How to Play Worship Songs on Piano

One of my biggest passions in life is music.

Piano is my favorite instrument, and more than just music, my favorite thing to do is worship Jesus at my piano.

My story of learning how to play worship songs on piano is, well, a little grueling.

To be blunt, I had a super difficult time learning how to play worship-style piano!

I wanted so much just to worship freely and sing while I play piano… and while the singing sounded ok, my piano playing at first was just plain bad.

And the long story short is that it took me a while, but I finally got breakthrough and figured out how to find my way around playing worship music with piano.

I’m writing this on my coffee blog, and while I love coffee, I love music and praising Jesus even more!

And in this article I’m going to tell you about something AMAZING that I have for you!

But first, let me share a little of my journey with you, and how to play worship songs on piano…

 

==> Click here to view my book if you want to take your worship piano playing to the next level! <==

 

My Story

I was classically trained in piano.

I grew up learning Beethoven (he was my favorite for a long time), Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Chopin, etc.

So after almost 10 years of classical piano instruction, I learned how to read music notation really well.

Then I wanted to worship God at my piano, just me singing and playing to Him.

Unfortunately I had zero interest to learn music theory while I was learning classical piano, I only wanted to read notes and play the music that I loved.

I hated scales, arpeggios, interval numbers and pretty much everything else that had to do with “theory”.

So when I tried to play chords for worship songs and improvise at the piano… I had no idea what I was doing!

It honestly wasn’t very fun.

It was frustrating to want to play something so bad, but hardly knowing where to start.

More than a year went by for me to find what really works well for playing worship-style piano while I was singing.

And that was a long year!

But finally, after a while, I found out what works and what doesn’t, and I was so satisfied to finally do what I wanted… play great sounding piano and sing worship to Jesus.

I’ve had years of experience playing piano in worship for dozens of churches and organizations, meetings and gatherings and I’ve had the immense privilege to teach people how to play beautiful sounding piano.

3 Steps…

I finally figured out how to play piano for the chord charts for artists like Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Bethel Music, Elevation Worship, Phil Wickham, Maverick City Music, Jesus Culture, Jason Upton, etc.

What I found is that there’s a really good way to use the left hand, the right hand, and improvisation.

These are the 3 keys that I want to share with you in this article, how to play the left hand chords, how to play the right hand chords, and how to improvise.

And if you implement these things into your playing, you can improvise and play great sounding chords with any worship song that can sound kind of like this short little improvisation on “How Great is our God”.

 

==> Click here to view this book if you want to take your worship piano playing to the next level! <==

 

So let me share with you about these!

 

Step #1 – The Left Hand

When it comes to the left hand, there are definitely things that work and really don’t work well.

Some people may play a 4-note chord in the left hand, and many, many people play octaves in the left hand.

4-note chords are great for classical music, but not for contemporary worship!

And octaves, on the other hand, they actually sound alright.

But the truth is that they sound mediocre at best… and on top of that, many people play them too low on the piano, which not only gets in the way of the bass if you’re playing for a full band, but no matter what it just sounds bad if you go too low with octaves!

The best thing you can play for the left hand is just like what you see in the photo at the beginning of this article!

You play an octave with the 5th in the middle.

And it’s as simple as that.

It works amazingly for whatever you’re playing, and however many other instruments you’re playing with: just you, or with a full band.

In the book I share in more detail exactly how to play it and where the boundaries are for how low or high to go!

 

Step #2 – The Right Hand Chords

This one took me quite a while to figure out.

When I first started trying to play worship music on piano, I jumped all around with my right hand trying to play root position triads for every different chord in the chart.

If you don’t understand what that means, let’s just say that my right hand was like a jumping kangaroo on the piano, and it made it really difficult to play anything when my left hand was moving a lot too!

What I found was to put my right hand thumb on the note of the key that I’m playing in, and keep my right hand in that position mostly!

So if I’m playing in the key of E Major, I put my right hand thumb on the note E and mostly stay in that position, with my pointer finger on F#, middle finger on G#, ring finger on A, and pinky on B.

If you do that, all you have to do is move 1 or 2 of your fingers to play different notes for the different chords.

It’s amazing because it sounds more modern and beautiful with the sounds you can make that way, and it’s way easier!

So for whatever chord you’re playing for the key that you’re in, there are good shapes you can do with your right hand that sound great by simply playing 3 notes and only making minor shifts in which notes you play, or moving your thumb down a half-step.

Once again, there is much more explained in the book where I teach you how to figure out what sounds good and how to figure out what to play!

 

Step #3 – Improvisation

This is the grand finale of the book.

If you want to do more than just play simple chords for worship – which you most likely will after long enough of doing that – you’ll need to figure out how to improvise.

I learned about a fool-proof and nearly perfect way to improvise.

Now, most people will just tell you, “If you want to improvise, you just need to know and use the major scale.”

That’s what I’ve told people myself many times in the past.

And while it’s true, there’s actually something better and fail-proof you can do than the major scale for improv!

You’ll have to get the book if you want to find that one out…

Here’s An Example… Goodness Of God

If you’d like to see these concepts in action, with an at-the-keyboard view, check out this video where I teach you how to play Goodness of God by Bethel Music on piano!

Goodness of God is a great song that’s been very popular since it came out.

In this video, you’ll see the keys that I’ve just explained put into action.

And hopefully you enjoy this song too, and will find this video really helpful for how to play it and practice it!

 

I’m making more videos and I’m very open for requests!

Wrapping It Up

It’s my goal to help you, encourage you, and bless you in whatever way possible… whether with coffee tips and tricks or with playing piano for worship music!

With this book, I have something in there for almost everyone!

It’s perfect for amateurs or beginners: people who know how to play piano and know the notes and stuff, but have trouble with figuring out how to play piano.

But it’s also great for intermediate or expert piano players!

The 3rd key that I give in the book is something that hardly anyone actually knows about, and I’m almost positive that you’ve never heard it and that it’ll benefit you HUGELY.

If you want to take your playing to the next level, this book is for you.

I will say, however, that this book is only in eBook form, and there is no musical notation.

I’ve just written out note names when necessary because I realize that not all of my readers will know how to read musical notation.

In my opinion, it honestly makes it a bit easier that way.

And if you’re a coffee lover, enjoy some delicious coffee while you read the book, or while you practice piano!

Best wishes to you on your journey with piano, worshiping God, and making a joyful noise.

I truly hope that in your piano journey, wherever you’re at, that you will find joy in playing and practicing, and see great improvements.

 

==> Click here to view this book if you want to take your worship piano playing to the next level! <==

 

p.s. Please feel free to let me know in the comments section below if you have any questions or comments about anything in this article. I’ll be so happy to hear from you and help you!

 

And… here’s another tutorial! I have quite a few and I’ll be adding more on my YouTube channel!