Be An Organized Church Pianist
Playing in front of a congregation each Sunday is no easy feat. Make sure you are well prepared before giving your best for God and before others.
1) Practice the piano and more preferably the songs you will be playing early in the week and often.
2) Sing while you play so you can have a feel for how well your playing will mesh with the singing.
3) If you use sheet music make sure it is organized and ready to go. Write up your introductions and endings or make sure the ones you have used before are the ones you will want to use this time.
4) If you are accompanying a soloist make sure you set aside good time to practice.
5) If you are still working on your craft then make sure you are studying your piano lessons and practicing those in ADDITION TO practicing your Sunday songs. Don't stagnate. Add to your skills. Learn new songs or new ways of playing old favorites.
6) If you are the worship planner also a nice resource to have is an index that lists songs by scripture,by topic, and by key.
7) Don't give up because you don't have a piano. A keyboard will keep you going until the Lord sees fit to bless you with a piano. Truly. This happened to me.
8) Do you want to play in a particular style? You could just purchase music that is arranged in the style you want to play. But an easier option is to learn what specific notes or chords are making that special sound.
Use these ideas for how you can keep yourself together so come Sunday morning you can concentrate on making a joyful noise for the Lord!
See more ideas for a beginning church pianist in my book The Struggling Church Pianist
Kemi is a church pianist and author of the book The Struggling Church Pianist. Visit her website and download some free musician tools at...
http://www.strugglingchurchmusician.us
MORE RESOURCES:
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Tips for Buying Digital Pianos and Keyboards
Buying a digital piano could be a very delicate attempt, especially if you have no idea about pianos in the first place. This article is written to help you out how to choose the best digital piano.
What is Music?
That's a fair question!Basically, you can call music any noise that is set to either a rythm as in percussions or that follows a melodic line of some sort.Our early ancestors sitting outside the cave by the fire, after a hard day of gathering and hunting food, probably made music by tapping bones together or blowing in sea shells.
You Cant Force Play
A student once asked me; "How come sometimes the music comes freely while other times, I feel blocked and can't play?"A perfectly valid question and one that many students of improvisation ask. You see, the problem is that many think they should be able to just sit down at the piano and play anytime anywhere.
Free, Legal Music Online
Almost everyone has heard about the massive crack down on Internet music piracy that has been occurring over the past few years. Napster was taken down (although it has now returned as a pay service), other file sharing programs now require users to pay for a license and the RIAA and other similar organizations are doing their best to hunt down copyright offenders and put an end to their crime sprees.
Can You Really Learn To Play a Musical Instrument From an Online Course?
Out of the 250 million people in the United States, about 25 million of them play an instrument of some kind, or used to when they were in school and would like to pick up where they left off. Another 30 million or so sing in a church choir, a barbershop quartet, or at the very least, in the shower.
Shut Up And Sing
What is it with these performers and their politics? Do they really think that people who pay $100 or more to hear them sing want to hear them utter political opinions? The audience pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to see and hear a performer PERFORM. You want to spout politics, run for freakin office, you moron! When performers use a paid venue to play politics they are abusing the paying audience, the venue, the sponsors and everyone connected to their artistic performance.
How To Change Your Guitar Strings
Changing your guitar strings might make you feel a litte uncomfortable if you have never done it before, but it's really quite simple and should become a regular part of your guitar care routine. Before you do anything, first take time to make some personal observations such as:1.
10 Ways for Unknown Musicians to Get the Word Out
When Clear Channel controls the radio and the monopoly newspaper doesn't like you, how do you win over new audiences?The good news: there are many, many ways. Here are ten of my favorites.
How to Play Piano Using a Few Chords
How many chords do you need to create a piece of music? Would you believe that it doesn't really matter and that whole pieces of music have been created using just one chord? For example, if you play a D minor 7 chord, you could use the bass note D to create a drone effect and anchor the whole improvisation. It could last for a few seconds or many minutes.
Flaming Guitars! Minarik Fuels The Excitement Of A New Generation Of Musicians
Celebrating an endorsement between G-Man Music and the fiery axe-makers known as Minarik Guitars, Scott G (The G-Man) reviews the Minarik Inferno X-treme.From the Telecaster to the Flying V to the Iceman to the Warlock, some guitar designs are forever branded on our consciousness, and now there's a new one: the Minarik Inferno X-treme.
Form - Giving Shape to Your Music
Do you ramble on endlessly with your improvisations? If so, good. This has its place in music making and in new age piano playing in particularly.
Chords or Melody First... Which is Best?
There are basically two ways you can compose a piece of music.
The first and most traditional way is to write out the melody and then harmonize it.
Music & Intelligence: Will Listening to Music Make You Smarter?
Will listening to music make you smarter? Will learning to play a musical instrument make your brain grow larger than normal?Questions like these ones have been popping up all over the place in the past few years, and not just in scientific journals either.In recent times the media has been fascinated by the research surrounding brain development and music, eagerly reporting on the latest studies to the delight of the music-loving parents of young children.
An Interview with Jon Bon Jovi - 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Cant Be Wrong
The idea originated with singer Jon Bon Jovi. Jon kept upping the ante with his label and ultimately they consented to a four-CD set of essentially new material.
How to Use the Entire Piano Keyboard
There are 88 keys on the piano keyboard. Most pianists use about 1/3 of this number most of the time.
Sheet Music - Violin and Other String Instruments
The violin is a bowed stringed instrument and is the highest pitched member of the violin family. It sits along side its cousins - the other members of the violin family - the viola, cello, and double bass.
How To Play Piano Using Chord Symbols
Chord symbols (for example, Fm7, Cmaj7 or G6) are a type of notation used frequently in jazz and other areas of modern music to notate chord progressions and changes. This type of notation differs from that of classical music in that chord symbols don't show the function of a chord the way the Roman numeral notation does.
Living Life Loud
Change is good. Just ask the millions of unsigned artists worldwide trying to get their music heard.
People are Turning to Meaningful Songs for Emotional and Spiritual Relief:
A New Breed of Aspiring Songwriters Is In The Making. What are the Sacrifices of the Solo Singer Songwriter in Today's Changing Culture?David La Motte and Michael Alan are performing musicians and singer songwriters who share their experiences and insights about the hard work required to earning a livelihood in the music business.
Beginner Guitar Tips: How to Get a Feel
"I don't like to go into the studio with all the songs worked out and planned before hand?. You've got to give the band something to use its imagination on as well.
|