If you want your congregation to sing
confidently from the first note of each and every verse of your hymns,
you MUST eliminate any pause (or rallentando/rit.) from your playover
or any part of the accompaniment except perhaps a ral. at the end of the hymn…
This statement will not go
down well with some of our friends at the major churches and cathedrals
who consistently use a somewhat questionable method of starting a hymn and
moving between verses.
And while I am not in their league, it saddens me that congregations at
their services frequently
fail to start singing from the beginning of each verse; if this is you,
listen carefully next time you have a congregation
but no choir or conductor to lead them and note carefully what happens, or
doesn't.
There must be a better
way!
Sing to
him a New Song,
play skilfully and shout for joy...
There is little
better than singing joyfully in worship with others in a church service,
and little worse than finding that the whole experience can be just so embarrassing!
The singing can be the high, or too often a low point
on this scale.
People love to sing, but they won't do it unless everyone
else is singing well and confidently.
So much of this is up to YOU, the
Organist;
Remember, YOU are the Orchestra and most importantly the Conductor!...
You have
to co-ordinate yourself with the singers and it's no easy task; The
Complete Hymn gives you a number of aids to achieving unity in song. It
sets out to make what you do workable, in particular how to introduce a
hymn and how to move from verse to verse.
The Volume contains:
-
Explanatory
text about the processes and principles behind the settings here
and in the Volume
-
Approx.
200
of the most popular hymns and worship songs detailed - The SPECIALS;
-
At least 250
more hymns and songs in a table illustrating playover section and
verse joins/bridges;
-
Altogether
over 150
pages with all of the hymns and songs fully indexed by First Lines and TUNE.
For
more details, read on HERE.
Several samples HERE
and
how to play Worship Songs HERE
Updates
are included on the last page of the volume and HERE.
Download
the Volume in PDF HERE. (6Mb.)
On your laptop save the file to a folder in the usual way;
On your tablet save the volume to files.
Update:
August 2023
It had
become apparent that further changes were needed to some of the hymns
and songs presented in
The Complete Hymn. While I am entirely satisfied regarding
the principles that I have set out here, the practicalities have not, in
a few instances, worked out as well as they should.
I have
also introduced a new name for the Volume; this represents a change of
emphasis:
You
are the Conductor!
As a
result I am reviewing all the examples set out in the Volume. Several
hymns that were detailed have been removed and a small number of new
ones are now included.
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