Split-leaf Psalter Playing Aid

[HollandReformed]

This seemed to be the most appropriate place to inquire… This may be a silly question and I do hope my esteemed Puritan Board brothers will suffer me. I purchased the 1650 Scottish Split Leaf Psalter for my family’s worship, after discovering the richness of Psalmody (I attend a Reformed Baptist Church plant that has struggled in IFB country for the past 10 years to get established and adopt Psalms in worship). I want to learn to play the piano particularly for the purpose of enriching my own soul, my family, and to help serve my fellowship, so, I purchased this as I had greatly benefited from singing a Capella from the Grange Press devotional psalter using the 1650 Psalter app. Well, the former background should indicate I have no idea what to do with a split leaf psalter, and am in need of an aid to keep my book open when I try to practice. Do regular hymn book clips work or would those harm the pages due to the split leaf format? I tried to go through the archive to see if this was addressed and also tried google, to no avail, so I seek your wisdom for this trivial matter, brothers.

 

[EvanF]

I would try these

2 Pack Black Music Book Clips

 

[HollandReformed]

I would try these

2 Pack Black Music Book Clips

Thank you for the recommendation, Evan. That looks hopeful. I suppose one would be placed on top and the other from the bottom?

 

[Northern Crofter]

Thank you for the recommendation, Evan. That looks hopeful. I suppose one would be placed on top and the other from the bottom?

It might be easier (sit better) if you were to put one on each side.

 

[Jeremiah Parker]

This seemed to be the most appropriate place to inquire… This may be a silly question and I do hope my esteemed Puritan Board brothers will suffer me. I purchased the 1650 Scottish Split Leaf Psalter for my family’s worship, after discovering the richness of Psalmody (I attend a Reformed Baptist Church plant that has struggled in IFB country for the past 10 years to get established and adopt Psalms in worship). I want to learn to play the piano particularly for the purpose of enriching my own soul, my family, and to help serve my fellowship, so, I purchased this as I had greatly benefited from singing a Capella from the Grange Press devotional psalter using the 1650 Psalter app. Well, the former background should indicate I have no idea what to do with a split leaf psalter, and am in need of an aid to keep my book open when I try to practice. Do regular hymn book clips work or would those harm the pages due to the split leaf format? I tried to go through the archive to see if this was addressed and also tried google, to no avail, so I seek your wisdom for this trivial matter, brothers.

I find split-leaf Psalters quite counterproductive (how my eyes dart up and down between the words and the musical notation, plus the manual difficulty of using one you described), though I know that may not be the common experience with them. Have you tried Rev. Romesh Prakashpalan's 1650 Psalter app? It integrates musical notation with the Psalms, just like any composition, and is a lot easier to use, in my experience. You might find it helpful.

 

[HollandReformed]

I find split-leaf Psalters quite counterproductive (how my eyes dart up and down between the words and the musical notation, plus the manual difficulty of using one you described), though I know that may not be the common experience with them. Have you tried Rev. Romesh Prakasphalan's 1650 Psalter app? It integrates musical notation with the Psalms, just like any composition, and is a lot easier to use, in my experience. You might find it helpful.

I definitely have used it, that’s been our main stay for sometime, especially in actually learning the tunes. I suppose I’m just a bit of a Luddite in that I’m eager to remove technology from our worship time, which is why I’m hoping I’ll be able to adopt it. I am concerned about the challenge you’re mentioning though.

 

[EvanF]

Thank you for the recommendation, Evan. That looks hopeful. I suppose one would be placed on top and the other from the bottom?

That was my thought. It looks like the clips might not need to go behind the spine of the book for thicker song books either but the middle part could just go between pages.

 

[Jeremiah Parker]

I definitely have used it, that’s been our main stay for sometime, especially in actually learning the tunes. I suppose I’m just a bit of a Luddite in that I’m eager to remove technology from our worship time, which is why I’m hoping I’ll be able to adopt it. I am concerned about the challenge you’re mentioning though.

Fair! So fair, honestly. In that case, I would just use a plain Scottish Psalter. I truly find it easier to just memorize tunes (so far, I've got Old 100th, St. Kilda, Culross, Bangor, New Britain, and St. Bride down) and sing them on the unadorned text than to try to use the split-leaf. I recommend those melodies if you want to take after me. They're easy and good to the ears.

 

[HollandReformed]

It might be easier (sit better) if you were to put one

Fair! So fair, honestly. In that case, I would just use a plain Scottish Psalter. I truly find it easier to just memorize tunes (so far, I've got Old 100th, St. Kilda, Culross, Bangor, New Britain, and St. Bride down) and sing them on the unadorned text than to try to use the split-leaf. I recommend those melodies if you want to take after me. They're easy and good to the ears.

I of course know New Britain, and have seen but not heard St. Kilda, I will definitely have to look those brother. I thank you for the recommendations! You’re not wrong on the memorization. I’ve been working on marrying tunes to psalms, but perhaps I should start out by focusing more on the actual tunes. So far, from practicing Psalms, I’ve memorized the tunes of Crimond, New Britain, Martyrdom, which is my favorite, Westminster, St. Peter, St. Flavian, Cheshire and Eden I’m actively learning Gainsborough and Salzburg, the former of which is very difficult to sing!

So, perhaps learning the tunes on the piano first would be the best move, so that I wouldn’t have to be married to a book.

 

[Andres]

St Kilda is my 10 year old son's favorite tune.

 

[HollandReformed]

St Kilda is my 10 year old son's favorite tune.

Praise the Lord for that it’s wonderful to be able to say that. My childhood are young still, so I’m really hoping they start showing more interest here in the next couple of years. My oldest is three, and she’s started humming and trying to sing along to doxology and Gloria patri, so I’m thankful for that bit of interest. However, on St Kilda, I listened to it after Jeremiah recommended it, and I rather like it as well, it’s very similar to Cheshire but just a bit more cohesive and complex in its flow. Any psalms you would recommend to sing that one to?

 

[Northern Crofter]

Praise the Lord for that it’s wonderful to be able to say that. My childhood are young still, so I’m really hoping they start showing more interest here in the next couple of years. My oldest is three, and she’s started humming and trying to sing along to doxology and Gloria patri, so I’m thankful for that bit of interest. However, on St Kilda, I listened to it after Jeremiah recommended it, and I rather like it as well, it’s very similar to Cheshire but just a bit more cohesive and complex in its flow. Any psalms you would recommend to sing that one to?

51

Does your split leaf have an index of tunes with suggested Psalm pairings? It looks like this:

 

[HollandReformed]

51

Does your split leaf have an index of tunes with suggested Psalm pairings? It looks like this:
View attachment 12099

Just checked, it does, thank you for pointing that out, brother! I just got it in Monday evening and have been working on homework since, so I’ve not had a ton of time to examine it, so I appreciate that. That will definitely go excellently with Psalm 51. I appreciate your input and that of the rest of the brothers here. I’m exceedingly grateful for this community as always!