HOW TO ACCOMPANY A SINGER

By JohnsonKeys(Nigeria) 

Accompaning a singer bsasically denotes playing the right chord/underlaying such chords on the song the singer is singing, with the right beat, tempo.
As much as this is nothing hard but it has to be properly learnt so as not to get it the wrong way…Its about getting to play the right chord progressions/movements for each song(worship/praise).

LAW OF PROGRESSION

There is this general rule that most songs follow, basically as a matter of fact composers who composed the songs you want to accompany followed same rule while composing the same song and that is the rule of CIRCLE OF FOURTHS/FIFTHS.

Majorly we will be considering the circle of fourths in this series.

TIME TO PRACTISE GET ON THE Keys.

FROM C LETS MOVE BY FOURTHS…moving in fourths is a mathematical move [1 2 3 4] C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G ….C

NOW THAT’S THE TRICK OF CIRCLE OF FOURTHS BASICALLY THE PROGRESSION MOVES IN FOURTH.

Now lets look inward into the fourths movements and how it affects our accompaniment…

We will derive: B E A D G C F …locally pronounced T,M,L,R,S,D,F …7,3,6,2,5,1,4

Examples of fourth movements in C

C F -D G -E A -F B …1 4 -2 5 -3 6 -4 7 …all in fourths patterns

The circle of fourths (or circle of fifths) is the relationship among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, there corresponding key signatures, and the associated major and minor keys.

The circle of fifths is a clockwise movement ascending from C to C [i.e. C G D A E B F#/Gb Db/C# Ab Eb Bb F C] on the circle while the circle of fourths is an anti-clockwise movement descending from C to C [C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb/F# B E A D G C]

Musicians and Composers use the circle of fifths to understand and describe the musical relationships among some selection of those pitches. E.g. with the knowledge of the circle you can easily move/modulate from C major to A minor or say from G major to E minor and you won’t make a bad sound because they are related and we could easily attribute that idea to the Circles.

The circles design is helpful in composing and harmonizing melodies, building chords, and modulating to different keys within a composition.
Typically the “circle of fifths” is used in the analysis of classical music, whereas the “circle of fourths” is used in the analysis of jazz music, but this distinction is not exclusive.

With the knowledge of the circles, there is this Contemporary song in a minor key Lord you are Holy by Helen Baylor in the key of C minor, approaching such songs will physically look like you are playing from the key Eb Major and that’s because of the relationship between them [Eb major~C minor]

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS/FOURTH DIAGRAM

Most songs that you accompany day by day fall on this fourth movements…e.g. As the Deer, panteth for…the water so my heart longeth after thee… CAN BE ACCOMPANIED THIS WAY

IN THE KEY OF C MAJOR

NB: immediately the song started on the first Degree/Tonic that’s the major key C it followed fourths movement basically until the last two bars where the song had to resolve so has to pick the lines , basically the composer contacted the circle of fourth charts before composing esp the melody notes: m,s,s,m,r,d: r,f,m,r,d: l`,l,l,s,f,s,..

Progressions the movements/pattern you follow while accompanying a singer/song is called progression e.g. if you followed a 2 – 5 – 1 movement (REH – SOH – DOH) this will be called a 2 – 5 – 1 progression

Example in the key of C

Most times the 2 – 5 -1 progression helps in ending a song… we will check that out in the progressions below:

There is this common progression in Praise Songs 4-5-3-6-2-5-1 lets make out something from this common praise song…LIFT HIM UP HIGHER!!!

