LESSON #9 Burl Faywood ospel Keyboard Studies Dear Student: Aga this lesson we will deal with determg the chord le of a song, addition to touchg on some other areas of advancg our playg. This beg our nth lesson, it means that we have been workg on improvisg for over four months. If we have really applied ourselves contued study, we should be seeg some changes our general playg of hymns and ospel songs. As we contue to develop an expanded form of playg, we will soon learn that there is no ultimate limit to where we may go, but that every arrangement book we may obta, or every proficient pianist with whom we may have contact, there will be ideas and ways of dog thgs which will contually open new doors to us. This is one of the thgs that makes improvisg excitg. We can always learn more and go further. ADDITIONAL PRATIE IN DETERMININ THE HORD LINE In our last lesson, we began workg on ways to recognize the chord structure on which our playg is to be based a song which does not conta a written chord le. I am aware that this is one of those areas where many students beg to fall by the wayside, not because the task is comprehensible or impossible, but because it does require a considerable amount of work and application at the first. It becomes easier as we contue, so let s hang there. John Fawcett, 1782 H.. Nageli, 1968186 b 1. Blest 2. Be. We. When b b b The But be fore share we Blest Be the Tie That Bds the our our a tie Fa mu sun that ther's tual der bds throne woes, part, fel low ship of k dred fears, our hopes, our aims are oft en for each oth er we shall still be joed b We It mds one, flows heart, Bb/F Is The hearts pour mu gives F our tual us Bb F/ hris tian love; ar dent pray'rs; bur dens ward bear; pa; like to that a bove. comforts and our cares. sym pa thiz g tear. hope to meet a ga. A men. BLEST BE THE TIE Key: F Time: / Basic chords: F, Bb, Aga this song, as our study of the last previous lesson, we can determe most of our chord le from our bass notes. Obviously, we cannot make this the sole basis of determation even a simple song such as this, to say nothg of a more complex song. But, many cases it is a startg pot. Note that we have written the chord le for the last part of the second le of our arrangement to the left. Why can we not just follow our bass notes through this part of the score Obviously because the harmony structure of the written chords does not fit. As we said before, the fal determg factor is the structure of the chords. But aga, we can often get a le on that structure by first lookg at the bass notes. 7 F c. 1980 Burl Faywood, Alcester, South Dakota
BEFORE PLAYIN THIS WRITTEN ARRANEMENT WHIH FOLLOWS, it will be important to play through the song several times, playg a steady 1, 2, rhythm based on a pattern of bass note (or octave, 10 th etc.) on beat one; chord on beat two; chord on beat three. This will establish the sense of rhythm the song, and will probably represent the basic pattern which you will wish to play the song. Of course, we will have to determe our chords, and extra harmony. Work at it until you can. You will ga nothg if this area of our studies is bypassed or neglected, as it is fundamental to the whole concept of improvisg. * REATIN OR OWN ARRANEMENT Notice the written examples given the followg arrangement, particularly with regard to the various rhythm patterns of the left hand. What this is meant to demonstrate is that we can alternate many different approaches so long as they carry the basic theme of a steady flow of rhythm. For example, we might play just a basic bass note, chord, chord, 1, 2, beat. Or, we might substitute eighth notes on the first two beats followed by a quarter note, or one of the other alternate patterns. TRY DIFFERENT PATTERNS IN DIFFERENT MEASRES. In other words, create a style of your own. b b b > bb > b b b ΠBlessed Be the Tie b Π# b b b b b Page 2
# f ome Thou Almighty Kg j j # p > > j j j j # f > > J J J J # J j J Page
O od, Help Ages Past, Arr. #1 # Π# n n # 5 8 O od, Help Ages Past, Arr. #2 f > b n# > ff > j Page j n # b >
