Transcripts
1. Hymns: Introduction: Hello, I'm Ben, and
I am an organist, conductor, and pianist,
based here in London. I've put together
a little course on how you can go
about playing hymns. Especially suitable
for organists and pianists who need to
be able to play and accompany singers
and lead them in the best ways of singing
a song or a hymn. I put together the course covering lots of
different areas, but the main focus is going to be how you
get to know the score, how you really get your fingers
around the actual music. There also things like how you can use registrations
on the organ to enhance the experience
of playing the hymn and also get the congregation
joining in even better. One of the other
aspects I'm going to look at is last verse re harmonization and I'm
going to look at a bit of improvising or
extemporization. You get to the end of the hymn and there's still something
going on in the church. I'm going to look
at a little bit of ways that you can sort
keep the hymn going. You can keep playing
along the way. We'll talk about play overs, which means the sort of the
section of the hymn that introduces the hymn for the
congregation to join in with. So think ways that you can
best choose that in the hymn. The main hymn of focus is
going to be, Guide me, Oh, thou great redeemer
So that's going to be the piece that I'm really
going to be focusing on. I hope that that is a
well known hymn to you. Um, and I hope that you find this course useful
about him playing.
2. Hymns: Knowing the score and metronome: Okay. First things first, you've really got
to know the score. You've got to know
the hymn inside out. The hymn I'm looking
at today is guide me. Oh, That great redeemer. I'll just play it to
you so you can hear it. So first things first, get to know your
hymn. Learn the hymn. The better you learn
it the first time, the easier it will be when you come to play
it under a bit of pressure and you've got a whole church congregation there that you've got to lead. Get it under your fingers. The usual things, try
a bit of right hand, a left hand alone to start with. Once you're confident
with it and you can maintain a key consistent tempo, it doesn't matter
if it's quite slow. But once you're at that stage, then I'd add a metronome to it, so I practice with a click. One of the most important
things about him playing is that you maintain
a consistent tempo. If you start speeding
up, slowing down, you're going to lose
the congregation and the whole thing
will fall apart. So one of the key things
from the beginning, even if it's slightly
slower than you would like, that's better than speeding up. Slowing down. Practice
your hymn with a metronome clicking
alongside your playing, that will really benefit you.
3. Hymns: "Playovers": Okay. The second
part is play over. Now the play over is the
little section of music that you will hear
before the hymn starts. It gets the congregation in the right key and
in the right time. The play is really
important actually, it can actually make or break
the beginning of a hymn. Now the question is whether
to play the beginning, the first section or the end. There are pros and cons to
both approach approaches. If you play the beginning, there is a chance that
some of the keener singers will just join in
with you thinking that that is the
start of the hymn. And it can be a bit messy. If the hymn is well known, what I tend to do is play
the end of the hymn, that there's no risk
of anybody joining in. If it's unfamiliar the hymn, then what you can
do is actually play the whole tune as a player. But beginning or end,
it's a personal thing. One of the key things is that
you work out how many beats of rest you're going to put before the start
of the main verse. So I'll give you an example. So I'm going to play the end
of the hymn as my play over, and then I'm going to
put two beats of rest. I'm going to go straight
in. Here we go. So those two beats of
rest are quite important. They allow the
congregation to breathe. It also, it keeps the timing of the hymn
in people's minds. There's nothing worse than at the end of the play
over slowing down. I'll show you a different
version where you slow down. There is no way to pick up the new tempo or know where
to come in as a singer, so it's kind of
really disconcerting. So make sure the
end of your play over you keep it
perfectly in time. As you get to the end of a hymn, obviously you can start to slow down a bit with
your congregation, but for the purpose
of the play over. Um, You know, keep, keep that timing
and know before you start how many beats of rest
you're going to put in. Often you get to a point. Think is it to have it clearly established in your
head with that play over how many you're
going to do equally. The beginning works
here as a play over. So here's an example of the beginning being
the play over. A particular risk in this hymn with using the beginning
as the play over is that second line of music as you'll see from
the P DF that's attached, starts very similarly, in fact identically the
first two measures or bars and then it changes. I think it's really
confusing actually. The first line as
a play over here. Again, depends on the hymn, how familiar it is. Trial and error often works. I would say 80% of
the time I'm playing the end of a H as a play. If it's less well known,
maybe half the time. It depends again on the hymn, but that's a word
about play overs.
4. Hymns: Improvisation : Okay. Panic. So you got to
the end of your hymn and there's something still going on at the front of the church. And you've got to
sort of keep going, you've got to improvise,
extemporize, whatever you want. A no, what am I going to do? Well, the first thing
is don't panic. One option is always just to
repeat a verse of the hymn. Okay? That's one perfectly
acceptable option, just to sort of keep going
to have that up your sleep. Beyond that, you could repeat
the verse of the hymn, but you could actually
vary the speed of it. So you could play
it more slowly. You could play it a
little bit more quickly. You could change the
key, copy a minor key, you could even
miss out the tune. And you could just play the
alto, tenor, bass part. Or you could go into
free extemporization, keeping your eye on the front of the church when everything
needs to finish. Okay, So here's a
little example, Get to the end of the hymn and then we'll see what happens. So I effectively recycled
a couple of sections. That's quite a nice tactic. You take a sort
of a middle point and you sort of play
that little section. Another quite nice device is to build up a bit of tension
with a dominant pedal. The key here is G major, so if we're going to
establish as D in the pedals just creates a bit of sort of drama. I'll say use that when
you're coming to the end of your extemporization and you want to return to the tonic key. The dominant pedal is quite
a useful little device. Another little thing is to miss the tune out
because it just sounds, makes the hymn sound a
little bit different. For instance, we could,
at the beginning, we could put the alte part above the soprano part letters, and it gives him a
different flavor. Don't be afraid
to do that again, this relates back to
the first point we made about really knowing
the hymn inside out. If you really know it,
you'll be able to do that. Put the alte part in
a different place, move the tenor part. Often the alts get quite
a raw deal in hymn, so actually it's not
the most interesting, maybe the tenor parts
the better option there. So I'm going to
put the tenor part at the top of the texture. Again, fairly boring,
repeated G's, but it makes it sound different. We could vary the
key into a minor key and it gives the hymn a
totally different feel. Slowing the tempo down, going onto a quieter registration
and fewer stops out. That can also really help with that sort
of thing as well. Extemporizkeeping,
stay in one key. Actually, a quick move away from the tonic key can really make it sound fresh and interesting. A technique I was taught
to do this is to add a modulate into the dominant key. Maybe that's for
a future session and we'll look a
little bit at that, but I think those are some of
the main techniques there. Keep it going, don't panic, you can always just repeat
the verse again If you need to use of dominant pedal to
create a bit of tension, vary the key if you want. You could have a look at the
playing the tonic minor, then the voicing of some of
the chords to put the tenor, put the alto on the top just
to create a bit of interest. Melodic interest as you go.
5. Hymns: Organ registrations and piano textures: I'm just going to talk
a bit about instrument specific things if you're
playing the organ, it's going to talk a bit
about registrations. And if you are
playing the piano, I'm going to talk particularly
about how you might approach playing hymn
on the piano organists. Let's start with you guys, the first thing before we
actually play the him, you want to just have a
look through the words. Now you don't need to be
a theological scholar, don't worry, but find
interesting moments. For instance, verse two open now the crystal fountain whence
the healing stream does flow. Let the fire, the fire and cloudy pillar lead me
all my journey through. That is a case in point
for doing something interesting with the
registration start of verse two. For me, the crystal
fountain is bright radiant, shining higher pitch stops
using something like a mixture two foot higher
pitch can really help. On the piano, you
could take it up the octave just to give the upper resonance there on the organ, varying
the registration. The third line though,
let the fire in cloudy pillar needs real depth. We might go deep,
we might go low. For me on that third
line, let the fire, I'm going to be pulling
out the reads the swell, trumpet swell, 16 foot, The lower pictures just
to create that bit of contrast between the crystal
fountain, the cloudy pillar. It's important, I
think, in the hymn, to vary registrations. He's so tempting just to play on the same pistons
all the way through, but try to vary them. A really well known organist, so well known, I've
forgotten his name. Used to rehearse every
single registration change before he played. Maybe that's a little
bit over the top, but at least marking
them in right. In verse two, I'm going
to add the mixture. And then in the third line I'm going to add the 16
foot read or something. You know what's coming up.
