This has been a very difficult week. One of my piano students I’ve been mentoring to be a church pianist passed away this week…very unexpectedly. Please pray for the family.
I’ve managed to prepare a “free accompaniment” idea for Heaven Came Down. This particular hymn contains a mundane bass line..making it a challenge for the average church pianist to create an interesting accompaniment. What to do? You have to play what’s not there 🙂 Easy said…but a challenge to do right? For that reason, I’m sharing a free accompaniment idea that can be used for the verse of this hymn.
I”m limited on what I can share because this hymn is still under copyright. Therefore, I can only share a small portion for educational purposes only…(called the “fair use” law). Just use the same accompaniment idea to finish out the verse. I would tend to use this accompaniment idea ONLY if the congregation is secure with their voice parts…whatever that may be. Most of our congregation sings melody.
Sometimes it’s refreshing to hear a simple offertory. I like to be able to distinguish the melody when hearing an instrumental special. My son, and another gentleman in our church were suppose to play a guitar/harmonica offertory this past Sunday night. Unfortunately, they hadn’t had much time to practice.
They asked if I would play along on the piano with them for support. They wouldn’t be able to practice until Sunday evening before church during the time I had to practice with the vocal special for that night. So…I quickly wrote a simple piano accompaniment that Sunday afternoon and had my daughter-in-law practice with them that evening. They did great for a last minute ensemble!
Here’s the video of them playing “In the Sweet By and By”.
All church pianists understand there are those hymns that just need a little dress-up to bring them to life! One of those such hymns is When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. Why the need for a dress-up? Because there are a lot of repeated chords throughout the entire hymn. What can be done to make this hymn sound more interesting? Replace the repetitive bass line with a simple improvising idea.
Click on the following song title to see this improvising idea put to use. The pattern can be seen in the first few measures.
For those of you at a more advanced level..you’ll find a free sample below of what I would play to accompany congregational singing. (I transferred the stepping down pattern to the right hand for the first phrase of the chorus.
One of my favorite improvising ideas is adding contrast for an interesting sound. The excerpt listed above is taken from the hymn “Count Your Blessings”. The phrase is the last sentence of the last verse. This idea can be used on any of the verses at this point in song…but I like to save special effects like this for the final verse.
Here’s what helped me come up with the idea: I knew that an A7 chord was the basic chord for the first two measures of this example. So… I played “stepping notes” within the A7 chord frame and entered into a D major chord on the syllable “jour-” and back to an A7 for “ney’s” and ended with a D chord on “end”. The ascending notes in the piano score ran contrary to the melody in the vocal score…creating an energetic drive to the message of the song.
The complete arrangement of “Count Your Blessings” congregational style can be purchased below.
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Since believing on Jesus Christ at the age of 29…I can truly say: “Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine”. This became one of my favorite hymns after becoming a Christian.
Shortly after being saved I arranged an offertory that included: “Blessed Assurance, Saved by the Blood and Since Jesus Came Into My Heart”. I will have to write it out in my (ha ha) spare time.
This free sacred piano arrangement of “Blessed Assurance” is a result of preparing several of our own soon-to-be church pianists to play for congregational singing. We now have a rotational schedule for our intermediate to advanced pianists to allow them to play for our congregational singing. It’s exciting to see them gain experience to better equip them for serving the Lord.
The hymn “Count Your Blessings” carries a great message in song but contains frequent repetitive notes providing a rather plain accompaniment for the average church pianist
Free Improvising Ideas for Count Your Blessings (congregational style)
Key of D Major
1. Use alternate bass movement (see measure #2) LH beat one…I played an ‘A’ rather than ‘D’
2. Measure #1 and #5, beat one ( no need to play every word) when playing congregational style; allows more ease of movement for the pianist.
3. The four note RH chords provide support to the singers.
4. Measure #6, notice the contrary octave movement between the hands for variety.
*Contrary movement between both hands always adds a nice touch of spice 🙂
I was able to finish page two of “All Hail the Power” tonight even after a busy but good week of revival at our church. I will try to share some music highlights of our week sometime soon.
In my next article…I ‘ll share editor notes along with an audio of this free piano arrangement for “All Hail the Power” congregational accompaniment.
I enjoy playing and singing “All Hail the Power”. The church pianist must add lots of fullness to this majestic hymn to portray the mood of the text.
Just picture it…God is on His throne and scores of angels are bowed down before Him. A huge choir is singing “All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall…”
I think the words as I play this wonderful hymn. The melody and text are a great match!
Due to a hectic but wonderful weekend…I’m sharing a free piano arrangement of “At the Cross”. I wrote this particular arrangement for one of my students who is preparing to be a church pianist. Our congregation usually sings unison…so the piano accompaniment contains chords that would not support the four-part style from most church hymnals.
You’ll notice it’s also in a different key…C Major. She only had two weeks to learn the song before playing it in church. (She filled in for me while I was out of town)
Hopefully some of you church pianists can make use of this arrangement. You could also use it as accompaniment for a vocal solo or ensemble singing unison.
Trying to figure out what to play for piano introductions can be tricky at times for church pianists.
The previous article entitled: Piano Introductions (part two) provided a piano introduction of “Wonderful Words of Life” using only the verse. Sometimes it works better just to use the starting and ending phrase of a verse. Other times, the entire first line of the verse works well for the introduction.
Always remember to end the introduction with the one (I) chord for the key you’re using. For example, if the song is in C major…make sure you end on a C major chord to provide a “finished” sound. Otherwise, you’ll have everybody guessing when to enter.
There are times when a V 7 chord works well at the end of an introduction or during the invitation when you’re providing background music and you’re in the middle of a phrase and need to end on a chord that makes sense before the congregation starts to sing…but I will cover that at another time. SO much to talk about! 🙂
In today’s example, you’ll notice a fairly, easy piano introduction for “Count Your Blessings”. The faster the hymn, the less frills the church pianist has time to play 🙂
