May 12, 2009

• Re: Workshop Last Friday

  

  Last Friday evening around 12 people came together around organ and piano in our church. We had interesting discussions where we shared with each other. We started off with the topic "accompaniment of (congregational) singing on piano". This could also be applied in Coffee Break setting or Bible study groups.

  Hymnals are primarily written for vocals, and not for accompaniment. That means that pianists and organists need to adjust in order to accompany properly. The same is valid for the use of organ accompaniment books on the piano.

  It is important to indicate proper tempo in the prelude. We discussed what a good tempo could be. Also how we unknowingly often mislead the congregation. We listened to some examples on how not to play. Then we discussed how sometimes we talk about "them" and we mean the congregation, but that we often underestimate the musical capabilities of the congregation.

  We shared ideas about how to make a prelude, if you don't have one. I added some improvisation suggestions to that as well. After someone commented that they could not play harmonies under a melody, which was followed by a discussion about the fact that "making up" harmonies for melodies has to be done following the harmony and counterpoint rules.

  Anyway, we spend two hours on just a few topics and for next time I know that I should restrict the topics. I received one specific request to address "improvisation" specifically. Although that's not an easy topic, I hope to schedule that for September or October.

   

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