Just published an early intermediate sacred piano arrangement of Day by Day.

I’ve had it written for a while but just got around to publishing it.

This particular piano arrangement was written for one of my students who plays offertories at her church.

She considers this one of her favorites. I’ll try to get video of her soon playing this arrangement.

Day by Day

Early intermediate sacred piano arrangement, 3 pgs.
You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode

Price: $2.75

I’ve been in the writing mood ever since our recent snowstorm. (Guess I need more snowstorms to blow in) 😉

Just wrote this early intermediate sacred piano arrangement of Day by Day for one of my teenager lady students who plays in church quite often.  I’ve been grooming her for church pianist material 🙂

She’s been needing an offertory requiring minimal practice… because she’s already trying to learn a new congregational song I gave her recently on top of reviewing all the ones she’s learned.

Remember the two congregational collections I published?  Well, I’ve been writing early intermediate level for some of them along the way and Hannah (the student I’m speaking about)  plays for congregational singing when I’m out of town.

She recently had to cover the whole service on a moment’s notice this past Sunday night. (I wasn’t able to make it due to road conditions with snow and ice.) She said it went well….great experience for her!

Day by Day

Early intermediate sacred piano arrangement, 3 pgs.
You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode

Price: $2.75

Using the hymnal for specials can be done but does take some planning.  Why?  The songs in the hymnal were written for four different voice parts that rely on each other to create a complete harmonic sound.  Omitting any of the parts can result in unbalanced harmony, with the exception of the melody which can stand alone.  Most hymnals do contain some ready-made duets or trios but are usually mentioned in the topical index if available.

Say I was wanting to use “Day by Day” for a female vocal duet.  The alto would lack a close harmony part  because the tenor contains the closer harmony for the first two lines…then the bass takes on the closer harmony for a bit before returning it to the tenor for the last line of the song. (see hymnal excerpt below). Notice how the alto basically sings a B flat for the majority of the first line.  Not a problem…IF the other voice parts are singing; creating a more shapely harmonic structure.

Now, for the fun part!  In order to create a more pleasing harmony the following alterations would work nicely:  I simply kept the parts in 3rds as much as possible for a closer harmony.  You’ll notice the soprano (top note) began with harmony and flowed back to melody near the middle and then back to harmony toward the end.  This type of part swapping created an easier note transition for sopranos and altos.

*See clickable link at bottom of this article

Click here to download “Day by Day”