Following the song director is a challenge for a lot of church pianists. Since I’m ancient…and have memorized the majority of the hymnal…I’m more free to look away from the hymnal and watch the director.
Seriously, the church pianist must learn the hymns well enough in order to look away from the music at the song leader or at least have the leader’s arm within your peripheral vision.
How does the pianist get comfortable playing “by feel”? Try playing a familiar song in the dark. I’m serious! Playing in the dark is an excellent way to sharpen your senses/skills…just as a blind person may have a more keen sense than the average person because they are avidly “tuning in” to the situation at hand.
At least ten years ago…I was playing the prelude in the Charlotte coliseum at a teacher’s convention. It was right after 9/11. All of a sudden, the lights went out! A sudden rush of anxious, whispered voices stirred through the auditorium. My thoughts…”Now what?!”
Thankfully I knew the hymns I was playing from “many” years of practice 🙂 The Lord just guided my fingers and I just played soothing hymns to hopefully calm the concerned crowed (considering we had guards around due to the 9/11 event. I remember hearing people singing along with several of the hymns. A little over ten minutes went by before the lights came on. It seemed like an eternity to me.
Every church pianist probably owns a copy of the traditional “Wedding March”. I’ve personally been wanting a new arrangement of this well used tune. So…I finally finished a new version of the “Wedding March”.
The majority of the weddings that I use this song for…want it to last long enough for the married couple to exit and then transition into another tune for the rest of the wedding party. The bride is usually open to suggestions for this separate song after the wedding march. I usually suggest “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”…an old hymn tune but very majestic and happy! Of course there are other tunes that work beautifully. (another article) 🙂
I just like the smooth transition from “Wedding March” to “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”. Here’s an audio sample of this transition…
It took me forever to find this alternate tune for Praise My Soul the King of Heaven by Mark Andrews. I found that this tune is copyrighted…so I can’t create an arrangement of it. Sorry about that.
An absolutely beautiful two piano arrangement of it is available in “The Wilds” online music store. The following link takes you to their music store. (I couldn’t get the specific page link to work). Once you’re on the main page…click on “product search” on the left and type in “Praise My Soul the King of” to find the two piano arrangement.
Early advanced piano arrangement, 3 pgs.
Length: Approx 1 minute & 20 seconds (without repeats)
You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode
Since I’ve been sick all this week…I’ve had a little spare time to write music. One of my music writing projects has been to write a piano arrangement of the traditional “Wedding March” recessional. (This is the march that is played at the end of the wedding)
There’s nothing wrong with the traditional arrangement. I’m just ready for a change. The last few times I played this song… it sounded so repetitive. If I could just add some different chords and melody twists.
It’s a challenge to draw this song to a close at just the right moment. I always work out my escape hatch (premature ending) in advance for short weddings. (I’ll share alternate repeats and endings in the finished arrangement).
I decided to google piano arrangements for the “Wedding March”. What a variety of styles! I heard everything from slow romantic to party time renditions of this traditional tune. It made me think…”What mood am I trying to create?” I think…Happy! Yeah! I’m married! Joyful!
Therefore… a happy, joyful, triumphant mood…right? So, I’m trying to add some spice to the already traditional “Wedding March” but not overdo it… or my changes will sound out of place/out of character.
This upcoming arrangement of the “Wedding March” will be available for sale very soon. I will offer the arrangement at a discount for a limited time.
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”.
Recently, a friend of mine was searching for “Finally Home” by Don Wyrtzen in a lower key to sing for a funeral. I was able to point him to MusicNotes.Com
MusicNotes.Com is an online music store specializing in downloadable sheet music. They have over 200,000 songs in downloadable format and over 260,000 music books. If you subscribe to their weekly email newsletter…you’ll receive coupons! All you have to provide is your email address and a password. Prices for their sheet music are fairly reasonable for the convenience of having the music pronto!
A great feature I absolutely love is being able to choose a lower key for the song I want to order…especially for vocal music.
Finally Home is one of those songs with a very wide note range…making it a challenge to sing for the average soloist. The last line of the song contains the highest note of this beautiful song. Not everyone feels comfortable trying to hit this note…so…there is a solution…sing the alternate notes…E flat to C. (shown below on the word “glory”).
