How great is our God in the key of A

Hi there!

Today we are going to look at the song "How great is our God". It is in the key of A and this is not a beginner lesson. This is for when you as keyboard or piano player, plays with a band where the bass notes gets played by a bass player.

So here is the video lesson which covers the whole song, but I added the breakdown in an article below, for those who love reading!

So first let's look at the scale and number system:

A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-1

So the normal way of covering the verse, chorus and even the bridge is as follows:

How great, is our God - 1 

Sing with me - 1

How great, is our God - 6

All will see - 6

How great - 4

How great - 5

Is our God - 1

We will look at some passing chords to play in order to get to the above mentioned destination chords. So lets examine the 1 chord:

You can play the one chord and add a melody line on the right hand, for "How great, is our God" as shown in picture above.

In order to move to the 6 chord for the "How great is our God", you can play a 7-3 progression  on the "Sing with me" which means you add two passing chords before you get to the 6 chord. So the first passing on the 7 is as follows:

The second passing is on the 3 chord and it looks like this:

This brings us to the 6 chord as part of the basic movement. Please note that the 6 chord and the 1 chord has the same notes. The only thing you have to change, is the melody line. Have a look:

The next part of the song is from the "All will sing, how great" which moves from the 6 to the 4 chord. You can add two more passing chords 5-1 and then you move to the 4. So the first chord on the 5 is as follows:

The second chord is on the 1, and it looks like follows:

Then you move to the destination chord on the 4 for "How great". It looks like this: 

The second "How great" is where you move to the 5 chord. But before you move to the 5 chord, you can add another passing on the 2. You will play this only on the "How" part of the song. Here it is:

Then you move to the 5 chord which is on "great":

This would be how you'd approach the verse and the chorus. I would suggest you play no passing chords on the verses as shown next to the words of the song at the start of the article. You can play the extra passing chords as explained in this lesson on the chorus. 

The last part is the bridge:

Name above all names

You are worthy to be praised

and my heart will sing

How great

Is our God

When playing the bridge you can use the same passing chords as of the chorus, but before you go the bridge, you can build up on the 5 with the following movement:

Once you've dealt with the build up on the 5, you can play the bridge in the same way as in the chorus. The only difference this time is that you will add two more passing chords. The first passing is before you go into the 7-3-6 progression. It will be on the 5b (flat 5). This is how it looks: 

This entire movement (5b-7-3-6) can always 

be used when you have to go from the 1 to 6.

The second passing that you add is where you go from the 5-1-4, just after the 6 above. You can add the 2 passing which is the same 2 passing we've previously covered:

You will end up with a complete progression looking like this:

1-5b-7-3-6-2-5-1-4

OK that's it! I hope this helps. Please look at the video lesson if you want to hear how it sounds. Please feel free share this, comment and subscribe to my email at the top right corner.