If you have been a church pianist for very long or played in different churches as church pianist…then you may have run across this scenario…”playing for an inexperienced leader”.

The intention of this article is not meant to minimize the willingness and faithfulness of the inexperienced leader but rather to give constructive pointers to church pianists on how to deal with such a situation.

My dad, who was my first leader to follow,  emphasized to me the importance of the pianist following the leader.  I’m thankful for his teaching and preparing me for my role as church pianist.  He was the best teacher!

Over time, through experience…I have learned there are exceptions to rules 🙂

I have had to play for at least several different leaders in various situations who  just didn’t know “how” to lead and were doing the best they could.  Not all of them were non-musical people either.  I’ve had the joy of helping some of those leaders along…ONLY because of having a trusting relationship with them; giving me the liberty to do so.

I’ve found it necessary to “lead” as a pianist in some cases IF it was the only way to keep everyone singing together at the same tempo.

On occasion, when a lay person in our church has had to  substitute  for our regular leader…he will ask me before the service… to help him during congregational singing by keeping things moving since he’s not comfortable with leading.

The following video (taken from the 2013 Wild’s Music Conference) contains more discussion about this topic of “The Experienced Church Pianist vs. The Inexperienced Leader.”

My favorite quotes from the video:

“Part of our role is… we’re support, we’re ministry, we’re behind-the-scenes…serving and helping someone else try to do their job effectively…part of the philosophy of being a good church pianist.”  

 ~   ~   Faye Lopez   ~   ~

“You can infuse the service with energy and vitality in the singing…from the keyboard.” 

~   ~   Duane Ream   ~   ~

Enjoy the following brief… yet informative video on:

“The Experienced Church Pianist vs. The Inexperienced Leader”

Just to let my readers know I have a facebook page as of today.

It’s a less formal place for me to share videos, writing project updates, helpful links, etc.

I’m not sure how to share a link to my facebook so you will have to search me out as: Jenifer Cook (musician/band) category).

Hope to see you there!

You’ve probably seen a comment on my site somewhere along the way that read something like this… “Sorry I can’t create an arrangement of (whatever hymn title) because it’s still under copyright law.”

How to know if a hymn is still under copyright?  Open a hymnal to any hymn and look at the bottom of the page. You will be looking for the symbol © or the word “copyright” with a year.

Copyrighted hymns fall into two categories:  Hymns written before 1978 and Hymns written after 1978.  I’ll cover the first category of copyrighted hymns in this article.

A. Copyrighted hymns written before January 1, 1978

To make a long story short…Copyrighted hymns published before 1978 are “automatically protected from the moment of its creation for the author’s life plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death.”

http://www.copyright.gov/

So…what’s so important about knowing this information?  Misuse of someone’s copyrighted song without their permission (such as: making photocopies, creating a recording of the song for profit or non-profit use)  is a form of stealing and therefore a federal offense.

Disclaimer:  The information shared in this article is not intended as legal advice; but rather to enlighten the reader.

Click here for more information

How do I know if a hymn is copyrighted?  Can I make a CD of copyrighted music IF I’m giving it away for free?

How can I tell if a hymn is public domain?  Or…what does “public domain” mean?

Surely a hymn written over 90 years ago is not copyrighted!

I’ll be sharing several articles on this topic of Copyrighted Hymns.   Did you know that a copyrighted song written before January 1, 1978 can have a total lifespan of 95 years under copyright protection?

A very detailed topic to cover!  I will try to deliver the information as clear as possible in short segments.

Disclaimer:  The information covered in this article is not intended as legal advice.