Preaching Chords is the colloquial name given to a sub-genre of Traditional Black Gospel and Urban Contemporary Gospel music, usually in the African American Baptist and Pentecostal Church tradition, to a number of Blues Music-inspired chords and Blues riffs that are usually played on a Hammond Organ and/or a piano (and sometimes with rimshots to a snare drum and hi-hat on a drum kit to accentuate the chords) to accompany a pastor or minister's sermon while he is preaching, usually played to audibly imitate the preacher's voice in a musical way.The exact origin of preaching chords being played in African American Baptist and Pentecostal churches is relatively unknown, but is mostly believed to have started in either the early or mid-20th Century, at a time when many African-American clergymen and pastors began preaching in a charismatic, musical call-and-response style where they would encourage their congregations to shout out vocal catchphrases (based on whatever they were preaching about) along with them as they preached their sermons.