3 steps up?

[princeday]

ok. I went to a church in greensboro and the pianist told me after church that he plays everything 3 steps up.(If the song is in the key of C he plays in F#) We played together a little while and he actually sounded very good. I can't figure out exactly what he was doing, but it was very good.

Anyone know how/why he does this?

[JoyCH]

It sounds like he wasn't playing in the root but inverting the chords. For example in the Key of C:

C-E-G can be inverted to E-G-C or G-C-E

Or he could be playing the C scale 4-5-1 progressions. In this case,
he was playing C(1) -D(2) - E(3)- F(4)- G(5)- A(6)- B(7)- C(-

(4) FAC
(5) GBD
(1) CEG

which is used basically for most congregational songs.  

Hope this helps.

Joy

[playhear]

JoyCH might be right, but I have a different take on it.

In the 1-4-5-1 progressions, maybe he's treating every chord as a dominant 7th chord and using tritone substitution. For example, if C7-F7-G7-C7 (or 1-4-5-1) is the chord progression, maybe he's substituting that chord progression for F#7-B7-C#7-F#7. If we spell out the individual notes,

the 1 chord CEGA# becomes F#A#C#E
the 4 chord FACD# becomes BD#F#A
the 5 chord GBDF becomes C#FG#B
the 1 chord CEGA# becomes F#A#C#E

Try it out and you'll hear that the substitutions are totally legit. You can make those chords substitutions and still stay within the key of C with the melody. I think maybe he didn't say "tritone substitution" because that sounds too technical.

[4hisglory]

I was thinking the same things that playhear was thinking........it seems like he is using the tritone subsituation.