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.
Our church just performed Christmas at Home last night. The Lord really blessed through this heart-rending story packed with a powerful salvation message.
This particular cantata was done in Reader’s Theatre style…actors face audience as they speak. (Our actors tried to warm up the play by interacting more than the normal reader’s theatre style.) They did a great job for starting a short while before the play. We plan to have our actors memorize their parts for any further programs. Memorizing parts will give them more opportunity to focus on expression and interaction/reaction. So important!
I’m hoping to see them do this one again in full-acting style!
I’ll share a quick story about this particular cantata. Years ago, when my son was around 4 years old…our church in Charleston (Northside Baptist Church) did this play. There’s a scene where the doctor amputates the drummer boy’s leg with a saw. (not literally of course). My son thought it was real. He wouldn’t talk to our friend (the doctor) for the longest time because of this scene. We finally convinced him that the doctor was only pretending 🙂
I received permission from Majesty Music to post the cantata on youtube. Since I’m still in the editing process of the tape…I’m posting several drama highlights from the cantata. You can view them below. The final video presentation will share highlights from the entire cantata.
Another nice Christmas cantata from Majesty Music is Born to Die. I hope to use it for our church within the next several years.
Have a very merry Christmas! I’ll post again sometime next week.
Just sharing a video of one of my newer arrangements entitled: “Angels We Have Heard on High”. This piece was written for the elementary level pianist.
Shelley Roberts, one of my students, played it this year for the Christmas recital.
An upcoming young musician, Joshua Harrison, contacted me a while back about previewing his piano arrangement book entitled: “Christmas Inspirations”. Joshua’s desire is that the Lord be glorified through his playing which is refreshing to hear…especially from a young gentleman 🙂
The book consists of nine Christmas carols as follows:
Joy To The World!
Silent Night
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing!
The First Noel
Away In A Manger
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
Angels We Have Heard On High
O Come All Ye Faithful
I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day
Most of the arrangements are a page and a half and a couple are longer in length…making for a nice collection of short offertories or recital pieces for students.
After clicking on following link…you must click on individual song titles to hear sample of each song…not the book cover picture.
Joshua has generously offered to give away one copy of his Christmas book (pdf format). Simply leave a comment below to enter the drawing. Leave a separate comment if you share the link to this article on facebook or your personal blog…allowing your name to be entered twice!
The drawing will be held on December 19th, 2011 at 10pm EST
The winner will receive his or her free downloadable pdf copy of “Christmas Inspirations” by email from the author of the book: Joshua Harrsion
I asked my readers to provide the name of an ‘awkward to play’ Christmas carol. I would then create an article concerning that carol. “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” was the most mentioned piece.
As I was arranging this carol, I had to force myself to stay within the chords “as written”. I could have added a lot of minor chords to “warm up” the piece but I stayed true to the voice parts 🙂
Due to frequent chord changes, the church pianist will have to play in a more ‘chorale’ (solid chord) style in order to support the ever-changing voice parts. There is still time to throw in ocasional dress-ups to create a more interesting sound as you will see in today’s free piano arrangement of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”.
I tried to create smooth harmonic (chord) changes throughout… in spite of the frequent chord changes in this beautiful Christmas carol.
Here and there you’ll see where I deviated from the melody line to create a smoother move for the hands.
Notice how the right hand at the beginning…started with three notes and gradually worked into an octave format. One of my former piano teachers always taught me to write in a more “user friendly” style for pianists in general…to avoid awkward moves/leaps. Hopefully, this arrangement will be comfortable and beneficial for other church pianists. I did keep the early advanced to advanced pianist in mind when creating this arrangement.
Measure #4:
Beat 2 and 3 of right hand is an echo fill-in during the held word “me”
Measure #5:
A sixteenth note improvised pattern on beat 2 is added… to dress-up the melody line and continues through measure 6.
Tip!
Church pianist tip: Learn to analyze other people’s arrangements; applying ‘learned ideas’ to your own playing. Over time, you will develop your own style but you must learn to apply learned ideas as a springboard to developing your own style.
I shared this free arrangement of “Silent Night” last year on my site on the “Free Christmas Piano Arrangements” page. Since I’m rather busy this week getting ready for my annual Christmas recital to be held on Thursday…I will share a video recording of this free arrangement of “Silent Night”.
Now…looking ahead to my next article…I need my reader’s help! What Christmas carol do you find to be the most awkward to play from the hymnal? Leave a comment below…giving me the name of a Christmas carol fitting this description. I will create an article on the “most mentioned” Christmas carol. I will give everyone until Friday to leave a comment. Thanks for your help!
“Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” was the most mentioned Christmas carol in the comments below. So…I’m working on it right now and will post an article soon! Thanks for your feedback.
