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.

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder (part of chorus)  Intermediate version

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.

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder (part of chorus) Advanced version

Tags: church pianists, when the roll is called up yonder

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 3:26 am and is filed under Accompaniment tips, congregational singing, Improvising hymns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.