ome, Thou Almighty Kg. Wesley, 1757 / D D/F# D/A D/F# 1. ome, thou 2. ome, thou. ome, Ho. To the # Help us to prayer at In Hence this ev glad er Al In ly great might car om One praise: tend! hour! more; ome, Spir and it ne'er to reign of from e D y nate fort Kg, Word, er, Three # Fa ther! ome, and all thy Thou, who al His sov 'reign o ho us ter ver li de ni glo peo might maj us, ness, part, ty OME, THO ALMIHTY KIN Key: Time: / Ma hords:,, D We have worked primarily thus far with what may correctly be called ospel songs. This song may properly be called a hymn, and correspondgly carries a more reverent type of musical theme. We are not so much terested a lot of flashy, dramatic embellishments, but rather a solid, rich, full sound befittg such a type of song. It will help us to achieve such a sound, by usg solid, octave type chords, and a considerable amount of octaves our left hand. This has the effect of keepg the harmony basically rather simple, yet full soundg. This leads us to a special consideration of our left hand. Note the relation of the notes and octaves of our left hand the special arrangement to the notes written the basic score. Obviously, our choice of notes was considerably affected many areas, by the notes written the origal score. We are not tryg to playa bass note, chord, chord type of rhythm here as a basic pattern throughout the song. There are measures where we can, and may well choose to do so, but there are also measures where the rapid chord changes make it somewhat impractical. To achieve the best sound our special arrangement, we should play rather slowly, with considerable deliberateness, emphasis and volume. ontue to compare the arrangement with the basic score. To achieve a personal stylg, what changes might we make such an arrangement What ideas of our own might we corporate Notice the various fills we have also added to the arrangement where a note has been held for more than one beat. A slight pause (//) will be helpful between the sixth and seventh measures. Help ird Thy The us thy on thy sa cred high est ri ous, ple bless, y art, es ty An On Spir Love D O'er Now May /D J # J J cient us it and name might wit prais all give rule we D of de of a F. di iardi, 1769 D If there is one word which sums up the sound we are strivg to achieve this arrangement, it would be majestic. Play with that thought, md. I thk you will fd that the playg of hymns this style can be very fulfillg musically. vic thy to y ness ses sg, sword, bear, be, to word ev ri ous, suc cess: 'ry heart, glo ry see, j Days! scend! pow'r! j J dore. A men. Page 5
I. Watts, 1719 W. roft, 1708 F /E A A E A D 1. O 2. n. Be. A 5. Time od, our help a ges past, hope for years to come, der the shadow of thy throne Thy sats have dwelt se cure; fore the hills or der stood, Or earth re ceived her frame, thousand a ges thy sight Are like an eve ng gone; like an ev er roll g stream, Bears all its sons a way; 6. O od, our help a ges past, hope for years to come, F E shel ter from the stormy blast, our e ter nal home! Suf fi cient is the arm a lone, our defence is sure. From ev er last g thou art od, To endless years the same. Short as the watch that ends the night Be fore the ris g sun. They fly, for got ten, as a dream Dies at the openg day. Be thou our guard while life shall last, our e ter nal home. A men. O od, Help In Ages Past # J /E # n # O od, Help In Ages Past Key: Time: / Ma hords:, F, In the previous song, we spoke of followg bass note patterns octaves, or at least beg fluenced by them. This hymn will give us a very terestg example where we followed the bass notes completely through the song. To be sure, this is what we may term an extreme example arranged an extreme manner, but it will vividly illustrate the prciple. Normally, of course, we will just follow such a bass pattern at certa pots throughout a song where we have the more complex bass note patterns. So, do not ordarily try to do this with a typical song. second arrangement of this same song on the same lesson sert will give us a more modern sound. I believe you will also enjoy this arrangement. MINOR HORDS As you will (hopefully) recall, we create a mor chord by flattg the third of a major chord. In this song, we have Am and also Dm and Em. There is a relationship between major chords and mor chords which we term relative. For example, the relative mor of chord is Am. Am chord uses notes which are common to both the Am scale and the major scale. Likewise Dm is the relative mor of F; Em is the relative mor of. Sce, F, and are the basic chords of a song the key of, we can easily see how these mor chords can be made to relate to a song such as this. (The relative mor will be the mor chord of our 6th note of the major scale. Thus the relative mor of is Am, etc.) ADDIN AN E9 RN In the second le of the second arrangement you will notice the #1 designation. At this pot, we can add the followg (or similar) run: # See you next lesson! # # run Page 6