Keyboard Worship: Learn, Integrate, Apply Basic Chords, Voicings, Progressions

Keyboard Worship Book I is an intermediate level piano book intended for all adults, college students, and teenagers looking for practical help playing the piano or a synth in a Christian worship setting with a band, any ensemble, or alone. It should be ideal for those with smaller hands, for I too have a relatively small hand.

Book 1 deals with harmony, the fundamental chords and chord progressions. It explains the ways they work/function so that (ideally) you can not only perform chord charts competently but sense various chordal pathways, begin to “think in music,” improvise, add your stuff, and be more creative.

Learn ® integrate ® apply: get the sounds into your fingers! Learn effective ways to voice triads and major and minor sevenths, and how to integrate alternating rock/gospel harmonies (“doubles”). Easy, short music examples demonstrate concepts. Exercises immediately guide you as you try out ideas.

Both classically trained keyboardists and those who play by ear have made excellent progress using Book 1. Even drummers! Music theory is explained step-by-step in small chunks. If you have a teacher, that’s best, but if you don’t the book is designed to be self-explanatory. At the end of Book 1, 7 complete arrangements illustrate ways to make a real contribution in a worship band. Chapters are also devoted on how to improvise directly from a hymnbook.

Do it! Build up your skills and music vocabulary! Improvise for the glory of God! Be led by the Spirit, and learn how to respond musically to whatever needs to be done any moment in a worship situation.

Practice and performance audio MP3 tracks of all examples and arrangements -- for each book--are freely available at worshipinfo.com. Books 2, 3A and 3B in this Keyboard Worship Series build upon Book 1and flesh out an impressive range of techniques and possibilities, even ideas for arranging. Check them out!

Book 1 has 213 pages, 300 music examples. It’s an earnest, whole-hearted effort purposefully priced inexpensively to bless the thirsty keyboardist. All book sales are donated to “Vikasitha Ministries,” an outreach, evangelical leadership ministry supporting orphaned children and seminary students in India.