Keyboard tutorial on "As the deer" in the key of Ab (Part 2)

HI there

Today we will be continuing our lesson for "As the deer" and we will cover the second part of the song. Click here to look at part 1 of this lesson. It will help put this lesson in context.

You alone are my strength, my shield (6-5-1-4-3) To You alone may my spirit yield (1-4-6-2-1-7-7b) You alone are my heart's desire (6-5b-7-3-6-1) And I long to worship Thee (5b-4-2-5-1)

So here is the video clip with the breakdown of the second part:

 

The second part starts off with "You alone are my strength, my shield (6-5-1-4-3)". Before you play the 6 chord, add two passing chords 5b-5#. The first chord is the 5b and you can play it like this:

Then the next chord moves to the 5#:

Please note that you can play grace notes for both chords as illustrated in the images. Now you

are ready to play the 6 chord to cover the "You" section of the first line, like this:

Next you add a melody note Ab for "a-" then you can play a 5-1-4 progression to cover "-lone are my". The 5 chord has two movements that you need to do. First do the left hand bass notes then play the chord while you play a right chord to cover the melody which is "-lone":

Now you are ready to play the 1 chord. On the 1 chord there's also a left hand bass note first then you play a chord. This covers the "are" section:

Now you move to the 4 chord to cover "my strength". This is the same as what was covered in part 1, where you played the 4 chord. Let's review it again:

Please note that you don't have to always play the melody notes in both hands when you play this 4 chord, but it is up to you-it is there if you want to play it. Next we have to cover the "my shield" section of the line. This is played on the 3 chord, like this:

The next section of the song is "To You alone may my spirit yield (1-4-6-2-1-7-7b)". The 1 chord acts as a passing to get back to the 4 chord. You will play two chords on the right hand over the 1 chord passing. Let's look at it:

The second chord in this movement covers the "To" section, then you play the 4 chord again to cover the "You" section. The 4 chord is the same 4 chord as previously discussed.

Next you go to the 6 chord to cover "alone". Now this one is a bit tricky. I would suggest you look at the video clip of how I played it. But let me try and explain it...There are 4 movements that you will play over the 6 chord-1) Start off with a melody in you right hand as shown in image below, 2) Play chords with both hand as shown:

 

3) Add a new chord over the 6 by playing left hand chord and the first part in you right hand as shown in the image below:

4) Play the same left hand chord but change the right hand chord to the second part in the image as shown above. These 4 movements happens somewhere between "alone". Now we move to "may my spirit"  section which will be covered by playing a 2 chord. This is different to the 2 chord as previously covered in part 1. Look at it here:

If you play the 2 chord first start off by playing the melody Db-C then you play the chord. Now we go to a 1 chord to cover the second part of "spirit". You can play it like this:

For the "yield" section you can play two chords- a 7 and 7b chord. In the clip I played an extra bar to play the 7b. First let's look at the 7 chord:

When playing the 7 chord, you can add a left hand chord as shown as the second part in the image above. This chord by itself actually covers the "yield" section, but I added an extra movement over the 7b. There are a few chords you can play over the 7b:

Start off with playing the melody first with a left hand bass note. After the melody your first right hand chord can be played together with the left hand chord provided. Now you keep the left hand chord and change the right hand chord all the way down till the last given chord in the image. Please remember, this does not cover any melody lines, it is just an added movement.

The next section is You alone are my heart's desire (6-5b-7-3-6-1). The "You" section is covered by playing a 6 chord, like this:

That is a very simple chord, but it will be followed by another 5b chord, that will cover the "a-" of the "alone"section, like this:

Then you can play the 7 chord for the rest of "alone" (-lone) like this:

Now you move to the "are my" section which will be covered by a 3 chord movement. It consist of two chords on the right hand:

 

Once you played the two chords you can move back to the 6 chord to cover "heart's" section. It looks like this:

The last chord in this section is played on the 1. You add a melody line before you play the chord. It starts off with Ab-B-C and then the chord on the 1 to cover "desire". The chord can be played like this:

The next section is And I long to worship Thee (5b-4-2-5-1). Okay we are almost home! The first chord in this section is the 5b. This chord covers the "And I" section and can be played like this:

There is a grace note that you can add from Eb-F as you play the chord. Next you move to the 4 chord to cover "long''

The next movement goes from the 4 to the 2. This covers the "to" section of the last line. Play the 2 chord like this:

Then you go to the 5 chord. This covers "worship" like this:

On the 5 chord you can play single notes on the left hand as an arpeggio. Then lastly you go back to the 1 chord to end of the section on "you":

That's it! Wow we made it to the end. I hope you had fun with this hymn. The reason why I think you should try and master these chords, is you will be able to gain more different ways of playing altered chords on the different numbers within the key of Ab. You can apply a lot of what you've learned here to other songs or even come up with your own.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comment section. Also like this page if you actually enjoyed this lesson. You can also subscribe to my email list to receive free lessons on a weekly basis!