Here’s a quick tip that would make any church pianist sound much fuller when playing from the hymnal.

When improvising from the hymnal, the pianist can make the hymn sound fuller by playing 4 note chords in the right hand….allowing more space for the left hand to improvise.

“Like a River Glorious” is a great hymn to apply this idea…since the rhythm isn’t real busy…making it easier to maneuver.

The first two measures in the example below demonstrates the standard five-part style hymnplaying (3 notes in the right hand and 2 notes in the left hand).

The final two measures show the right hand playing an octave higher to allow room for the 4-note style in the right hand.  One of my teachers from years back taught me the idea of playing a phrase in one general area and then gradually climbing back down or up (whichever the case may be) for variety.

Next time, I’ll show you a fun way the right hand can climb back down to the middle of the piano for the next phrase of “Like a River Glorious”.

One of my readers recently requested some arranging ideas for “Let Him Have His Way With Thee”. She said she hasn’t been able to find a piano arrangement of this particular hymn.  So…I wrote a quickie for you all that will hopefully be a nice addition to your “free piano” arrangement collection 🙂

Click on song title to download your free piano arrangement of…

“Let Him Have His Way With Thee”

Audio

Just thought I’d share a video of our small ladies’ ensemble singing “Come Thou Fount”.

You can download this arrangement for free.  Just click on the tab “Free PDF Hymns” at the top of this page to download your free copy of “Come Thou Fount”.

“Christ Arose” is a very well-known hymn that most churches only use around Easter.  We use this beautiful hymn periodically throughout the year as a reminder of Christ’s glorious resurrection.

Robert Lowry, a well-known hymn composer/preacher, wrote “Christ Arose”

Click on song title below to download your free congregational arrangement:

Christ Arose in B Flat

I had to write a few congregational arrangements in a hurry this week for a couple of our church pianists to play this Sunday.  Since that took up the majority of my music writing time…I’ll share one of those arrangements with my readers tomorrow 🙂

Timeless Truths, an online resource, containing public domain hymns has a feature that church pianists will love!   Simply go to their site and search a hymn by title.  The page for the hymn will show the words on the right column.  Scroll down and look for the choice in left column that says “View Scorch sheet music” and click on it.

The sheet music for the hymn will appear (if you have downloaded scorch player). If not…it can be done for free.  The nice thing about viewing the music with scorch player is you’re given the chance to transpose the hymn to any key you desire before printing it for free!  Just look for the (2 flats symbol) at the top of the music  and click it.  A small box will appear allowing you to choose how far down or up you want to  transpose.

Just wanted you all to know I’m still alive and working on the next article as well as future articles that I’m excited about!

Tomorrow, I plan to share a free sheet containing key changes for a thematic prelude on the “Blood of Jesus”.  I love creating transitions and key changes between hymns during prelude or the Lord’s Supper.  I will share some EASY key changes soon…stay tuned!  🙂

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”

This free organ arrangement of “Amazing Grace” for unison congregation or choir goes with the piano arrangement of “Amazing Grace” which I recently published for FREE.

Please understand…I am not an organist and it’s my very first attempt at writing an organ arrangement!

I’m glad one of my readers pointed out the need for organists needing the same arrangement in order to prevent chord clashes…an excellent observation! Our church doesn’t have an organ…just two pianos (one being a digital).

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this organ arrangement!

Amazing Grace: Complete Audio

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Just thought I’d let you all know what’s going on in my little corner of the world 🙂

I’m trying to complete the funeral collection I’ve talked about for the past 5 or so months.  The collection is almost finished!  The hymns in this funeral collection are songs of comfort..played from the heart.

We have had so many funerals this past year at our church and so these songs have been soothing to me during the arranging process.

Song list so far for this funeral collection:

Rock of Ages,  Amazing Grace, Trusting Jesus Medley, Saviour Like a Shepherd Lead Us…(this amounts to about 8 minutes of playing thus far).  I hope to add a couple more.

Writing has come slow for me lately but it’s flowing more now 🙂  I hope the flow continues!

I just finished the hand-written  organ accompaniment for my recent free congregational arrangement of “Amazing Grace”.  Hope to publish it for FREE by this weekend.    I even created an audio of the piano and organ part including the vocal score…turned out real nice!  Looking forward to sharing all of this soon!

Until then…may God bless you all as you seek to honor Him in your music ministry.