The Music Exchange

My last article was all about guitars, organs and pianos. As they are instruments that are probably the most effective in leading congregational singing they always get the most attention (along with singers).

Instruments that are often overlooked are some of the more orchestral ones — violins, cellos, trumpets, vuvuzelas, etc. How do they fit in with a choir/organ set up, or with a guitar-led band?

Private opinion

One answer is to get a small orchestra together. To be honest (and probably only in my view), this is usually more hassle than it’s worth. Many orchestral instrumentalists need the music arranged and transposed, which takes up time that not many people have. Also, with a large group of players it’s hard to keep up the flow of a meeting, as there’s a greater probability that one of the musicians has got the wrong music, or has a jammed key, etc. (I speak from painful experience.)

However, if an orchestra is used and trained well, and there is someone with enough time on their hands to make arrangements of songs, then an orchestra can be a great encouragement to a congregation, as well as giving good opportunities for instrumentalists to serve. All Souls, Langham Place has some good resources if you’d like to buy orchestral arrangements (http://www.allsoulsorchestra.org/Musical-Scores/).

Major interest

But how about bands and choirs? In a band, orchestral instruments can add real colour to the overall ensemble. They can work just like a lead guitar in giving interest to links, bridges, intros and outros, especially if the player is gifted at improvisation.

As for choirs, it’s rare to see church choirs use any other instrument than an organ to accompany them, but if the general points are applied (below), there’s no reason why a solo instrument couldn’t add real dynamic strength in the same way as in a band.

General tips

So, here are some general tips for solo instrumentalists, and next month I’ll try and give some more specific tips for different players.

1. Remember that your musical qualifications (Grade 7, etc.) have only given you the ability to read music, clap a rhythm and a life-long fear of horn-rimmed spectacles and bells that go ‘ting’. (I actually heard my examiners laughing when I was doing my transposition test during my Associate of the Royal College of Organists exam.) Working with a band is a different game altogether. The problem is that most of us instrumentalists (I’ve dabbled in the violin in the past) have been trained only to read music, so find it very hard to fit in with what a band leader requires of us. ‘Give us a four-bar vamp on E for the link and do a build into the chorus’ to a music-reader translates something like this: ‘Blibble unggggh fla#nni%p guh?’

2. The first point isn’t a reason to panic! The best way to start learning how to play with a band is by getting your confidence up as soon as you can. Use the music, if that’s what you’re comfortable with.

3. Don’t play the tune. If there is a vocalist, then the tune will be well covered (hopefully). Play either the second or third line of music down an octave up (so that you can be heard). If you can’t or don’t want to improvise, this is by far the best way of using your musical gift, unless you have the time to write out your own parts.

4. If there’s no vocalist, then do play the tune, but (again) always an octave higher than the music says, otherwise your sound simply won’t cut through as you’ll be playing at exactly the same pitch as the congregation — you won’t be heard, so you might as well sit down and sing the tune with everyone else.

5. Keep following the music until you get bored, which it’s very easy to do once you’ve played the same thing six or seven times in a row. Then you might be ready to:

6. Take the music away! A very brave thing to do, I know, but it’s one great way of getting your confidence in playing music rather than just playing notes. You may play some wrong notes, but you’ll quickly find that even wrong notes (in the right key) sound absolutely fine. In general, any note that you play that is in the same scale as the key of the song will work. If a song is in C, you could literally go up and down the scale of C major for the whole song, and though it would sound funny, none of the notes would in themselves sound out of place.

7. Don’t play all the time. A solo instrument is primarily there to add colour. Too much colour too much of the time gets a bit garish — like mixing paisley with stripes and spots. Sometimes just playing a few notes while the congregation is holding a longer note or during a rest is all that’s needed.

I’ve used up all my word allowance, so very sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger. More in the September issue. Have a great summer.

Overlooked instrumentalists

Private opinion

Major interest

General tips

Richard Simpkin

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