A bit more thoughts on music discipleship.
Let’s make use of the song / hymn Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.
For the one who plays on the keyboard, piano or organ, they might take this opportunity to learn the basic harmony of F major. It gives them more than that, for example
- First inversion C major on the left hand, second bar:
- The use of Eb harmony, flattened 7th, for dramatic effect, see below.
- The use of II7 – V7 – I resolution, e.g. bars 8 to 9, see below.
For the guitarist, some will struggle playing F and Bb chords. This is a good opportunity to put these in practice, and identify which chords you can relax the hand and wrist so that you are not continuously in pain playing the chords throughout the song.
Further, back to the keyboard players, the left hand part is good opportunity to play the tonic-fifth-tonic pattern (useful as a way to learn playing octaves). See Music 004.
Some bars have variations, e.g. 2nd bar is first inversion of C (explained above), 4th bar is triad structure of A minor. See Music 004, which is bar 12.
And note the variation in the chorus, moving away from the octave and triadic patterns.
There are other learning points too. One is those half-beat notes (do you call them ‘pick-up’?) Best examples are in the extract below, Music 006.
The learning point here is when the right hand melody comes in. The first two start on the 4th crotchet beat, the third one starts on the 3rd-and-a-half beat, to go with ‘because of’. Practising this on the right-hand only is more difficult than playing two-hand, because left hand marks time. But this is the passage with the most changes in the left-hand pattern.
I still haven’t talked about how best to play those secondary notes on the right hand, below the melody. And whether you must adhere to the 7th chords on the guitar – can you play Gm7 instead of Gm?
Also, why Fmaj7 chord for ‘rich’ (indicated in Music 006). Topic for another day.
For the guitarists, the C – Bb – C is one passage where chord changes is a bit murderous. But these chords are needed to give the full ‘tone painting’ for the lyrics. Elsewhere, the Gm7 – C – F sequence might also be difficult; though this sequence occurs in many F major songs so often you will soon master it!
The above details highlights some learning points for this piece. You can do the practice (piano, guitar etc.) solely as music practice. Practice the music for the sake of the music. Or, add to that, you want to get to the music played ‘correctly’ because you want to play this music well, or in some good way that suits worship in your church, and contributing to your music team.
There’s nothing magical here.
You can say it is about motivation, goal, aspiration, purpose. Or simply that I practise music to minister to people in worship, not music for the sake of music.
The above is an idea about ‘music discipleship’ using a song to illustrate.
Of course, it has different dimension, for example, practising on F major scale is useful for songs in that key. The unusual chord of Eb major in the key of F major is similar to My Jesus, My Saviour, the use of Ab major in the key of Bb. The mid-bar pick-up notes is nothing new to pianists, they have that for their grade 1 pieces. But in the context of church worship, no one is going to get so angry if you miss these notes. So the motivation is that pianists should have the initiative to do these correctly. The fact that your music team doesn’t demand that does not mean you can make it slip. One day, you might be accompanying a choir and you must then play all the parts.
Until there is motivation for writing a guide on music discipleship, the above is a starter on ideas. See? Others must have done the same thing to cultivate music learning and use of such gifts in church. It’s not that original idea at all.
