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Gretchen Saathoff

~ Collaborative Pianist/Vocal Coach ~ forging partnerships, making memorable music together

Category Archives: outside the box

Adventures in not pedaling

30 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by GretchensPianos in acoustics, career, chorus, collaboration, concert, expression, extremes, goals, integrity, listening, music, new approach, new experience, new insights, outside the box, pedal, perception, performing, piano, priorities, responsibility, rhythm, serving music, singing, something new, the unexpected, tools, video, work

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collaboration

Cupola. Source: Pixabay. Public Domain

Cupola. Source: Pixabay. Public Domain

 

When is the last time you performed something without using the pedal?  That’s right, no pedal at all.  

As it happens, I did exactly that on Sunday night.  I was thinking about that while driving home, trying to remember the last time I’d omitted all pedal. There was one occasion several years ago.

Christ & Saint Stephen’s in midtown Manhattan features a dome above the altar area.  A baritone I played for had included “Why do the nations rage” from Messiah on his recital program.  The piano reduction, 16th note tremelos, sounded like what you might call a bloody mess!  The singer’s girlfriend, a professional cellist, attended the dress rehearsal, for which I shall always be grateful.  She suggested that I play 8th notes at first, but even that sounded too muddy for audience consumption.  Then she suggested playing quarter note chords, no tremolo at all, without any pedal.  Amazingly enough, that worked.

Prior to that experience, the only time I played without pedal was probably in college, when playing Baroque music.  At the time, I was a die-hard original sound freak, or preferred to come as close as possible given that I was playing a piano rather than a harpsichord.  That certainly meant that the pedal was not to be used at all.

Since college, I have discovered that using the pedal on every note of a continuo bass line (i.e. quarter notes) enhances the sound without blurring it. But it must be used judiciously!  Just tap it.  The idea is to allow the strings to vibrate without making the sound last longer.  You will hear the sound become rounder, closer to cello pizzicato.

Sunday night’s concert venue was a large church with high, valuted ceilings. The reverberation time was at least 4 seconds.  We performed Copland’s “The Promise of Living” with a large group of combined choruses.  The version on our program featured a piano four-hands accompaniment.

Both of us arrived at the piano, sat down and looked at each other.  Whose score would we use?  After we solved that question, my fellow pianist said, “Do you want to pedal?”  I said, “Go for it!”  He was playing the secondo part. The pedal would be easier for him to reach.  In addition, he would be playing the part with the harmonic rhythm.

Soon after, we heard how live the acoustics were in the space.  The piano was some distance away from the singers.  We decided not to use the pedal at all, in order to provide as much clarity as possible.

I’m happy to say it worked!  A professional singer, who sang an aria during the program, was sitting in the audience during the Copland.  She and I were talking afterwards, when she said she heard clarity, and it sounded as if we had pedaled.

Have you ever performed with no pedal?

If this post has been helpful and you think your friends and contacts would benefit from reading it, please share.

I would appreciate it very much. Thank you!

★ ☆.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.• ヅ★

Please take a look at my e-book!

“Goal-oriented Practice”
Are you practicing well? Is your repertoire of ideas working for you? Are you making consistent progress?

My book will help you take a step back, save practice time, learn more music, and perform with confidence. Whether teaching, playing solo, or collaborating with other musicians, you will find many practice- and performance-tested suggestions here.

50% off!!!  Absolutely NO JARGON!  Even my non-musician little sister says so.

Click here for the book intro, table of contents, reviews, and reader comments.

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Too good!

22 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by GretchensPianos in collaboration, confidence, distractions, emotion, engaging the audience, expression, feeding my soul, fun!, goals, improvisation, inspiration, music, musical theater, outside the box, perception, performing, piano, process, progress, rehearsal, risk, singing, teaching, tools, video

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Class

Bravo in Barcelona. Shutterstock image. Source: Pixabay.

Bravo in Barcelona.
Shutterstock image. Source: Pixabay.

A new blog post!  Surprising, I know.  Having a few days’ vacation time gives me an opportunity to catch up a little.

A most amazing thing happened in musical theater class a couple of weeks ago.  I’m so excited to have a chance to tell you all about it!

A student took her turn a few minutes into the class, singing “Almost There” by Randy Newman.

She had nailed “All That Jazz” by John Kander just the week before, so I was anticipating that this would also be wonderful.

As it happened, she was anxious about something. When she began to sing, I could barely hear her. I wanted to get into it and play, but my sound would have covered her voice.

Why was she nervous?

It could have been anything.

  • Was she coming down with something?
  • Was she unprepared?
  • Was she working on one aspect of vocal production rather than performing the song?

What was going on?

She was worried about the high note at the end of the first phrase, so she held back out of fear that her voice might crack. This is a freshman class. The students are shy about making a fool of themselves in front of other people, even in class. (I’ve been there myself so many times! As a freshman, I was so nervous in my first voice jury that I forgot every word after the title of a slow song in English! I changed my major immediately.)

The professor, who is also her voice teacher, identified the problem and found a way to deal with it.  Among other things, she vocalized the student to a top note a third above the one she was concerned about.

And THEN…

On the fourth or fifth try, she knocked everyone out of their chair!  She was SO GOOD!!!  It was perfect.

Next:

The professor talked about how well the student had just performed, giving her kudos for her substantial progress this semester.  She talked about how gratifying it was to witness this as a teacher, saying, “If I had my shoes, I’d throw them!” ++

Huh?

She elaborated.  In the African-American tradition, when something is “too good,” audience members throw their shoes! *

And then the professor burst into tears.  It was so moving.

The student was in tears soon after.

And the class was speechless.

And that, for me, is what it’s all about.

++  Class is held in a studio with a dance floor.  Everyone takes off their shoes so the floor remains grit-free. If a dancer were to trip on grit, s/he could sprain, dislocate or break something, putting him or her out of the game for a long time.  So that’s why the professor didn’t have her shoes!

*  Both professor and student happen to be African-American.  After class, I shared with the professor that I worked in an African-American church in Brooklyn for quite a while, also performing in other venues with the music director, who is a wonderful singer. However, when things were “too good,” no one threw their shoes.  So where did that come from?  She said it’s a Southern thing.  People even throw their shoes in church!

★ ☆.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.• ヅ★

Please take a look at my e-book!

“Goal-oriented Practice”
Are you practicing well? Is your repertoire of ideas working for you? Are you making consistent progress?

My book will help you take a step back, save practice time, learn more music, and perform with confidence. Whether teaching, playing solo, or collaborating with other musicians, you will find many practice- and performance-tested suggestions here.

50% off!!!  Absolutely NO JARGON!  Even my non-musician little sister says so.

Click here for the book intro, table of contents, reviews, and reader comments.

If this post has been helpful and you think your friends and contacts would benefit from reading it, please share.

I would appreciate it very much. Thank you!

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Practicing after a break

01 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by GretchensPianos in career, directed practice, dynamics, exercises, fingering, focus, goals, learning, longevity, marking the score, motivation, music, outside the box, practice, practice after break, slow practice, teaching, tempo, tools, variety, warm up

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goals, motivation, new insights, practice journal, returning after hiatus, slow practice

Source:  Pixabay.  Public domain.

Source: Pixabay. Public domain. Let’s go!

Today I am starting to practice again after a break.  This post explores some aspects of returning after taking time off.

Not perfect?

Although we may vow to practice every day without exception, we all find ourselves taking a break from time to time, whether planned or due to illness, other responsibilities, being on hold with ConEd, travel, etc.

Feeling guilty? 

In the past, I would get angry with myself.  Not helpful!  That leads to yelling at yourself when staying calm would be the way to go.  When you acknowledge that everyone has days off, getting back into the loop is much less of a struggle.

What we can expect

What can we expect when we start again?  (Note that I did not say “start over.”)

Perfection?  Probably not.  However, if you are going back to music you have practiced recently, you can expect improvement!  Somehow, “ignoring” the music for a while lets it “cook.”  You will most likely find new insights when you return to it.

Jell-O fingers?  Yes… so I use the first practice session to concentrate on my warmup.  Skipping the warm-up after time off just doesn’t work well for me.  I need to feel the muscles in my fingers, so I exaggerate the movements.

Playing at performance tempo?  Even if that were possible, wouldn’t we be inviting wrong notes, fingerings, errors in dynamics and phrasing?  Practicing under tempo is useful, but extremely slow practice is not necessary.  I’ve already learned the notes.  But right now, performance tempo invites mistakes that I’d rather not add to the mix.

First day back

I usually dislike my playing that first day.  That is frustrating, but by now I expect it.  By the second day, it starts to sound better.

The first day back also seems to be a good time to assess fingerings.  If something feels uncomfortable (a level or two below “rusty”), this may be the time to experiment.  See whether a different fingering feels better.

Dynamic changes may not sound smooth.  In addition to that, if a notated dynamic contrast is completely missing, mark the spot in your music!  That means you didn’t learn that spot well enough.  This is a great time to eliminate the “oops” and fix the gap.  When you’ve remedied the problem, that phrase will usually fit into the whole more easily when you return to performance tempo in a few days.

I find it extremely motivating to set a goal, such as a performance date.  With a concert in place, I am far less likely to return to vacation mode.  (I have an aversion to making a fool of myself on stage.  Wonderful incentive!)

It is also helpful to keep a practice journal.  You’ll be able to see your progress.  I have found that dropping and then returning to a program speeds my progress toward my performance goal.  If you have a journal from the time you started learning the notes, you will be able to eliminate guess work and have accurate feedback.  (Do you remember what you did a week ago?  A month ago?  Keeping a written record is very helpful.  There is no reason to expect oneself to remember everything.  Remembering the notes is enough!)

Mix it up!

In an online piano forum, participants were exchanging ideas about how to return to practicing after a break. (What’s the secret? How can I make this easy?) Differing viewpoints emerged, as one might expect. Looking through the comment thread was invaluable.

One participant advocated starting out exclusively with etudes. Another suggested practicing only new repertoire. Someone else planned to play familiar music, waiting to add new pieces until s/he was back in shape.

While reading the thread, it seemed that perhaps taking something from everyone might be best.  In that way, etudes are included but not intimidating. Familiar music needs to be there so we feel like we know how to play! And new repertoire keeps us making progress.

What do you think?

This post has been updated from 2010.

What do you do when returning to practice after a break?  How do you help your students get back into it?  How much time do you need to get back to normal?

Comments welcome!

★ ☆.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.• ヅ★

Please take a look at my e-book!

“Goal-oriented Practice”
Are you practicing well? Is your imagination working for you?

My book will help you take a step back, save practice time, learn more music, and perform with confidence. Whether teaching, playing solo, or collaborating with other musicians, you will find many practice- and performance-tested suggestions here.

50% off!!!  Absolutely NO JARGON!  Even my non-musician little sister says so.

Click here for the book intro, table of contents, reviews, and reader comments.

If this post has been helpful and you think your friends and contacts would benefit from reading it, please share.

I would appreciate it very much. Thank you!

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Backwards Day!

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by GretchensPianos in coach, collaboration, concentration, correcting sloppiness, directed practice, dynamics, fingering, focus, freedom, fun!, goals, health, healthy independence, improvisation, learning, longevity, motivation, music, new approach, outside the box, perception, piano, practice, practicing basics, priorities, process, risk, something new, teaching, tempo, the unexpected, tools, variety

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Music, pedagogy, teaching

Backwards day!

A delightful seven-year-old, arriving for her lesson, immediately announced “This is Backwards Day!”  Who knew?

I went with it, of course.  Resistance would have resulted in one unhappy student.  What actually happened?  We had tons of fun!

What transpired

  • We said, “Goodbye!”
  • We shuffled her books so the top one was in back
  • We chose a piece from the back of the book
  • She played the end first
  • We went backwards, line by line
  • “I love it” became “It love I”
  • Fast became slow, and vice-versa
  • Loud was soft
  • Cresc. was dim.
  • She tried a piece with her hands crossed (good practice!)
  • She taught me how to play something while she sat in my chair
  • She asked me questions like she was the teacher
  • And then we said, “Hello!”

Why backwards?

  • Backwards is good!
  • Start in different places
  • Vary repertoire
  • Play different dynamic schemes, different rubato, different tempi
  • Try the opposite if Plan A isn’t working
  • Find fingering backwards ~ where do you need to end?
  • Nail the endings by practicing them first
  • Practice movements, songs, and sections in reverse order for more flexibility and security

Why backwards works

  • Reversing the order of movements assures “equal time” when something interferes with your practice session
  • Going backwards is fun!
  • Shaking things up enhances concentration
  • The usual expectations of the same thing in the same way every day are avoided

Do you sometimes practice backwards?  Do you help your students mix it up?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

★ ☆.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.• ヅ★


My E-book

“Goal-oriented Practice” helps you practice backwards, forward, and upside down. Whatever works!

50% OFF!  Even my non-musician little sister says, this book contains NO JARGON.

Please click here to see the intro, T of C, reviews, and reader comments.

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How can we improve congregational singing? Part VII

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by GretchensPianos in audio, choosing program, compositional style, freedom, goals, improvisation, music, new approach, outside the box, singing, teaching, tools, variety

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alternative hymns, church music, congregational singing, hymns, resources

Source:  Pixabay

Source: Pixabay

Are you looking for alternatives to standard hymns?  Here is a list of some resources you may want to try:

Alice Parker

Good Singing in Church
Creative Hymn Singing
Alice Parker’s Melodious Accord Hymnal
Alice Parker’s website
 newsletters, workshop information

American Guild of Organists

Mini-course on Creative Hymn Playing
AGO website workshops, resources pertaining to service playing, recordings

Recommendation from a cathedral organist

Hymn Playing:  A Modern Colloquium by Stuart Forster

Joe Kenney

My friend Joe Kenney likes songs by Michael W. Smith and Rich Mullins.  They can be found on YouTube.  Joe makes his own adaptations for solo voice and guitar, sometimes adding a percussion instrument.  I find them quite effective.  The lights and orchestra in the videos are not required to have a positive experience.

Andrew Remillard

Mr. Remillard is in the process of making piano recordings of the entire Presbyterian hymnal.  He says he is about halfway there, and has posted his work on YouTube. Listen to the way he approaches tempo, moving forward when the words demand it.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but I hope it is helpful.  My recommendations include visiting a variety of church services, adapting hymns and worship songs to fit your congregation’s abilities, and thinking outside the box.  By making only a few simple changes, people’s interest and participation can be sparked and congregational singing improved.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

Please see previous posts in this series.

★ ☆.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.• ヅ★

While you’re here, please take a look at my ebook,

Goal-oriented Practice.  Now available at 50% off, only $10!

Free of musical jargon, it will save you time.  By identifying practice goals, you will soon be able to learn music more accurately, resulting in confident playing.

Click on the link to see reviews, book intro, and table of contents!

Thank you!

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How can we improve congregational singing? Part III

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by GretchensPianos in music, outside the box, video

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alternative hymns, chorus, church choir, church music, congregational singing, harmony, hymns, music arrangements, new worship songs, rock music, solo, worship songs

This post is by way of Larry Fried via Twitter.  He responded to my previous post with this intriguing idea:

@GretchensPianos U might be interested in a very good hymn written by a rock band of all things. Cud U adapt it?

@Larry_Fried Super song! Tks for sending! May be better as a solo w/congregation added @ “I’m waiting to be called.” 

@GretchensPianos Really glad u liked it 😉 Was Hoping
u cud use something a little less traditional.The original has harmony on the verse

I’m thinking that a church choir could handle harmony as a backup to a soloist.  Having the congregation join in on the refrain would encourage participation and a sense of belonging, rather than the choir being the only people singing.  (Sometimes people in a congregation can feel removed from the music, and begin to feel like they are not welcome to sing in their own church.  We are interested in fostering the exact opposite!)

What do you think?  Comments welcome!

Thanks so much, Larry.

★ ☆.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.• ヅ★

While you’re here, please take a look at my ebook,

Goal-oriented Practice.  Now available at 50% off, only $10!

Free of musical jargon, it will save you time.  By identifying practice goals, you will soon be able to learn music more accurately, resulting in confident playing.

Click on the link to see reviews, book intro, and table of contents!

Thank you!

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Goal-oriented Practice now 50% off!

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by GretchensPianos in career, directed practice, distractions, ergonomics, fingering, focus, goals, health, injury, learning, new approach, new experience, new insights, outside the box, perception, performing, piano, positive playing, practice, practicing, practicing basics, preparation, process, progress, teaching, tools

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Goal-oriented Practice, Music, pedagogy, perform, practice, teaching

E-book Cover SALES PAGE

My e-book, Goal-oriented Practice, is now available at 50% off!

Please email me with any questions at gsbook121 [at] gmail.com

Bulk rates also available.

For purchasing information, click on the link below:

http://bit.ly/15yF2yK

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David’s First Organ Lesson!

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by GretchensPianos in fun!, improvisation, inspiration, learning, listening, music, new approach, new experience, new insights, organ, outside the box, pedal, perception, process, something new, teaching, variety

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First lesson, Music, organ, pipe organ

David plays chimes with his feet!

David plays chimes with his feet!

David, age 6-1/2, came to church the Sunday before Easter with Joyce, his grandmother, who sings in the choir.  He was curious about everything.  During the sermon, he was sitting on his knees on the floor, near the choir.

Just before the final hymn, he appeared to my left, eyes on the pedals!  Although he didn’t make a sound, he was watching every move.

After the postlude, he was hanging around, so I asked him if he liked the organ.  He started talking, so I asked him if he would like to play it.  His eyes lit up.  He came over and stood next to the console.

I encouraged him to play different keys while I changed stops, so he could hear a lot of different sounds (high, low, loud, soft, flute, bigger-sounding oboe, etc.)  Then he tried the pedals.  I put on the oboe stop and sent it to the pedal, where he played a bass note.  His immediate reaction was, “Wow!  That sounds like a fog horn!”  Right on, David!
After that, he moved over to the high end of the keyboard.  I showed him how the chimes work.  The snapshot Joyce took with her phone shows his priceless facial expression when he played the “bells” with his feet.He’s very smart, and knows a lot about the organ already.  He knew what to call the instrument, that the sound comes from the pipes in back and not from the keyboards, that wind blows through the pipes to make the sound, and what pipes look like.
 

Come back soon, David!

English: Drawings of four types of pipe organ ...

English: Drawings of four types of pipe organ pipes: a, An open diapason; b, a stopped diapason; c, an oboe; and d, a trumpet — c and d being forms of reed-pipes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Q&A: One-handed lessons

04 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by GretchensPianos in fatigue, health, injury, music, new approach, new experience, new insights, organ, outside the box, pedal, piano, priorities, process, progress, Q&A, question, sightreading, something new, teaching, the unexpected, tools, variety

≈ 2 Comments

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Broken arm, Creative teaching, Education, Sight reading, student, teacher

US Congressman Donald Manzullo signs a short arm cast.  (Photo: Wikipedia)

US Congressman Donald Manzullo signs a short arm cast. (Photo: Wikipedia)

A reader asks:

One of my piano students broke her right arm.  Do you know of any method books to help improve her left hand during the 6 weeks she’ll be in a cast?

Response:

I understand your reasons for using this as an opportunity to address a common problem. However, you may want to put yourself in your student’s place for a moment first.

  • Everyone’s left hand is 2 weeks behind the right.
  • The left hand often learns by imitating the right.
  • Someone who is forced to use only one hand is at risk of overuse and injury.  The uninjured hand is being used all day for everything.  That is tiring!  Have you ever tried it?

If this were my student, I would go with the situation instead.  There is so much variety to be found!  You and your student will both have fun, and your student will learn more than you imagine in the process.

A few suggestions:

  • Duets
    • use music for 2 hands, with student playing one part and teacher playing the other.  Then switch parts.  (Your student will be playing the treble part with her left hand!  How unusual is that?)
    • play duets written for 4 hands, leaving 1 part out.  (You have 3 hands between you.)
  • Chorus music or hymns
    • student can play all 4 parts, one at a time.  This is wonderful sight-reading practice.
  • Teacher plays
    • student pedals
    • student walks around the room in rhythm, counts out loud, sings names of notes, plays triangle or drum with 1 hand
  • Listen to a recording and talk about it
  • Make up a piece

OK, now that I’ve gotten you started, it’s your turn!  I’m sure you will have more ideas.  Just go with it!  You can make up a lesson as you go along. Your student will have plenty of ideas, too.

Good luck, and have fun!

Have you taught a student who broke his/her arm?  What did you do?  Please share your thoughts in the Comment Section below!

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Marie-Claire Alain and thoughts about service playing

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by GretchensPianos in a tribute, adding harmony, Bach, career, dynamics, expression, freedom, fun!, integrity, listening, music, new experience, outside the box, practice, preparation, serving music, sightreading, silence, singing, tempo, the unexpected, video

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choir, Church, Congregation, Daniel Roth, hymns, J.S. Bach, Marie-Claire Alain, Music, organ, piano

L'organiste Marie-Claire Alain à Saint-Donat

Marie-Claire Alain, the masterful French organist, prolific recording artist and teacher, passed away last month. 

Marie-Claire Alain’s NY Times obituary

She approached every composer whose music she played with great integrity, as one of her many former students says:  “…she always regarded the composer, of whatever period, as the ultimate authority.”

~ Daniel Roth

And isn’t that what all of us need to strive for?

Speaking of the organ works of J.S. Bach, which Alain researched and recorded extensively, she said:

“…You can’t play a Bach chorale… without knowing the liturgical text on which it is based, without knowing why it was written.”

We also must translate texts when they are in a foreign language!

Now let’s take some of Alain’s wisdom and talk about congregational singing.

  • How well is your congregation singing?
  • What can we do to enhance the singing?

Some moments in last Sunday’s service have stayed in my mind:

  1. An unfamiliar hymn;
  2. A sung response to a reading;
  3. A well-known hymn; and
  4. A fun moment!

Unfamiliar hymn

My choir suggested that I play an entire stanza rather than a shorter introduction.  That encouraged everyone to sing out.

Then I made a poor choice.  I played the second stanza much softer.  The congregation sang considerably less well as a result.

The third stanza went much better.  I changed registration, but made sure to play louder.  The congregation should never be drowned out, though.

Sung response

We sang a response that included a 3-note keyboard introduction.  A low pedal note came first, followed by 2 melodic notes leading to the congregational entrance (forming a 3-note scale).

We rehearsed the response in choir rehearsal before the service.  Things went well!

During the service, I played the 3-note introduction and everyone had trouble with the sung entrance.  That gave me a few seconds to figure out what to do.  (The response was interspersed with spoken text.)

Second try:  I look over toward the choir and nodded my head when it was time to sing.  More help was needed.

I hate playing an introduction with a ritard at the end or a fermata on the last note.  Both approaches result most often in a slower tempo.  Accelerating during the singing only works a fraction of the time.

Third try:  I added a breath!  So everyone heard the 3-note introduction with the last note cut off.  It worked!  Everyone came in confidently, right on time and singing the right pitch.

When there is no sound, everyone knows it’s time to sing!

Well-known hymn

Since everyone was so familiar with this hymn, a member of the choir who plays piano decided to play with me (I was playing the organ).  But we weren’t together this time.

The hymn was “Guide Me, O thou Great Jehovah.”  The words demand that it be sung out.  When untrained singers do that, they tend to run out of breath.  And once people feel short of breath, the effect can be cumulative as the music  continues.

As the hymn progressed, I listened to the congregation (always do).  They needed breathing time, often in the middle of a line.  The pianist kept going with no breaths.  And then, when there were words that could go on (phrases that belong together), the pianist played quarter-note chords as they appear in the hymnal.  Vertically.

Next time we’ll have a brief rehearsal together.

Hymns are deceptive that way.  The look alike oftentimes.

Looking at the words is crucial!

Practicing hymns

Sight-reading hymns during the service invites poor outcomes, detracting from the service.  To enhance the service, this is what is needed:

  • Sing the hymns out loud while playing.  This is the only way you will know how much time it takes to breathe.
    • Are you running out of breath?  Then the tempo needs to be faster.
    • Are your words unclear in fast passages?  It takes time to get words out.  Adjustment needed!  Slower tempo or give more time to certain passages.
  • Look at the words of every verse.  You can change registration to enliven the text, play some parts and not others, play only the tune, cut out completely, etc.

A fun moment

We sang “Let Us Break Bread Together” just before communion.  I decided to play this one on the piano, since improvisation comes to me more easily there.

At the end of the last verse, someone in the congregation began harmonizing above the tune.  I found myself adding time to honor the harmony.  The congregation was also listening, and everything worked out perfectly!

For a previous post on hymn playing:  “Creative hymn playing“

Please add your thoughts to the comment section below!

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Gretchen Saathoff

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