I WANT TO BELIEVE ITS GETTING MORE INTERESTING NOW
Another very common progression is the 6-2-5-1 progression common to both worship and praise songs

EXERCISE:

With this knowledge and previous knowledge pick 10 common praise songs that you know and try this progressions on them in part

HOW TO DETERMINE WHICH CHORD TO PLAY PER TIME

Determining which chord to use to accompany or back up a singer majorly depends on the melody line of the song the singer is singing at present, Each melody note commons from a particular major or minor chord.
Let us consider the first line of As the deer …Melody notes…m,s,s definitely this can onlhy be found in the chord : Doh: m: soh… and that’s how to determine which chord goes per time by considering the melody note per time For instance, if the melody notes were r,f,m,f,m might have considered the following chords r:f:l(2), f:l:d(4), l:d:m(6), l:d:f(4INV)

MAKSSOSA GROOVE

The Nigeria Makkosa is a wonderful groove that follows the progression 1 4 5 4 1… and continues that way … A good song that can be used to expatiate that is this common song ‘eh eh eh eh my God is good o’ as the song is moving on the 1 2 3 4 count 4/4 timing you just keep holding your One Four Five Four One Four chord continuously on every 1 2 count

THE CULTURE OF VAMPING

After learning how to accompany a singer the next question that might arise is about the Vamping; the repeated use of a phrase through an entire song or the improvisation on top of a repeated phrase through a song. looping, samples and grooves are all examples of vamping, as is almost all popular music with repeated chord progression, it simply implies building on top of a groove to create a song …*A short repeated chord progression, often serving as the introduction of a performance.
e.g. you can vamp a 6 2 5 1 progression

CONCLUSION

One of the most important skill a keyboardist must possess in this Course is the ability to play by Ear, being able to pick musical note just by hearing there sound
Basic exercise for achieving this is by running (HUMMING) your Major scale Ascending and Descending everyday.

Exercise:

D:R:M:F:S
S:F:M:R:D
D:S:F:S:M:S:R:S
D:S:F:S:M:R:D

PLAYING PRAISE AND WORSHIP IN THE MINOR

By JohnsonKeys(Nigeria)

NATURAL MINOR SCALE

Digging into the minor scale also known as Aeolian Scale,
like I do tell my students its just a simple process of playing in relation to a Major scale. A natural minor scale has the same notes as its relative major scale, but is built starting from the sixth note of the relative major scale. NB: when a major scale and a natural minor scale have the same key signature, they are RELATIVE KEYS.

Every major key has a relative minor key, which starts on the sixth scale degree or step. E.g. A minor is the relative minor of C.

So for instance a singer might be in the KEY of C and overtime He/She might take some songs whose scale would be easily detectable in A minor scale.

There is this African call and response song Awesome God Mighty God…this song is in a minor key (I still hear some local church players approach the song as if it were in a major key which is wrong) you have to approach the accompaniment like you will do for other songs on major keys.

AWESOME GOD

MIGHTY GOD

WE GIVE YOU PRAISE

AWESOME GOD

WE GIVE YOU PRAISE
MIGHTY GOD

YOU ARE HIGLY LIFTED UP

AWESOME GOD

YOU ARE HIGLY LIFTED UP MIGHTY GOD

The Natural minor scale follows this pattern: T::S::T::T::S::T::T

T: a Tone

S: a semitone Number format :2 1 2 2 1 2 2

1 2 3b 4 5 6b 7b 8

HOW TO APPROACH A SONG

One of the basic facts you need to confirm in a song before approaching the song is the scale on which the song is formed

Mostly the Major scale has the upper hand here but recently there has been more to the minor scales as some composers who want to make difference have been dealing with the minor side of the music which will automatically affect the chords that you will be using for such songs in the sense that those chords will be generated from the minor scale in the key of the songs

LET US QUICKLY SEE HOW THIS GOES IN THE FIRST TWO LINES OF THIS CALL AND REPSONSE SONG

AWESOME GOD GROOVE: WORROR TEMPO: 100BPM ACCOMPANIMENT

How to accompany a song or singer

This is a simple approach to accompanying a singer on your instrument Piano, Guitar and so on…We are basically going to look into a few theories and bring out some tricks inside that will basically help you to accompany your singer according to the general standard.
One of the advantages is that the right progression (Accompaniment) gets the audience into the right mood/atmosphere to be blessed while the wrong progression also in its own capacity brings the audience’s spirit down/ causes disconnection so this has to be averted by all means.

