Hymn-Style Piano Playing: Learn to Play Four-Part Chorales at the Keyboard

Hymn-Style Piano Playing is a collection of studies and teaching pieces to help developing pianists learn to play hymns and chorales at the piano. The music in this book comes from a great diversity of chorale traditions. Orchestral music, sacred and secular choir music, church hymns, national anthems, string quartets, and piano music in chorale style are all included, drawn from six of the world's continents. Helpful pedagogical advice is given for the etudes and preparatory literature in the first half of the book, and the second half includes many hymns and chorales from which the teacher and student may select for further study. Nearly all bachelor's degree programs in music education with choral emphasis have a piano proficiency requirement that is satisfied by piano classes, piano lessons, and/or an examination that includes reading chorale-style music. This collection of technical exercises and music is specifically designed to teach the students how to play hymns and chorales in order to satisfy this program requirement. The prerequisites for a course that would use this text are approximately one year of group piano or piano lessons.