Tyson-style · governance before color

The Gospel Movement Lab

Five movements, five keys, both hands mapped — plus each chord's family, the leading tones that connect them, and a builder for writing movements of your own.

Left hand Right hand Leading tone Held / shared note

Start from

Sound

Tempo 60 bpm

Leading tones Loop

Grand — the practice voice. Every clumsy inner-voice jump shows.

Build your own movement

Tap chords to add them to the timeline, hear them in any key, then copy the movement into your book. Every chip is a Tyson-quality voicing.

Your movement

Chord Lab — build a chord by touch

Tap keys to hold them down. The Lab names what you're holding, tells you its job in the current key, and shows what it's one note away from.

Tap some keys

Try C, then E♭, G, B♭ and D — the Lab will call it Cm9 and tell you it's the 2 chord in B♭.

Sustain on = keys stay held so you can stack a chord. Sustain off = one note at a time, for picking out melodies by ear.

Melody Line

Write a top line over your movement. Pick a slot, then tap a note in the Chord Lab above — or use Send. Two slots per chord: one on the change, one on the "and."

The melody follows whichever movement is selected at the top. Notes inside the chord sound settled; notes just outside it create the reach.

Start How to use the Lab

Pick a key, pick a movement. Week one lives in B♭, inside the Amen Walkdown. The other tabs are waiting, not calling.
Tap chord cards to see and hear them. Brass = left hand, green = right hand, and the white dot marks a note held over from the previous chord — the dots are the smooth sound.
Leading tones on lets the bass talk between chords: a plum-colored note lights up on the way to the next change. That in-between note is a signature Tyson move.
Chord family (below the keyboard) shows the current chord's brothers and cousins. Tap one to hear it swapped in; the dots then show which notes it shares with the original — that's why they're family. Tap again to come back.
The builder at the bottom is your book's first page: chain chips, play them, copy the text into your notes.

Library The five movements

Amen Walkdown	2 · 4 · 5/3 · 4/3 · 1/3 — the original. Bass leans down onto home.
The Lift	2 · 4 · 6 · 1 — your requested family ladder. Every change keeps two notes and climbs.
The Drop-Down	Bass falls six steps: B♭–A–G–F–E♭–D. The classic Tyson drop-tone walk — the right hand barely moves while the floor descends.
The Tears	4 · 4m · 1/3 · 2 · 1 — the borrowed-minor cry. One half step (the 3 falling) carries all the emotion.
The Climb	1 · 1/3 · 4 · 5sus · 1 — bass rises while the hand holds. The 5sus proves the trick: same hand, new bass, new chord.

Learn them in that order. Each one teaches a different way the bass can tell the story.

Family Brothers, cousins, and why they work

Chords are family when they share notes and share a job. Cm7 holds E♭, G, B♭ inside it — so the 2 and the 4 are brothers, interchangeable mid-sentence. G m7 shares three notes with E♭maj7 — cousins across the aisle. The 6 is the 1's relative minor: same notes, lights off.

Color chords (maj9, 6/9, 13, add2) aren't new chords at all — they're the same family member in different clothes. The function never changes; only the amount of light does. That's why the family panel groups them under one roof.

Practice: play a movement, then replay it swapping one chord for a family member. Same story, new shade.

Connect Leading tones — the space between chords

Tyson's changes sound inevitable because the bass announces where it's going. A leading tone is a single note, played light on the last beat, one step (often a half step) from the next bass note: C–D–E♭, A–A♭–G, F–E–E♭, C–B–B♭.

Play it quieter than the chords — it's a whisper, not a statement.
Half-step approaches (the plum notes in The Tears and The Drop-Down) are the most vocal — they sound like a singer sliding into the note.
Once these feel natural, connect any two chords in the builder the same way: find the next bass note, approach it from one step away.

Method Back-chaining & the two gates

Learn every movement back-to-front so each rep ends on the strongest ground. "Start from" sets your cell: Cell 1 is the last two chords; each new cell adds one chord earlier.

A cell must be smooth with eyes closed before you add the next chord.
A movement must be clean in the current key before you open the next key tab.

Key order: B♭ → E♭ → F → A♭ → D♭, roughly one per week, ending with the wheel drill — the full movement in all five keys, no stopping.

Daily The 15-minute block

5 min	Cell drill in today's key and movement, Play button as your metronome at 50–60 bpm.
5 min	Full run with leading tones on — eyes on the dots, not your fingers.
5 min	Family swap or builder — replace one chord with a family member, or add one entry toward the book.

Driving hours are ear hours: loop the recordings and sing the bass lines. You can't play a sound you haven't absorbed.

Rules Hand rules & the don't list

Left hand tells the story; the bass walk is the emotional trajectory, never an afterthought.
Right hand barely moves: hold every common tone, move the rest by step, keep the key's 1 and 5 ringing on top.
Land soft. Arrival, not impact.
Small hands: omit a doubled note or roll wide reaches bottom-to-top; always keep the bass note.

Don't:

Don't chase new color until the movement is automatic in all five keys — the family panel will still be there.
Don't practice five keys in one sitting early on. One key done right beats five done vaguely.
Don't let watching outpace playing. Keep it near 1:10.

Create The book recipe

Choose the destination — usually the 1, on a strong beat.
Write the bass path first, mostly stepwise, landing on the 1, 3, or 5 of home.
Harmonize each bass note with a diatonic chord that contains it — slash chords appear on their own.
Voice-lead the right hand: hold common tones, step the rest.
Add color last, from the chord's own family, without changing the function.

Build it in the builder, press Copy as text, and paste it into your book with: numbers · bass path · force words · keys mastered · source song. Thirty entries and the book has written itself.