What A Friend We Have In Jesus Piano Tutorial

Would you like a What A Friend We Have In Jesus piano tutorial? You’ve come to the right place. In today’s video

I’m going to show you how to play one of the most beautiful hymns there is. Lets get started!

What A Friend We Have In Jesus Piano Video

7 Tips To Help You Master This What A Friend We Have In Jesus Piano Tutorial

What Key Are You In?

1) We’re in the key of F for this arrangement. You can play What A Friend We Have In Jesus in any key but we’re in the key of F in this one.

If you’re not familiar with the key of F, you can learn how to play all the notes in the scale inside this piano major scales tutorial.

What Kinds Of Chords Are You Playing In The Right Hand?

2) I’m using quite a few inversions of chords in my right hand. This is a special chord technique you can use to play harmonies in the right hand and to make sure the melody always stays on top.

If you’re not familiar with inversions yet you can check out this chord inversions for piano tutorial.

Here’s A Cool Gospel Chord Technique

3) One of the techniques I’m using to decorate the harmony is a traditional gospel walkup. These are real easy to play.

Essentially instead of playing F for a long period of time in the beginning and then playing Bb, I’m ‘walking up’ to the Bb instead.

This gospel walkup is really just passing chords that ascend up to our target chord. You can use this type of walkup anytime we have a I chord going to a IV chord.

This type of walkup is many different styles of music but especially gospel and country music.

How I Use Diminished Harmony To Make This Hymn Interesting

4) Another reharmonization technique that I’m using is substituting the Bb chord with a B diminished chord. This is a BIG church sound you’ll hear all over the place in traditional gospel music.

Why I Use Slash Chords In This Hymn

5) Another technique I’m doing to get more color and variety out of these sounds is playing alternate chord tones in my left hand. For example, an F chord has the notes F- A – C.

So, instead of playing F as the low bass note in my left hand I can play an A note instead. This A works because it’s also a chord tone.

I don’t do this all the time but again its’ another technique you can use to get some variety. Sometimes this technique is called an inversion. Some people think like to think of it as a slash chord.

Here’s What To Do If You Have Small Hands

6) I’m using quite a bit of 4 note chords in my right hand. If you’re still a piano beginner you can simplify these big 4 note chords but just playing the top 3 notes I have in my chords.

How I Use Basic Chord Progressions As a Template 

7) So many church hymns just use basic chord progressions to harmonize the melodies.  Traditionally, the chords for this song use just a I IV V piano chord progressions. I’m still keeping the frame work for those basic chords inside this What A Friend We Have In Jesus piano tutorial.

I’m just adding a couple chords mixed in just to get some spice and flavor. 🙂

More Piano Lessons To Help You Grow

If you had fun with this What A Friend We Have In Jesus piano lesson then you should also check out this Amazing Grace piano lesson.

I also recommend you check out this beginner Hallelujah piano tutorial.

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