Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Enhancing hymn playing

So....., for my Christian brothers out there or at least fellow church organist' or anyone else who can help, my question is, what are some ways to enhance playing hymns?? I know creativity is a big part but inspiration is required. For instance some of the hymns have a calm lovely almost sad feel to them. So when playing something like that how would you add some originality to it to give the listener the sad feel??? What type of piano music should I listen to that can help me enhance the way I play hymns to give it more feeling??? Currently I read and play according to the book but I don't want it to be dull like that. I want to add some flare to it. How should I go about doing so?

You don't really need to add any flare, the four part harmony in itself is quite beautiful!

Focus on beautiful tone and good voicing - perhaps doubling the bass if it's a particularly "pipe organ" hymn such as Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.

On tempi: It is either a song or a dance, pick one and let the choir and assembly follow you.

several organist have some and visited my church and the way they played it was so beautiful. If I could make a recording just to give you an idea you'd see. But you sound like you're familiar with the hymns. What I'm talking about for instance is take for example the hymn you used: Praise My soul The King of Heaven. Say they are singing and you are playing, "praise my soul the king of heaven....." when that line ends notice there's a slight stretch/hold of the ending word before they move on to the next line. During that slight hold rather than just holding the notes I'm talking about playing some style like quickly running through like 5 keys to give it that ascending sound before proceeding on to the next line. Do you understand now?