I was just thinking about some of the commercial courses that I have ordered, and it occurred to me that there was one that would be very helpful to beginners who wanted to play traditional hymns very quickly.
I don't recall the course number but is was a Jermaine Griggs course labeled "harmonizing songs" (to my best recollection)Perhaps Gospel 101.
In this course you were given a harmonization chart for each key. A person would only have to study the charts relative to their most favored keys. With this chart you were given harmonizing chords for each note in the key that you were using. The course also gave you bass notes to match.
For example, if the melody note was a D in the key of D, the chart would tell you to play a D chord in the first inversion and the course would indicate that you play a D in the bass.
You could write out the melody notes of a song that you wanted to play either by getting them from a song book or by picking them out by ear, and then using the harmonization chart, get the proper chord and bass notes for each note.
Usually, as we know, there are only three and ocasionally four chords used in any given hymn. Once you have the chart committed to memory for each key, you only have to deal with three of the chords in various inversions.
Occasionally the chords don't fit for various reasons and you have to use your ear to get the right one but basically it works well.
The harmonization charts are very handy even if only being used as a practice tool for the various keys that you might use.
Worth a look if that is what you are focusing on.
berbie
