help with hymns

[ctduckett]

i'm really need help with playing hymns...my big problem is that i don't know how to read music...does anyone have any advice?

[ddw4e]

I am in the same situation...I don't read at all (actually going to take come sight reading classes this year as one of my goals) but I hear hymns all the time and I got attached to them very quick especially when I started playing...My style is kinda depending an where I am at...If I am at a church where it's basically hymns, I can play traditional and you wouldn't tell that it's a 21 yr pld playing them  :lol:  :lol: . But it's something that you have to love and you really need to get on the ball with them if you want to be a complete musician...I have some CDs of old hymns and I would recommend getting them...GE Patterson (Singing The Old Time Way), Mahalia Jackson and others I can't name...and start listening to them and hear the style because you could be at a church where you have to play like that and not comtemptory.  

By the way...don't listen to people that say tradional isn't good..traditional style was how comtemptory style came about!! :lol:  :lol:

Hope this helps a lil!

[ShadowPhace]

I'm in the same situation too... Not to be bragging, but I really can play but I can not read music. I'm a self taught musician who's talent was given to me from God.  

What I found out when I was experimenting with hymns is that they use high octaves to play them. Hymns also uses a lot of phat chords to achieve both high and lower octaves.

Some of the common keys that hymns are played in are Bb, F, Eb, and C.

[ctduckett]

thanks, anyone else won't to post a reply?

[sybesq]

Hi, ctduckett!  I don't know what level you've reached in your playing.  But, if you're looking for very basic chords for hymns, you should visit the link below.  You'll see an A-Z section of tabs with more than 1,000 song entries, many of which are hymns.  When you click on a particular song, you find words and simple chords.  If you're an advanced player, you'll know how to "phatten" those.  If not, you'll find them very helpful anyway as long as you know, for instance, that an "F" is played with an "F-A-C" in its root inversion and that it can also be played as "C-F-A", etc.


http://www.praise-worship.net/praise/index.html


In other words, you don't need to be able to read music, but you do need to know what simple chord symbols mean.  Hope that you'll find this helpful.  God bless --

[truth4life]

Thanks for the great site with all those chords!  I've always wanted to read music, but when I started taking lessons and my teacher taught chords..I really love playing that way!  You can take a chord and play it how you want it to sound, and you can always phatten or even simplify a chord for your level of playing or taste of sound.  Chords are really a great way to play, especially if you have an old hymn and want to jazz it up.  You won't have to learn to read music at all, and most song books with have the sheet music, but then it will have the basic chords at the top, so as long as you know chords you can play anything.

[Kemi]

i'm really need help with playing hymns...my big problem is that i don't know how to read music...does anyone have any advice?

Hello ctduckett! I don't know if you read can read music but my advice, and this is based on how I learned to play, is to get a basic book on playing the piano that has things like reading the Grand Staff and rythms and then (yes another purchase) a easy to play book that uses the both the Bass clef and the Treble clef. There are several out there.  That's how I started to play and then moved on. When I say basic book just any Piano Method book. You don't necessarily want to learn the complete method but the first 2 or three books should get you going on reading music. Then you can move on to a method you like better.

I pray this will be some help to you.

Kemi

http://www.strugglingchurchmusician.us