Chords for Gospel Piano Tutorial - How to Harmonize a Melody with Triads

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [Dm] _ [C] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
Welcome to Metalworks Institute Keyboard Tips.
I'm Peter Kadar, and today we're gonna talk about
how to get a bit more of a traditional gospel influence
into your sound.
What we're gonna do is we're gonna start
by taking simple triads.
In this case, we're gonna do C major, C, E, and G,
_ _ and we're gonna move that around,
and we're gonna pair it with another triad.
But before we talk about that,
_ those of you that have studied classical piano
probably remember doing these simple triad exercises.
You take a triad and you move it up and down the keyboard,
root, first inversion, second inversion,
root, first inversion, second inversion,
root, second, first, root, second, first, root,
so on and so forth.
We're basically gonna do the same thing,
[F] but now we're gonna pair it with a second chord.
So in this case, [C] we're gonna go C major,
C, E, and [Dm] G with D minor, D, F, and A. _
[C] So we're gonna go [Dm] C, D, [C] C in the [Dm] first inversion,
D in the first [C] inversion, C in the second [Dm] inversion,
D in the second [C] inversion, so on and so forth.
Now this sounds really cool because what happens is
our ear is drawn to the top note of the chord,
and we hear that as a melody.
So right now I hear, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] so I'm really harmonizing a melody
with these two triads up and down the keyboard.
So if I put that in context, it can sound like this. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ [C] _ _ If I go to F, it's gonna [F] be [Gm] F [F] and G minor,
and if I go [G] to G, it's [C] gonna be G and A minor.
_ [G] _ [Dm] _ _ [C] _ _
_ Now one thing that we can do to make this sound
a little bit better is by using
what arrangers call drop two.
So let's take a look at this. _
If I play a C chord in the first inversion,
I've got E, G, and C.
What arrangers will do to open up the chord a little bit
is they'll take that second note from the top,
and they'll drop it down an octave.
So they get this. _
This sounds really great when you're writing
for strings, horns, anything,
and it also sounds great on piano.
Now if I do the previous exercise,
but I use drop two voicings, it's gonna sound pretty cool.
So we would have, [C] _ [Dm] _
[C] _ [Dm] _ [F] _ _ _ [C] _ [C] _ [Dm] _
[C] _ put that in context.
Maybe I'll do a short little blues,
and I'll demonstrate all these [Dm] different chords.
_ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[B] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ I'm Peter Kadar from Metalworks Institute Keyboard Tips.
We'll see you next time. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _