I love the hymns and have been playing for churches 50 years now. Music has changed but the hymns are timeless, no matter what you hear from others always include hymns. I usually use the last line as the intro. I love Kawaii grands but am playing a Roland digital now.
I agree. These days everything is over 'complicoyted' but it's encouraging to see a 'simplification' that doesn't destroy 4 of the parts of the music structure. Keep up the good work!
Will bruce. *Complicated. i disagree the 4-part structure of the music has been disrupted by the unsimplified encouragement destroyed by the bacakralakalal
Thank you Robert. This has been a real aha moment for me when you suggested just starting out with the soprano and bass lines. Hymns have just felt so intractable that I really haven’t even tried doing them much.
Very good. I have some more suggestions: 1. If you are playing hymns for people to sing, you're probably going to be supporting a group of people who aren't used to singing together. Thus, they'll tend to drag. So be sure to pull them along by playing a LITTLE faster than you want to. Not grossly so! You don't want to leave them in the dust--just encourage them to keep up; playing very rhythmically can help this, too--minimal rubato, particularly on the first verse. 2. Hymns tend to have more than one verse. Try to figure out how to vary the verses. If you can figure out the chords, you can play the melody with one hand and chords with the other--either block chords or arpeggios. Or you can generate an Alberti bass. If the tune is in 3, you can play a waltz pattern ("Sweet Hour of Prayer", "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" for example)--not TOO heavy; with a hymn in 2 or 4, you can make it a polka ('Angels from the Realms of Glory/Holy Father Great Creator"--again, be subtle about it. 3. If the hymn is somewhat unfamiliar to your singers, you might want to play the whole tune through first before they sing; if it is one that everyone knows (like 'Amazing Grace' or 'The Doxology'), the last phrase will be enough of an introduction.
As in church, I like to play the last line as an introduction. Using a Casio keyboard, I set up a light flute tone. That way, the congregation adjusts to the key the music is in, and refreshes their memory of how the song goes. Then, I change the tone to a church organ and begin the piece. I love 4 four harmony church tunes.
I really like these suggestions and advice, Robert. I don't think there is a better way to approach this. I just also want to say that I really love your Baldwin piano and in the examples that you play on here, your PHRASING is really demonstrated so well -- you'd think this was a tutorial on phrasing. Your microphones must be high quality to reproduce your rise & fall (crescendo) for phrasing. Very nice, again! Thank you.
thank you, it never really occured to me to play 3 voices with the right hand. i've been having trouble on some hymns with too large of a stretch (more than octave) on the left.
A hymn book out of a traditional mainline church are full of songs in 4-part harmonies. At first you try to split the 4 voices into 2 for each hand. But you occasionally find a note in the lower-middle (tenor) that is too far of a stretch for the L playing a bass note and you'd play that note with your R (as a 3-note chord) instead. Splitting the parts as 1 for the L and 3 for the R is often possible. When you have to change fingering sequences playing 3 notes at a time can be a bit awkward so it's easier to do 2 & 2 split. Besides having 4 voices (melody lines), you also have 4-note chords that are side-by-side when reading the notes on the staff vertically. In some cases you can simplify the score (the Lead Sheet approach) by playing the top melody line with the R and filling the L with 3 or 4 note chords like the ones in the original score.
Hymns!!! Thanks. I wish I could hear you do the (entire) Chopin Ballade No. 1. I really enjoyed the teaser you gave us in a previous clip - not bad at all!
...and here I thought thee was a separate score for the accompaniment of hymns!! LOL Seems like hymn playing takes you back to real way of learning piano and music - combining theory, ear training and skill!!
There's one thing I've noticed in multiple hymns that I wonder if someone else noticed: There is (almost) always a moment where the 2 notes per hand rule gets broken in the form of 1 bass note really low in the left hand and 3 notes on the right hand close together. Is there a name for this/a tradition for doing something like this in hymn music? I noticed while playing 3 or 4 different hymns that there was one of these moments in all of them. Robert mentioned this happening in the video, but I wonder if there is a name for this?
First video I have come across on the explanation of Hymn playing. One interesting question I do have in mind. Is that the Great Composers of Hymn playing both from the Catholic and Protestant Traditions wrote their Hymns in this four part format. I am guessing that format had great spiritual power for the composer and its hearers. What interesting is a lot of pianists these days in Church seem to refer to lead sheets, I always wondered if those old Hymns are watered down (Spiritually) by the lead sheet approach? You certainly played with much gusto...thanks.
