{"id":86,"date":"2020-05-25T20:58:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T20:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homeschool.vandagriff.org\/?p=86"},"modified":"2020-05-27T18:26:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T18:26:33","slug":"learning-hymns-on-the-piano-a-piano-teachers-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeschool.vandagriff.org\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"Learning Hymns on the Piano\u2014A Piano Teacher’s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"
This post was originally published on www.bystudyandfaith.com<\/a>.<\/div><\/div>\n

Learning to play the hymns is one of the main goals for many LDS pianists-in-training (or their parents, at least). As a piano teacher for over 15 years, I have learned a thing or two about how students can learn the hymns with the least amount of frustration.<\/p>\n

Your children’s piano teacher may have their own method for teaching hymns. My guess is, however, that most teachers (especially those who haven’t studied piano pedagogy specifically) don’t have a systematic approach. Feel free to share this post with your child’s teacher. There may be some resources here that they are unaware of!<\/p>\n

My Method<\/h3>\n

I like to introduce hymns when a child is about finished with level 2 of their method book (Faber, Alfred, Bastein, Piano Pronto, etc.). By this point the student has experience playing harmonic intervals (two notes at the same time). Because hymns require a pianist to play two notes with each hand simultaneously, previous experience with harmonic intervals is essential.<\/p>\n

I don’t particularly like using simplified hymnbooks<\/a>. While they contain arrangements that sound like the hymn, they lack all of the actual hymn playing technique that a student will need in the future. Once you get a feel for playing the four parts of a hymn at once, learning future hymns becomes much easier. If you are using simplified versions you lose this benefit entirely. The same goes for the simplified arrangements found in the Friend<\/em> magazine<\/a>. I only turn to these when I have a student who is very motivated to learn a particular song (for an upcoming baptism, primary program, etc.). If they really want to learn a song but they aren’t ready for the real thing yet, then I will consider a simplified version. These simplified versions are often not really that easy. They include difficult finger crossings and unstylistic awkwardness that is better avoided altogether.* Alfred came out with a Mormon hymn series this year that I think is the best resource for simplified church songs. It is not a replacement for learning the actual hymns, but these arrangements<\/a>\u2020 can be fun supplemental songs that are easy to learn.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of hymns that your child can learn straight from the hymnbook. The following list comes from this site<\/a>. It also has lists of intermediate and advanced hymns (not exhaustive, just 25 of each).<\/p>\n

25 Beginner Hymns<\/h3>\n

(Music Reading Level 4-5 US, Grade 3-4 UK)<\/p>\n

These hymns\u00a0are in\u00a0easy\u00a0keys, have\u00a0few hand position changes, fairly simple rhythms,\u00a0few accidentals,\u00a0and\u00a0slow to moderate tempos.<\/p>\n

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\nYour child’s individual teacher will hopefully have specific techniques for your child. In the case that your teacher doesn’t teach hymns or needs a few ideas, I will list a few of my favorites here. I always tell students to start working hands separately\u2014especially when they are new to hymns. We go through and identify all of the different harmonic intervals. Using <\/span>Sweet Hour of Prayer<\/em><\/a> as an example, we will first identify what a third looks like and then (on a photocopied or printed version!) mark all of them with a highlighter (<\/span>erasable highlighters<\/a> make this activity really fun). Then we look at the first line and try to figure out how on earth you are supposed to get your fingers to cover all of those notes and write in the hand shift that’s required. (If a student has a hard time identifying intervals, I have found nothing better than <\/span>ABC Papers<\/a> for help with that.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Specific Teaching\/Practice Techniques<\/h3>\n

We work slowly through the hymn, identifying intervals and patterns. When I have a student learn an entire phrase, I always have them go to the downbeat of the next phrase before they stop playing. This helps eliminate the huge gaps that so often find their way into the transition areas of songs (at the end of a line of text in the case of a hymn). I also make sure that the student keeps a steady beat. Some students really struggle with this. Here are some exercises from my website Sing Solfa that are designed to help them find the beat:\u00a0here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last thing I do before I will pass off a hymn is have the student play while I sing along. They really hate this because it’s much harder to play when someone is singing. It requires them to not only play the right notes, but also keep that steady beat and not have gaps between lines. With a beginning hymn player we will sometimes pass off one phrase at a time (with the student playing through to the downbeat of the next phrase). It doesn’t take long before they are able to sing along with themselves. That is a sure sign that they have that hymn learned thoroughly! (I don’t require them to sing along, but some wish to.)<\/p>\n

In summary:<\/p>\n