And you can even set them, if you've got pistons like you could even set them
on the pistons that. So that's a little word on
registrations on the piano. If you're having to play
on the piano, that's fine. In order to mimic the
depth of the organ, what I often say to people on the piano is to have the base in octaves sounds very thin. If you don't yeah on the piano, put your base in octaves and vary the octave in which
your right hand is. You might choose to take
it up the octave for some verses just to
create a bit of contrast. There have a play
around with that. Be creative with
the registrations, but don't overburden yourself to the extent that
you affect the tempo. If you're over scheduling
your stop changes, you're going to
take too much time. Okay, Do it but within the limits of
capability and technique. Yeah, it's lovely
to have contrast, but the main priority
is to provide a constant metronomic
backing for your singers.
6. Hymns: Leading a congregation: So let's talk a little bit
about leading a congregation. This is kind of relates back to the idea of keeping
that consistent tempo. If you're constantly
speeding up, slowing down, you're going
to lose your congregation. But let's say they're dragging
and they want the hymn, you know, really slow go. Either me or one strategy is to play more
separate, more detached. So rather than I'm gonna go, you can just help to ascertain the exact pulse and rhythm a
little bit more precisely. Experiment with that.
Another thing to consider is if
you're on the organ, again using clearer
registrations. If you use brighter things like two foot mixtures and reads
that really cut through, you'll find they stay with. You have a consider about which
stops speak most clearly. The piano notorious is quite difficult to actually
accompany a full congregation. Again, higher sounds maybe travel a bit more
clearly using octaves. Not too much sustained pedal. If you put the sustained
pedal down on the piano, everything is just
going to schmergegether Bit less pedal,
bit more, detache. Choose your tempo wisely. What you don't want to
be doing is adjusting. But if you've chosen a
wildly ambitious tempo like double the speed that
the hymn is meant to go, then obviously they're
not going to keep up with you to just, you know, reel it
back a little bit. There's nothing worse
than the whole hymn just completely falling apart
because you've been a bit ambitious with the
tempo that relates to the clergy as
well as the priests, and that they often
will have an opinion about how the tempo
is of a hymn. My best advice is to totally
ignore them and come up with your own check. I mean, if you
have a choir, they often a good people's check, how is the speed of that,
Is this working okay? In the rehearsal for instance, you can try a couple of things. Will say, I had a priest that always, you say
they're too slow. They're too slow.
They're too slow. If we played them at
the speed he preferred, would have just
completely fallen apart. So, you've got to
take into account wider factors like
the building itself. The acoustic is, if
it's really resonant, you're going to have
to slow the hymn. Down here in London, we have Westminster Abbey. In a building like that,
the hymns have got to be slower than they would
be in a really dry, very modern church. Do
you know what I mean? Take into account the acoustic, whether you've got
a choir as well to lead in the hymns and not, but just a bit of common
sense really when it comes to keeping the
congregation on track.
