taste and the particular context.

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Major Triad Expansion

Another definitive aspect of gospel piano harmony (and melody) is to play the prevailing major triad and neighbor chord pair “melodically” up or down as follows (think of the neighbor chord as “the ii” of the prevailing chord)…

Major Triad Expansion (Four-Note Voicings)

music notation for gospel piano major triad neighbor chords

Pattern Recognition: Notice that… (1) There are three possible primary chord / neighbor chord pairings, (2) Each pairing has a characteristic “shape”, (3) The primary harmony is played the downbeats while the neighbor chord is played on the upbeats, (4) Sometimes the neighbor chord acts like a neighbor chord, other times like a passing chord, (5) All the notes together are like a major scale without the leading tone Ti.

Major Triad Expansion (Three-Note Voicings)

If the four-note chords in the right hand are too much of a reach, just drop the bottom note and play a 3-note voicing instead…

Major Triad Expansion, All Keys

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Minor Triad Expansion

Another definitive aspect of gospel piano harmony (and melody) is to play the prevailing minor triad and neighbor chord pair “melodically” up or down as follows (think of the neighbor chord as “the ii” of the prevailing chord)…