Hymn Hints From The Heart

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Hymn Hints from the Heart

I wanted to share just a few personal lessons I have learned along the way in the 33 years that I've played the piano for various churches.

These are more or less just some thoughts from my heart, but I truly believe that these things are just as important, and maybe even more valuable than playing the correct chord progressions and harmonies.

These are some things that I try to remind myself often, and I hope they will be helpful to you as a pianist and as you learn to provide good music for your church.

The "jitters" will probably never go away. Learn to play well despite nervousness and fear. Rely on God to calm your heart and be well-prepared to play. Never begin music for a service without spending a few moments with God, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and to let your hands be used for God's glory. Whatever your emotions are telling you, or circumstances, or problems of the day -- leave them outside the door and realize that God wants to use you today! Be ready and be available, put your heart in the "servant mode". Remember that you are a tool in God's hands. It's not about your performance, it's about being used by God.

A hymn played simply, yet well, with no mistakes, is far better than a hymn played fancy with wrong notes and inaccurate rhythm. Congregational singing must have consistent and accurate tempo!

Practice, practice, practice! Be prepared to put in a minimum of 30 minutes per day if you are playing for weekly services. As the music increases, so must your practice time. Always be mindful that you are working for God, the Creator of the universe. Much of your work in the music ministry will be behind-the-scenes. No one will know the hours you have put in for a 3 minute song, but it doesn't matter who knows what-- All that matters is being used by God. Practicing at home alone is all a part of being used by God. Even if no one here is listening, God is! And He loves to hear you play the sweet hymns of our faith! Don't be focused only on the Sunday "performance" -- focus on the privilege given to you to serve.

Follow, follow, follow! Remember that you are there to help your pastor. His preferences take priority over all that you have learned or done previously. When sitting up at the piano, it is important to have your attention focused on the pulpit and on the pastor at all times. If your attention is diverted, it will divert the attention of people in the congregation. Musically speaking, never, ever, ever correct your pastor or song leader if they make a mistake -- if you think they did a song the wrong way, then change the song to the way he did it. The way that your pastor wants it done is the right way. Every church is different, every pastor has different preferences. Talk to your pastor and learn his philosophy on music, learn his preferences, then do it! Being a church pianist is a continual exercise in submission and flexibility. If your order of service says song # 223, and the pastor says "Turn in your hymn books to song #233", just turn there FAST and play just as if that's the number written on your paper. You don't know the pastor's reason for changing the hymn -- perhaps God put it in his heart to change it for some reason -- its not up to you as the pianist to yell over to him "It's supposed to be number 223, not 233" -- that would be terrible! And on the flip side of that, be cautious when adding music where it is not specifically requested. I had a good example of this just last Sunday...It was during baptism and there was a "lull" of time between the people getting in and out of the baptistry. In my mind I was thinking, "uh-oh, it's too quiet, dead space, awkward moment -- we need some background music... " but I remembered a conversation I had with my pastor a few months ago, when I asked him if he wanted background music during baptism and he said no, because there is no microphone above the baptistry and it would be difficult to hear. So, I didn't play -- but I was ready to, just in case Pastor said "Play some music..." which he did! I was glad I was ready to just start immediately playing, rather than fumbling through a book, looking for a song, wondering what to play. I would rather be prepared and ready to play IF asked by Pastor, instead of playing when perhaps he didn't want music, and being told to stop playing. As time goes by, you will learn your pastor's preferences and will know better what he wants when. This may take some time, but just be a good listener and an eager follower!

It may not seem important to say these things first, but I have learned over the years of playing for church that if the issues of the heart and of serving are not learned first, then most of the music stuff will be in vain. A pianist may be a wonderful musician, but if they find it hard to follow a pastor or music director, how much can they be used? It is so important as pianists that we remember we are tools in God's hands.

What a wonderful privilege!

Hopefully Helpful Hymn Hints

Thursday, March 15, 2007
Hopefully Helpful Hymn Hints

Here are just a few helpful ideas I have learned along the way while playing for church. When I first began playing in church I was 9 years old. I had only been playing the piano for 2 years and didn't know how to play from a hymnbook -- so many notes, so little time, and only 10 fingers! YIPES!!! It wasn't until I went to college and learned the value of scales and chords with the hymns, that the hymns became easier. I have posted all of the scales and chords for you over on the Joyful Melodies blog, so feel free to copy them and post them at your piano or in your hymn book.

Get a hymnbook from church and make it your workbook. You will be writing in it and those notes will become priceless as the years go by!

Work on 3 hymns per week. Ask your pastor what hymns he likes to use most often and start learning those first. Keep a list of hymns you've learned well and perhaps your pastor can use those for awhile, while you are learning more.

