Lesson 12 · All 12 keys

There Is Power in the Blood — Song Trainer

Put major and minor triads to work on a real song: the classic gospel hymn "There Is Power in the Blood" (Lewis E. Jones, 1899). The right hand plays the hymn's own melody; the left hand plays a brand-new accompaniment built from simple major and minor chords — practiced together, in every one of the 12 keys.

Two hands, two jobs

This lesson splits the keyboard between your two hands, the way most hymn and gospel piano playing works:

  1. Right hand — the melody. This is the hymn's own tune, sung by the soprano line in the original 1899 hymnal, note for note.
  2. Left hand — the chords. A new accompaniment of simple, closed-position root-position triads (root, 3rd, 5th stacked together) — no sevenths, no inversions — so the shapes stay easy to find under your hand.
The original 1899 hymn (in the key of B♭ major) is harmonized almost entirely with just three major chords: I, IV, and V. This lesson keeps that harmony where it already works well, but swaps a few of the repeated tonic (I) chords for its relative minor (vi) and, once, for the supertonic minor (ii) — so you get real practice moving between major and minor triads under the same familiar melody, not just a plain I-IV-V loop.

The chord chart

Every left-hand chord in the arrangement, in order, for whichever key you're practicing in. Gold chords are major triads, blue chords are minor triads.

DegreeFunctionChordNotes (root – 3rd – 5th)

About the hymn

"There Is Power in the Blood" was written — words and music both — by Lewis E. Jones in 1899 at a camp meeting in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, and first published that same year. It's long been in the public domain and remains one of the most widely sung gospel hymns, opening with the line "Would you be free from the burden of sin?"

Pick a key and press Play to hear the full two-hand arrangement — right-hand melody and left-hand chords together — through the built-in synth or a connected MIDI device, highlighted on the keyboard as it plays.

Right hand (melody) Left hand (chords)
Key of C
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Left-hand chord chart in this key

DegreeChordNotesStarts at