Tips for practicing for/playing along with church hymns

[HaveTrumpetWillTravel]

I'm going to "play along" in our small church this Sunday with my little C trumpet. The church is traditional in its music. If it goes well, my goal is to accompany for Easter and maybe work my way up to some solos in the future.

If you can help with any of these questions, I will be grateful:
-There are 4 hymns + some additional pieces I could play with (such as the gloria patri, the doxology). If you do this at church, how much do you normally play along for?
-I'm a little bit worried about staying fresh between hymns, since I may go 15-20 minutes without playing. Any tips?
-Do I need to stand, or do you think I could sit? (Less scary for a newer player and worried about running out of air if nervous)
-I'm also a little worried about endurance. Right now (returning after 20 years, playing for about a month) I'm often doing 30-40 minute practices or sometimes 20 minutes x 2. One idea is to simply play alternate verses (1, 3), (1, 4). Is this common? The music isn't challenging--nothing above an e on the staff, no complex rhythms, no more than 3 sharps or flats.

Wish me luck, and any advice is appreciated!

[Don Herman rev2]

[razeontherock]

Enjoy it! What a great opportunity. Trumpet really does well in this type of situation. What are the acoustics of the room? Cathedral, small, dead room, or?

[HaveTrumpetWillTravel]

Thank you Don Herman! That advice helps a lot. I may plan to drop out for a verse once or twice per hymn. I'm still not sure how to descant, or really even comfortable harmonizing. I do think this go around on trumpet, I've had 20 years of other musical experience and am more aware of pitch, tone, rhythm, so I'm hoping to be able to add more to this in the future.

Razeontherock, it's a small episcopal church--high ceiling, tile floors, wooden pews. No organ--just a piano. I'm hoping I can sit next to the piano with the music. I will try to focus on tone rather than volume, since I think I'll project fine. I am playing on my pocket Carol C, which hopefully is good for this environment. I may try one of those silver mutes if I can get my hands on one.

I'm still hoping to get a teacher. I'm locating more brass stores, which is a good sign.

[Don Herman rev2]

There are tons of descant books around so I would start looking for those first. Make sure they are in the right key (or transpose them) and fit the arrangement (our hymnal seems to throw a curve or two now and then either with the key or rhythm). The ones I use most are a couple of sets (one for Bb, one for C) by S.D. Wolff and the books by Douglas Smith. Another alternative is to play the alto or tenor part up an octave with a little embellishment. As you get more comfortable with the hymns it becomes easier, natch.

HTH - Don
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

[cheiden]

For the church work I've done I frequently play every other verse. I work with the organist to determine if it's appropriate for me to play the intro or leave it to the organ. Remember that in your position it's rarely about the trumpet and more about propping up the choir.
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[starkadder]

Practice in the space until you feel comfortable, and practice with the organist to get used to the entrances. Set up your first attempts to be low risk. Also, record yourself at practice to get used to listening to yourself critically. Practice in the church with other people around listening to you. Figure out what you need to work on before you put yourself out there. Its easy to feel like you've crashed and burned, when its actually not that bad.

[drboogenbroom]

Just a comment on creating a quick and easy descant or almost any traditional church hymn:

Take the alto part and play it up an octave.

Kevin
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By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by concentrating on technique one does not arrive at precision.

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[dstdenis]

[DH]

A lot of good advice here. I've spent probably 30 years doing this and one problem I had was keeping track of verses (I was in the balcony and couldn't hear the singing very well). If there were 3 verses I'd play 1 and 3. If there were 4 I'd play 1,2 and 4. If there were 5 I'd play 1, 3, 5. And for 6 it would be 1, 2, 4, 6. That always gave plenty of rest.

I usually did a descant on the last verse. I also recommend the 4 Doug Smith Hymns and Descants. You can also find free descants online. A quick search found these (and I have no idea if they're good or not)

http://whitmill.net/descants/

Have fun.

[Nonsense Eliminator]

Remember that most of the people in the congregation are not trumpet players. They don't care about high notes, fast notes, descants, or any other funny business. In fact, some of them may actively dislike anything that confuses them during hymns, i.e., anything other than the melody. In other words: if you play a beautiful tune beautifully, you will make people happy.

There are also no prizes for playing the most verses. Every other verse is fine. First and last is fine. Less is more -- if you play all the time, you're texture, but if you play only sometimes, you're special. If you come up with a little arpeggiated fanfare before the refrain of the last hymn, people will say, "I loved that little doo doo doo thing you did." If you do it every other measure, it becomes wallpaper and bugs the little old ladies. You don't need to play every hymn, either -- if it's in a lousy register or a lousy key or it's rhythmically confusing or you just plain don't like it, leave it out.

If you are going to play anything other than the melody, especially on the last verse, BE SURE THAT THE ORGANIST DOESN'T HAVE PLANS. Sometimes they like to reharmonize a verse here and there, and that tenor line might not fit.

Bottom line, play pretty and everybody will love it.
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Richard Sandals
NBO

[Crazy Finn]

[cheiden]

[laser170323]

I play in our Chapel in the summer. My dad plays the organ. People always appreciate the playing.

The main point I try to remember about playing hymns is to create phrases that support the text. Breathe at the commas. Accent notes where the words have exclamation points. Add to the beauty and meaning of the text. Ultimately, you must play like you're singing.

The people who do this best, in my opinion, are The Salvation Army. If you ever go to one of their services (they are a 'real church') you will hear sacred music making at its best. They play as if they are singing. They support the congregation and not overpower them. And most importantly, they always know that praising God comes first.

[kehaulani]

You know, every once in a while there are threads which concentrate on things other than how to play "high, fast & loud", self-aggrandizing blogs, and micro-analyses of basically inconsequential things, but this one has been great for me and I thank all the participants.

I've been in the business so long that I basically just pull the horn out of the case, play the job, pack it back up and leave. Sometimes not even really being aware of where I am at. But also, sometimes, not paying attention to the fundamentals, taking them for granted.

Your building this thread from the bottom up has reminded me of being more aware and paying attention to the fundamentals on which everything else is based. So - thank you.

Oh, ps. - for the OP. Make sure that where you're sitting has a door handy for quick exits.

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[John Mohan]

There's already plenty of great advice in this thread. I'll just reiterate that you definitely will want to lay out for at least one, if not several of the verses in the hymns. Trying to play 3 or 4, or even 5 verses in a row is a recipe for an endurance disaster beyond our worst imagination.

On a four verse hymn I'll typically play the 1st and 2nd verses, lay out on the 3rd and then play a descant part for the 4th verse (or I'll play the melody of the 4th verse a bit louder). If I had less endurance than I have I would not hesitate to lay out on both the 2nd and 3rd verses.

Best wishes,

John Mohan
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[laser170323]

I agree with John Mohan. Besides endurance problems, playing every verse gets old to the ear of the listener. It reminds me of the TV commercial about becoming "nose blind" to odors. If you play every verse, the congregation will become "ear blind" to your playing.

[roynj]

look up trumpet descants on amazon and you will find some good resources.

[MikeyMike]

Don't overstay (overplay) your welcome and you'll have a much better chance of getting invited back. Every day in the interim will give you time to improve.
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Ahh... that old case smell.

[HaveTrumpetWillTravel]

Thanks everyone! I played this morning and it went very well. This is a "low season" in the little church we go to, so it was pretty low pressure. Our pianist is a seminary student (no organ), so while ideally I would have practiced with him more he also is doing this out of kindness and I didn't want to make his job hard. We walked through every thing at 9 (= one play through of everything) and the service was at 9:30.

What I did that worked:
-sitting by the piano was good because I could watch the pianist for cues
-I played the first and last verses usually
-I looked at the regular musical pieces (gloria patri) and had those prepped and played them
-I went lower volume (to me it sounded loud, because there's basically no carpeting or anything to dampen the acoustics, but others told me I didn't overpower them and could even play louder)
-I really didn't have trouble with breathing (my main fear)
-Nothing was out of my range and I think my tone was "OK"

Things I would do differently or reconsider
-The stool they have by the piano is squeaky--shouldn't be an issue but it meant I was trying to sit motionless
-One or two of the regular pieces I need to practice with the pianist sometime. The one I skipped and another I played the first part
-I could tell I flubbed some parts (hit a note halfway getting started, didn't hold a note long enough)
-The music was slower than I had practiced, but I think I stayed with the pianist fairly well
-I did tune with the piano when I came in, but in the future I'd maybe like to spend some time getting more exactly in tune. I've read that C trumpet is a little harder to play in tune, and maybe intonation is something I should work (I don't currently have a Bb, so at least that isn't throwing me off).

You all were a BIG help. I had band in junior high and high school and have spent my life in the church, so I didn't feel like a total beginner. At the same time, I never did music theory or chorus, so transposition or even the names of different parts are still beyond me. I'm not yet at the point where I could write my own descants without a lot of work. Playing on a C and doing melody was not bad. This church does not have a regular choir, so I wasn't "competing" with anyone, but I will have to find out whether there will be a choir for Easter. I am going to see if I can get a church music student to spend some time with me figuring out how to improve for liturgical music. I am probably going to play at Easter (April 1 this year) so that gives me about six weeks to work on things. I think I can probably do it. I've ordered a metal mute and may fiddle around with that also.

Thank you all again for the help in getting prepped, staying relaxed, and working to improve.