Introduction to Gospel Chords

Four chords are commonly used when playing Traditional Gospel Music. These chords do not exhaust the list of chords used. However, they do provide a foundation upon which a beginning Traditional Gospel musician may build a musical piece. The four chords are:

The chord tones of the four chords listed above may be rearranged to give a musical piece a desired sound. There are four possible arrangements of these chords. Three of these arrangements are similar to the root position, first inversion and second inversion of triads. The fourth position places a note below the root note.

Another way to play these chords is to omit one of the chord tones. The chord tone omitted is usually the fifth degree or the root note. The following are alternate arrangements of the four chords listed above:

Bass notes may be added by playing the root note of the chord played in the treble clef. The root note is played in the base clef as a single tone. It may also be played as a part of a two-tone chord of root notes spanning one octave.

The minor sixth chord is unique in that it has a wonderful sound when played with the fourth degree in the bass. This does not follow the general rule for adding bass notes to a musical piece. However, the sound is so distinct that it warrants mentioning.