Select a hymn that you are familiar with. At the top of the page, write in what key you are in (based on the key signature -- refer to Joyful Melodies if needed).

At the first beat of each measure, pencil in what left hand (LH) chord or note you will need for that measure. You can either use the chords I've given you, or you can just play the one single lowest note that is beat one of the measure. This note is known as the bass note.

Practice playing just the melody with the right hand (RH) alone. The melody notes are the notes that are the tune of the song, and also are the very top notes written in each group of notes on the page (see pic below).

If you can play the single melody notes with the RH, and a single note in the LH from the bass line, then you are ready to play for church! Eventually, we will add other "filler" notes to give more support, but for now, that's the starting point to playing congregational hymns.

The 4 notes written vertically in the hymnbook are notes for the 4 vocal parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). You are NOT supposed to play all of those notes at one time! We will use those notes as a guide to form our piano part, but those notes are not the exact ones we play.

As you build your confidence with playing just the melody in the RH and the one bass note per measure in the LH, take the next step by occasionally adding a chord in the LH, instead of a single note. Your chord will be either a 1 or a 4 or a 5 chord. Look at the notes written, as they will usually contain some or all of the notes of your chord.

Go through the song measure by measure and write in the LH chords for each measure.

It is helpful to bracket your introduction to the song.

I have included two songs below as examples for marking your hymnbook.

Most LH notes and chords will follow one of two patterns, either octave-chord-octave-chord (for 4/4 timing) or octave-chord-chord (for 3/4 time signatures). You can vary the LH by playing a note an octave lower or higher, or walking up or down the scale, depending on how much time you have in the measure. More on that another day!

For now, just focus on choosing 3 songs per week, learn the single-note RH melody, add the single-note LH bass first note of every measure, mark your introductions and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

It is also helpful to practice on your church piano as well as on your own piano at home. Every piano feels differently under your fingers. But don't worry, over time you will adapt to the different feel.

Most importantly, remember that you a tool in God's hands. Be prepared, be willing to serve, and enjoy being used!

Major Scales and Chords

Try to memorize these! Your music will become much easier to play when you know your chords well.

There are basically 3 chords for every song. They are the 1 chord, the 4 chord and the 5 chord. Musically speaking, that terminology would be considered "slang", but we're trying to help church pianists learn how to play the hymns in the shortest amount of time, so please forgive me if I use a few short-cuts here and there!

* The 1 chord is built upon the first note of the scale of the key in which you are playing. For example, in the key of C, the 1 chord is C (C-E-G). The 1 chord consists of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale.

*The 4 chord is built upon the 4th note of the scale, and the 5 chord on the 5th.
In the key of C, based upon the C scale, our chords would be 1-C, 4-F, 5-G.

In order to figure out the 4 and 5 chords, you will have to refer to those scales in order to get the correct notes to build your chord. To save you time, I have listed all of the primary chords for every key here on this page. Feel free to copy it and post it at your piano or in your hymn book.

Key of C (no sharps or flats)
Scale: C D E F G A B C
Chords: C (C-E-G) / F (F-A-C) / G (G-B-D)

Key of D (2 sharps (F# and C#)
Scale: D E F# G A B C# D
Chords: D (D-F#-A) / G (G-B-D) / A (A-C#-E)

Key of E (4 sharps (F#,G#,C#,D#)
Scale: E F# G# A B C# D# E
Chords: E (E-G#-B) / A (A-C#-E) / B (B-C#-D#)

Key of F (1 flat (B flat)
Scale: F G A B-flat C D E F
Chords: F (F-A-C) / B-flat (B-flat - D - F) / C (C-E-G)

Key of G (1 sharp (F#)
Scale: G A B C D E F# G
Chords: G (G-B-D / C (C-E-G) / D (D F# A)

Key of A (3 sharps (F#, G#, C#)
Scale: A B C# D E F# G# A
Chords: A (A-C#-E) / D (D-F#-A) / E (E-G#-B)

Key of B (5 sharps (F# G# C# D# A#)
Scale: B C# D# E F# G# A# B
Chords: B (B-D#-F#) / E (E-G#-B) / F# (F#-A#-C#)

Other commonly used Key signatures in hymn playing:
B Flat (2 flats, B-flat and E-flat) (I wish there was a flat sign on my computer keyboard!)

Scale: B flat C D E flat F G A B flat
Chords: B flat (Bflat-D-F) / E flat (Eflat-G-Bflat)

Key of A Flat (A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, E-flat)
Scale: A-flat, B-flat, C D-flat, E-flat, F, G, A-flat
Chords: A-flat (A-flat, C, E-flat) / D-flat (D-flat, F, A-flat) / E-flat (E-flat, G, B-flat)

There are more key signatures, but these are the most common ones used in the hymn book.

