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.

Piano Hymn Fill-ins Part Three

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:

1. Note duration (length of note at end of verse)
2. 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.