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hymns - sing by number
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hymns - sing by number |
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Subject: hymns - sing by number From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 07 Dec 07 - 10:15 AM I have joined a new church, which is small and rather informal. Out leader learned that I like music, and it's become a habit that I will lead the offertory song. Sometimes I play something on an instrument, sometimes I lead the group in song. One thing I have noticed is that the songs in the hymnal are usually too high for the group. Maybe Midwesterners just pitch their voices lower than the rest of the English-speaker world out of life-long habit. Whatever the reason, we have only one person who can hit the high E's and D's beloved of the hymnal editors. Recently I was looking for a good tune and came across a version of 'There's a Wideness in God's Mercy' which was set to a grand, mountain-sounding tune called 'Lord Revive Us.' I loved the tune, but I consider those words mediocre. Down at the bottom of the page was printed 87 87 D. In the back of the hymnal is a chart which lists all the other songs of the 87 87 D type which can be played to the same tune. One of those was Praise the Lord! O Heavens Adore Him! This song, with a tune in Ab [by Haydn] that goes up to Eb, is one that we would probably never sing, at least not well. So I fired up Noteworthy Composer and fit the words of Praise the Lord to the tune of Lord Revive Us. I also lowered it. The result was a big hit. The Sunday of that song, we had three visitors from the Evangelical Temple of Something [I forget what.] There were a father, a mother, and a teenage boy. They might have been relatives of the visiting pastor. The song has the words 'Praise the Lord, for he has spoken. Worlds his mighty voice obeyed.' I explained that the 'worlds' of the song were the planets, that when the words were written,such things as the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter were still new and exciting to people. What kept them in their courses? At that moment I glanced up and saw that the boy was regarding me with interest and delight. The rings of Saturn! The moons of Jupiter! These are things a kid can be interested in. It was a good moment. I distributed 10 copies of the hybrid song and only got 8 back. I consider that a success. |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: wysiwyg Date: 07 Dec 07 - 12:24 PM leenia, As you probably know I've been songleading in our parish for over ten years now. Quite often a congregation will easily be able to sing whatever words you point them to, to whatever tune you lead, even if you don't give them any notation to follow. And/or, they can easily sing in whatever key you lead from, even if they are looking at the notation in another key, as long as the text matches. Just tell them as you introduce the piece what change you have made so that the more classically-trained people with perfect pitch can catch a clue. This way you can be even more creative, but with less paperwork to eventually burn out your enthusiasm. Ten years into the thing, I find I'm simplifying our approach more and more with greater and greater effect-- so much so that I look forward to the voice-only workshop I'll lead for note-dependent "serious" church musicians in June. Have fun! ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: Jack Campin Date: 07 Dec 07 - 07:11 PM In this situation it's worth learning how to transpose at sight, as most church organists do. |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: Kent Davis Date: 07 Dec 07 - 10:31 PM One of the advantages of shape notes is that they make it easy to use relative pitch rather than absolute pitch. You can make the "do" any note you want or need it to be. Have you tried shape notes? Kent |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: Bee Date: 07 Dec 07 - 10:52 PM Leeneia, that was a problem in our older church for well over 100 years (not exaggerating, the original church is more than 200 years old, and the pump organ at least a hundred, and my tone deaf grandmother played it for about sixty years). Two or three natural sopranos would manage to hit all the notes, the rest of the small congrgation either went silent every second line end or sort of growled out an octave lower. We would have loved someone who would try to sort something out as you have. (Not dissin' my Grandma, she was doing her best and no one else could play at all.) |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 07 Dec 07 - 11:26 PM That's it exactly, Bee. I once had a book on the English language which claimed that sopranos are twice as common as altos. I really doubt that. I'm sure that allergies, dry air, smoking and singing in the morning don't help either. (The Midwest is bad for allergies, for various reasons.) I'd like to try shape note singing someday. I understand that you have to join a group that already does it in order to master it. |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: Azizi Date: 08 Dec 07 - 12:07 AM leeneia, I like your story about the catching the teenage boy's attention with your explanation of the words to the song 'Praise the Lord, for he has spoken. Worlds his mighty voice obeyed'. Seemingly small things like that might make a real difference in a person's life. Congratulations and best wishes, Azizi |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: Liz the Squeak Date: 08 Dec 07 - 02:23 AM "book on the English language which claimed that sopranos are twice as common as altos." Depends a lot on demigraphics. Within a college, yes, sopranos are more common. Within an older environment, you'll find a larger number of altos. As women get older they find the natural elasticity of a lot of things isn't as good as it was, so it isn't as easy to get the high notes. After 30+ years in a choir of some sorts, I'm finding it not so easy to hit the stuff above the stave as once I could. I had hoped to sing alto in the choir I joined a few years ago, but they already had a full complement. As it turns out, I'm the third oldest soprano in a 40 strong choir, where the female membership is 2/3rds and spans 45+ years. If you average that out, then at age 38, somewhere between second soprano and alto is the common female range. Some of it is also psychological - if people can see a note that goes off the stave (up or down) then they think it's unsingable. LTS |
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Subject: RE: hymns - sing by number From: Kent Davis Date: 08 Dec 07 - 10:12 AM I haven't mastered shape note singing after many years, but that's because I'm shockingly devoid of talent. On the other hand, if you can read standard notation, you're already half-way there. If you can also sing intervals on a scale, you're close to having mastered it. Can you sing (for example) "do mi so do" and hit the right notes? If you can, you just need to learn seven shapes, which represent "do","re", "mi", "fa", "so", "la", and "ti". This is assuming the singing is unaccompanied. I know even less about instruments than I do about singing. This is also assuming the seven-note system of shape-notes. There is another system which uses only four shapes and about which I know almost nothing, but it looks hard. Some references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_note http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:vkXWVjej-YMJ:www.paperlesshymnal.com/shapnote/shaped.htm+%22churches+of+Christ%22+%22shape+ Kent |
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