Read previous installments: Part 1 Part 2 Reading String Reductions (A related detour) Sorry for the delay in getting back to this topic. Let me give you a quick few bits of news before we dive in. I am announcing the 2017 Arrangement Contest winner on Wednesday 11/22. Look for it by the end of […]
Tag Archives: church piano
I am in the middle of the series of how pianists can adapt to new more contemporary music in church and I want to take a small and very relevant detour today and discuss string reductions. The reason string reductions are relevant is because very very often, today’s church pianists are asked to play them […]
Read Part 1 here Last week, I gave a foundational principle about playing modern church music (sometimes called praise and worship or CCM). The principle was this: The first thing you need to learn is how to play the right chords at the right time. Let’s say that you have to make a choice. You […]
A few months ago, I published a post where I promised to discuss how pianists can adjust when their church moves from traditional to more contemporary music. Sadly, I promptly forgot about my promise until someone pointed it out last week. Time to remedy that… Let me introduce an idea this week to get you […]
Every year, I like to give you guys a project to work on throughout the year and today, I want to introduce this year’s project: transitions between songs when doing congregational accompaniment (or similar situations). The video below gives you a three step process for learning how to modulate as well as how to adjust your […]
It is that time of the year where we church musicians get have to play Christmas carols. Yeah! Sigh…. I know it is not politically correct to admit it but I am not the biggest fan in the world of Christmas music. Don’t get me wrong—some traditional carols are great (“O Come All Ye Faithful,” […]
Much ink is spilled about the tension between progressives and conservatives in the world of church music. I have written more than my share on that topic but today I want to talk about another uneasy tension that exists in church music: the tension between trying to hold high standards and giving anyone a chance […]
A discussion popped up somewhere regarding my recent article about buying pianos for a church. Someone asked whether it makes sense for a church to just buy a keyboard rather than an expensive piano. Today, I want to talk about that. I am a pianist. I love great pianos. I will take a great piano […]
I spent yesterday looking at pianos–12 hours of looking in fact. Here in Atlanta, we have lots of dealers and we hit them all. The brands we played were Schimmel, Kawai (including their elite line Shigero), Steinway, Boston, Yamaha, Bosendorfer, Seiler, and Estonia. We played a lot of the cheaper brands too (Baldwin, Hailun, Knabe, […]
Last week, I wrote about the use of the stride style in church. On Facebook, it turned out to be a very controversial subject because some people chose to focus on a few historical elements I mentioned rather than my main points. I could get pulled off on that rabbit trail defending my assertions but […]
As most of you guys know, the piano has only been considered acceptable in church for about a century. Until that point, the piano was primarily a bar instrument and had heavy baggage associated with it sort of like drums might have today.