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I have a question about the playing level of beginner and early intermediate Baroque, Classical, and Romantic pieces as compared to some of the old traditional gospel hymns. I find the hymns so much easier to play than some of the examples in the piano literature books I'm learning from. Some of the pieces such as Minuet in g minor by J.S. Bach from the Anna Magdalena Notebook has taken me much longer to learn than any of the hymns that I've played. (What A friend We Have In Jesus, Nothing But the Blood, Sweet Hour of Prayer, etc.) It could be that I've heard the hymns so many times that they just come natural to me. I suspect, however, the hymns are easier to play because of the blocked chords while the other pieces I'm learning have the fingers moving in contrary motion some of the time. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this same experience?

Yes, hymns generally are easier. They're written to be sung, and sung by singers without much training (generally) in voice. Thus the range of notes that need to be played is limited (usually the lowest note is around F in the bass clef and the highest note is around G in the treble cleff). Each word or syllable in a hymn has its own chord. There are no large leaps or multi-note chords that must be grabbed by each hand, and no arpeggios to speak of. So, yes, they are simple--but lovely, too. They make good sight-reading practice.

Stubbie,
Thank you for the quick reply. It all makes sense now, and I can see exactly what you mean. I never thought of the hymns as providing sight reading practice, but they have actually helped me in that fashion now that I think about it. I like learning to play different styles of music, so I'll continue with all of them. Thanks Again

Are you playing 4-part (SATB) arrangements, or something simplified (e.g. left-hand block chords, with a RH melody line) ?

SATB hymns need the same kind of "fingers moving in contrary motion" that you find in typical Baroque pieces. Bach was Bach.

@charles:

Stubbie is correct: The hymns mentioned are not Bach and not Baroque, and yes they are decidedly easier for the reasons given by Stubbie and I might add, have simpler rhythms, as they are intended to be sung by an untrained group.

-Nothing But the Blood- 1876
-What a Friend We have in Jesus- 1855

http://www.hymnsite.com/pdf/526piano.pdf

Many hymns are from recognised composers, designed to be sung and played easily, and not draw attention to themselves since the object of them is to worship God.

They knew a bit in those days!

Yes, they're simpler than what I was thinking about. Not many accidentals, and all voices move together. As opposed to the Bach chorales:

http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/arr/us/satb_chorales.pdf

which are much more complex.

Charles Cohen,
You asked how I was playing the hymns. I'm playing them as written in the Baptist hymnal. I'm playing all four voices. I'm going to tackle one that looks a little more difficult than what I've been playing. O Sacred Head, Now Wounded arr. by J.S. Bach. I have played some hymns as you described. (Blocked chords in the left hand along with the melody line.) I only utilize that method if it's new to me and I need to improvise on the spur of the moment. I can analyze the chords pretty quickly if they're not too complex, so it has helped me out a few times. I do agree after considering it, that most hymns are are actually pretty simple. I've played some that involve only three primary chords and an accidental thrown in now and then for interest. One of my main interests is theory, and I totally enjoy music analysis. The genius of it all!

...and their monastic antecedents are what musical notation was invented for, almost exactly a thousand years ago. It was Guido of Arezzo who gave us the familiar horizontal lines for the diatonic scale. Accidentals came a little later.

I agree with this. My mom and dad said I was accidental. And I didn't appear until the 1950s.

Funny!

Wow, I always thought four-part hymns, even the easier ones, were much harder than two-part piano pieces like that Minuet in G minor. More notes in the hymns, and many LH impossibilities where the tenor and bass voices are very far apart so the RH has to either take over a note or leave it out due to distance from the soprano.
Proper organists can sight-read hymns and put the soprano in the RH on one keyboard, the alto and tenor in the LH on another keyboard, and the bass in the feet. Those people are amazing.

Hooray for you for finding the hymns so easy! Maybe it is partly due to playing them often and being used to it?

The only challenge I can think that exists in two-part minuets but not in hymns is that the voices in piano music often move at different times, while that's rare in hymns?

Hreichgott,
I'm beginning to think that I find the hymns fairly easy because I've heard them all my life in church. The same ones over and over for many years. They're so familiar that I don't have to count or figure out the rhythms. I always choose hymns that I have sung for years and the ones that look the easiest to play, mostly where all the voices move at the same time, and no complex rhythms. I also look for those that are in keys that I'm used to playing in. I've had to play some tenor notes in the right hand in a few hymns, but that's never been a problem. For some unknown reason, my fingers just think they are supposed to be playing more than one part. Hence, I'm constantly playing more than one part in each hand when I play two part pieces. All the above are probably the reasons I have had to spend more time and work much harder to perfect pieces like the Minuet in g minor. By the way, organ sure sounds difficult to me. I'll sure leave that to someone else.

Hymns written in four parts are for the benefit of the choir as well. Sight reading these if you`re not used to it, isn`t all that easy initially. I played organ in church and was thrown in deeply. Had to sight read new stuff at choir practice without prior personal run through. Choirmaster (the vicar) called for the intro. Off I went. 3 of those 4 parts got played, sort of.
Terry the Tenner spoke up. "Can`t hear my part . . . "
`Twas always the tenor part I missed . . .
He got over it.
On the organ, the feet do the bass, so you only have to play 3 parts with the hands. Makes it easier.

So organists have develop toe independence?

I don't think they take off their shoes and use individual toes. So it would rather be feet independence (or is it "foot independence"?).