Great video for learning to play a hymn at home by myself learning. But i do i sight read a hymn i have never seen or heard before? Anyone, Everyone answer lol
Jim Lambert Thanks for the video content! Excuse me for butting in, I am interested in your thoughts. Have you heard the talk about - Dinanlinson Detox System Approach (probably on Google)? It is a good one off product for revealing the secret to master the piano minus the headache. Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my GF after a lifetime of fighting got excellent results with it.
Bachs music isn't bad, but it would sure around better with more parallel fifths 😉. For anyone who can't tell, I'm not serious. He was, and still very much is, the master of counterpoint and the cause of many long nights studying music in college.
In other words to play a chorale you first tackle the top (melody) and bottom (base) lines first. Once you are familiar with the piece you add the 2 middle voices (alto & tenor). Makes sense. Even with 2 voices you can still give a piece enough character when performed.
Yes, a good summary, but I think the best point is that Robert suggests to progress to the point where you are doing 3 notes (voices) in the right hand, and then the left hand can simply do the bass--often just in octaves is easiest.
A lot of pieces you can probably rearrange the middle parts to be closer to 1 hand so that you don't have to split a 4-part chorale in half with the L doing the lower and R doing the upper parts but instead move the 3rd voice closer to the R so the left would be playing just 1 note. A number of years ago I met Scott Houston from the US. He was basically teaching people to play with the Fake Books / Lead Sheets where the left would be playing chords & the right just 1 melody line. This would mean losing the multi-part harmonies common in church music. Scott hosted a series on US Public TV (PBS) called "Piano in a Flash".
The original rhythms of the chorales that Bach simplified are a great challenge. The hymnals and "choralbuchen" of the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod are examples, much trickier, due to the Renaissance/Reformation rhythms, than Bach's much blander chorales.
I love the hymns and have been playing for churches 50 years now. Music has changed but the hymns are timeless, no matter what you hear from others always include hymns. I usually use the last line as the intro. I love Kawaii grands but am playing a Roland digital now.
Thanks for getting straight to the point and for being so engaging!
Thank you. It's encouraging to see a "simplification" that doesn't destroy the 4-part structure of the music. I'll give it a try!
I agree. These days everything is over 'complicoyted' but it's encouraging to see a 'simplification' that doesn't destroy 4 of the parts of the music structure. Keep up the good work!
Will bruce. *Complicated. i disagree the 4-part structure of the music has been disrupted by the unsimplified encouragement destroyed by the bacakralakalal
Thank you Robert. This has been a real aha moment for me when you suggested just starting out with the soprano and bass lines. Hymns have just felt so intractable that I really haven’t even tried doing them much.
Very good. I have some more suggestions:
1. If you are playing hymns for people to sing, you're probably going to be supporting a group of people who aren't used to singing together. Thus, they'll tend to drag. So be sure to pull them along by playing a LITTLE faster than you want to. Not grossly so! You don't want to leave them in the dust--just encourage them to keep up; playing very rhythmically can help this, too--minimal rubato, particularly on the first verse.
2. Hymns tend to have more than one verse. Try to figure out how to vary the verses. If you can figure out the chords, you can play the melody with one hand and chords with the other--either block chords or arpeggios. Or you can generate an Alberti bass. If the tune is in 3, you can play a waltz pattern ("Sweet Hour of Prayer", "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" for example)--not TOO heavy; with a hymn in 2 or 4, you can make it a polka ('Angels from the Realms of Glory/Holy Father Great Creator"--again, be subtle about it.
3. If the hymn is somewhat unfamiliar to your singers, you might want to play the whole tune through first before they sing; if it is one that everyone knows (like 'Amazing Grace' or 'The Doxology'), the last phrase will be enough of an introduction.
As in church, I like to play the last line as an introduction. Using a Casio keyboard, I set up a light flute tone. That way, the congregation adjusts to the key the music is in, and refreshes their memory of how the song goes. Then, I change the tone to a church organ and begin the piece. I love 4 four harmony church tunes.
Thank you, Robert. Your analysis and guidance, as always, is concise, informative and inspiring.
I love that sound of your Baldwin big grand! I play hymns, Lutheran and Anglican especially, and other sacred music quite a bit. Thanx for these tips!
Thank you so much, it really is important for me to understand hymns structure .
I really like these suggestions and advice, Robert. I don't think there is a better way to approach this. I just also want to say that I really love your Baldwin piano and in the examples that you play on here, your PHRASING is really demonstrated so well -- you'd think this was a tutorial on phrasing. Your microphones must be high quality to reproduce your rise & fall (crescendo) for phrasing. Very nice, again! Thank you.
thank you, it never really occured to me to play 3 voices with the right hand. i've been having trouble on some hymns with too large of a stretch (more than octave) on the left.
