Worship Reharms with Clark Beckham Part 2

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In Part 2 of our conversation with Clark Beckham, we go beyond chord substitutions and dive into the heart behind worship reharmonization. Clark shares why reharmonizing worship songs should never be about sounding impressive but about drawing closer to God and expressing worship in a more meaningful way. He also walks through his unique arrangements of How Great Is Our God and Graves Into Gardens, offering practical music theory insights while showing how every musical choice can point back to worship. Along the way, Clark reflects on the artists who shaped his musical journey, his experiences after American Idol, and the valuable lessons he learned while working with Quincy Jones' team. Whether you're a worship pianist, keyboard player, worship leader, songwriter, or simply passionate about growing as a musician, this episode is filled with wisdom, encouragement, and practical takeaways to inspire both your playing and your faith. Don't miss out. You won't want to miss this.

Clark Beckham
Clark Beckham's School of Music

Transcript

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Welcome to the Worship Keys podcast. My name is Carson Bruce. We talk all things music theory, gear, industry, and ministry for your worship keys playing. I'd like to thank Aerospace Audio for being a sponsor of this episode. They create unique, incredible, high-quality atmospheric drone pads to be used for your worship services, productions, songwriting sessions, whatever it may be. They have an analog physical drone pedal that they call Atmosphere. There's actually a version 3 out. They also have a midi in capability, so you can work in tandem with Ableton Live or any other daw that you have to be able con- to control everything through that ecosystem. Or if not, the physical analog pedal, they also have an iOS app that you can run the pad straight from your iPhone or iPad. It's called Aero Pads. Definitely check them out, aerospaceaudio.com, and let's get into today's episode. Welcome back to the Worship Keys podcast and this is part two with the amazing singer-songwriter, musician, producer, arranger, all things worship leader, Clark Beckham, ladies and gentlemen. Clark, welcome back to the podcast, man. Thank you. Love being back here. This is, this is super fun. If you missed last week's episode, we talked, a good bit about church world, a good bit about reharmonization within the church or as a creative outlet, and honestly, as a personal worship time, and it's gonna be really beneficial, especially if you're just any kind of creative person in general with music. You're gonna enjoy that conversation from last week. And you demonstrated playing Goodness of God and Great Are You Lord from your recent album, what songs are you doing today, man? Let's see. I'm doing How Great is Our God and Graves into Gardens. Now, you love Stevie Wonder. I know that's not worship, but tell us about your absolute not obsession, but your love for Stevie Wonder and his music maybe. I think he's the greatest of all time singer-songwriter ever, and I don't wanna be dogmatic about it, but if you don't think so, I think you're wrong. Um, he's just, I think he's the greatest. He's certainly the most influential harmonically to me. I remember learning the number system, which is the language of how all this works. Right. So when you learn the number system, then you can start to understand how things work instead of just what they are, how they are. Yeah. And I remember breaking down, I found like a chord book of Stevie Wonder, and it was, Overjoyed, that song. Okay. Just the way he modulates seven times or more or less, I don't know, but- the, the way that he uses harmony in that, and melody, and then evokes so much emotion- Yeah ... With those choices just changed my life forever. Mm. So when I am ... And I find God in those movements through Stevie Wonder, through Brian McKnight, through Billy Joel, through Paul McCartney. Mm-hmm. And so when I'm worshiping him I've fallen in love with certain harmonies and chords and movements that I just, I'm gonna use those tools to worship Him- Yeah ... when it's just me and Him and no one else is around. Yeah. That's great. And that's really where these songs came from. It's kinda like, what would happen if you got a kid that grew up in church, me, who was really raised musically by Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Marvin Gaye- Mm-hmm Billy Joel, and The Beatles, and Paul Simon. Like, now, okay, now what? And that's kind of what this album is. That's amazing. For those of you who do not know, Clark Beckham was runner-up on American Idol in Season 14 in 2015, and that was, I know, a big journey for you, a big part of your whole story, and now you're signed to a label here in town in Nashville, Tennessee. Are they in Nashville? Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Yep. Which congrats on that. So just to catch you guys up in case you're, um, meeting Clark for the first time, chances are if you love, if you love music and you love the Lord, you might have already seen and heard him already. And recently on your part two of your tour in July, you did a tribute concert for, Stevie Wonder. And that was- Yeah. I was there, and it was crazy. It was bumping, man. It was crazy. It was amazing night, and you did a few songs of his. So, uh, if you weren't there, you missed out. But anyway, guys, today, uh, we're gonna, hear from you play again those two songs, and if you want any resources for these two songs, the chord charts, if you wanna listen on Spotify, Apple, whatever, add it to your own worship, playlist of, you know, private or publicly, definitely check out the show notes and the description. So thank you so much to Clark Beckham taking the time, the effort. But guys, we're gonna get into the nitty-gritty. Again, the software here that we're using is the Cordy app. It's a great app that a lot of musicians use for displaying notation. It's great for teaching purposes, and, Clark is gonna teach us some movements today and some, uh, things that have really come from your own personal prayer time. But if there's any last piece of advice or anything on your heart for worship keys players right now- Yeah ... in 2026, what would it be right now? It would be, always find God in the chords that you're playing, and when you reharmonize, let the reharmonization be a path to- The deeper parts of him. Mm. Never, ever, ever a path to try to sound cool- That's good ... or to be impressive. Quincy Jones said something wonderful. He said As soon as you start to write music for money, God walks out of the room. And I think it's similar when as soon as you're trying to make music for your s- for, for self-gain, God's like, "Oh, okay, go for it. You can... That's fine. You wanna- ... build, like, a Tower of Babel? That's... Go for it." Yeah. Plenty of people, plenty of people do. But you're missing the treasure that's buried in the field. Yeah. The treasure is God is all in these chords, and you can find deeper parts of Him, and you can express deeper parts of Him- Mm-hmm to other people in all of the fancy chords that we talk about. Yeah. So when you're reharmonizing, never do it for the bass player. Mm. Never do it, like, to give the band a side eye- ... and be like, "Am I right?" Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're totally missing it. Right. Yeah. Always do it as a path into a deeper part of His person. That's incredible, man. No, I love that. And speaking of Quincy Jones, I do want you to add a little bit about this. Did you work with Quincy Jones' label at some point? So he had a management company- Okay ... that had, They're still going. Quincy Jones Production's still going. Um, artists like Jacob Collier- Yeah and, Dirty Loops. Oh, yeah. And John Nilsson leads some- Ah ... of Dirty Loops. Yes. And I was one of those artists on that roster. Quincy wasn't super hands-on on the business side of things. He had a team that did that, that w- Totally I was managed by that team. Okay. He was very hands-on socially and just relationally. Yeah. So when... If you're an artist on his management roster, it's because he really liked you, and he wanted to know you, and he wanted to know how you were doing. That's awesome. And he wanted to know how your family was doing. I brought my mom to LA, and then he wanted to meet her, so we went to his house and talked for, like, two hours, and that's what he lived for. Like- That's amazing ... and especially when I met him, around the last, like, decade of his life, and I get the sense that he was always this way, and maybe it was his secret power, was he just loved people, and he wanted to talk to people and be around people and, um, listen. And he was such a wonderful, wonderful man- Yeah ... in that regard. So any time that I was in LA, like, he expected me and other artists that were on his roster to come hang out. Yeah, yeah. Come say hi, and play his piano and show him songs, and- Love it ... he'd tell stories. He'd give you gifts, and, he was just a wealth of knowledge, a funny guy, and just a lover of people. That's amazing, bro. And I love Dirty Loops. Yeah, dude. I love Jacob Collier. But yeah, Dirty Loops, oh, man, I remember check... I, I think I d- I discovered them around- 2013, '14, '15? Uh-huh. I've done a couple shows, gigs with, Jonah- Okay ... the lead singer and piano player. You've done gigs with him? Yeah, I've done one. No way. I did one. We did a Quincy- Well, your voice kinda ... They're kinda similar. We do have similar, like- They have similar tendencies ... takes of, like, a technique. Yes. That mixed voice, that really high- Uh-huh ... mixed voice thing. Yep. Yep, yeah. Um, and we did a Quincy Jones tribute night in Vegas, and Quincy was there on stage, like, on a couch- hanging out, and then we all had songs that we would ... That were, like, Quincy ha- Quincy had his hands on that we would sing. Crazy, man. I sang a Ray Charles song. Jonah sang a Michael Jackson song. Wow ... and dude, Jonah is, for the record, is one of the kindest, most humble- Oh, man ... people I've ever met. Oh, man. Definitely the, like, talent to humility ratio is the biggest I've ever met. Wow. Like, the most talented and most humble person- Wow ... ever. He's so, so nice. I did a show, similar kind of Quincy Jones thing, with Jacob Collier as well. Same thing, dude. Jacob is the kindest. . And like Quincy just loves people so much. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He's a great listener, and he's got no ego of any kind. I love that. So I mean... And that's, like if you go down the line of Quincy Jones artists, they're all just kind, wonderful people. That's amazing. You know? And I think under his leadership and those kinds of people drew each other together. That's so great. I had no clue you've done stuff with Dirty Loops. That's insane. And Jonah. Yeah. But yeah, I love his vocal runs and his, his synth stuff and unless you were like really there with him live in the room, his pitch accuracy vocally is- It's a pure tune ... is absolute insanity. Mm-hmm. I was like... We were like in the hotel walking down the hall, and I was like, "What's the melody of, um, 'There I go, there I go, there I go, there I go. Pre- pre- pretty little, pretty little huh'" And it's this weird like jazz scale- Melody, yeah ... and I'm like, "What is it?" And he just goes, "Pretty little one," da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. And I'm telling you, it was auto-tuned. Okay. I don't know how he did it. But we were in a hotel hallway walking to the elevator- ... and he was just singing this crazy complex- Yeah ... jazz melody- Auto-tuned That's insane ... just right out of his mouth That is insane And I was... That was maybe the most impressive thing I've seen of him. I love that. Well, if you're watching this on YouTube, maybe you're listening on Spotify, Apple, thank y'all for doing that, but if you're watching on YouTube, I want you guys to comment who you want Clark to collab with, because I would love for you to collaborate with Tori Kelly. Oh, that's been a dream for like- It's a dream for like since I was like 18 when I discovered her. And I love the Jacob Collier and Tori Kelly collab- Yeah ... on some stuff. Yeah, if you did a collab song with Tori Kelly, bro. I... Oh my gosh, that'd be so sick. That would be unreal. I saw her live, f- 15 years ago. Like, 2011 in Eddie's Attic in Atlanta, and there was, like, 200 people there. Man. And it was just her and guitar. Wow. I've seen her a couple times and it's just absolute perfection that comes out of her mouth, too. Incredible. Like, never misses, ever. All right, guys. Well, Clark, takeaway, again, two songs from his recent album of the Acoustic Worship Sessions. There might be volume two, three coming out in the future. Oh, yeah. Who knows? Yeah, there will. And also, Clark, we definitely wanna leave your information in the description for contacting you for, bookings, for gigs. You guys- For sure ... can reach out, s- see his website, see him on social media. He would love, I'm sure, to come out to an area near you. I mean, he's gone all the way, you went all the way to Milwaukee, right? You're going there? Going to Milwaukee. I've, yeah, anywhere in the US. I was in the Philippines- The Philippines? like, a couple months ago. He, he, he's g- he'll go anywhere, guys. Or, or go wherever you wanna bring me, I'll come. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, of course, w- which a lot of people are, but he would gladly come to, even a, a local house show. You've, you've done a few- Yeah ... local house shows. Do those, I do those a lot. I just- You do those a lot? I do those a lot. Oh, wow. I just roll up and I come into someone's house in their living room, and, like, let's- That's amazing ... have a little concert. I love it, and I love the little clips you share on Instagram- Thanks ... with that. One song I want you to do on your next worship album, not that it depends on me at all, but Build My Life. Are you gonna do that at all, Build My Life? I love... Maybe. Okay. Okay. I love doing that song. I know it's, it's slightly getting older and older- Mm-hmm ... you know, so it's not as on the relevance. But How Great Is Our God's also, um- That's, like, one of those classics ... classic. Yeah. It's like, you know. But I do believe Goodness of God, kinda like What a Beautiful Name, it's, like, one of those- Mm-hmm classics in time that's gonna- Mm-hmm ... sit there, that's gonna be like- Yep ... th- this is always gonna be relevant and great. Um- Yep ... so. Well, I love that about worship, thank you to Clark Beckham. Definitely check