Being a church pianist

[punkpianist360]

Do any of your have advice on how to learn church music....quickly?  I know it may seem like a ridiculous question, but doing it for a few months I've discovered that I need a completely different strategy than learning my traditional Bach, Chopin Rachmaninoff, etc.  New music needs to be learnt constantly and to maintain a high quality in a short amount of time seems to be a challenge for me.  Any advice?

Thanks,
Paul

[ceapaire]

It's very easy really - do a quick harmonic analysis of each piece and make them into melody + chord accompaniment. Assuming it's just regular, informal sunday mass this is perfectly fine. I only bother learning the full arrangements of pieces for special occassions like Easter, Christmas etc.

You'll find a lot of hymns have the same basic underlying structure. You can pick them up VERY quickly.

[quantum]

Do a lot of planning.  Prepare difficult pieces weeks or months ahead of time.  There is no need to always play music at the threshold of your capabilities.  Have a mixture of easy and more challenging music.  Structure your practice so there is time to work on music for the current Sunday, music for a few weeks from now, music for a few months from now, music for next year. 

For music that you must learn in a short amount of time, focus on the main ideas.  You may not have time to work out all the details.  Locate the important aspects of the piece, and give these priority. 

Be efficient in your practice.  Don't spend all your time on parts that you can play well.  Focus on those spots that give you the most trouble. 

For hymns, learn to simplify and orchestrate when necessary.  If you are struggling through a difficult hymn you need to learn in short time, there is no harm in adapting the hymn to a more keyboard friendly arrangement.  Outlining the tune is very important for congregational song, especially if the tune is not that familiar to the people, so be cautious about over simplifying. 

Develop your sight reading abilities.  It will open up a lot of music that can be played with very little practice time. 

Improvise.  I frequently improvise voluntaries based on Gregorian Chant or hymn tunes.   It is a wonderful way to create new music that can be specific to a certain celebration.

[j_menz]

I was a church pianist for several years. The rector would hand me the list of hymns as I walked into the service, so I had no time to do anything other than sight read them. So for me, the answer was to get very good at sight reading hymns. Most of them aren't that difficult. The alternative is to learn the entire hymnal.

If you perform at more formal services, you may have more time, and possibly more influence over the choice of what you play.

[ceapaire]

I was a church pianist for several years. The rector would hand me the list of hymns as I walked into the service, so I had no time to do anything other than sight read them. So for me, the answer was to get very good at sight reading hymns. Most of them aren't that difficult. The alternative is to learn the entire hymnal.

If you perform at more formal services, you may have more time, and possibly more influence over the choice of what you play.

This is also true; sometimes I just get told 20 minutes before mass what the hymns would be. If you have basic sightreading skills though it's usually fine. Most hymns are quite simple.

[oxy60]

Lower your expectations and be patient. After a year you will see the same hymns back as the year cycles. Getting the hymn numbers 20 minutes before service sounds like a power play to rattle you. I played for a lot of visiting revival preachers and I pushed for their selection and suggested possibilities. You can be a little assertive. Remember, you know things they don't and without you what will they do? 

[j_menz]

Getting the hymn numbers 20 minutes before service sounds like a power play to rattle you.

I very much doubt that that was the case. I think most non pianists just assume that someone who can play can play pretty much anything from the music, no practice or rehearsal needed.

[quantum]

The alternative is to learn the entire hymnal.

You could selectively learn the difficult hymns from the book that you know are likely to be chosen in your church.  There are some hymns that are more difficult to sight-read because they may require working out technical passages or re-orchestrating. 

[oxy60]

Remember, the question was about piano not organ. These days various instruments including rock bands are used for church services. So, what the piano plays can vary widely.

We may be giving answers to questions that weren't asked.

[iansinclair]

It is difficult to maintain quality -- and very very different from concert or academic type piano work.

Many of the suggestions above are excellent. 

One I will really emphasize, though: develope for yourself a repertoire of music usable as preludes and postludes (and, if you church uses them, offertories).  Be sure to include a few which could be used for special services, such as funerals and weddings.  These don't have to be hard.  They don't have to be spectacular.  They don't even have to be long.  They do need to be under your fingers, though.

Hymns are another matter.  If you can't get your rector, priest, pastor etc. to give them to you in advance, you're not going to have much option but really working on your sight reading.  Having been a church organist for many years, however, I might note that, when playing a hymn on the piano, there are a few tricks of the trade.  First of all, keep going, whatever happens!  If necessary, one finger on the soprano line -- almost always the melody -- but keep on going.  Second, judicious use of the sustain pedal can help a lot.  Third, you can prioritise the lines (someone suggested analysing the hymn for chord progression; not a bad idea): the most important line is the soprano; the bass is next, then the alto, and last the tenor.  If you find yourself really challenged by a hymn -- and I assure you, we all have been! -- drop lines in reverse order (that is, drop tenor first, etc.)

Improvisation can be invaluable -- and you can improvise on almost any melody you want, in whatever classical style is comfortable for you (I have been known to improvise on "Twinkle twinkle little star"...).

If you are planning to be in the game for a longish time... a)seriously consider learning to play the organ; it's very different in some ways, but not all that hard to do and b)also seriously consider working with your rector, priest, whatever, to learn the liturgical year and how to fit hymns and other music to the scripture and season -- and take time to study your denomination's hymn book.  Not just the music, but the words.  With diligence, you may find that your rector etc. will begin to welcome your suggestions as to hymns, when he or she finds out that you know something about how they fit in (this is more applicable to the more orthodox churches -- Lutheran, Episcopal, Anglican, RC -- than to the more protestant churches as the former have a much more clear cut liturgical year).

[libris_dedita]

One thing I found as a church organist for a while was that you are generally working with non-musicians, who therefore often expect any musician to be magic and perfect. They often seem unable to grasp the concept of practice being necessary and so don't understnad how much pressure they put you under.

If you are struggling to learn everything in time, it might be worth saying so, and asking for hymns to be repeated more often. Or, as others have said, establish a relationship with the vicar/minister/whoever is in charge and try and have more input into choosing the music.

I agree very strongly; the melody is the vital part and it matters less what happens to the harmony. Even if there is a choir singing the harmonies, they can cope with mistakes, whereas the congregation often can't. Simplifying harmonies is a wondrously useful thing.

[oxy60]

I agree very strongly; the melody is the vital part and it matters less what happens to the harmony. Even if there is a choir singing the harmonies, they can cope with mistakes, whereas the congregation often can't. Simplifying harmonies is a wondrously useful thing.

Yes, but be careful. I did exactly that. Basically I was a "blues/rock" musician arranger. Everything that was thrown at me for the first time got the same treatment with I, IV and V for the first verse. As subsequent verses were sung I would add the subtle harmonies as written.

Church trivia question: what was the title of Billy Graham's invitational hymn (alter call) and in which key was it played?

BTW why hasn't the original poster commented on our remarks?

Anyway it is great to toss around some of our experiances.