Chords for Transforming Boring Chord Progressions - Worship Piano Chords

Hey guys, [E] David from Sunday Sounds here, and [Am] today we want to talk about [F] chord progressions in [C] worship
music.
But not just any [E] chord progression, I mean a lot [F] of chord progressions.
We want to talk about
boring [Dm] chord progressions that hundreds, [C] if not thousands of contemporary worship songs have.
We're not just going to talk about how [G] boring or overused these progressions are and leave it at
that.
Instead, we've got a little game that we're going to play.
So I've got Isaac Rodriguez, who's
an amazing keys player and music [F#] director at Lutheran Church of Hope.
And I'm going to play a
progression.
Isaac has no idea what I'm about to [C] play.
And then he's going to do his best to make
this chord progression a little bit fresh, a little bit new.
And we're not going to break down all the
specifics.
Honestly, you might not even remember what you play immediately after you play it, right?
But the idea is, if you're playing a song that has one of these really stereotypical, overused
chord progressions, it doesn't necessarily need to feel stale.
Isaac, are you feeling lucky?
Yeah,
I'm ready.
All right.
So we've just kind of talked about the idea of this video, but we've not
practiced any of [G#m] this.
And we just have a piano and pad in the Sunday Keys iPad app pulled up.
So I have kind of just thought a little bit about what are these progressions that I've played
hundreds [C] of times across different songs, where you're playing one song and you all of a sudden
realize, oh, I'm also playing 30 other songs right now.
I'm going to throw one at you, okay?
So
_ one, we're going to play this in C.
One, [F] _ four, [Am] _ six, [G] _
five.
[C] _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
[G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _ One, four, six, five.
You can take the feel wherever you want, but you got to play
something around those four chords.
All right, let's do it.
_ [C] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
[D] _ _ _ [C] And like you said,
[F] _ _
[E] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
nice.
[D#] Okay, okay, okay, okay.
So yeah, this progression, I mean, it's overused for a reason
because it's actually a pretty cool musical idea, right?
You're starting home base, you're leaving
it for three different changes, [Fm] and then you land right back where you started.
It feels good.
And
that's why this progression is used in so many worship [Em] songs.
And a lot.
But you're doing a
bunch of different things.
Obviously, lots of rhythmic complexities to make that feel a little
bit more lively.
But you're also adding in a couple of color chords there to bring some depth to it
that you might not have otherwise.
Okay, so that's basic boring chord progression.
And then a not so
basic, not so boring version of it, number one.
You ready for number two?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, let's get
into it.
Okay, this next one, just as cliche, just as overused as the first.
I'm going to play this
in the key of G.
We're going to start on the six, _ _ [D] down to the five, _ [C] down to the four, [G] _
down to the one.
[Em] _ _ _ [D] And we can swing it.
Some of you [C] might know what song I'm playing right now.
_ [G] _
But we can play it in four, four, [Em] two.
_ _ [D] _ _ _
[C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[D] _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ You [Em] _ _ [D] get _ _ [G] _
the idea.
Six, five, four, one.
Okay,
I'm gonna try to do the same thing.
And I do kind of like, _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[G] _ I'm gonna do kind of the same thing.
[Em] _ _ [G] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Very nice.
Very nice.
All right.
Number three, here it comes.
All right.
Last one, scraping the bottom
of the barrel.
Not really.
There are a lot of options.
But we're gonna go here.
We're gonna play
an [D] A. _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [F#m] _
So [D] four, _ [A] one, _
[E] _ five, [F#m] _ six.
[D] So we could go _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [F#m] all sorts of different fields.
But we're still just
[A] four, one, [E] _
[F#m] five, six.
I mean, we [D] could play it in _ _ _
[A] _ three, four, [E] five, six, one, two, three,
[F#m] four, one, two, three, four, five, six, [D] one. _ _
[A] So four, one, five, six.
Let's see what you got.
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
You want to try that?
Oh, yeah.
I play this every day.
All right. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
Here it [C#] comes.
[C#m] Hey, there we go.
[E] _ _
[F] _ _ [F#m] There we go.
[Em] _ _ [C#m] _ _
[Bm] _ _ [D] _ _ I think I got some respectable.
That was a respectable attempt.
Okay, it [A] got here.
And then what?
_ _ [F] _ _ [C#] What are we doing?
[F#m] I don't know what we're doing.
Okay.
Okay.
You win this round,
sir.
But I will be back.
Hey, guys, we just called out three chord progressions.
[G] And this is all in
good fun, because we know that it doesn't actually matter what chord progressions you use, as long as
you're serving your band well, and your band is serving your congregation.
That being said,
if you found the ideas that Isaac brought to these songs inspiring, we do have some less
tongue in cheek, more instructional videos, what we've collaborated with Isaac on.
If you'd like
to check those out, there's a playlist in the description.
Isaac's a great teacher, and those
videos are a ton of fun.
Hope you'll check them out.
Isaac, thanks for hanging out with us.
I'll
be back, and I'll be stronger than ever.
I'm going to work on my chops.
Until then, be sure to
subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss our next video.
Have a
great day. _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [C] And like you say, I'll take it.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ [D] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[C] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[F#m] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [N] _ _