out the resources for some chord charts, for some midi information, and let's get into it again, bro. Let's do it. All right. Maybe my favorite reharmonization of the album is How Great Is Our God. Classic Chris Tomlin song I think will go down as a classic worship song for all of eternity. And I just remember hearing the lyrics, "The splendor of a king, clothed in majesty," and thought that was so epic sounding. And like we said earlier, the goal for congregational worship is to play songs that people will sing along, and the words that they will sing will change the way that they think, change their posture of their heart to put God in His rightful place. And for that purpose, I would actually never encourage anyone to sing my arrangement in a congregational. You can if you want, if your church has the power for it and it works, great. But for congregational worship, it was written the right way, which is... "The splendor of a king" Clothed in majesty. Let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoice But when I think about that song and I'm just playing around, I think, "You know what vibe those lyrics give me?" Gives me this cinematic, dark, deep thought, deep, deep, deeply thoughtful vibe. And chords that come to mind to communicate that would be more like this The splendor of a king Clothed in majesty. Let all the earth rejoice Couple quick things about that. First, I didn't do this, but first I would advise, like, just set the vibe, just the chords to start And that is a D major. And then really I see it as an E diminished, half diminished 'cause fully diminished would be... But that's not the move But you can think of it as just a D and then a G minor in your right hand with a D in the bass. The left hand doesn't move. And then sometimes I'll move this pinky up 'Cause that kind of gives me this. This and this and this is in a suspension that needs to be resolved, and if you watch, they all move down to resolve. This ultimate tension. And then the melody though, 'cause you have to think, uh, you can't just change a chord for chord's sake. It has to work with the melody. So listen. The splendor of a king. The melody I'm trying to sing is here, but the chord I'm playing is here So at first I'm thinking, "Well, I guess I could move the melody." That's what I usually do. Splendor of a King. That doesn't really give me the vibe, and I kinda like the crunch. So what I do to support that crunch, that dissonance, is I just play both, and I really lean into that dissonance, that crunch there And then I just sing kind of both. I go back and forth like this. The splendor of a king Clothing, ma- Now I'll sing that B flat. Just stay. Kinda lean into that dem- um, I almost said demented. The opposite of demented. That diminished chord Clothed in majesty. That beautiful scale that goes along with that diminished chord. And then, let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoice. That didn't feel right to me either. I wanted something final, so I just sang, let all the earth rejoice. And then didn't repeat it, just let these chords do the work. Okay? So that's how I got to, he wraps himself in light. And darkness tries to hide. And then original chords. But it trembles at his voice. It trembles at his voice Walk you through that real quick. Original chords, gas pedal, like, it trembles at his voice. It trembles at his. This G minor again, similar to that diminished chord, almost exactly the same. Is the same in the right hand. And then I just love this backdoor two-five is what it's called. It's like the two-five of four. That's what you would usually play it as, or two-five of F in this case. But a backdoor means instead of going here, you go just a full step up like that. I love that move. I learned that from Marcus Wiles, a friend of the show, in college, when we were in college together, and I played all the time. So I, I first I heard original, original, and then that G minor chord that we kinda were messing with in the beginning, and then just to wrap it around this, um, trembles at his voice. It trembles at his voice To set that stage and then just simply how great. Normal chords. Is our God. Sing with me how great. Really love that crunch and I kind of sing in it. It's a, a six, B minor, but I just add the seven, the two, and the third like that and keep the fifth in my left hand, and then sing in it too. So it's not just sing with me how great. It's sing with me how great I'm singing the chord to that dissonance, so that can make a really cool sound. Is our God, and all will see how great. And then, and then this E minor diminished chord. How great. Go back into that diminished land vocally too, and right back to the top. Is our God. Okay? So that verse sounds like, um... I'll go into the second verse and you'll kinda see how it repeats. Um, the Godhead three in one. Father, Spirit, Son. He's the Lion and the Lamb. The- How great He's our