How to Play Hymns on the Piano

Piano Lessons / how to play piano / How to Play Hymns on the Piano

When it comes to Hymns there is a general rule of thumb: once you can one you can pretty much play any of them! However, before you reading level has progressed it could be difficult to play any of them. The key to playing hymns is understanding the structure.

The first thing you must do is figure out what key you are in. Make sure you take note of the key signature and figure out what the tonalities are. It’s a lot like detective work trying to figure out the correct chords – and don’t worry, I will provide some helpful tips to allow you to avoid the music theory part of this.

Generally, these pieces are choral writing – soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Typically with your hands, you will play two voices with the left hand and two voices with the right hand. One secret is that it will be easier to play three voices with the right hand and just the bass with the left hand. This can be a little tricky because with choral writing the soprano and alto parts are always in the treble clef and the tenor and bass are always in the bass clef. However, choral writing always has a bigger distance between the bass and the tenor – from the bottom note to the other three notes than any other voices; it is often times more than an octave. Redistributing the hands is one way to make hymns a little easier.

Another valuable tip for approaching music above your reading level is to simplify the music. If you just want to get through something or gain some benefit from music above your reading or skill level this can be a helpful tool. You must remember that the melody and bass are fundamental – the bass is the structure and the melody is the song. To simplify the music, simply play only the top and bottom lines. In the video embedded above I provide an example of this. Say you are in a church setting and someone hands you some music, you won’t have time to learn it. However, if you just play the top and bottom lines and have a choir singing along with you, it will sound fine.

The good news is that by simplifying the music you will start to gain a better understanding of how the music is structured. This enables you to flesh out the inner voices much easier than you think. Maybe just add the alto voice eventually and leave out the tenor line. Experiment and see what works for you; expand and embellish your playing at a comfortable level.

Just remember that the most important thing is to get the melody and bass. If you can play those you will be in good shape. Once you feel a bit more comfortable start adding the other parts in gradually.

Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

3 thoughts on “How to Play Hymns on the Piano”


 
 

  1. Hi Robert, I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation on Hymn structure and playing. The use of a second camera, overhead, whilst you are playing is a brilliant idea; I have not seen it used before!
    God bless you in your wonderful occupation.
    Kind regards,
    Philip

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