APPROACHING THE SIMPLE CHORDS
Now lets start by deciphering the basics of Chords in music, Chords generally come up from a defined scale e.g. Major scale where we have the three primary Major chords I,IV,V and then the minor scale where we have the various minor chords, the Diminished scales where the diminished chords(formed in minor thirds) are being generated and so on.
IN THE TABLE BELOW WE HAVE THE THREE BASIC PRIMARY CHORDS IN THE KEY OF C

OBJECTIVES: REPLACE YOUR BASIC TRIADS WITH THE SEVENTH CHORDS

Now let us briefly look into there seventh form, to create more matured sounds musicians prefer to use the above chords(Triads) above in there seventh forms or extended as we have extensions like 9th,11th ,13th e.g.C major, C Major7,Cmajor9,Cmajor11,Cmajor13 and so on for the minor chords also e.g. C minor 9… Basically the formula for a seventh chord is 1+3+5+7 ok…lets peep into the C major scale to shed more light on this:

SO HAVING GOTTEN THE FORMULA OF A SEVENTH CHORD LETS CONVERT OUR BASIC PRIMARY CHORDS INTO THERE MAJOR SEVENTH FORM

*TRY ON YOUR KEYBOARD* TIPS:
Basically a 1 4 5 progression will almost fit into any song you are accompanying but there will be a lot of empty space that a pro would have filled.
LETS CONFIRM THAT WITH THIS SIMPLE SONG ‘PRAYER IS THE KEY’
TONIC SOLFA:- D,D,D,R,M-D,R,D,L,S-D,D,D,R,M-S-R…S,F,M,M,R,M,D-D,R,D,L,D,S-S,S,D,F,M,R-D

Three Mistakes you are making as a young Pianist

 
Article by: Elmond Isaiah(Jazz pianist)

 
You probably don’t have a million hours a day to practice. So, when you do sit down at the piano to practice, it’s critical that you invest your time on the smartest stuffs.

And it’s also critical that you’re not leaving out certain things from your practice that will cause big problems later…. (wise saying)

These mistakes are so huge that if you don’t address them now they can cause you irreparable damage to your growth as a musician.
So, let’s uncover them now.

Big Piano Mistake #1

Do you know what the biggest difference is between an amateur piano player and a pro?

It’s their ability to play with great rhythm!
One clear example at it’s core is jazz music. Although all music has a rhythmic pattern, jazz is entirely a rhythmic art form. Everything is based off swing, articulation, groove, and playing notes exactly at the perfect time.

Rhythm is the #1 of the most under practiced skill I see in almost all the music students I met and worked with.People spend all day learning chords and scales but yet they can’t groove with them or play them with good rhythmic feel inside real pieces of music!

You may practice and know many great chords, until you spend quality time working on rhythm and groove you will never accurately be able to apply those chords and scales you know.

_If you want to be a great pianist then you need to spend good time practicing your rhythm in all your practice sessions_

Big Piano Mistake #2

Are you able to instantly look at a chord chart and know what key it’s in and the chord progression in terms of music theory?

If not you need to be able to do that. I’m not saying this because I’m a drill sergeant or anything like that. Nope!
In fact, I’m saying this because I’m actually sharing a huge shortcut with you.
When, you can reduce the music down and understand that 99% of the time songs are made up of common chord progression patterns, then it’s a heck of a lot easier to memorize fast and have more fun at the piano.

Big Piano Mistake #3

Have you ever played through a piece of music and then come to a stumbling halt because you didn’t know how to play a chord? Or maybe you could eventually play it but you had to think about it for a long time and your rhythm suffered because you were a bit too slow recognizing it?
It’s super frustrating isn’t it?
Well, here’s the thing. This doesn’t need to happen. And it’s an easy fix if you _practice the right way.

Most musicians just practice chords randomly. They waste so much time trying to learn chords. This is not smart. If you know how to practice the right way you can learn how to play all your basic chords in a short period of time.

So, when you sit down don’t just hit random chords.
Don’t change it up everyday. Use a game plan and be smart about it.

If you’re not sure how to do this yourself get someone deeper than you in the area or get a step by step piano course that shows you how to play all your basic chords in all 12 keys in 30-60 days