The Church Pianist » christmas http://thechurchpianist.com A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! Tue, 22 May 2012 16:36:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 The Church Pianist: Free Piano Arrangement (What Child is This?) http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-free-piano-arrangement-what-child-is-this/ http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-free-piano-arrangement-what-child-is-this/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:26:01 +0000 Jenifer Cook http://thechurchpianist.com/?p=1374 Our choir is singing “What Child is This?” in unison.  We’re singing it in a lower key.  Since the choir is unison….I like to insert chord substitutions to dress it up a bit.

I wrote a simple piano arrangement of “What Child” just so our other pianist could follow my chording to avoid chord clashes between us :)

Feel free to use this as accompaniment for unison choir or a vocal solo.

It wouldn’t be appropriate for a piano solo  because the melody is missing here and there.  Although, most of you could probably insert the melody in those places :)

Hope all is going well with your church’s Christmas program practices.

Click the title below for the free Christmas piano arrangment:

What Child is This?

Twitt

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]]> http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-free-piano-arrangement-what-child-is-this/feed/ 0 The Church Pianist: The Sounds of Christmas http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-the-sounds-of-christmas/ http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-the-sounds-of-christmas/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:38:45 +0000 Jenifer Cook http://thechurchpianist.com/?p=1252 Bell sounds add life to Christmas carols.

Here are several examples of different
bell ingredients I used in my arrangements
on the “Simply Christmas” CD… mentioned
in a previous article.

Click here for free Sounds of Christmas  for piano

Explanation for the Examples:

1. Joy to the World (right hand bell tones)
Notice the intervals of the bell tones and try
in several different keys for reinforced learn-
ing and versatile application.

2. Joy to the World (right hand bell clusters)
I simply add a ‘D’ to a C chord to create
a dissonant sound for the bell effect.

3. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
This is one of my favorite chime sounds.
Notice how all the notes in the right hand
chords are a 4th apart. This is how to create
the chime sound!

4. O Little Town of Bethlehem (bell echo)
Bell echos add a sweet; dreamy texture to
lullaby-type melodies.
The bell echo occurs in the right hand (last measure).
It’s just a broken octave ending with a nice harmony note
occuring a 3rd under the broken octave.
Remember: 3rd and 6ths create beautiful touches of
harmony.
I just used the ‘Alberti bass’ pattern in the left hand.

Alberti bass means a broken chord in this order:
“Bottom~top~middle~top”

Hopefully, you can incorporate these Sounds of Christmas

into your own Christmas carols this year.

 

 

Twitt

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]]> http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-the-sounds-of-christmas/feed/ 0 The Church Pianist: Free Easy Christmas Program http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-free-easy-christmas-program/ http://thechurchpianist.com/christmas/the-church-pianist-free-easy-christmas-program/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:21:56 +0000 Jenifer Cook http://thechurchpianist.com/?p=1132 This is a very easy Christmas program I put together several years ago for our church. 

We like to involve as many ages of people as possible. Here are the groups of people we used.

Narrators: young teenagers

Adult choir

Children’s choir for: “Away in a Manger”

The manger scene characters were young children in costume.

The actors did not have speaking parts…just showed action as indicated on the program order.

Click here for: Free easy Christmas program

Twitt

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