As I viewed part two of Christmas at Home highlights…these thoughts came to mind:
The drama and music tips found in the back of the cantata book were very helpful. For example: Possible seating and microphone arrangement for stage. Another great tip: “Whenever the readers are seated, their heads should be bowed. This signifies that they are “out of scene”. (My thoughts: this also keeps the readers from being a distraction while the choir sings).
I almost forgot to mention…we chose not to sing two of the songs in the cantata because they were more suited for a larger choir.
Notice how transitional/background music can be effective (around 8:20 on this video) * This transitional music is not in the cantata book. I just made it up to cover a spot while the singing quartet returned to the choir.
One last reminder…this video contains only highlights of the cantata. The video presents a portion of the songs and drama to give you an overall taste of this “down-to-earth” drama packed with a strong salvation message. There wasn’t a dry eye in the auditorium when we finished this heart-gripping story. A special thanks to Majesty Music for allowing us to share these highlights of Christmas at Home.
We look forward to learning and improving as we seek to share God’s message through music. The more prepared we can be…the more effective our music ministry will be for God’s glory.
About two-thirds of our choir do not read music. Also, several of us have about a 40 minute commute to church making for shorter rehearsals. Therefore, we simplified the music to two parts or unison. Initially, I was to coach the speaking cast… but our other pianist’s husband had to have serious surgery…making it necessary for me to play piano in the beginning rehearsals. I thought the speaking cast did a superb job in spite of the circumstances.
I’ll share one of our stage secrets…one of our playcast members wrote their lines on a card and stuck them to a stage prop for security. It worked great 🙂
Enjoy watching part one of Christmas at Home (highlights)…
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.
Chord substitutions add color to hymnplaying! Here’s an easy chord substitution for church pianists to use.
Scenario: When a I chord is leading into a IV chord…add a minor 7th to the I chord. The minor 7th note is located a 7th above the root (bottom) note of the chord. See the following explanation of the chords before viewing the free pdf sheet of this chord substitution.
Editor’s notes for free pdf sheet on this chord substitution:
Key of F: I chord = F,A,C IV chord = Bflat,D,F I chord with added minor 7th = F,A,C,E flat
Key of G: I chord = G,B,D IV chord = C,E,G I chord with added minor 7th = G,B,D,F natural
*Special note: The substituted chord ( I 7) does not have to contain all 4 notes as you’ll discover in the examples.
Challenge yourself to look for the I (minor 7th) chord already in use throughout the church hymnal. Try applying the above chord substitution in other hymns during I – IV chord progressions. Tip: Use hymns with easy keys at first until you gain confidence with the concept.
It’s so important to have a recap/planning session after performing a Christmas program or any program for that matter. What better time then while it’s still fresh on your mind…to take notes on ways to improve or solve other issues, making for an even better program for next year.
I’ve been taking notes while editing the video of our Christmas program. I’ll share these tips/ideas with you in hopes of helping other church pianists like myself, who help coordinate the plays/programs for their church.
Christmas Program Recap Notes
*Start Early! (start early enough to compensate for missed practices due to revivals or other already scheduled meetings that require extra preparedness for the choir.)
*Did everyone have their cues in order for things to run smoothly? (Sound crew & videographer needs a script to operate efficiently.)
*Have Pastor make necessary announcements before the program to alleviate unecessary distractions during the cantata.
*Video camera should be in a place WELL ABOVE the congregation…such as the balcony…to avoid people getting in way of camera…which can block the view of the performance. Our whole purpose for videoing is to capture memories and to give the choir a chance to truly experience the program as a whole. The video also gives us something to view after the fact to see how to improve.
*Final rehearsal should be scheduled the last Saturday before the Sunday performance. The final Sunday’s rehearsal (the day of the program) should be a brief walk-through of the entire program…allowing ample time before the service begins for choir/cast members to refresh themselves. *Suggestion: Maybe the church could provide some drinks and light snack food for the choir during this short time of refreshment 🙂
We all need to strive to do our very best to effectively communicate God’s message of salvation whether it be through music or drama.
Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do it HEARTILY, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” …Then everything falls into place 🙂
I do plan to post highlights of our entire Christmas program once the editing process is complete.