7. Hymns: Reharmonising the last verse: So let's think about
the final verse. It can sometimes be fun on the final verse to vary
the harmony a little bit. Especially you got to check
the choir singing in unison. Because if they keep singing in harmony and you're
varying the harmony, it never really tends
to go very well. So double check with the
choir first and then, you know there are a couple
of variations you can do with the harmony in this
particular In one that's really nice is to use
that dominant pedal. Remember the pedal from the third system and just keep it going all
the way through, ring through those 4 bars just creates that bit of tension
towards the end of the hymn. Another nice one here, this is less to do
with harmony but more to do with tempo, is this idea of you
got a brief pause. What can be nice is
each verse you make that pause or at that moment
just a little bit longer. By the third verse, you're
really holding onto it. And if it works it works. Sometimes the congregation ignore you and they keep going. But finding little moments
like that can be really fun. You could change, you could alter the cadences a little bit. So let's have a think. What could you do
interrupted cadence there? As you come up to cadences, you can do a bit more,
few more suspensions. It's not the nice
one in the world. You can also employ the thing
we spoke about earlier, where you put the alte, the tenor parts above just to create that
kind of interest. One other thing we haven't
spoken about is desk cats. And there are some great
desk cants written. You can even have got writing your own discounts where normally the sopranos
are higher voices, they sort of take off
on a tune of their own. And that can be really fun
if you're on the organ. Another thing, if you've
got like a big solo, read like a tube or something, it can be fun to draw that
in the last verse and play little sections of the
tune or the lower parts on it just to create a bit
of interest on the piano. We don't sadly have
that facility, but yet different
use of registration, varying harmony a little bit. If there's chord progressions
that you'd like to change, just write them in underneath
so that you know to do it. There are lots of books published as well,
of last verses. And past people are a bit snob about Oh, you're
going to make your own up. You got to be just
really doesn't matter. You don't have to use the whole of somebody else's harmony. But it can just help to create some interesting ideas
and for you to borrow. And this is how composers of
the past have worked anyway, So don't be shy about using books of different last verse, varied harmony just to create that little
bit of interest. The big question right at the
end of the last verse is, hm, do I slow down? Do I writ? I think it's quite natural at
the end of the verse. If everything's finished
at the front of the church and the
hymn is ready to end, I think it's quite natural
just to slow down. It's nice not to kind of slam the brakes on
there, you know, to make that slowing
down nice and organic and don't hold last chord eternally. Some organists do
that, but remember you've got singers here,
living, breathing singers. And you don't want
them keeling over, See just nice two beats
and then then we're off. So yeah, those are, those are the general
pointers on that.
8. Hymns: In conclusion: So I hope you found
this short course kind of interesting and useful
if you're an organist. Pianist, and you've been
asked to lead the hymn, the main thing is just to
get out there and do it. The first hymn you play will routinely be not
your finest work. I remember playing my first one, it was a baptism 03:00
in the afternoon. There are only 20 people in the congregation
or something, and that the singers were at
the other end of the church. And it was absolute disaster. Don't worry, you
soon get over it. The more you play, the
easier you'll find it. I think, excuse me, one of the key things is
really to know score. You got to know the score and you've got to know
the different tempos and be prepared to vary the speed at which
you're playing. Sometimes people get
really in the rut of, this is my speed, I'm
not going to vary, but actually you
need to adjust for smaller and larger buildings a little bit careful
without getting stuck in a rut about tempo. If you can go through the words and just work out what
you're going to do. The registration
with the changes of stops and also on the piano, if you're going to put the
right hand up an octave, practice doubling on the piano in the base just to
give it a bit more. Make it sound like the pedals on the organ that's 16 foot. Sound If you can get a chance to rehearse
it with a choir, that is great because then
you've just had a practice and you find a good choir will almost keep
the tempo for you. So it's kind of, if you follow them a
bit, they follow you. And it's sort of, it's almost
like concerto, you know, where the soloist and
the conductor kind of both have a role in
leading the performance. So that can be really
nice when it's sort of in harmony as it were with your singers as well
as the congregation. But the key tips are get
out there and do it. Practice your sight reading. It's good just to
have a hymn book. It doesn't matter which one open on the piano or the organ, and just to try a
new hymn every day. Practice one hand at time, right hand and left hand, then start to piece them
together if you would like. I'd be very happy to take
to the organ and show you in the future how this
might work on the organ. If you'd like, maybe
leave me a comment. I'm not quite sure
how this works, but just write something down below and I'll take
it to the organ. I'm the organist in the
church in Knightsbridge, and we'll go and see
how this might apply in the church if you
find this useful. But thanks very much for
listening to this course, and I hope you found it
interesting. See you again.
Ben Lewis-Smith, Musician
