The Church Pianist: Left Hand Patterns for Mundane Bass Line

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Send the Light has a rather mundane bass line...
meaning....alot of repeated bass notes.

This can make for a rather boring sound.

Actually, there's a lot the church pianist can do
to spice up this gospel song!


Remember that the hymnal is written for voice;
not for piano.


Piano score description for today's example
of "Send the Light"


*Half note chords are used in the right hand to
avoid a choppy tone due to the repeated notes
in the vocal score.


*Left hand pattern starts with marching octaves
in a stepping down pattern.


*On words: "...send the Light" the left hand plays
an octave followed by echos in 3rds within the
chord being used at the time. The echo is really
just a stepping pattern within the chord.


*The right hand basically played a broken G chord
with an added 'passing tone' for the words:
"restless wave".


(I will address passing tones in a future article.)


I added an extra piano score to demonstrate how
to play for another verse using a variation of the same
ideas.


It's simple left hand patterns like this that make an
ordinary gospel song come to life!