God, and all will see how great How great, right into the bridge, is the name Names. And then, He is worthy Is our guide. Back to the progression at the top. Whoa And then I love bringing a new chord and singing into it. It really makes this, this transition cool 'cause we're all major and diminished, major and diminished. Oh, kills me. Just that major seven change by itself, eh, but if you sing into it, it just melts me. I love that so much. Okay, let me hit that bridge really quick. Kind of what's happening in the bridge is everything that I first wanted to play for the chorus, but was too much. So at first, if I was gonna try to jazz up the chorus and play cool chords for the sake of playing cool chords, I would go, how great is our God? Sing with me. How great is our God? Oh and see how great. How great is our God? But it was just too much. It just... Again, when you follow the song and follow the heart of the song, you'll make good decisions, and that was not a good decision. So I just kept it straight 'cause that's what felt closest to the heart of the song and the emotion that was happening and the vibe. But for the bridge, gas pedal, we already played that. Now I can do this. He's the name above all names. Basically, what I'm doing here is this, um, the secondary dominant of the six, just like we did in another song. It's the five of six. F sharp as a major, and I'm just walking up like that to take me here. Worthy of... The secondary dominant of... I don't wanna be too nerdy, but it's, it's basically a tritone of the secondary dominant. So it's like the two-five of this chord. But if you go here, instead of going here with your left, you go here, and it gives you this really cool vibe, and then you just do it again This A minor, and then I'm gonna play a D to give me this G, and then back to that diminished chord we love. Back to the one. Okay? So that's six and You'll hear that progression a lot, especially in gospel. And then back to one. Okay. That's how Great Is Our God, verses, chorus, and the bridge. Now, let's go on to our last song, which is, which is Graves Into Gardens. This one I really like, and if it's up to me, every song would just be, like, soft and emotional, and this song is a, like, a banger. It's, uh, "You turn graves into gardens," which is a vibe and has a place. For me, when I'm just playing piano, I'm not... I don't play a lot of loud, big stuff on piano. I'm always the guy that's just like... I just wanna be emotional and emo. That's really it. So with this song, when that's my vibe, I kind of come out with... And the message, man, is my life. I mean, it should... It's a, a lot of people's testimonies, which is,"I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me." These are pretty much the standard chords. "Man's empty praise. Treasures that fade are never enough." And I'm just following my emotions in the melody. I'm not thinking what's cool. It's just, how did that really feel when I was in that place? "Then you came along and put me back together." It's just a way to suspend a chord. Uh, Jane Newsome taught me that, who we should totally get on this show. Another college friend. Man's empty praise. Treasures that fade are never enough. Okay? And the chorus I just do normal the first time, but then the second time I go like this. Oh, there's nothing. And it's this... Original chord is G, and it's still there in my right hand, but a move I like to do, substitution I like to do, is the fourth, and your right hand stays the same. Gives you this m- beautiful major nine chord without changing the original triad that the melody is built upon. Oh, there's nothing. Then I just walk up. Better than you. There's nothing better than you. And then this two, five of four that we talked about in the last song. Better than you. There's nothing. That's four, by the way. If you imagine this four, the two, five of this four would be... That would be the two of four of C, and then this one would be G, which is a five of this, this note. I know two, five of four can ki- kind of sound confusing, but that's what that is, so. Better than you. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. And then I do that suspended thing again and sing into it and I go, oh, and I'm not afraid. I kind of do the same thing in the verse. It's the bridge that really stands out to me as something really special. So instead of, um... I always forget the lyrics, so I'm gonna mumble a little bit, but, um. You turn mourning to dancing. Instead of that vibe, it's more pensive. You, uh... So it starts off there, which I love doing that. It's the same chord, and I just go like that. Okay? So it's like this. You turn mourn into dancing. You turn beauty... You give beauty. Four, two, five of four. Ashes, yes, you do. You turn shame into glory. I just love that crunch every time, which leads you into this minor nine that I play all the time. You're the only one who can. And