Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Download Your Free Piano Handbook Now: berkonl.in/3DBqBNx
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In this video from Berklee Online’s Gospel Music for Keyboard course, instructor Mark Copeland introduces the blues sound and form, illustrating its role in gospel music. Copeland—who wrote this course with Dennis Montgomery—demonstrates the blues on the keyboard and explains its structure, form, and scale. The blues has its own scale, consisting of degrees 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7, and usually features chord progressions using a 12-bar format.
To teach the difference between simple blues and jazz blues, Copeland starts by playing different chord progressions. He begins with a simple 12-bar blues progression: C7 (4 bars), F7 (2 bars), C7 (2 bars), G7 (2 bars), and back to C7 (2 bars). Then, he contrasts it with a more complex jazz blues progression: C7, F7, C7, C7, F7, F7, C7, A7, Dm7, G7, which repeats.
To illustrate these concepts further, Copeland performs three songs: a 12/8 gospel blues, a jazz blues tune, and a traditional gospel song, “I Don’t Know What I Would Do Without the Lord.”
To refresh, the chords are listed in further detail below:
For the Jazz Blues progression: Phrase 1 (measures 1–4) C7–F7–C7–C7
Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) F7–F7–C7–A7
Phrase 3 (measures 9–12) Dm–G7–C–A7–Dm–G7
For the 12-bar blues with Dom 7th Chords:
Phrase 1 (measures 1–4) C7–C7–C7–C7
Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) F7–F7–C7–C7
Phrase 3 (measures 9–12) G7–G7–C7–C7
Learn more about this course: berkonl.in/3PdL7ZP
ABOUT MARK COPELAND:
Mark Copeland is a pianist, organist, keyboardist, music producer, composer, arranger, songwriter, and educator. Versatile in all forms of contemporary music, he is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and a graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he is currently a professor in the Ensemble department. Mark has played for and shared the stage with numerous artists, such as Yolanda Adams, Brian McKnight, Jeffrey Osborne, Kenny Lattimore, Michelle Brooks-Thompson, Walter Beasley, Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum, and Elan Trotman, and more.
ABOUT DENNIS MONTGOMERY:
By the time Dennis Montgomery III was nine, he was playing B3 organ in Baptist churches in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. He began his time at Berklee as a student in 1983, and is currently a full professor as well as the director of Berklee’s Reverence Gospel Choir, which has included students from Japan, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, and a number of European and Scandinavian nations among its members. Having worked with the choir for more than three decades, Montgomery has directed such students as Paula Cole, Lalah Hathaway, and Susan Tedeschi.
About Berklee Online:
Founded in 2002, Berklee Online is the premier innovator and largest provider of worldwide music education, offering the renowned curriculum of Berklee College of Music at a fraction of the cost through award-winning programming and instruction. Contact an Academic Advisor today:
1-866-BERKLEE (US)
1-617-747-2146 (international callers)
advisors@online.berklee.edu
facebook.com/BerkleeOnline
instagram.com/berkleeonline
linkedin.com/company/berkleeonline
tiktok.com/@berkleeonline
Mark Copeland | Dennis Montgomery | Gospel Music for Keyboard | Berklee Online |Blues Music in Gospel | Blues | Piano Techniques | I Don’t Know What I Would Do Without the Lord | Yolanda Adams | Brian McKnight | Jeffrey Osborne | Kenny Lattimore | Michelle Brooks-Thompson | Walter Beasley | Gerald Albright | Kirk Whalum | Elan Trotman | Paula Cole | Lalah Hathaway | Susan Tedeschi | Blues scale | 12- bar Blues | Simple Blues | Jazz Blues | Berklee’s Reverence Gospel Choir
Download Your Free Piano Handbook Now: berkonl.in/3DBqBNx
Study Piano Online with Berklee: berkonl.in/3JCFsLy
In this video from Berklee Online’s Gospel Music for Keyboard course, instructor Mark Copeland introduces the blues sound and form, illustrating its role in gospel music. Copeland—who wrote this course with Dennis Montgomery—demonstrates the blues on the keyboard and explains its structure, form, and scale. The blues has its own scale, consisting of degrees 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7, and usually features chord progressions using a 12-bar format.
To teach the difference between simple blues and jazz blues, Copeland starts by playing different chord progressions. He begins with a simple 12-bar blues progression: C7 (4 bars), F7 (2 bars), C7 (2 bars), G7 (2 bars), and back to C7 (2 bars). Then, he contrasts it with a more complex jazz blues progression: C7, F7, C7, C7, F7, F7, C7, A7, Dm7, G7, which repeats.
To illustrate these concepts further, Copeland performs three songs: a 12/8 gospel blues, a jazz blues tune, and a traditional gospel song, “I Don’t Know What I Would Do Without the Lord.”
To refresh, the chords are listed in further detail below:
For the Jazz Blues progression: Phrase 1 (measures 1–4) C7–F7–C7–C7
Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) F7–F7–C7–A7
Phrase 3 (measures 9–12) Dm–G7–C–A7–Dm–G7
For the 12-bar blues with Dom 7th Chords:
Phrase 1 (measures 1–4) C7–C7–C7–C7
Phrase 2 (measures 5–8) F7–F7–C7–C7
Phrase 3 (measures 9–12) G7–G7–C7–C7
Learn more about this course: berkonl.in/3PdL7ZP
ABOUT MARK COPELAND:
Mark Copeland is a pianist, organist, keyboardist, music producer, composer, arranger, songwriter, and educator. Versatile in all forms of contemporary music, he is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and a graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he is currently a professor in the Ensemble department. Mark has played for and shared the stage with numerous artists, such as Yolanda Adams, Brian McKnight, Jeffrey Osborne, Kenny Lattimore, Michelle Brooks-Thompson, Walter Beasley, Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum, and Elan Trotman, and more.
ABOUT DENNIS MONTGOMERY:
By the time Dennis Montgomery III was nine, he was playing B3 organ in Baptist churches in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. He began his time at Berklee as a student in 1983, and is currently a full professor as well as the director of Berklee’s Reverence Gospel Choir, which has included students from Japan, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, and a number of European and Scandinavian nations among its members. Having worked with the choir for more than three decades, Montgomery has directed such students as Paula Cole, Lalah Hathaway, and Susan Tedeschi.
About Berklee Online:
Founded in 2002, Berklee Online is the premier innovator and largest provider of worldwide music education, offering the renowned curriculum of Berklee College of Music at a fraction of the cost through award-winning programming and instruction. Contact an Academic Advisor today:
1-866-BERKLEE (US)
1-617-747-2146 (international callers)
advisors@online.berklee.edu
facebook.com/BerkleeOnline
instagram.com/berkleeonline
linkedin.com/company/berkleeonline
tiktok.com/@berkleeonline
Mark Copeland | Dennis Montgomery | Gospel Music for Keyboard | Berklee Online |Blues Music in Gospel | Blues | Piano Techniques | I Don’t Know What I Would Do Without the Lord | Yolanda Adams | Brian McKnight | Jeffrey Osborne | Kenny Lattimore | Michelle Brooks-Thompson | Walter Beasley | Gerald Albright | Kirk Whalum | Elan Trotman | Paula Cole | Lalah Hathaway | Susan Tedeschi | Blues scale | 12- bar Blues | Simple Blues | Jazz Blues | Berklee’s Reverence Gospel Choir
