Gospel Piano Harmony & Theory in C Major

Today we are breaking down everything you need to know to play in C Major! Everything from C Major scales, to chord voicings, to essential chord progressions and everything in between.

We will even dive into approaching C Major from a more intermediate level and how you can add chords that are "outside" of the key to get a more advanced sound.

Let's dive into it!

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[paullebon]

Wow! You are the first YouTube gospel pianist I've seen who actually explains what he's doing. All the rest will say, let's play a 251 and then play forty different chords with various fills and runs without explanation.

[loso]

0:20 Somethin' Extra (Save for later)
0:38: Know the scale
0:55 Know the Diatonic chords
2:07 Circle-of-Fifths (CoF) Progression
3:34 Somethin' a little fancy (Using outside notes and the CoF to create resolution)
4:00 Learn the basics, and then branch out


4:30 I Surrender All Song Demo
5:40 Break down Begins ("A buncha black notes")

Embellishment Tips

7:09 Embellishment Tip 1: Invert Chords, Move different chord notes to root or Left Hand (LH) and add movement to LH
8:15 Add the ninth
8:39 "Drop 2" Voicing, then creating a "walk-up" movement
8:58 5sus → 5Dom → 1 Chord Progression
9:27 Passing chords using CoF (Same as 3:34)
10:30 Subbing out 2min for 2half-dim (I call it "minor 4")
10:32 - :34 Delayed ninth / sixth addition

11:33 - :37 Modal Switch of the Relative minor: CoF using relative minor. Having a hard time phrasing this (I've had to re-edit this line a thousand times to interpret it right). At this spot he plays F# A E → Ab F D B → Amin. Depending on how you look at it, it can be one of these things: Modal Switch, or a 1-5-1 chord progression using C's relative minor (Amin). If you're looking at it as a modal switch, he's moving from Amin to AMaj. It fits because it explain the F#, which is a diatonic 6 in AMaj, and the EMaj, which is also diatonic to AMaj (5). However, what makes it weird, and thus hard to nail down if this is the case, is that the chord progression for that would be 6half-dim → 5 → and then subbing out AMaj for Amin. The Major-to-minor switch is a thing, but 6-5-1 is a weird progression, and sixth is supposed to be major, not half-dim.

Using the second interpretation (Cof off Amin) the progresssion is basicaly a 1-5-1 progression. The first 1 can be interpreted as Amin / F, the 5 was made major, and then it jumped back to Amin. What makes it weird, though, is that F# belongs to AMaj, not Amin, and the 5 is also major, which isn't the case in the minor scale. So...uh...not sure what to call this; both of them have trade-offs. I just stopped here because he doesn't play these chords again, and they're quite beautiful, and should be covered.

12:27 Chorus Demo
12:57 Break down Begins ("So we can do a buncha stuff")
13:36 Creating a 5-1 Chord Prog by adding a 5min passing chord
15:20 Using CoF for a turnaround
15:54 Using 5Maj in a minor scale
16:12 Another 5-1 prog creation, but the Ddom adds a 9, omits, the root, and starts on the F# (~16:22)
17:58 Gmin9 (add 11) → C9
18:00 CMaj7 → AbMaj7#5 / E

18:27 New Song (I Need Thee)
For the most part, just a lot of examples of the 2-5-1 chord prog injection, like with the CoF examples in I Surrender All
20:22 (explanation starts at 21:00) Main example of chord injection and modal switching
21:26 Modal switching: minor to major
22:40 2-5-1 chord progression injection
24:32 Non-diatonic passing chord (seems like it's just a chromatic move downward, which is why it works)
25:05 "a little chuchy"
25:12 Substitute chord for their Dom7 counterparts to add tension

[onthemovewithfiifi]

I've never heard C sound this good 👍🏾

[rickyification]

Just want to add this for the beginners. Notice all the passing chords he played have a note from the blue scale except for the E dominant going to the 6th. Also, he is using the blues scale to make those runs that he plays over the chords. So make sure you know the blues scales as well as you know the major scales.

[blessingkmalata]

"The rule of the secondary dominant is that you play the diatonic 5th chord away from the destination chord"

Damn. That was a powerful tip.

[Triumphinchrist]

You put everything were it belongs ! God created music & when given back to Him it is at it's sweetest! Thanks for this awesome teaching.

[bettyennin]

Awesome job! Learned a whole lot. God bless you real good!
I SURRENDER ALL LYRICS:
All to Jesus, I Surrender.
All to him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence daily live.
Chorus:
I surrender all 2X
All to thee my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

[bme]

I’ve given up learning anything from these videos and just enjoy the music.

[SuperBenJacob]

You've given great praise to Jesus with this tutorial. Please continue your praise of The Lord so we can be inspired to learn how to praise Him ourselves.

[JSwagg]

Honestly this is exactly what I was needing, did not know how to search for it. I am not religious at all but I adore gospel music, it is my favorite harmony genre.

[Baritnist]

4:43 until.. “I don’t know the words” I felt that bruh. We just play!!! 🎹

[submh]

Your overlay with both the keys being pressed, the notes on the staff, and the chord being played is so unbelievably helpful thank you! Your layout is so clean.

[grace]

This man is the only person on the internet who fully explains everything he does. I’m not left in the dust!!

[Chai_K]

C Major works for me, it’s much easier to visualized when you call out the numbers.
Passes and chords that you play are just beautiful. Thank you for sharing this!

[MetaphysicalMusician]

I'm Buddhist, Guitarist And Music teacher .This brother is Really Gifted cat..thanks for this your Knowledge is spot on.

[mickschilder]

I swear I am atheist but gospel alone makes me want to convert

[todocorazon]

At first I thought you were going too fast through your examples, but then I realized that I was able to keep up in many cases. That's great because it's forcing my brain to go faster and learn to make these musical calculations quickly. The truth is that most material out there is too slow, which doesn't really challenge me enough to "level up." Thanks for this great video!

[dethbolt]

Thanks, Bro... You ACTUALLY taught this lesson concisely and clearly, as opposed to many out there who just show off without fully explaining the methodology. Nice.

[romanieo]

I'm only at 2:07 and I already "Liked" and "Subscribed." Come on Bruh!!! Keep bringing the knowledge.

[widu]

Thank you so much. An answer to prayer. I play by only by ear, in C and F, and I have been praying for someone that a couple help me better understand what I am doing. I think I have a mental block about learning to read music. I’ve missed so much. But this may be the key to help me develop my ability for God’s glory. Thank you brother ~ Duane