then I like this walk down And then I start over. Okay? So, you turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes, yes, you do. Turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. And then I just raise it up. I just kinda push the gas pedal down. I keep going. I just kinda flow into it. Uh, you'll notice that, uh, instead of a 6, when I wanna get hype, I'll do a 4 over 6 and then a 5 over 7. That just sounds more triumphant. I'll put it all together and show you what I mean. So right at the end of that down. Only one who can. Turn mourning to dancing. Right here. You give beauty for ashes, oh. Turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can Through highways. You're the only one who cares You're the only one who can I've searched the world. And I'm in a brand new key at the top of the very song. So let me... Uh, very top of the song. So let me show you what I did there. So, um, we're just going ham and just feeling that worshipful moment. It's so important. I don't sing this or play this right unless I really actually think back to the times where He has turned my mourning into dancing, where I've had shame and He's taken it out and given me His glory instead. I don't do this right if I don't think about the bones that I'm praying to turn into an army for the Lord, of people that I know, of family, of friends that I love and want God to, to find. I don't play and sing this right if I'm not thinking about them when I sing, "These bones will be armies. These seas will be highways." That being said, my off-ramp of that, 'cause I could just do that forever, that progression These seas will be highways. Instead of this D, I play the relative minor of D, which is just the sixth of D or a step and a half down. You can go with your left hand, your bass note, which would be here. And it immediately kind of just lets the f- takes the foot off the gas pedal and just lets it sit for a second. These, uh, seas will be highways And then I gotta be honest with you, just this melody came to my head. You're the only one who can So that's a G minor. It really feels to me, it's a... It was this B minor 7, and then I just wanted to go down a half step to here. And that didn't sound right, so I just kept moving my fingers around. I was like, "Ooh, that's what I wanted." You're the only one. And I looked and I was like, "That's pretty much... If I just move this hand to an E flat, that's an E flat major 7." And that makes me wanna go Right? That's the key we're in, is G That's what I was feeling. You're the only one who can. But instead of going to G, I searched the world, I use that flat seven, that F. Only one who can as the five of my next key, which would be here as my new key. And instead of going I've searched the world. I don't give people, Stevie Wonder's great at this. He will prepare your ear for the new key without you having any idea so that he can just sing in the new key. He can just go to it and it feels good and you're ready for it and you didn't even know you were being prepared for it. That's what we're doing right here. Um, you're the only one who can Then I just go straight for it. I searched the world. Play it real soft. But it couldn't fill me Man's empty praise, treasures that fade are never enough Both of those chords are played from here. Man's empty praise. Minor, sad. Uh, treasures that fade. When you play a five chord and you keep the six in, in your pinky here, that's longing to me. That is just a, a desperation sound, and that's what I'm singing is this desperation. That's wh- that's why it's there. And never enough. And then on four, this move is desperation and longing and reaching out for something you want or need. That's why those chords are there. Man's empty praise. Treasures that fade are never enough Suspense, not just in harmony but in the message Then what happened? Nothing was ever enough Then you came along in statement. And that's where I realized that There's so much power in just that. 'Cause yeah, then He came along and He put me back together and He did this and this and this and this and this. But when it comes down to it, I was lost and struggling, and man's empty praise and treasures that fades, it wasn't enough. Oh, no. Then what happened? One thing happened that saved my whole life. He came along, changed everything. And then the piano after that is just like a motif, like just how I feel about that. Then You came along. That's it I could just play that forever, but when I end it A very Paul McCartney Wings note. And then I actually found this next chord by accident. I tried to hit the one and end it, and I accidentally hit this And felt, "Oh, that's kinda nice." Felt this tension here that I didn't like, so I resolved it, and then brought it back And then ended it. That's the ending. So put together, man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough Then you came along That's Graves into Gardens ​