Daily Archives: 18th August 2016

The Prophetic Piano Solo

I’ve written before on the subject of singing in ‘tongues’; singing in another, unknown, language as the Spirit gives the words. It’s beautiful, moving, and very, very special.

Today I want to give you a really special worship track from the tape ‘Oil of Gladness’; you can find the whole tape on my ‘Vintage Worship Tapes‘ website.

When I used to lead worship in my old church in Leeds, sometimes I would be inspired just to play spontaneously, even sometimes to sing the words prophetically (like the chap in this example). This could happen either out of the blue, or after the end of a song, but it’s always gorgeous. In some ways, prophetic piano playing is like singing in ‘tongues’ as it’s spontaneous, not pre-planned; when it’s done ‘live’ it’s always fresh, always new, and it’s not usually playing any recognised tune – although sometimes I might be playing prophetically and realise that I am actually leading into another song, in which case I will roll with it and lead into that song.

So anyway, in the track I am sharing today, they’ve just finished singing  a song (I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live) and the pianist, David Matthew, carries on spontaneously into a lovely prophetic piano piece, later backed with his band, and the congregation join in gradually as they realise what’s happening. As I say about this track on on my webpage  on Vintage Worship Tapes,

“…yes it may only be a four-or-five-chord vamp but there are almost words in that music; I have loved that piece for nigh on thirty years and still it speaks new things to me; it really is prophetic piano playing.”

This was the first prophetic piano solo I’d ever heard, and I found that it inspired me to similar things in my own worship leading.

Have a listen and see what you think. Let the Spirit soak you with the worship in this timeless piece:


The worship was recorded at Church House in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1978. The piano that David was playing was a Steinway grand, which is why I have used a picture of a Steinway in the header image for this post.