A hymn book out of a traditional mainline church are full of songs in 4-part harmonies. At first you try to split the 4 voices into 2 for each hand. But you occasionally find a note in the lower-middle (tenor) that is too far of a stretch for the L playing a bass note and you'd play that note with your R (as a 3-note chord) instead.
Splitting the parts as 1 for the L and 3 for the R is often possible. When you have to change fingering sequences playing 3 notes at a time can be a bit awkward so it's easier to do 2 & 2 split.
Besides having 4 voices (melody lines), you also have 4-note chords that are side-by-side when reading the notes on the staff vertically. In some cases you can simplify the score (the Lead Sheet approach) by playing the top melody line with the R and filling the L with 3 or 4 note chords like the ones in the original score.
I love that you started this video like that!!!
Hymns!!! Thanks. I wish I could hear you do the (entire) Chopin Ballade No. 1. I really enjoyed the teaser you gave us in a previous clip - not bad at all!
Robert this is really helpful thank you!
...and here I thought thee was a separate score for the accompaniment of hymns!! LOL Seems like hymn playing takes you back to real way of learning piano and music - combining theory, ear training and skill!!
I find this helpful. Thank you.
It was so help full thank you
I'm learning how to play hymns and this is really confusing
Your 1 of them people who I could really get on well with, I can sense this by the way you are, a nice guy right? Knew it. Thanks for the information.
I would like to know more about which fingers to use.
There's one thing I've noticed in multiple hymns that I wonder if someone else noticed: There is (almost) always a moment where the 2 notes per hand rule gets broken in the form of 1 bass note really low in the left hand and 3 notes on the right hand close together. Is there a name for this/a tradition for doing something like this in hymn music? I noticed while playing 3 or 4 different hymns that there was one of these moments in all of them. Robert mentioned this happening in the video, but I wonder if there is a name for this?
Great advice!
First video I have come across on the explanation of Hymn playing. One interesting question I do have in mind. Is that the Great Composers of Hymn playing both from the Catholic and Protestant Traditions wrote their Hymns in this four part format. I am guessing that format had great spiritual power for the composer and its hearers.
What interesting is a lot of pianists these days in Church seem to refer to lead sheets, I always wondered if those old Hymns are watered down (Spiritually) by the lead sheet approach? You certainly played with much gusto...thanks.
Ik like your style of explaining
I just started playing chords.. can I use the bass note as the root for the chord? or there are some exceptions?
Great video for learning to play a hymn at home by myself learning. But i do i sight read a hymn i have never seen or heard before? Anyone, Everyone answer lol
Which piece is this exactly!??
Hello, can this simplification be used to accompany a solo vocalist?
I dont see why not.
That was helpful.
How do i sight read a hymnal song i dont know
“It’s not as easy as you think.”
Bruh, never even though it was easy
Jim Lambert
Thanks for the video content! Excuse me for butting in, I am interested in your thoughts. Have you heard the talk about - Dinanlinson Detox System Approach (probably on Google)? It is a good one off product for revealing the secret to master the piano minus the headache. Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my GF after a lifetime of fighting got excellent results with it.
The chorale is 'Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein' - 1/BWV 153 (No. 3, 371).
Bachs music isn't bad, but it would sure around better with more parallel fifths 😉. For anyone who can't tell, I'm not serious. He was, and still very much is, the master of counterpoint and the cause of many long nights studying music in college.
In other words to play a chorale you first tackle the top (melody) and bottom (base) lines first. Once you are familiar with the piece you add the 2 middle voices (alto & tenor). Makes sense. Even with 2 voices you can still give a piece enough character when performed.
Yes, a good summary, but I think the best point is that Robert suggests to progress to the point where you are doing 3 notes (voices) in the right hand, and then the left hand can simply do the bass--often just in octaves is easiest.
A lot of pieces you can probably rearrange the middle parts to be closer to 1 hand so that you don't have to split a 4-part chorale in half with the L doing the lower and R doing the upper parts but instead move the 3rd voice closer to the R so the left would be playing just 1 note.
A number of years ago I met Scott Houston from the US. He was basically teaching people to play with the Fake Books / Lead Sheets where the left would be playing chords & the right just 1 melody line. This would mean losing the multi-part harmonies common in church music.
Scott hosted a series on US Public TV (PBS) called "Piano in a Flash".
thepianoplayer416
Yes, I agree.
I know you're not doing this to entertain but pretty please (some more Chopin)!
The original rhythms of the chorales that Bach simplified are a great challenge. The hymnals and "choralbuchen" of the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod are examples, much trickier, due to the Renaissance/Reformation rhythms, than Bach's much blander chorales.
Being Lutheran and musically trained, I know whereof I write!
talk less ples