KEYS
POPCORN AND WHAT? | Ed Kerr
It would be interesting to take a poll among music is in the ways keyboard players voice chords. So, consider a voicing for the D chord
readers of this article to find out what you their chords. Each time you play your instrument that has the D in the soprano, the top note of
and I have in common. Do you like the same you’re choosing specific voicings for your your voicing, perhaps in the 5 th finger of your
restaurant I do? Do you like eating microwave chords. The chart says D? You decide where right hand. Look at Fig. 3.
popcorn with frozen chocolate chips? Do you you’re going to put the D, F# and A of that watch professional tennis players in grand chord on your instrument. You decide whether Now your goal is to keep common tones when
slam tournaments and think, “I could return you’ll play all 3 notes of the chord. You decide you change chords. So, since the D stays in the
that serve”? You get the idea. Ask enough whether to use your left hand to play one of the soprano, fill in the notes of the C2 chord below
questions, we’ll find some things we have notes. You are voicing the chord. Yes, voicing is it. Check out Fig. 4.
in common. a verb. A traditional church musician might play
Discovering things we have in common is
a voicing like Fig.1, with the root, third and fifth Listen closely to keyboard parts on recordings
of the chord directly above each other. of your favorite worship songs. I’m confident
you’ll hear parts that apply this concept of
a foundational concept to modern worship
musicianship. Huh? The concept I’m referring Let’s say the next chord in your chart is an C2. retaining common tones between chords.
to is the use of common tones. Common tones You’ll make similar decisions. Where will you This will be especially conspicuous if you’re
are notes that are shared between chords. The put the notes of the chord? Will you play all the listening to pad parts. When a pad sound is
note A is part of a D major triad and a B minor notes? A traditional voicing might look like what being played the use of common tones is often
7. The note D is part of a G major triad and a you see in Fig. 2. quite obvious. You hear an unchanging note on
top. Now think about how you might play the
C2 chord.
A modern approach to voicing of chords chords of that song. Do you typically preserve
This matters because you and I are involved would take common tones into consideration. common tones?
in modern worship music. One of the The first thing to do is identify common tones significant ways modern worship music can between these two chords. What do you see? Here’s an example of common tone usage from
be distinguished from more traditional church Yep, the D is a common tone, occurring in both one of today’s most popular worship songs,
FIG. 1
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FIG. 2
October 2018
WorshipMusician.com