Add a Gospel Flavor to any Song in 2 Easy Steps

Gospel music has some very distinct sounds.  You could refer to them as signature sounds as many people can easily distinguish them when they’re heard.  In this article, I want to share with you a simple way to add a gospel flavor to any song.

We’ll be using a progression in the key of C Major for our “add gospel flavor” example. 

Its helpful to know diatonic harmony to understand the concepts in this article.  “Diatonic” simply means in the key of.  Harmony is defined as notes that are played in unison for the purpose of producing chords.  Each diatonic tone is represented by a number.Gospel music makes use of diatonic harmony just as much as any other style of popular western music.  In this article, we’re going to focus on the 1 and 2 chord.  As you can see from the Keyshots, the 1 chord is major and the 2 chord is minor. 

Using Your Neighbor

The 1 chord is the root chord and the 2 chord is the upper neighbor chord.   Using this 1-2 couple is called the upper neighbor chord concept.

The interesting fact about these two chords is that they can harmonize six notes out of seven in a major scale.  Notice the “gospely” sound this makes as the 1-2 couple ascends up the key of C Major.  Each chord moves through the inversions to accommodate each note in the key.The only tone in the key that this 1-2 couple will not harmonize is the 7^th scale degree (B in the key of C Major).  The 7^th is referred to as the leading tone.  It’s so named because it actually leads back to the 1 tone.  In this case you could use the 3 chord to harmonize this note.  This would be the E minor chord in the key of C Major.Vocal harmony in gospel music is based on this six note scale.  You can apply this upper neighbor concept to a static section of music in which the right hand is made up of only the C and D minor chords (in the key of C here).It’s amazing how just two simple chords can add melodic and harmonic interest.  In a lead sheet or chord chart, you would likely see this progression labeled with just one chord symbol because it doesn’t lead away from the root chord which in this case is C Major.

Using Your Neighbor’s Neighbor

Another strategy that involves adding harmonic interest to static sections of a song is to borrow the 2 chord from the parallel minor key.  Since our gospel example is in the key of C Major, its parallel minor key would be C minor.The 2 chord in the parallel minor key is a diminished triad. The 1 chord is exactly the same as in the previous example.  Only the 2 chord is different.  Notice how it changes the harmonic character in contrast to the last gospel flavor example.

Going beyond Your Neighbor’s Neighbor

Another “neighbor” option is to use the neighboring chord of the Major key we first just used.  This means that we would go back to  using chords from the Major key.  This would be the 3 chord of the key of C Major.  This would be an E minor  chord. You can stay within the key if you play the tonic of the chord in the bass (in this case C).  This will create a C Major 7^th chord. Along the same lines of using parallel keys, you can take the 3 chord and create a dominant 7^th chord just by flatting the top note of the minor triad that you just borrowed (lower the B to B flat).  You’ll keep the root of the tonic chord in the bass just as you did before.  This E minor 7 chord really makes the chord progression sound more bluesy. 

You can go even further with the concept by flatting the 3^rd along with the 7^th scale degree.  This will create an E flat Major triad.  When combined with the C in the bass, creates a C minor 7 chord.  Although you’re altering the 3^rd by lowering it a half step, it stays within our gospel flavor concept.