Play-overs
The Complete Hymn

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Introduction
The play-over of a hymn or worship song sets the tone entirely. Get this wrong and what follows can go wrong - even for the remainder of a service.

Some Principles
The Play-over is provided for the following:

To identify the tune
To set the style
To pitch it right
To set the pace
To identify the point at which singing starts

All of this is quite a tall order! You, Dear Organist, are the orchestra and conductor rolled into one! If you have never done any conducting, you would be well advised to do some training in this area.

Looking at the details a bit more:

Identify the tune
Conventionally this has meant playing the first two lines of the hymn; it works most of the time but there are many complications regarding other aspects of the play-over as outlined below. But congregations do know their hymns by the first lines. But in some instances you should be looking at the chorus or refrain if there is one. This is sometimes much stronger:

"Rejoice, rejoice" in O come, O come Emmanuel
"Shine! Jesus, shine!" in Lord the light of your love is shining

To help identify the tune, try soloing it on the Great or Choir if you have one; this helps to bring out the tune from the many harmonics that organs exude. Also remember to shorten notes that will be repeated immediately. A succession of crotchets for example, should be played as quaver with quaver rests between. Also remember, never couple a solo manual to the pedals for play-overs.

Set the style
The play-over will need to be soft for the more reflective hymns and songs but for a grand Easter hymn consider using a solo reed.

Set the pitch
If you have a choir, the pitch as set in most hymn books these days will be fine. But if not you must be sure that your congregation can reach those high notes. The circumstances will matter. Jesus Christ is risen today will sound fine in C in a large church on Easter Sunday but it may need to be lower at a sunrise service in the open air. A will be quite high enough.

Set the pace
This is a key part of getting your play-over right

Practice the exact speed beforehand
Get the pace in your head before starting
Just because you have a large church does not mean it must be slower
Never use a rallentando as the means of announcing you are ready for congregation to sing.

Supplementary Notes on the pace of your hymns:

Do not ral. at the end of each verse; the pace of the hymn will get slower and slower;
Count rests carefully; do not rush through them;
Beware hymns in 3:4. They often slow down rather too easily during singing.

Identify the start of the verse beyond any doubt
There is a lot here that does and does not work which is summarised in the table below. You will need to explore this for yourself. But take a look at some of the PDF examples and try them out.

The following does not work very well

Legato style - rhythm and pace get lost
Rallentando - kills the pace - never use it
Pause and wait two beats of silence esp. if slow

The following does work

Rhythmic approach tailored to each hymn
Finish play-over on last line if possible
Design to go straight in

Play-overs The Complete Hymn

Links to other pages

Play-overs
The Complete Hymn