| The Church Pianist |
| A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! |
Finding time to practice vocal specials is a challenge for most church pianists! Listen to Meryt Wilson and Jenifer Cook as they discuss this challenging topic.
Meryt Wilson, one of my dear piano friends and myself, try to get together at least once a year to boost our music creativity.
We decided this year to discuss the topic of Accompanying vocal specials.
This is just a candid conversation that took place between us.
Choosing the song for a singer may not be needed most of the time… but here are some suggestions on how it could benefit some singers.
Next video excerpt will discuss practicing tips with vocal specials! Have you ever heard of audacity? I’ll mention it in the next video.
I recently attended a couple piano workshops by Shelly Hamilton.
“Accompanying Made Simple” was a very practical workshop providing the church pianists with simple yet practical ideas for accompanying special music.
Shelly brought her accompaniment suggestions to life by offering a free arrangement of Day by Day which includes three different accompaniment styles. Thanks Shelly!
I attended Shelly’s workshops so that I could share accompaniment ideas with my church pianist readers. Click on the following links to download the handouts for this workshop.
Accompanying Made Simple (outline)
There are certain songs that are a challenge for the church pianist to accompany. “Down From His Glory” is one of those songs!
In the video below, Duane Ream and Faye Lopez share some of their insight on accompanying the vocal soloist for “Down From His Glory”.
The following video excerpt came from last year’s Hymn Playing Master Class workshop at the annual Wild’s Music Conference. Please excuse the shaky quality of the video. I didn’t have a tripod available.
I want to thank the pianist for granting me permission to share this video excerpt. He did a great job with his impromptu accompaniment; providing others with an opportunity to learn more about accompanying a vocal solo.
This video was taken during the “critique” session of the class when someone would volunteer to play either a piano solo, prelude style piece or accompaniment style.
Duane Ream, one of the workshop leaders, also volunteered to sing…making it easier for the volunteer pianist to share his accompaniment style. *Please note that Duane sang an octave lower on purpose for the chorus… since it was out of his vocal range 🙂 At least he was willing to help the pianist 🙂
I’ve thought about providing a couple visual examples of the accompaniment patterns Faye was trying to convey to the pianist. Keep in mind…they wouldn’t be note for note what she played but I could produce something very similar. Who would be interested?
Today, I’ll share a video of me accompanying
one of my voice students… Chesney… singing
“Trust and Obey”.
Hopefully, you will be able to observe some of
what I’ve discussed in other articles regarding…
accompanying the vocalist. Please excuse the loud
piano:(
Related links:
http://thechurchpianist.blogspot.com/2008/12/church-pianist-accompanying-vocal.html
http://thechurchpianist.blogspot.com/2008/10/church-pianist-improvising-tips-for.html
I do use some melody here and there in the
accompaniment.
Listen for the altered vii diminished chord in
the last verse. What word did it occur on? 🙂
Related article discussing the altered vii diminished chord:
http://thechurchpianist.blogspot.com/2009/01/church-pianist-stately-chord.html
Youtube link for video of Trust and Obey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNfKYhQJe-A