{"id":1687,"date":"2020-08-04T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2023-01-10T16:05:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T00:05:35","slug":"play-piano-at-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/play-piano-at-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Piano At Church (Worship Piano)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot of people learn the piano because they want to play piano at church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the idea of playing in church can be daunting for any pianist, even if you\u2019ve played before!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one, you\u2019re playing in front of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes a lot of people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most modern worship songs don\u2019t even use sheet music. They use chord charts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a big hurdle for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember my first time playing in church so vividly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was about 13 or 14 and had just joined the youth worship band. The band leader handed me a chord chart and said these words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dWhen you see a chord, play the chord.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a steep learning curve for sure, and I don’t recommend this method for any new learners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s what today\u2019s lesson is all about!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want you to know that playing piano in church is NOT difficult, once you know the basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why you should play piano at church<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you have the opportunity and even the slightest desire to play piano at church, you should try it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as being a blessing and a gift for everyone else listening, there are some very practical reasons why it\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing at church will make you a better pianist and overall musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll be learning new songs and new styles. You\u2019ll likely have to play in some keys you\u2019re not super familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you\u2019ll be playing in public with other musicians. There is really no better way to improve your skills quickly and develop your musical ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, you\u2019ll become a master of reading chord charts, which will set you up to play pretty much any modern worship or pop song you could ever want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the ones in 500 Songs in 5 Days<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading chord charts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost all modern worship songs are presented on chord charts. Only hymns still use music from my experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chord chart is simply the lyrics of the song with the chord names written above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what I mean. Take a look at the the opening line of 10,000 Reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Worship<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Download the entire chord chart for 10,000 Reasons here.<\/a><\/b><\/center>\n\n\n\n

You can see there are two letters above the lyrics, a C and a G. Those are the chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when the singer sings \u201cLord\u201d, that\u2019s when you play a C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hardest thing about playing from chord charts is knowing when<\/i> to change chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where listening to the song beforehand is so important. It\u2019s so hard to play a song from a chord chart if you\u2019ve never heard it before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t know how to play chords, or you see a chord that you don\u2019t recognize, don\u2019t worry! There\u2019s a formula<\/a> you can use to play a major or minor chord from ANY note on the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We won\u2019t get into major and minor chords here. Click that lesson above if you\u2019re not sure about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you can choose whether you want to play these chords in root position, or experiment with inversions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do want to quickly mention a type of chord that is super common in worship music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sus chord<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There will be a time when you\u2019re playing along, enjoying the major and minor chords, when you\u2019ll see this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Worship<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What?!<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is called a \u201csus\u201d chord. It\u2019s written on a chart by putting the letter name of the chord first, followed by the letters \u201csus\u201d and then a number (4 or 2, but most often 4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That 4 means you play the note that is 4 notes ABOVE the root note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for our D chord that will be a G. You can also think of it as 2 half-steps down from the top note of the chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dsus4<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sus chords are most commonly followed by major chords, and that happens here. So you can see that right after we play the Dsus4 we play a D major chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So all you have to do is bump that G note down to F# to go back to the D major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It creates a beautiful \u201cresolving\u201d sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you see a \u201csus2\u201d chord, like a Dsus2, then instead of playing the 4th note from the D scale you\u2019d play the 2nd note, which is an E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So your Dsus2 chord would have the notes D-E-A. It also sounds really pretty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Playing piano at church is so much fun, and benefits so many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s the congregation, who will absolutely appreciate the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Worship Pastor will be super grateful to have another member of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And YOU will get so much out of it. From being able to express your faith through your musical abilities, and just from becoming a better musician and even making new friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This lesson is a brief intro to show you that you CAN play piano at church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t get too deep into the techniques. If you\u2019re interested in learning more, we have a full training course specifically designed to equip you with the skills to join the worship team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s called \u201cWorship Piano\u201d and you can learn more about it here (and see some previews of the lessons):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

www.pianote.com\/worship-piano<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck, and remember to have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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