Tips for Hymn Improvisation

Hi there! I hope that you all had a blessed weekend! As a piano player and teacher, I’ve found that one of the most challenging things for advancing pianists is improvisation, specifically on hymns. Although it’s a great start to be able to just play the notes, we really want our music to flow and be pleasing to the ears of the listeners. If you ever play with others singing, then you know that the piano player must carry everyone along, and that’s difficult to do if you play only the simple notes. On the other hand, maybe you’ve heard recordings, or you’ve watched accomplished pianists, and you feel overwhelmed at the mere idea of improvising like they do!

I don’t know all the theory behind improvisation nor am I as accomplished in it as some of my friends (or my younger sister 😊), but I do have some practical tips that I’d like to share with aspiring pianists. It’s not that complicated to be able to pleasantly improvise. And no, you don’t have to naturally play by ear to be able to do it either—although that certainly helps. (Remember, your ear will develop over years of playing.)

First Tip:

This is simple…listen to others play and improvise. I love listening to cds of piano players that are accomplished beyond what I will ever be! You could also listen to your church pianist and/or your teacher play. From this, you will get ideas of techniques (such as changing keys or adding arpeggios) that add something special to your playing. You’ll hear sounds that are really pleasing, and eventually with practice, those same sounds will naturally come in your playing.

Second Tip:

Start simply. Pick an easy hymn in your hymnbook. Notice the structure of the music. Are there are a lot of octaves in it? I love taking octaves to improvise with. Instead of playing the octave as written, I will start either on the top or lowest note, add a third note (as if I were playing a chord), and then roll to the last note. This may be stretched out over several melody notes. This can be where a rudimentary knowledge of music theory comes in handy. Most of the groups of notes in your hymnbook are intervals, although they’re often erroneously called chords. An interval is just the space between two notes. To make a chord, you must add at least a third note. I love to make my intervals into chords. It adds fullness to the music!

Sometimes if I see a single note, or a close interval, then I will make it into an octave. Again, this just adds more to the music. Another idea is to repeat a group of notes an octave higher or lower—for example, let’s say my last set of notes in a song is an A and a C# in the right hand. I play that A and C# in the octave they’re written in the music, and then quickly play them again an octave higher while playing a very low A in the left hand (simultaneously). This adds a definitive ending to the music.

Third Tip—More Practical Ideas:

You can also invert chords. This simply means to take a regular chord and mix up the order of the notes so that the tonic (or first note) is no longer the lowest note. Suppose I have a C major chord—C, E, G. I can do a “second inversion” by taking E and putting E as the lowest note, then playing G next and C last. Or I could take my G and put if first, then add C and E (first inversion). Thus, I get several different sounds from the same basic chord.

Other ways to change the sound of your music include playing in a different octave than the music is written—for example, bringing the bass clef up into the treble clef and moving the notes in the treble clef an octave higher as well. Or keeping one hand in the first position and moving the other an octave higher or lower.

Another technique that’s often used is changing keys. The simplest way to do this is either to go a half step up or a half step down. For example: I’m playing in the key of D (two sharps), and I want to change the song up a bit. So, I go a half step down (which means I’m transitioning from sharps to flats), and I’m now playing in the key of D flat. There is a catch with this method, though. It only works with certain keys. If you don’t think carefully, you’ll end up playing six sharps or flats! (There’s another technique to changing keys—parallel major and minors. I don’t have the space to go into a lengthy explanation here, and to be honest, it’s really not a technique I’ve ever used. If you’re interested, you can easily learn about it online!)

There are two other things to keep in mind as you improvise: Remember that the melody always needs to be predominant. Don’t improvise so much that you lose the melody. This is especially important if you are accompanying singers. The focus should be on the song’s words and melody, not the pianist. And maintain a balance of improvising between the left hand and right hand. Typically, I improvise a bit more in the left hand while bringing out the melody in the right hand.

Fourth Tip:

Practice, practice, practice. This is the best thing you can do to learn improvisation and develop your own style of playing. It will take time; but have fun playing around. Not to be cliché, (but I will be), “practice makes perfect.”

I know this can be hard to envision without seeing it. Maybe, just maybe someday, if I become more proficient at technology, I’ll try doing a video post. No promises, though! If you have any questions or if you’re a musician and have something to add, feel free to leave a note in the comments. Happy piano playing! 😊