If you have more specific questions about hymn playing, please feel free to email me at harmonyhillmusic@hotmail.com

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The View From The Piano Bench
Page O'Lear ~ Soon-to-be-church-pianist!

This has been a very exciting week, musically speaking!

On Monday morning I played for a funeral at a church in a neighboring town. My pastor had passed my name along to that pastor, as his regular pianist was not available to play at that time. This other pastor, Pastor Meister, called me and explained that a young lady named Carolyn had died, only 39 years old and she had just come to church for the first time on February 11, just a month ago. On that night, after the service, the pastor's wife led Carolyn to the Lord and she was sweetly saved. I am amazed at the grace and mercy of God, that He led her to that church, knowing that just one month later she would meet Him in Heaven.

Pastor Meister preached a very comforting and understandable message about Heaven, and at the end he prayed and gave the plan of salvation and 19 people indicated that they had prayed that prayer with him and asked God for salvation. That was an exciting moment!

I was grateful for the privilege of being asked to provide the music for that funeral, and to be present to see God work in the hearts of people in that service.

Driving home from the funeral, my heart was overwhelmed at the wonderful opportunity that God gives us to serve Him. What a privilege that we get to join God and be used by Him to accomplish His desires in the lives of people. I never get over the grace of God and the way that He continues to use us if we let Him. I thank God that my parents gave me piano lessons and gave me opportunity as a child to use music in the work of the Lord.

With regard to using music in the church, I have always claimed Psalm 27:4 as the verse I keep before me. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple." I have this verse written on my music binder at church as a continual reminder of the "one thing", which is to do what God wants me to do. Sometimes with the music, it can get overwhelming when I consider that each week I have to have 54 songs (preludes, hymns, specials, offertories, invitation, baptism, etc.) ready by Saturday night, plus working on the upcoming music, and if I really dwell on learning that much music in the short amount of time given, I will panic and get very discouraged! Every service has a minimum of 21 songs, 2 services per Sunday, plus Sunday School and choir practice. I have to stay focused on "one thing", on the big picture, and on the fact that I get to serve. It's not a job, it's a privilege that God has placed in my hands and a way that He has given me to express my love for Him. When I look at it from that perspective, the only thing I can say is "Thank you, God" for giving me a way and a place to serve You.

I gave this verse to Page, one of my piano students yesterday. She is learning to play the hymns and she will be playing an offertory in two weeks. I don't have the words to describe the joy in my heart when I see one of my students begin to use her music for the Lord. Page is almost learning one hymn per week -- which is amazing!!!! She has only been playing for about 2 years, but what a wonderful student. It also helps that her parents, John and Cheryl are very encouraging to their girls with their music. One of my goals in teaching is to help the children understand what a wonderful thing it is to be used by God. I want them to be moldable and flexible and have an open heart for whatever it is that God has for their future. I place very little emphasis on talent and stress faithfulness and hard work as the main thing.

With all the nonsense portrayed on "American Idol" type shows, I pray that my students will see that it is not talent or outward performance that matters, but rather the behind-the-scenes work, and more importantly, the issues of the heart and your willingness to be used by God. We develop our music skills so that we can be a more useful tool in God's hands, not so that we can bring glory to ourselves. As pianists, we are "support-staff", and I love the thought of that! We are there to serve God, to serve our pastor, to serve the people in the congregation. I was explaining to Page yesterday how we always need to be mindful that we are there to prepare the hearts of people for the preaching and to provide music that will allow the Holy Spirit to open the hearts and minds of the people to hear what the Pastor has been given from God to give to the people each week.

Almost weekly, I will receive an email or a phone call from a lady in the ministry, saying how she has been asked to play the piano for her church, or on the mission field or somewhere in God's service. Often it will be a pastor's wife or missionary's wife or daughter, who wants to help her pastor/husband/father, but doesn't know where to begin with all those hymns in the hymn book! (Did you know that all of those notes in the hymn book are written for voices, NOT fingers! Just that realization alone is encouraging to a beginning pianist!)

It can seem like a daunting task, but I always quote them the words of our Pastor Dave who says, "Where God leads, God provides and God equips". Being a church pianist is a wonderful thing, and can be learned by anyone with a willing heart. Over the next few days I will give a few tips to help those who are just starting out, or who may be looking for some ideas to make the job easier. I realize that for those who read my blog and are not pianists, the info may be a bit boring and irrelevant, but it is more time-effective to post a few tips here, rather than giving the same information over and over individually each week.

In a perfect world, I would have this "family blog", then I would hop over and work on the "Joyful Melodies" teaching-music blog for a while, then update the wedding music blog, then I'd visit all of your blogs and kindly comment on all of them, but for some reason, that all doesn't quite fit into my daily 20 minutes of blogging indulgence!