I teach a class called Advanced Functional Harmony. The purpose of the class is not to teach students how to do chord substitutions but rather how to ignore the basic harmony almost completely and replace it with something better. In that class are some very bright students from all over the world. Richardo is from Hong Kong and he sent him an assignment last week that I want to share with you. It is a reharmonization of “Lead Me To Calvary.”
If you want his lead sheet, click here: Download lead sheet
The reason I like this lead sheet so much is that it is a very good balance between using boring harmony and using harmony that is good but a bit “out there” for the normal church.
As always when dealing with advanced chords, the voicing is important. If you play this lead sheet and it does not sound good, the voicing is the problem.
Here is a demo of me playing it. (If you don’t see a video below, click here.)