For many people who celebrate their religion, the first time they come across a piano or some sort of keyboard is in their place of worship. Easy worship piano songs can be a great way of celebrating your faith while still building on your piano playing skills. While some of these hymns and other worship songs may seem a little bit daunting at first, they are actually very easy to play. You can use sheet music to play these songs, learn the chord charts or watch the video tutorials we have provided for each piece to learn the arrangements. Each song has been included and designed to give you the confidence to play for others in whatever capacity you choose to.
Before we jump in to our easy worship piano songs we want to give you some of the most popular chord progression you will find in this genre of music. These will be really helpful to learn before you start to play the three easy piano worship songs.
Common Chord Progressions
- 1-4-5: This forms the route of all the chord progressions found in worship songs. You can recognize the chords as being Doh, Fah and Soh. Starting with the key of C, the chords go C, F and G.
- 1-4-1-5: Next we move onto an essential progression that is used in popular worship songs. Using the key of C again, the chords go C, F, C and G.
- 1-4-6-5: Huge gospel singers and other worship artists will use this chord progression. Playing in the key of C the chords will go C, F, a minor and then G.
- 1-5-6-4: Used in the song God Is Good, playing in the key of C you can make this chord progression with C, G, A minor and F.
- 1-6-4-5: This is an additional progression which isn’t as popular as the others but is still used in worship songs. Once again with the key of C, the chords are C, A minor, F and G.
1. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
This version of Amazing Grace adds a modern twist to a more traditional worship song. Looking at the sheet music you will see that the My Chains Are Gone version of this song has been written in C major. This makes it ideal for any easy piano player because there aren’t any black keys for you to worry about. Let’s take a look at the lyrics with the chords added.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
C F/C C
That saved a wretch like me.
C G/C
I once was lost, but now I’m found.
C C/E F C
Was blind, but now I see.
C G/C C
The chords we have included above are made up of the following notes:
- C – C, E and G
- G – G, B and D
- F – F, A and C
- E – E, G# B
If you noticed in the chords we included above with the lyrics there are some that contain a slash. These are what are referred to as slash chords. Don’t worry. They’re not as complicated as you might think they are.
Let’s take the first slash chord from the song which is F/C for our example to help you with this technique. The letter that sits to the left of the slash mark shows you the chord you need to play using your right hand. So with F/C you will be playing the F chord. The letter to the right of the slash chord gives you a note that you will then play with your left hand. With Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), that note happens to be a C.
Basically all that the F/C slash chord means is that the right hand plays an F chord and your left hand plays a simple C note. This rule goes for every slash chord you come across in sheet music, not just for worship songs or only in Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).
2. 10,000 Reasons
10,000 Reasons was written by Matt Redman and it’s a hugely popular song for worship as well as an easy piano number for you. It’s a great song for beginners and if you learn to play it, we’re sure you will be getting requests to play it in your church.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
C G
O my soul,
D/F# Em
Worship His holy name.
C G Dsus4 D
Here we have a different set of chords and the notes that make these are:
- C – C, E and G
- G – G, B and D
- D – D, F# and A
- F# – F#, A# and C#
- E minor – E, G and B
Once again in this piece you will notice the slash chords right away, but now you know how to play these on the piano they shouldn’t cause you any trouble. However, you may have noticed another funny and unfamiliar chord here. The Dsus4 chord is very popular in the worship music genre so it’s worth learning this technique.
Even though the chord is a sus chord, you still play the D chord as normal. Having a sus chord adds in more character and dynamics to the overall sound. Sus is shortened version of suspended. With sus4, this simply means you swap out the third note of the chord for the fourth one.
Let’s use the Dsus4 as an example. A D chord uses the D, F# and A notes, with D being the root note of the chord because it’s the first note in the D major scale. The F# sits in the third position in the scale and the A is in the fifth place. With a Dsus4 you swap that F# for a G instead, because in a D major scale the G is in the fourth place.
While you play this chord by itself it will sound unfinished but many sus chords eventually go on to resolve themselves, usually almost immediately. This exact thing happens when you play 10,000 reasons because you immediately follow your Dsus4 chord with a D.
3. Great Are You Lord
The final worship song in our list is a classic way to praise God. For a piano player it’s going to be a little bit more challenging because of the 6/8 time signature. We would recommend you give the song a listen to begin with if you aren’t familiar with the rhythm.
It’s your breath in our lungs,
G Bm7
So we pour out our praise, pour out our praise.
Asus4 A
It’s your breath in our lungs,
G Bm7
So we pour out our praise to you only.
Asus4 A
The chords you can see in the piece above include the following notes:
- G – G, B and D
- B minor – B, D and F#
- A – A, C# and E
You will see once again that you are going to have suspended chords in this piece which you should be more than familiar with at this point. Another one you may have noticed is another new chord which is the Bm7 or a B minor seventh chord.
It’s more than possible to play your normal B minor chord if you don’t want to try a seventh. However, this is a piano skill that can add in a lot of color to your overall sound. A seventh chord adds in the seventh note to whatever scale the chord is playing. With the Bm& chord the seventh note would be an A. So a Bm7 chord would contain the notes B, D, F# and A. You can also place the seventh note below your root note if you prever, so the chord notes go A, B, D and F#.
With all of the songs we have included above all it takes is for a pianist to acquire a little bit of knowledge about the basic chords. Worship songs like this are uncomplicated and ideal for a beginner piano player to learn. There are plenty of courses and lessons out there that follow both a piano and guitar format for you to improve your skills in this particular genre. Remember to watch the video tutorials we included for each piece and play all of these beautiful songs with confidence.
