Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Church Pianist: Improvising for Congregational in 9/8



Songs in 6/8 or 9/8 usually move fast.



It's not necessary for the pianist to play
every word. I usually play melody on the
first couple of words to support a confident
entry and then I start my accompaniment.



Editor notes for today's example:



"Heavenly Sunlight"



In general:



I try to vary my rhythmic patterns
throughout for variety.



I use full chords on accented beats:
(one, four and seven) to enhance the
accented beats' therefore producing
a steadier flow.



Empty octaves (octaves without notes
in the middle) are used on fast words.



Why? Easier for hand to move quickly



Notice the staccato notes here and there.
A light staccato relieves hand tension.


I also release pedal on these staccato notes.



On first two words: Walking in....



(I start with contrary octaves for contrast.



Special note: Playing the same octaves in
both hands would create parallel octaves
which is a big no-no in improvising.)



Why? Because it sounds too plain.



Words: all of my.....



(The melody is transfered to the left hand



The right hand played the harmony in
octave format.)



Word: journey



(Left hand plays broken C chord tones.)



Words: Over the...



Notice the chord changes to an F. I'm already
in the C chord prior to that and don't want to
disrupt my accompaniment pattern....so.....
I just play a C in unison with both hands.

(Neat trick!)



Word: mountains



Just decided to improvise with a new fill-in idea
to break the monotony of previous patterns.


I just simply used a stepping note method that
leads me into the next chord.



Try these improvisational ideas out on similar songs
in 9/8 time.

"We're Marching to Zion" is a good start.


Adding more notes gives stability to the congre-
gational singing!






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