Piano Cover of "Izigi"

Izigi piano chords suit a player who likes to move smoothly between chords rather than jump. The song comes from Indumiso Ye Tende featuring Aii Suka, it’s sung in isiZulu, and the title means footsteps. It sits in D♭ major, which looks scary on paper and feels lovely under the hand.

Why D♭ is kinder than it looks

Five flats: D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭ and C. Most of the scale lives on black keys, so your fingers fall into natural shapes and your thumb lands on the white keys, F and C. These are the chords that matter:

• 1: D♭ (D♭, F, A♭)
• 2m: E♭m (E♭, G♭, B♭)
• 4: G♭ (G♭, B♭, D♭)
• 5: A♭ (A♭, C, E♭)
• 6m: B♭m (B♭, D♭, F)

For the patch, an electric piano with a light chorus works well, or a grand with a pad if your church leans traditional.

What Izigi is for in a service

A song about footsteps is a song about walking with God, and it plays that way: steady, meditative, unhurried. It belongs in the worship set, after the congregation has settled. Your goal on keys is a sense of forward motion without any hurry.

Listen to the video above and you’ll hear it: nothing is rushed, and the music keeps going somewhere.

The shape behind the Izigi piano chords

Our full chart for Izigi isn’t up yet, so I won’t write out a progression I can’t confirm. It’s a D♭ major worship song that uses the chords above, and that walking feel comes as much from how you connect the chords as from which chords they are. Follow the bass in the video and jot the numbers down as you hear them. That scrap of paper is your chart until ours goes live.

Walking it on Sunday

• Right hand: four-note voicings. D♭maj7 is D♭, F, A♭, C. G♭maj7 is G♭, B♭, D♭, F. B♭m7 is B♭, D♭, F, A♭.
• Left hand: a gentle walking bass fits the title. Between chords, step through scale notes, for example D♭ to E♭ to F on the way to G♭. Keep it light, and only where there’s space in the vocal.
• The passing chord: whenever G♭ moves to A♭, slip a Gdim (G, B♭, D♭) in between. That’s the ♯4 diminished, a standard gospel passing chord, and the bass rises G♭, G, A♭ in half steps. It sounds like a footstep.

The diminished triad article on Wikipedia covers the theory if you’re curious. To hear the Gdim move slowly before you try it with the band, use the Chord Voicing Lab.

One warning: a walking bass gets busy quickly. If the bass guitarist is already moving, leave the walk to them and keep your left hand on long roots.

If the leader moves the key

D♭ is a common worship key, but not every singer lives there. Up a semitone to D or down to C are the usual calls. In numbers nothing changes: in D, the 1, 4, 5 and 6m are D, G, A and Bm, and the passing chord becomes G♯dim. In C it’s C, F, G, Am, with F♯dim between F and G. Gig Mode shows you the new letters on the spot.

A 20-minute practice

1. 5 minutes: play the D♭ major scale, then the five chords as 7th voicings.
2. 5 minutes: G♭, Gdim, A♭ over and over until the bass walks itself.
3. 5 minutes: walking-bass fills between D♭ and G♭.
4. 5 minutes: play along with the video, using the walk only where the singer leaves space.

Questions players ask

What key is Izigi in?

D♭ major in our cover.

What does Izigi mean?

It’s isiZulu for footsteps.

Is D♭ hard for beginners?

Less than you’d think. The black keys give your hand natural landmarks.

After this, try Yehla Moya Oyingcwele, another slow D♭ song for the prayer part of a service.