One of the first things my piano teacher worked on teaching me was to be able to play from a hymnal. Being able to improvise out of a hymnal is a very good idea for a church pianist. Written for singers singing four part harmony a lot of what is sung in Christian churches are songs from the hymnal so it only makes sense to be able to play from one.
She would grill me on what chord I was looking at in each beat of the measure. I really really disliked this part of my training but it was invaluable.You see the music in a hymnal is really boring. If you play it as written it seems choppy and void of feeling. That’s because it’s written for singers not for pianists.
Once you know what chord you are seeing you can then arpeggiate, add a chord progression or other little melody fillers when appropriate.
In piano music most people find that playing chords is easier. Why? I’m not sure but I guess somehow seeing that little letter at the top of a piece of sheet of music just puts people at ease. It could be that you recognize what you need to play as a group that your hand has already memorized. Your hand can form that chord faster than you can think about it but if they are just separate notes your brain must think about each note as an individual and that can be a little taxing.
You don’t get the chords in your music with the older hymnals (you may with the newer ones) so it is pretty nice to be able see those notes in the music and instantly know what chord you are looking at.
Being able to play from a hymnal makes sense and is a good idea for whatever situation you may be thrown into.
Here are some great places to start learning to play from a hymnal.
- Greg Howlett Free Church Piano Lessons (this is a very nice site and well done)
- Henry Slaughter introduces playing out of a hymnal in book 3 of his 6 book series. These are harder to find these days but you can get some on (You can see and hear Henry playing on some of the older Gaither Homecoming videos).
- Hymnproviser series. Just that, improvising out of a hymnal.
