I’m offering another free arrangement entitled “O-Store-Gud”to church pianists. This will be part one.
How many church pianists have needed to play O Store Gud in a lower key? I have… plenty of times. I usually play O Store Gud in G major when accompanying male solos. Altos also like this key.
This free arrangement (part one) is written at a basic level; allowing the pianist freedom to add their own embellishments. The arrangement contains chords not found in the hymnal version of “O-Store-Gud”.
Church pianists are always needing hymns in lower keys. Periodically, I will provide such arrangements.
Just finished playing for a creation conference here this week. Due to limited time, I’m sharing a sacred vocal solo by my dad, Reece Yandle. He wrote this song several years ago entitled “When I Looked Up to the Cross”.
The following songs by Reece Yandle, have been published by Soundforth. Each of these songs are included in a book of sacred solos and or duets.
One of my church pianist readers recently posted the following question…
“I have trouble filling in the blank spaces in songs (for example, whole notes, or the end of a verse, leading into the next verse). I have no idea what to play in those spots and sometimes, that creates an uncertainty for the congregation about when to start singing again. What can I play to help sort of “lead in”?
~Stephanie~
I’ve been answering her question with this series. Part One and Two of Piano Hymn Fill-ins, shared fill-in ideas for the end of verses leading into the chorus. Part three deals with fill-ins for the end of choruses leading into the next verse. The examples in part three are for choruses ending with a whole note.
Editor notes for part three piano hymn fill-ins…
The fill-in for both examples are similar; making it easier for church pianists to learn and apply to other hymns ending in whole notes.
The group of church pianists visiting this site range from beginner to advanced level.
Part two of piano hymn fill-ins is designed for the church pianist who is looking for simple; practical fill-in ideas. If you have not seen part one for piano fill-ins…follow this link Piano Hymn Fill-ins…Part One .
It would probably be easier to print the free pdf music handout at this time before viewing the remainder of this article.
A reader recently asked me to share some fill-in ideas for long-held words; such as the end of a verse leading into the next verse. I decided to start with the end of verses leading into the chorus.
The fill-ins on this sheet work well when the last word of the verse ends with a I chord and the chorus also begins on a I chord. I tried to maintain the same fill-in idea for all four examples.
Are you lost? Hmmm…learn your chords by number. (Another lesson…another day) 🙂
Back to the lesson…A IV chord acts as a nice bridge or (fill-in) between long-held words.
This mini-series resulted in one of my reader’s recent comments.
She asked some excellent questions! The comment reads….
“I have trouble filling in the blank spaces in songs (for example, whole notes, or the end of a verse, leading into the next verse).
I have no idea what to play in those spots and sometimes, that creates an uncertainty for the congregation about when to start singing again. What can I play to help sort of “lead in”? Thank you!”
~Stephanie~
This mini-series is designed for the church pianist who plays from the hymnal but would like to learn simple fill-ins for long-held notes such as dotted half notes, whole notes or tied notes. (I’ll address the latter part of Stephanie’s question in another mini-series).
For starters, let’s focus on fill-ins at the end of a verse leading into the chorus. Two factors determine what can be played for any fill-in:
Note duration (length of note at end of verse)
Chord progression from verse to chorus (see music below for more details).
To keep things simple, I will show one fill-in idea using examples in easy keys.
A. Fill-in for chord progression: I to IV ( view and print PDF Music Examples)
Challenge: Try same piano fill-in on the following hymns:
I Know Whom I Have Believed
What a Day That Will Be
Glory to His Name
This is just one fill-in idea! There are many more 🙂 No need to overload your brain at this point 🙂
Part two of piano hymn fill-ins will include more fill-in ideas!
Thanks Stephanie for the questions! Hopefully this will help other church pianists needing to learn more fill-in ideas.
Every church pianist can use a free piano hymn arrangement:) “Jesus Loves Me”, although sung mostly by children, is still an excellent hymn to play for offertory sometime.
This arrangement is best suitable for the pianist attending a small church.