If you’re a person of faith, you’ve almost certainly heard of Hillsong and their famous worship music. Hillsong’s songs aren’t just beautiful; they’re also relatively easy to play! Let’s take a look at the piano chords for Oceans (also called “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)”), one of the group’s best-known songs.
Table of Contents
- Oceans: The Chord Progression
- How to Play Each of the Piano Chords for Oceans
- Taking Your Piano Skills to the Next Level
- FAQs
Oceans: The Chord Progression
Before we jump into how to play each chord, we’ll take a look at the chord progression itself. If you prefer a visual guide, check out this helpful YouTube tutorial.
Let’s start with an instrumental intro:
And now the first verse:
Next, we have a chorus that jumps into a repeat of the instrumental intro:
And on to the second verse:
Now a brief instrumental break:
The next part is a little tricky. It’s a kind of extended bridge. And while the lyrics repeat three times, each repetition has a slightly different chord progression. Here’s part one of the bridge:
Here’s part two of the bridge:
Part three of the bridge has a bit of an add-on:
And finally, we come to the chorus with an instrumental outro:
How to Play Each of the Piano Chords for Oceans
If you’re a relatively experienced player, you may already know how to play each of the chords above. But if you don’t, don’t worry! We’ll briefly go through how to play each chord you need.
B Minor (Bm)
The Bm chord is a minor triad, meaning it is made up of three notes: a root note (B), a minor third (D), and a perfect fifth (F#). Here’s how to play it in the root position:
- Place your thumb on B (the white key to the left of middle C)
- Place your index finger on D (two white keys to the right of B)
- Place your ring finger on F# (the second black key to the right of D)
It’s important to know that fingering chords is not set completely in stone. If you find another fingering works better for you, feel free to use that one.
A Major (A)
A major is a major triad with a root note (A), a major third (C#), and a perfect fifth (E). Here’s how to play it from the root position:
- Place your thumb on A (two white keys to the left of middle C)
- Place your middle finger on C# (the black key to the right of middle C)
- Place your pinky on E (two white keys to the right of C)
A Over C# (A/C#)
This chord is just an A major with a C# as the bass note. It’s also called the first inversion of A major. If the fingering for this one is too tricky, you can play A major instead. Here’s how to play A/C#:
- Place your thumb on C# (the black key to the right of middle C)
- Place your index finger on E (two white keys to the right of middle C)
- Place your pinky finger on A (three white keys to the right of E)
D Major (D)
Here’s another major triad. It has a root note (D), a major third (F#), and a perfect fifth (A). Here’s how to play it from the root position:
- Place your thumb on D (one white key to the right of middle C)
- Place your middle finger on F# (two black keys to the right of D)
- Place your pinky on A (two white keys to the right of F#)
G Major (G)
This is another major chord with a root note (G), a major third (B), and a perfect fifth (D). Here’s how to play it from the root position:
- Play G (three white keys to the left of middle C) with your thumb
- Play B (one white key to the left of middle C) with your middle finger
- Play D (one white key to the right of middle C) with your pinky
E Minor (Em)
As a minor triad, Em has three notes: the root note (E), the minor third (G), and the perfect fifth (B). Here’s how to play it in the root position:
- Place your thumb on E (five white keys to the left of middle C)
- Place your middle finger on G (three white keys to the left of middle C)
- Place your pinky on B (one white key to the left of middle C)
Taking Your Piano Skills to the Next Level
One of the best parts of learning a song from the chords is that it gives you a lot of room to improvise. And while there’s something to be said for learning a song exactly as written, making a song your own can also really promote your growth as a musician. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
You may wanna check out my blog post on Hallelujah for the piano!
FAQs
Here are some answers to questions many pianists have on how to play this song:
There are a number of ways you can play Oceans using piano chords. If you want, you can simply hold down each chord as you sing. If you prefer a more complex arrangement, you can also play the chords as arpeggios.
To play Oceans, you will need Bm, A/C#, G, D, Em, and A.
To play this song, you’ll need to use a relatively simple chord progression in the key of D. However, the chord progression changes a bit throughout the song, so it may take some practice to memorize!
This song was originally written in the key of D.
