In this programme, we will teach you how to start off with traditional hymns, then move on to worship piano ballads and up-tempo praise repertoire. While piano patterns and comping will be taught to help you accompany a cell group or church band, we go beyond that to train you to be a competent solo pianist in forming creative melodic lines and reharmonising songs.

What different styles of praise worship playing are there?

In a group setting (eg. small group, services), chances are you will be accompanying the worship leader and/or the band. Here you generally play chords, chord progressions, learn intros, interludes, rhythmic patterns, etc. There is NO need to play the melody since the worship leader is already singing the melody.

In a solo setting, you will learn to play the entire song with the melody as well. Of the two, the solo setting is more challenging compared to just playing chords. The audio link below shows you the example of worship songs played with melody. At Northwood, we will train you to play in both settings and both styles.

How long does it take for me to be trained as a worship pianist?

It largely depends on your expectations and pace of progress. If you just content to play simple chords without the ‘fanciful’ stuff, it will be much easier of course. If you want to go further and play more improvisationally, it will naturally take longer.

Click either on the video link above or the audio clip below to hear various examples of how praise worship piano can be played.For eg. examples with full melodies include ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’, ‘Still’, ‘I Can Only Imagine’, ‘Thy Word’. Examples with melodies and improvisation include ‘How Great Is Our God’ and examples of accompaniment style (no melody) include ‘In Your Presence’.

LISTEN TO THIS AUDIO CLIP (‘Thy Word’ and ‘I Can Only Imagine’): Please be patient for it to download first.