Hymn Accompaniment Workshop with Tom Fitches

May has been a very exciting month for me. I have so much to blog about! I'll split them up into a series of blog posts so it's not one huge, rambling piece.


On May 5th, the Royal Canadian College of Organists (Toronto Chapter) had a workshop about how to play hymns. Thomas Fitches led the workshop at St. Clement's Church.

The description of the workshop said:

 I had my first RCCO exam coming up - The Service Playing exam and, of course, I went.


Playing a hymn is different from doing a piece for a recital.

• You have to think about where the congregation will breathe when they are singing. 
• You need to think about the introduction - The congregants need to know when to sing
• Rhythm is important - it needs to be steady or the people singing might get confused
• The tempo needs to be at a speed where the congregation can sing a line in one breath
• You have to think about the meaning of the words and this should be reflected in your choice of registration. 

At the hymn playing workshop we worked on all of these and more!

Here was the first time I played through the hymn, Lord Jesus Think on Me (Southwell)

https://youtu.be/zYpB7tdSiH8

I needed to play just a bit faster, and I needed to extend the introduction so that the last notes I'd play would be in the same key that the congregation would sing.


Here is how it sounded after and with people singing.

https://youtu.be/ieYT8YdTNT4

It is so different going from practicing alone to playing with people singing. I don't usually play for a congregation, so this was really good for me.

I think it is really helpful that the RCCO offers this kind of workshop and it's free!
Tom even brought tim-bits, pastries and coffee to share!

Thank you so much Tom, and thank you to the RCCO for putting on the workshop!