As the composer of Easy Hymn Accompaniments for Piano, I certainly know how I would play these little pieces. I have my own instincts about tempo, phrasing, balance, pedaling, and tone. When I play them, I naturally shape them according to my own musical understanding and experience.
But a question that increasingly interested me while writing this series was this:
How would you play them?
Or, for the teacher:
How would you help your students learn to play them?
Those questions became central to the character of the series itself.
Rather than prescribing every interpretive detail (as I tend to do in my hymn arrangements for piano), I chose to leave space for musical thought and discovery. The notes are carefully composed and intentionally voiced, but key expressive decisions are left open to the performer and teacher.
In that sense, these accompaniments function almost like a musical coloring book.
Not in the sense of something unfinished or simplistic, but in the sense that the structure is already present while the player supplies the color.
One pianist may shape a hymn with warmth and lyricism; another may bring quieter simplicity or firmer rhythmic clarity. One teacher may encourage generous pedaling and singing phrasing; another may emphasize transparency and restraint. Different approaches may reveal different dimensions of the same piece.
Too often, students come to believe that musical expression exists only in the printed markings placed on the page by the composer or editor. In fact, much piano teaching unintentionally trains students to follow markings mechanically rather than to think musically.
But real musicianship develops when players begin learning how to make interpretive decisions for themselves—how to listen, evaluate, shape, and respond thoughtfully to the music before them.
These accompaniments are intended to encourage precisely that kind of growth.
The score becomes not merely a set of instructions to follow, but a place for musical conversation:
- What mood does this accompaniment suggest?
- Where should the phrase breathe?
- What dynamic feels natural?
- How can the music support the melody most beautifully?
- What kind of touch best serves the harmony and texture?
- How could pedaling be used to impact the overall quality?
- How does the hymn text shape your answers to the questions above?
Those decisions and more can be discussed, explored, and even written directly into the score during lessons and practice.
In many ways, these books occupy a space between hymn accompaniments, compositional models, pedagogical studies, and guided interpretive exercises. Each piece is complete and usable as written, yet each also invites the performer to participate in shaping the final musical result.
Only the notes are on the page.
The musical “color” comes largely from the performer.
And perhaps that is one of the most rewarding aspects of hymn playing itself: the realization that even familiar melodies can still illuminate new shades of beauty, depth, warmth, and meaning in the hands of thoughtful musicians.