| The Church Pianist |
| A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! |
Here’s a sampling of a right hand run idea for the hymn, “The Lily of the Valley” ,,,using sixteenth notes.
I’ll be glad to share a couple more examples using this run idea if you find this helpful.
Please comment below if you would like a few more examples.
See editor notes at the bottom of this image. Click on song title above for free printable of this music.
This past Sunday I had to play in E Major (four sharps) for a male vocal solo and survived! He was singing “The Call for Reapers” out of the hymnal. The hymnal version was in the key of A flat major.
In his first practice I discovered E Major was the most suitable key for his baritone range. I decided I would brave the sea of black notes and make it work!
Usually I would have had the vocalist go to another nearby key that I could reasonable transpose to.
As I’ve mentioned before….E major is NOT my most comfortable key to play in. Some of my readers are sharp key lovers but I’m quite the opposite!
A simple sketch of “The Call for Reapers” was all I needed to keep me on track. It worked wonders! I was able to follow the piece fairly easy. The gentleman sang two verses and choruses but I just wrote out one verse and chorus as more of a guide.
Most hymns in the church hymnal don’t go beyond three sharps or five flats. That explains why I don’t feel as comfy beyond the hymnal key range.
Maybe there are other church pianists who could benefit from this simple sketched out arrangement of “The Call for Reapers”.
This particular hymn makes a great choice for Mission’s Conference or other mission related meeting.
I’m sharing the verse in this post and will publish the chorus by hopefully next weekend.
Click on following title to download your FREE copy of the verse
Part Two (chorus) by next weekend. (March 8 – 10, 2021)
This video gives suggestions on how to ease through an abrupt chord change in a hymn. The hymn in this lesson is entitled “Where Jesus Is, ‘Tis Heaven”.
I had NEVER heard of this hymn until one of my readers recently shared it with me. Thanks Karen!
Download the two pages below before viewing the video. (For ease of reference)
Where Jesus Is, ‘Tis Heaven (original version)
Where Jesus Is, ‘Tis Heaven (improvised version)
This is a clarification for those who have purchased the “Diatonic Chord Substitution Lesson One” tutorial. But…anyone can glean from this post!
I recently received an email with this question…
“You said if there are four different notes…then it is a 7 chord.” (She’s referring to analyzing chords from the hymnal.)
She goes on to say, “…however, on your example of “It is Well” (page four of the handout)…on the word “like”, there are four different notes and I don’t think it’s a C7 chord. It looks more like a G¹¹ chord or something…but you say to play a C chord for that whole measure.” Click on image for enlarged view.
Excellent question!
So…here’s the answer…
When coming across this situation where the chord can’t be placed in consecutive thirds…you are more than likely dealing with “passing tones”. The passing tones are found in the right hand part for this particular example.
Passing tones are secondary notes you have to pass through to move from one note to the next. Passing tones are not meant to be factored in… to the underlying chordal structure of a measure.
So…look at the word “like” in the picture above. The right hand notes are “D & F”
Now…step back and look at the overall note ingredients within that measure. The majority of the notes favor what chord? Yes! The C chord. That’s why I played within a C chord frame for that measure as you’ll see in the next picture below. (I should have made the left hand note “E” a half note.)
Passing tones to music are like joints to the human body. Our joints support movement as the passing tones do to music. Passing tones are like the accessories/dress-up to the overall melody of a song.
Thanks to one of my readers for a great question!
Just published my first tutorial on Diatonic Chord Substitution Lesson One!
Wow! WHAT a time I had creating this tutorial!
I focused on making it as easy to understand as possible!
The seventeen minute companion video is loaded with visuals!
The first mini lesson on Diatonic Chord Substitution is almost complete!
I had SO much fun creating this short mini lesson that involves seven pages in addition to answer key pages and at least a 17 minute video companion chock full of visuals!
I hope to publish the entire project by this Friday. Watch short commercial below with few bloopers!
Over the past year, I’ve had a good many of you ask for “improvising hymns” lessons. I wish I had time to teach all of you!
But wait….there may be a solution!
How many of you would be interested in mini-course lessons?
My husband and I started talking it over today.
I could try doing my first mini-lesson on Zoom. The lesson would cover just one specific topic.
I’m thinking a half hour per session at a cost of $10 per session with a
minimumof 5 applicants.
What are your thoughts? What specific topic would you like to see covered?
The “most mentioned” topic will be our first mini-lesson! I’m rooting for “chord substitutions” to be the first one 
I’ve also posted this on facebook and have a lot of feedback/topics. So far…chord substitutions is the “most mentioned” topic.
I grew up in the Greenville SC area and always enjoyed hearing Shelly Hamilton play the piano. She had a positive impact on my hymn playing style. I enjoy using her Hymnproviser Workbook series (three books total) as reference material for my hymn playing teaching.
Click on this link to view Hymnproviser Workbook One.
For the next four Mondays, beginning April 13th at 2pm EST…Shelly Hamilton will teach fill-in ideas for one hymn per live-stream session. (30 minutes per session) She’s also planning on a question/answer time as well! You will enjoy her teaching style as she shares how to make a hymn sound more full.
The live-stream sessions are geared to the intermediate church pianist. Shelly is offering a quarantine special on this four session event! I’m looking forward to tuning in for Shelly’s Virtual Hymn Playing Class starting this Monday at 2pm EST!
For more information, click on the following link: