Practicing after a break

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

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!

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Backwards Day!

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Music, pedagogy, teaching

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!

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The single most important thing you can do right now to improve your practice sessions

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Music, music education, piano pedagogy, practice

Image via Wikipedia

 

​How often do you spend hours practicing, only to realize later that much of that time was wasted?  Do you find that you need to revise your plan as you go along from time to time?

If the answer is anything other than “occasionally,” you can do something about it.  Practicing does not have to be unconscious.

Life happens.  You get a phone call, expecting it to be brief, and it turns into something else.  Or someone comes to the door.  Your child’s school calls, and now you have to drop everything to pick up your daughter.  Schedule changes happen ever 5 minutes some days, it seems.

You had planned on having a block of uninterrupted practice time, and then this happened.  Sticking to your original plan won’t work.  How are you going to learn all that music?

Deciding what to do when you need to change plans

Make a plan for this practice session based on what you can realistically touch upon in the time available.

If some of your planned time has been derailed today, make a new plan.

• Less time per piece/section
• Save some repertoire for next time
• Look at the music you need to do soon
• Keep notes about what you left out; be sure to look at it next time

Adjusting your plans results in better practice than attempting to do everything, regardless.

Reserve part of your consciousness in order to self-journal your practice in your head.

• How much time have you spent on one passage?
• After a few minutes, are you making progress?

You may want to switch to something else for the time being.

If taking a minute every so often to assess your progress just doesn’t happen, try setting an alarm for every 20-30 minutes.  Sometimes musicians, myself included, become completely involved in the music and don’t want to stop.

Tailor today’s practice to the way you feel.

• If you are tired or under the weather, practicing at performance tempo can wait a day or two.
• If you are feeling pressured by deadlines or having too little time, practicing faster and faster is not likely to help.  If you are conscious of this as a tendency, you can set a slightly slower tempo and see better results.  The hardest part of doing that is realizing that you’re caught up in going faster because of a time crunch!

If you find yourself yelling at the composer, the instrument, the editor, the publisher, the wrong notes, or yourself, something is wrong.  None of that is helpful.  Take a step back, take a deep breath, and try another approach.

It’s not about the time you put in.  It’s about the music.

Identifying what needs to be done today, right now, can help you meet a deadline.

During college, I felt that putting in a certain number of hours per day/week meant that I was progressing. And then I found a wonderful teacher who was able to convey what was important. Learning the music well is the game plan, not awarding points for time spent.

I know from personal experience that revising one’s practice plan on the spot is easier said than done. But it is possible, and you’ll be saner for it. By being aware of how we use our practice time, we can obtain better results. Even if we reach the end of our available time today without realizing what happened, we can refocus tomorrow.

Do you have a habit of self-monitoring your practice sessions?  Or do you have regrets after you’re finished for the day?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Updated from March 2010

Related articles

• Debunking the Myth of the 10,000-Hours Rule: What It Actually Takes to Reach Genius-Level Excellence, by Maria Popova
  
• Do you practice with self-compassion? (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
  
• Learn music like a crossword! (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• How to learn piano and organ fugues (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• How to improve your sight-reading (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• After your audition (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)

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Optimize your practice time!

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manage time, optimize time, practice, preparing for concerts, save time

Image by romaryka via Flickr

How do you manage your practice time?

[This is a repost from December 2009.  Enjoy!]

Since it is almost impossible to have the same amount of time available every day, it helps to be organized and flexible.  After all, exact repetition every day is soooooooo booooring.

Do you start at the beginning of your program each time you practice?  Are you able to practice everything each time?  Do you have several programs going at once?  It usually happens that I have many different situations to prepare for all at the same time.  With all those variables of performance dates, types of music (vocal, instrumental, collaborative, solo, choral music, etc.), there is rarely a time when everything is ready to go on the same day.

I have found it crucial to set priorities for each practice session.  Depending on the time available, the dates of upcoming concerts, and whether or not a piece is ready to perform, I make a list in my head ~ or sometimes on paper ~ about what I can realistically accomplish that day.  (Most of the time it works.  Sometimes I revise my goals along the way ~ and don’t get mad.)

Keeping a notebook of practice sessions helps immensely.  When you can see the last date you worked on a certain piece, as well as what you did, progress is easier to achieve.  If you don’t know what happened last time, or what state the piece is in, you could spin your wheels for quite a while just figuring out where you are.  And while it may feel good to just play something, it is a huge waste of time.  If you use your time well, you can learn twice as much music.

If I’m increasing the tempo, I write down metronome markings in my practice notebook (but not on the music).  While things are in such a state of flux, I’d rather not have all that writing on the score.  (And erasures wear out the paper.)

When I’ve worked on dynamics, I write that down.  How did it go?  What needs to improve?

Sometimes my impression of a composer’s intent will change, so I write that down, too.  That could change again in a day or two.

Trouble spots definitely make the notebook.  And then I make sure I concentrate on them until they’ve been solved.  Allowing portions of a piece to stay unlearned or remain uncomfortable is truly asking for trouble in performances.

Keeping written comments is the best way I’ve found to get all elements of a program together at the same time.  (It’s like cooking a large dinner, except there’s no backup such as a warming oven or a microwave!)  Having one piece or movement that I’ve ignored until the week before a concert makes me very uncomfortable.  (That happened exactly once.  I discovered on stage, of all places, that I had never put fingerings in a Haydn trio.  Oops.  I felt nervous just for that one reason.  A friend who was in the audience said she noticed, but that it was a good performance anyway…  and I trusted her not to lie to me.   And it will never happen again!)

On days when my practice time is limited, I often surf from one problematic spot to the next.  The next time, I do the same thing in reverse.  Why waste time practicing what you already play well?  You could be reinforcing unusual fingerings, making fast passages more comfortable, calibrating accelerandi and ritards, improving dynamic contrasts, playing the end of one movement and the beginning of the next, practicing intros and interludes in piano reductions or songs, or making a myriad of other effective choices.  What about the ending?  If it’s faster and louder, especially, I spend short periods of time getting it to be foolproof so I can be memorable in the concert.

A word of caution:  I have found that I often feel rushed when I have limited time.  So I play faster.  NOT helpful.  I have improved upon this tendency by being aware of it.  Now I frequently practice under tempo when there is too little time.  That increases my concentration and keeps mistakes from creeping in due to tension and anxiety.

And on those days when there is plenty of time, I revel in it.  Finally!  Time to “perform” an entire program!

How do you manage your practice time?

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I can’t play this! I’ll NEVER be able to play this!! NO ONE can play this!!!

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piano reduction

These thoughts go through my head every time I open a difficult score for the first time. How about you?

Background

This is the slow section of Mozart’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra #5, first movement.  In other words, the “piano” part is an orchestral reduction.

The right hand, when played by the orchestra, is divided between two string parts. Pianists, though, are required to perform gymnastic feats in the reduction, playing both parts in the same hand.

This section of the concerto is serene, slow, and quiet.  To achieve a murmuring sound on the piano is difficult, especially due to the fingers passing over one another and because the normally resulting accents must be avoided.  (It is not possible to play all the notes in the right hand while keeping the hand quiet, playing only five keys ((one for each finger)), and not moving to a different range on the keyboard several times.  In other words, don’t try this at home!)

Facebook comments

When I posted the above pic on Facebook, the following discussion ensued:

First, on 5/1:

[Photo caption]
The most recent addition to my catalog of Finger Busters.

[Discussion]

DG:  Finger busters is right!

AE:  What she said!

HW:  Dang!

MDS:  Wowser.

CBW:  Oh my!  😦

Then, on 5/22:

[Photo caption]
Remember this? The “ack!” phase?
Aced it in today’s performance.
I feel a blog post coming on.

[Discussion]
CH:  Looks “Greek” to me Gretchen but I’m grateful there are artists like you that let those like me enjoy the music!

CBW:  OMG!!!

TP:  Makes my head ache just looking at all those notes!!!

GS:  Exactly. My 1st thought when opening a score is often, “I can’t play this… I’ll NEVER be able to play this… NO ONE can play this!”

And then I learn it.

TP:  Some people like a challenge and some are gluttons for punishment!GS:  And some find it necessary to freak out EVERY TIME. I don’t think child prodigies do that…

TP:  In my trade we call it it SIDS…self induced disaster, the process of psyching yourself out before you even know what you’re up against! lol

GS:  I b the expert!

SN:  So how did the tempo end up?

GS:  120 and 72. Felt reasonable, thank God…

GN:  A great feeling to have worked something out in practice and then play it in performance with no “hitches” . . . .nice work!

GS:  Thank you!

KC:  cool, still growing into the job, Gretchen, that is so great.

GS:  Oh, I have the same reaction every time I open music I haven’t played that looks difficult.

Reality check 

How long did it take to reach performance level with this piece?

Although my Facebook “bookend” posts were three weeks apart, I was busy when I first looked at the score.  There was no time to practice it right away.

After consulting my practice notes, I realized that I had learned the piece at performance tempo in 8 or 10 days.

Got perspective?

This is not an idle question.  I am genuinely curious.  This is an aspect of people’s careers that is rarely talked about, as far as I know.

I am well aware that many musicians learn music faster than I do.  One of the vocal coaching fellows at Tanglewood (there were 3 of us that summer) could learn even a newly composed score still in manuscript form and perform it in 3 days.  He had the enviable ability to skip the practice stage most of us need to get the music into his hands.  Currently head of the composition department at BU, he is a conductor, composer, wonderful pianist, and vocal coach.

My teacher at Aspen was practicing Hindemith slowly with the metronome when I arrived for my lesson one day.  She had never played the piece.  Four days later, she performed it flawlessly, much faster.  So I went home and learned how to practice slowly with the metronome, increasing the tempo in increments.

On the other hand, another teacher practiced Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin” for an entire year before performing it.

What was Horowitz’s time requirement for mastering the repertoire he performed? Rubinstein?  Glenn Gould?  Myra Hess?  Clara Schumann?

A pianist who was interviewed on NPR, when discussing a recent CD release, let it be known that he had practiced one piece for 15 years before ever performing it!

So it seems that preparation time is highly variable.

First take

What do child prodigies say to themselves when first opening a score?  Have you heard anyone talk about that?

I suspect that my self-talk may stem from the fact that I was not a prodigy. While there was music in my family, many musicians I know listened to recordings and attended concerts from an early age.  Several had parents who were professional musicians.  They had mentors who connected them with effective teachers.  Good instruments were acquired early.  All of that makes a difference.  I’ve been playing “catch up.”

A childhood friend recently reminded me that, when I would be invited to go somewhere, my response would always be, “I can’t.  I have to practice.”

Following my senior recital in college, a few friends came back to the recital hall from the distant reception to ensure that I was planning to attend.  They were afraid I would go back to the practice room immediately.  (I’m slow about packing up after a performance.)

B.B. King said it very well:

“It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.”

 

And now I’d like to thank my audience, who listens attentively whenever I practice and never, ever complains.  And thanks also to everyone who commented on Facebook.

What do you say to yourself when you open a difficult score for the first time?  Do you have a panic response?  See it as a challenge? KNOW you’ll be fine even before you begin?  Do you have an idea about how long it will take you to learn a piece before you’ve even started?

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Are you heading into June without a teacher? Need fresh ideas to share with your students? 

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How to learn a chromatic left hand in a week or less

Tags

Accidental (music), chromatic music, Franz Liszt, Liebestraum, piano pedagogy

A helping hand (Photo credit: JMaz Photo)

Yes!  This really works!

In this example, you will need to be patient and keep your desired end result in mind.  When you stick to it, though, it takes less than a week to play the left hand fluently.

The music

One of my piano students is playing “Liebestraum” by Franz Liszt, arr. Bastien.  This is a simplified version in which the left hand plays primarily quarter-note broken chords.  The piece is very chromatic, which requires reading accidentals in quick succession.

The melody is not difficult.  Adding the left hand makes a huge difference in the piece’s impression on listeners.  The harmonies are often unusual, but by adding them, the repeated melody notes have direction.

Let’s get started!

You will recognize this well-known piece as soon as you hear it, so play the melody first.

The left hand should be learned separately.  Accidentals can derail things in a second!  Give yourself a break and focus only on the left hand during a few practice sessions.

Look at the structure

The compositional form is ABA.  The departure from the opening key occurs, of course, in the B section.  This is where the accidentals happen so often they can be confusing.

My student started her practice sessions with the B section, left hand alone, for a few days.

What, specifically, do you need to work on?

If your answer is, “the entire piece,” or “the middle section,” you need to improve your ability to identify where the problems are.  Looking at the entire piece, or a long section, is far too vague an approach for you to progress in a reasonable amount of time.

Fingering

Are you using good fingering?  Have you written the fingering in the score?  It is not necessary to write a number on every single note.  Look for places where your hand could stay in the same range, but the music moves to a different place on the keyboard.  What fingering can you use to make that transition go smoothly?  You may need to adjust the fingering earlier in the phrase.

Important:  Use the same fingering every time.  There’s no getting around this one.  You will learn the piece much faster.

Practice challenge

Do you read bass clef easily?  My student does not, so I gave her an assignment.  For one week, she said the names of the notes aloud while playing.  When she started doing this during her lesson, she was reluctant.  When she tried it again, she was speaking so softly, I couldn’t hear her (directly to her right!).

On the third try, she did it!  I challenged her to continue doing that, even when practicing alone.  I know it works… I use the same approach sometimes, saying fingerings out loud.

At first, she needed a slow tempo.  The idea is to play at a steady pace while saying the letter names loud enough so someone can hear you across the room. Maintaining a steady pace makes it much, much easier to go a little faster in a day or two.  The hesitations will disappear, and mistakes won’t have a chance to be built in!

Try for a steady tempo, even if that is slow, for now.  You don’t want to build in “hurry up and wait” like a New York driver!

Why bother to say the note names out loud?  Can’t I just say them to myself?

NO!  And this is why:  Speaking creates an additional track in the brain.  It is one more way to know the piece.  Finger memory alone is too risky.  Patient work on many levels truly pays off.  Those levels include:

• visual memory
  • of the notes on the page
  • of the keys you play on the keyboard, in the sequence of the piece
• auditory memory ~ how does the music sound?  Can you sing the tune?
• finger memory ~ how does playing the piece feel?  Do your fingers, hands, and arms feel it differently than other pieces you know?
• fingering memory ~ it can be helpful to say the fingering out loud.
• harmonic structure ~ do you know which chords you are playing?  I’m not talking about which chord inversion, whether there are 6th chords, or anything beyond the basics.  You need to know what the basic harmony is.

How to increase the tempo

After you can comfortably play the left hand while saying the note names out loud, going slightly faster will be easy!  But don’t go from the slow tempo to, say, 12 counts on the metronome faster all at once.  Speed up a little at a time.

When I practice this way, I increase the tempo by 2 or 4 clicks/minute.  At the end of the practice session, I write down what the fastest tempo was that day.  On the next day, it usually does not work to begin at that tempo.  So I back up a notch, get comfortable with that again, then go to the fastest tempo from yesterday.  Arriving at that point doesn’t take long.  Then things proceed from there.

As you reach faster tempi, you may want to back up more than one notch to begin the next practice session.  Things improve quickly, so don’t worry if you need to start slower.

OK, now you can play the left hand at a convincing tempo with no glitches!  You did it!  Bravo!

Getting both hands into the act 

It’s time to slow down a little and add the right hand.  You will progress faster if you continue to say the names of the notes in the left hand.

Where do your eyes focus?

My student had no problem with this at all.  I asked her whether her eyes were focusing in a different place on the page now.  She said that they were, in the white space between the two staves.

That is crucial to playing both hands together!  When one’s focus is on the right hand, the left hand is out of focus and collects mistakes.  (Oops, I meant to play….)

My hunch is that we all tend to focus on the top line more than the others.  This is true in piano music, open choral scores, opera scores, etc.  That is not particularly helpful!

Choice of music

“Liebestraum” is a good piece with which to learn these tools, since the melody has so many repeated notes.  That makes it easier to look at the left hand.  You can play the melody by ear.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Q&A: “Can a non-coloratura sing ‘Rejoice Greatly?'”

Tags

"Rejoice Greatly", arts, Coloratura soprano, Haendel, Messiah, Soprano

questions & answers (photo credit: flickr)

Someone did a search for this question on my blog.

Short answer:  Yes!

“Rejoice Greatly” is written for soprano, not specifically coloratura soprano.  When a “non-coloratura” sings the aria, a slower tempo would be indicated.  The voice needs more time to navigate the melismas.  (Scroll down after you click on the link for the best visual example of melismas.)

