Gather (or similarly comprehensive) Hymnal

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How would I go about getting my hands on a Gather hymnal that has the full piano parts?

I’ve purchased one from Amazon that’s just the vocals, but the problem (for the music-literate) is that improvising the chord changes with no chord symbols or bass line may be inaccurate. That is, I don’t necessarily know what chord is underneath the melody at a given time. I can just guess and use what I know will sound good, but with songs I’m not as familiar with, I’d rather be playing what people are used to hearing rather than what I assume will sound good, of course. :rolleyes:

So is there any way I can obtain a publication with the full piano parts or at least the chord changes?

To note, this is for my own personal use, I don’t regularly play piano at a specific parish, in which case I could just look at the one available there. Also, I’d rather not spend too much money on this, as I expect that this sort of thing could get rather expensive. If possible, a publication with just the vocal parts and chord changes would be perfectly fine, saving paper space and money.
 
C_Bautista said:
How would I go about getting my hands on a Gather hymnal that has the full piano parts?

I’ve purchased one from Amazon that’s just the vocals, but the problem (for the music-literate) is that improvising the chord changes with no chord symbols or bass line may be inaccurate. That is, I don’t necessarily know what chord is underneath the melody at a given time. I can just guess and use what I know will sound good, but with songs I’m not as familiar with, I’d rather be playing what people are used to hearing rather than what I assume will sound good, of course. :rolleyes:

So is there any way I can obtain a publication with the full piano parts or at least the chord changes?

To note, this is for my own personal use, I don’t regularly play piano at a specific parish, in which case I could just look at the one available there. Also, I’d rather not spend too much money on this, as I expect that this sort of thing could get rather expensive. If possible, a publication with just the vocal parts and chord changes would be perfectly fine, saving paper space and money.
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Contact the publisher (I think it’s GIA for the “Gather” series). Our parish uses the “Gather Comprehensive”, and I know that we have organ and piano accompaniment books (along with the choral and congregational hymnals). The books are big, though: 2 big binders to cover everything in the hymnal. I don’t know how expensive they would be, but maybe there’s a less-expensive way. Maybe they offer something intended for guitar where they indicate the chord changes along with the vocal line.
 
www.giamusic.com gives you plenty of opportunities to buy things from the site. The keyboard books are each as big as a phone book of a major city, and much heavier and more expensive. I’m not sure I’d get them just for personal use…then again, I am sure that I wouldn’t get them at all.
 
The Choir Edition of the hymnals is a good compromise. It has (for every hymn that’s not written to be sung in unison) all four parts, which you can easily play on the piano or organ. And it’s only about $10 more than the pew edition. You are up the creek on the unison hymns, though.

Betsy
 
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