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Gospel Piano Scales
When it comes to gospel piano scales, you have
many options.
I’d say the most popular gospel piano scales are:
Blues scale 1 2 3
Pentatonic scale
Minor pentatonic scale
Super “Locrian” scale 1 2 3 4
Whole tone scale
Diminished scale
In fact, there’s really no such thing as “gospel piano
scales” — scales are scales and regardless of
whether you’re playing gospel, jazz, or blues, there’s
places to fit all scales. Granted, some styles utilize
certain ones more than others.
Gospel Piano Scales – Whole tone

When it comes to gospel piano scales, the whole tone
scale is a great tool to have in your arsenal and
pretty simple to understand. It’s basically all whole
steps.
Half steps are from key to key with no keys in
between. Whole steps always skip a key with one
key in between.
C Whole Tone: C – D – E – F # – G # – A #
And because every note is the same distance apart
(equidistant), there are really only two unique whole
tone scales.
Why? Because if you play this same scale above
starting and ending on D, you get the same exact
notes.
Starting and ending on E, same thing.
Basically, pick a note in the scale and play the same
notes and you’ve got yourself a brand new whole
tone scale without changing up anything.
So the only other whole tone scale is on B (or any
other note of that scale, as explained above):
B Whole Tone: B Db Eb F G A B
These are great gospel piano scales to use with:
Augmented chords
Augmented 7th chords
Dominant 7 #9 #5 (very popular in gospel)
Dominant 7 b9 #5 (very popular as well)
…and many others.

They can be used on the 2, b3, 3, b5, and 6 — but
most popular on the 3 as passing chords. You’d
simply play the chord in your left hand and
experiment with different whole tone gospel piano
scales in your right, knowing that there are really
only 2 unique scales… and all the rest just start on
different tones but use the same notes).
Gospel Piano Scales – Diminished Scale
The diminished scale is also a pretty cool gospel
piano scale you can use with diminished chords (…
which occur a lot in gospel).
Just like the whole tone scale, you don’t have to
remember 12 distinct scales because they repeat.
There are only 3 unique diminished scales.
E♭ diminished (F♯/G♭, A, C diminished): E♭, F,
F♯, G♯, A, B, C, D, E♭
D diminished (F, A♭, B diminished): D, E, F, G, A♭,
B♭, B, C♯, D
D♭ diminished (E, G, B♭ diminished): D♭, E♭, E,
F♯, G, A, B♭, C, D♭
How do you remember which scales share the same
notes?
Answer: Just remember which diminished chords
share the same notes!
Let’s look at these 4 diminished chords:
C diminished 7: C + Eb + Gb + A
Eb diminished 7: Eb + Gb + A + C
Gb diminished 7: Gb + A + C + Eb
A diminished 7: A + C + Eb + Gb
They share the same notes don’t they? Therefore,
their corresponding diminished scales will be the
same. So just commit the three diminished scales
above to memory, remember which ones group
together, and you’ll have even more gospel piano
scales to add to your repertoire!
And because diminished 7 chords are commonly
found on the b2, b3, 3, b5, b6, and 6 tones of the
scale, you’ll have many opportunities to employ these
gospel piano scales.
When it comes to gospel piano scales, if you master
the 6 here, you’ll never run out of ideas

Progressions Practice Routine

Here’s a routine that you can practice every time you get to a keyboard to get you used to playing in all 12 keys. Don’t miss a key now, alright? It doesn’t matter what key you start at, but I recommend starting at C. The progression in this routine is the 1-7-3-6-5-2-1 progression. It is used a lot in gospel music as a full progression or in bits and pieces.

The first few chords are an intro into the key utilizing the 1 in the bass. Then, it starts into the 7-3-6-2-5-1 part. In between 2 and 5 & 5 and 1 there are some filler chords. As an added bonus, there is also a modulation chord to go to the next key. That modulation chord contains the 5th of the new key in the left hand and the 4th scale degree chord of the new key in the right hand.

All chords are played LH/RH
_______________________________________ ____________

Key C

C / E-G-C or C / D-E-G-C (1)
C / G-C-E or C / G-C-D-E
C / Ab-C-D-F
C / G-C-E or C / G-C-D-E
/ D, E
B / A-D-F (7)
E / G #-C-D-F (3)
A / G-C-E (6)
D / Ab-C-D-F (2)
E / G-C-E
F / Ab-C-D-F
G / G-C-E (5)
G / F-G-C-D
G / F-G-B-D, C
C / E-G-C or C / D-E-G-C (1)

Modulation chord to Db: Ab / Gb-Bb-Db or Ab / Gb-Ab-Bb-Db

Key Db (also C #)

Db / F-Ab-Db or Db / Eb-F-Ab-Db (1)
Db / Ab-Db-F or Db / Ab-Db-Eb-F
Db / A-Db-Eb-Gb
Db / Ab-Db-F or Db / Ab-Db-Eb-F
/ Eb, F
C / Bb-Eb-Gb (7)
F / A-Db-Eb-Ab (3)
Bb / Ab-Db-F (6)
Eb / A-Db-Eb-Gb (2)
F / Ab-Db-F
Gb / A-Db-Eb-Gb
Ab / Ab-Db-F (5)
Ab / Gb-Ab-Db-Eb
Ab / Gb-Ab-C-Eb, Db
Db / F-Ab-Db or Db / Eb-F-Ab-Db (1)

Modulation chord to D: A / G-B-D or A / G-A-B-D

Key D

D / F #-A-D or D / E-F #-A-D (1)
D / A-D-F # or D / A-D-E-F #
D / A #-D-E-G
D / A-D-F # or D / A-D-E-F #
/ E, F #
C # / B-E-G (7)
F # / A #-D-E-A (3)
B / A-D-F # (6)
E / A #-D-E-G (2)
F # / A-D-F #
G / A #-D-E-G
A / A-D-F # (5)
A / G-A-D-E
A / G-A-C #-E, Db
D / F #-A-D or D / E-F #-A-D (1)

Modulation chord to Eb: Bb / Ab-C-Eb or Bb / Ab-Bb-C-Eb