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: major sixth, dominant seventh, minor sixth, and the diminished seventh.

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. A fourth position (not a real musical term but used her for discussion) 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:

Adding Bass Notes

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.

Bass notes are also notated using symbols. Bass notes are notated by a slash (/) followed by a letter naming the bass note to be played. (Example: /C) This notation immediately follows the notation for chords. The following are examples of chord notations that include the bass note.

The minor sixth chord is unique in that it has a wonderful sound when played with the fourth degree in the bass clef. 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.

The following is a list of minor sixth chords played with the sixth degree under the root note. The fourth degree is played in the bass. The fourth degree is the degree of the major scale from which the minor sixth chord was formed.