Listening to, say, 3 different singers gives us a better idea of matching the tempo to the voice.

In addition to the individual singer’s voice, acoustics must also be considered to ensure clarity.

Hope this helps!

Clara Clairbert, Belgian soprano (1890-1969)

(source: Historical Opera Singers)
(photo credit: flickr)

What do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Happy Easter! Choir makes even more strides

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church choir, conducting

Andrei Rubiev (1360-1430) (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Happy Easter, everyone!

My choir sang so well today!  That had a lot to do with everyone showing up on time.  And there was extra bustle to ignore during our rehearsal.

The tempo changes, dynamic changes at exactly the right time, and watching so we could pull it off together were all wonderful.  And the words were the clearest and most expressive ever.  (Singing a “v” sound like you would say it to someone nearby is not nearly enough.  You need to feel your lower lip buzz!  Also, getting “sing” out on a fast note is not so easy!  It’s important to take time to make sound on the vowel and not go to the “ng” too soon.  We took a little more time on “sing” to do this, the result being that the congregation could understand the text.  No one would perceive taking time for clarity of text as bad rhythm!)

Examples 

• The keyboard introduction started on beat 2 of the bar, and was only 4 beats long (rest 2 3 4| 1 sing).
• The first two choral snippets were identical; the next one began one beat later, and was printed on a new system.
• Several words were tricky to enunciate.  To be as expressive as possible, we needed to sing piano, then crescendo immediately beginning with “risen” in the phrase, “Christ is risen from the dead.”  “Christ is risen” is sung on low notes, so making that happen requires work!
  • “Christ is risen, we are risen” (making “we” expressive rather than a bland continuation of the sentence).
  • “Bled” has 2 consonants at the beginning.
  • “Gladness” also has 2 consonants  to start.
• The piece included several sudden tempo changes, fermati, and crescendos through final words in phrases.
• The ending, a long tied note, needed a subito piano inserted so the following crescendo to the end could be effective.  The choir loved experiencing how good they sounded!  (“That really works!”)
  

Results

Everyone put in quite an effort.  Today’s anthem had something new around every corner!

I conducted a lot today.  This anthem would have been less successful without assertive motions, accented playing (piano), and eye contact from the choir.

And, experienced choral singers that they are, the choir took care of the things I forgot.  One singer returned today after an extended illness.  He opted to remain seated during the anthem, which I assured him was fine.  Of course, when four singers stood in front of him, he couldn’t see me.  So the singer who was directly in front of him simply moved over!  Problem solved with no disruption at all.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

 
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Palm Sunday service: some thoughts

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church choir, church music, church musician, Church service, Congregation, hymn playing

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Fresco in the Parish Church at Zirl, Austria.  Photo credit:  Wikipedia.

Today is Palm Sunday.  Our church service went very well!

The congregational singing was inspiring, and the choir sounded enthusiastic when singing “Hosanna!”

I want to emphasize my belief that the most important elements of good hymn playing are:

• to find a good tempo for congregational singing, and then
• to maintain that steady tempo. 
  • the tempo may vary according to the text, but only rarely.
  • never insert a ritard just before a congregational or choir entrance.  Insert a breath instead.  Using a ritard will only slow down the tempo.

The congregation will respond with confident singing.

Additional important considerations are:

• to sing the hymn yourself:
  • in advance of the service, and
  • during the service.

In this way, you will:

• be breathing with the music and the text, and
• be breathing with the congregation as one group.

We are more inspiring when:

• we vary our playing
  • by changing stops from verse to verse
  • by responding to the text
  • by playing a descant on occasion
  • by playing some, but not all of the parts all the time
  • even by dropping out for one verse.

And the choir and congregation respond very well to all of this!

It is crucial for us to practice the hymns in advance so our musical decisions can come to fruition.  The sloppiness that comes from lack of preparation does not inspire good singing.

Ours is not a large congregation.  Nevertheless, the singing was accomplished as a group today.  The group sounded committed, confident, and expressive.  Mission accomplished!  No wimpy singing allowed.

Related post:

Creative hymn playing

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Marie-Claire Alain and thoughts about service playing

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

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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