Looking forward to having one of my students over this Thursday evening to share some music with you all via live facebook.

Ady LOVES playing the piano and singing!  She’s going to play and sing a song she composed not too long ago entitled “Wondrous, Glorious God”…a great selection for Thanksgiving!

She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to present her with the complete arrangement (vocal and piano score) in Thursday night’s live facebook event.

Her song “Wondrous Glorious God” will be available on Sheet Music Plus by this Saturday. (She doesn’t know that either….LOVE surprising my students!)  😉

See you all soon!  This Thursday at 7pm on my facebook music page:  https://www.facebook.com/thechurchpianist

You do not need a facebook account to view this live event on Thursday evening at 7pm EST

Oh! I almost forgot!  I’m also publishing an early advanced piano arrangement of “Crown Him with Many Crowns”  by this Saturday as well.

The whole arrangement: verse chorus, chorus is in the key of C Major 🙂

Just an update on “His Eye is on the Sparrow” advanced piano arrangement…

I just added the final touches this morning and now having a piano friend “test drive” it for me 😉

I’ll be publishing this advanced piano arrangement  sometime this week!

What took so long?  Well…more detail since it’s more advanced.  I tried to re-create it from hearing myself play it on youtube.

This is what I call one of my home-spun arrangements…right from my heart to paper.

I hope you find it playable!  I actually like writing at this level more than any other but it does demand a lot of brain work!

I’m almost finished with the handwritten version of “His Eye is on the Sparrow”

Warning:  For the advanced church pianist, LOTS of runs!  🙂

This is a clarification for those who have purchased the “Diatonic Chord Substitution Lesson One” tutorial.  But…anyone can glean from this post!

I recently received an email with this question…

“You said if there are four different notes…then it is a 7 chord.” (She’s referring to analyzing chords from the hymnal.)

She goes on to say, “…however, on your example of “It is Well” (page four of the handout)…on the word “like”, there are four different notes and I don’t think it’s a C7 chord. It looks more like a G¹¹ chord or something…but you say to play a C chord for that whole measure.” Click on image for enlarged view.

Excellent question!

So…here’s the answer…

When coming across this situation where the chord can’t be placed in consecutive thirds…you are more than likely dealing with “passing tones”.  The passing tones are found in the right hand part for this particular example.

Passing tones are secondary notes you have to pass through to move from one note to the next.  Passing tones are not meant to be factored in… to the underlying chordal structure of a measure.

So…look at the word “like” in the picture above.  The right hand notes are “D & F”

Now…step back and look at the overall note ingredients within that measure. The majority of the notes favor what chord? Yes! The C chord.  That’s why I played within a C chord frame for that measure as you’ll see in the next picture below. (I should have made the left hand note “E” a half note.)

Passing tones to music are like joints to the human body. Our joints support movement as the passing tones do to music.  Passing tones are like the accessories/dress-up to the overall melody of a song.

Thanks to one of my readers for a great question!

Just published my first tutorial on Diatonic Chord Substitution Lesson One!

Wow!   WHAT a time I had creating this tutorial!

I focused on making it as easy to understand as possible!

The seventeen minute companion video is loaded with visuals!

Diatonic Chord Substitution Lesson One

Diatonic Chord Substitution....one of the easiest to learn! Enjoy this short; concise easy-to-learn chord substitution lesson! Materials include: Seven page PDF (downloadable) handout; Seven page answer key, companion video chock full of visuals and explanations! *Special note: Buyer receives a private video link via email... within two days after purchase. *Jenifer will email the video link to the buyer's email address used at time of purchase. On sale now through May 25, 2020

Price: $12.00

The first mini lesson on Diatonic Chord Substitution is almost complete!

I had SO much fun creating this short mini lesson that involves seven pages in addition to answer key pages and at least a 17 minute video companion chock full of visuals!

I hope to publish the entire project by this Friday. Watch short commercial below with few bloopers!

Date of this article:  April 27, 2020

Just an update on the upcoming chord substitution tutorial.  I’m hoping to finish the main tutorial by the end of next week.

Today I’ve been creating the visual aids to make the lesson as easy to learn as possible!

I don’t know about you…but I’m a visual learner and LOVE to overload on the visual side of things 😉

I’ll be sharing a FREE introductory video for the Chord Substitution tutorial asap! (right here on my website & facebook live)

I’ll know the cost of the tutorial once it’s complete….and will let everyone know.

The tutorial will be available in my online music store.   

I recently received an email from one of my readers, Frederick Ikpatt.

He shared a video link of himself playing my free arrangement of “Jesus Loves Me.”

Frederick is quite the accomplished pianist!  See and hear him play Jesus Loves Me below.

Check out Frederick’s  Youtube channel.

You have to watch his “Protrait/Piano Story” of himself…very inspiring!

He practices on his keyboard even during electricity outages!

Link to download my free arrangement of “Jesus Loves Me”

Thanks Frederick for sharing your Youtube channel with us!

Jenifer Cook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yG-z3-zGO0

Over the past year, I’ve had a good many of you ask for “improvising hymns” lessons. I wish I had time to teach all of you!

But wait….there may be a solution!

How many of you would be interested in mini-course lessons?
My husband and I started talking it over today.

I could try doing my first mini-lesson on Zoom. The lesson would cover just one specific topic.

I’m thinking a half hour per session at a cost of $10 per session with a

minimumof 5 applicants.

What are your thoughts? What specific topic would you like to see covered?

The “most mentioned” topic will be our first mini-lesson! I’m rooting for “chord substitutions” to be the first one 

I’ve also posted this on facebook and have a lot of  feedback/topics. So far…chord substitutions is the “most mentioned” topic.