Gospel Music Subgenres

Urban Contemporary:
Like other forms of music the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of urban contemporary
gospel varies according to culture and social context. It is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from
aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. However, a
common theme as with most Christian music is praise, worship or thanks to God.
Contemporary Christian:
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned
with the Christian faith. Today, the term is typically used to refer to the Nashville, Tennessee based pop, rock, and
worship Christian music industry, currently represented by artists such as: Avalon, Barlow Girl, Israel Houghton,
CeCe Winans, Jeremy Camp, Yolanda Adams, Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman, David Crowder Band, Amy
Grant, Natalie Grant, Jars of Clay, MercyMe, Newsboys, Michael W. Smith, Rebecca St. James, Third Day, tobyMac,
and a host of others.
Southern Gospel:
Like other forms of music the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of Southern Gospel varies
according to culture and social context. It is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic
pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace.
Shout Music:
Shout Music is a type of gospel music characterized by very fast tempo, chromatic basslines, snare hits and hand claps
on the 2nd and 4th beat of each measure and screaming organ lines over one major chord (though modulations are
common). Often gospel artists will break into Shout Music at the end of a song or as a finale. Shout Music is used as a
bed for vocal riffing and calling out of catch phrases, or "shouting.
Chord Voicing:
This is when you take a normal chord and rearrange the notes of the chord to give a desired effect depending on the
style of music being played.
Styles in Chord Voiving are

Open Movement or Open Chord Voicings

Closed Movement or Scrunched Movement

Open Movement:
This method of chord voicings means you're playing the notes of a chord over span of more keys.
For example lets voice E min 9th chord.
Normally, you would play E min 9 like this - [E G B D F#]
Now the chord voicing of E min 9: LH - [E G] RH - [B D F#]
Now practice chord voicings of minor ninth chords on all the keys. You can easily do that by just moving up or down
chromatically the E min 9th chord above.
Scrunched Movement:
This is when you take the notes of a normal chord and scrunch them together. That is you play the notes in such a way
that they are very close to eachother.
For example lets voice A minor 9th. It's C major 7th chord with A as the bass line.
Normally, you would play it like this: LH - [A E A] RH - [C E G B].
Now, I will give you a remixed version of that chord in both the open and closed movements.

Open Movement:
LH - [A E B] - RH [C G B D] - leave no octave in-between LH and RH
Closed Movement: Below is an example
LH - [A E] - RH - [G B C D]
Some chords given here might be difficult to play at first but you just need to practice them in order to be able to play
them fluently.
"The Hidden Secret in Gospel Keyboard"
1. Tritone
2. Ditone
Tritone:
The tritone is a musical interval that spans three whole tones. The tritone, sometimes known as the "Diabolus in
Musica", refers to either the augmented fourth or the diminished fifth, which in 12-tone equal temperament are
enharmonic equivalents. It is often used as the main interval of dissonance in Western harmony, and is important in the
study of musical harmony. "Any tendency for a tonality to emerge may be avoided by introducing a note three whole
tones distant from the key note of that tonality."
In music, a tritone substitution is the chord substitution of a chord with its root being a tritone away from the original.
It is the use in a chord progression of a V7 (dominant seventh chord) (major/minor seventh chord) that is three whole
steps (a tritone: 6 semitones) away from the original V7. Tritone substitutions are used in improvisation and are
commonly used to create tension during a solo.
Breaking it down Futher
The tritone is basically what the name implies. It's a two note tone with two tones in-between. e.g [C F#].
You would almost always play the tritone with your left hand and then couple it with a major chord on your right
hand.
When playing the tritone on the keyboard it's structured in such a way that when you play a note, the tritone is the
same on the left side as it is on the right. This implies that in substituting a tritone for a chord you can have more than
1 tritones to use.
For example the tritone for chord 1 on C major is LH - [Bb E] RH - [A C# E A] or
LH - [A# E] RH - [A D F# A] or
LH - [E Bb] RH - [Eb G Bb] or
LH - [E A#] RH - [E G C] or [Eb Ab C] - passing tone
Before I proceed, lets do an exercise.
Practise playing the tritone using all the instances I have shown, moving up and then down chromatically until you
have mastered playing it very well.
Let me give you the tritones again in their different flavours
LH - [F B] RH - [E A C#]
LH - [F B] RH - [F Ab C#]
LH - [F B] RH - [E Ab B E]
How To Use Tritones:
The tritone can add a lot of flavour to your playing if you know how to use it. It can be employed in many styles of
music such as Neo Soul, Funk, Jazz and ultimately, Gospel. Below are the various ways in which you can use the
tritone:
* Passing Tone

* Root of the Chord

* Chord Substitutions
Passing Tone:
Without saying much let me just explain this using the Circle of Fifths as an example.
Firstly, I will give you the Circle of fifths in the basic form and then I will give you the version with the tritones.
This exercise is in key C
LH - [A E] RH - [G B C E]
LH - [Ab E] RH - [F# B C E]
LH - [G D] RH - [F A Bb D]
LH - [F# D] RH - [F# A Bb D]
LH - [F C] RH - [E G A C]
LH - [B Eb] RH - [A D F]
LH - [Ab D F] RH - [Ab C D G]
Now for the tritone version with some chord substitutions
LH - [G B C E] RH - [G B D]
LH - [C F#] RH - [B E Ab B] - tritone
LH - [G D] RH - [F A Bb D]
LH - [Bb E] RH - [A D F#] - tritone
LH - [F A C E] RH - [C E G]
LH - [A Eb] RH - [Ab C# F] - tritone
LH - [Ab D] RH - [G C E G] - tritone
-->
Now let's take a look at the little brother of the tritone
Ditone
The ditone is a 2-note tone with a tone inbetween. For example [C E]. You would almost always play the ditone with
your left hand and couple it with a suspended chord on your right hand. Let me show you and exapmple
LH - [C E] RH - [Bb Eb Ab]
Now practice playing the ditone on all keys using the example I just gave you. Just go up and down chromatically.
There are 3 basic ways of using the ditone.

As Passing Tone

Root of the chord

Chord Substitutions

You would use it as a passing tone when you play the example I gave above. Let me now show you how to use it as
root of the chord. In the example below, I show you the ditone used as the 1 chord on the key of C.
LH - [C E] RH - [A D G]
Now I will show you an example in which I use the ditone as the root of the chord, passing tone and a substitution the
the key of C.
LH - [C E] RH - [A D G] .............-count 1, 2 >>root
LH - [E Ab] RH - [D G C], LH - [F# Bb] RH - [E A D], LH - [Ab C] RH - [F# B E] -count 1 2 >>passing tone.
LH - [A E B] RH - [C G B D]
LH - [C# F] RH - [B E A]
LH - [D A] RH - [C E F A]

LH - [Ab D F] RH - [Ab C D G]
LH - [A E] RH - [G B C E]