Playing the piano at church is no easy task. I have been playing at my church for a while now. Many times you are given a lot of things to learn in a short amount of time. You can be often asked to accompany singers on song of which you may have never played before. Sometimes they are going to want you to be at certain level and maybe you just havent attained that level yet. It can be stressful at times especially when you are new to it all. Here are some tips for new piano player who are starting to play piano (christian or gospel).
As newbie or even a seasoned vet you should get as much knowledge about what your doing as you can get. You can’t play what you’ve never heard. You can play something similar but If don’t know what the type music your supposed to be playing sounds like your going to be limited in what you can do. I’m not trying put you in a box. But if your going to learn gospel you should listen to every gospel song you can find from Kirk Franklin to Tye Tribbett to Mighty Clouds of Joy (if you don’t know there an older gospel group). I’m serious, you want to listen to everything in that genre. Do the same thing if you playing christian music or Hill songs, whatever it is: Michael W. Smith, Isreal Houghton and Amy Grant.
My point is you need to know every nuance or chord change that is signature to the genre. Many songs have similar sounds chords and patterns. Once you know what makes up these songs, then you can add you flavor to them. But you must know what they are.
Another thing is don’t be bothered by people who are better than you. I used to get so embarrassed when another piano came around and could playing things that I couldn’t play. Now, If I find a piano playing who has some good stuff in their bag of tricks, I find out what they are doing and I add it to my skills. That’s what you should do. There always somebody better than you but as long as you keep on learning new things, you’ll continue to get better.