| The Church Pianist |
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“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 A Flat (lower)
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.
Click here to go to Timeless Truths: Free Online Library of Hymns
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
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!
Click here to download FREE organ arrangement of “Amazing Grace”
Amazing Grace: Complete Audio
You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode
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.
Introducing…a free piano arrangement of Amazing Grace for unison choir or congregation. It’s nice to be able to sing parts but most congregations of small churches seem to sing unison.
Church pianists can enliven hymns such as Amazing Grace by playing with mucho enthusiasm! I understand not every church pianist knows how to improvise from the hymnal. It took a lot of practice for me to feel comfortable adding unseen notes while playing from the hymnal.
Improvising tip: Grab an improvising idea from someone else’s arrangement and try applying to a similar congregational hymn with same time signature.
Stick with that one idea for a while until it becomes natural to use…then on to the next improvising idea!
Hope you enjoy this arrangement. Since most people are very familiar with this hymn, I took more liberty with the piano accompaniment.
Warning: This arrangement does not support the four-part style in the hymnal.
Question from a reader:
I love these ideas but at my church both piano and organ play. I find it hard to take any liberties since I am not playing alone. Any suggestions for those of us who would love to add flare to hymns but still have to keep the organist in mind?
Answer: (at least for this arrangement) I will soon provide a free organ arrangement of this particular version of Amazing Grace.
I love to sing “Amazing Grace”! It reminds me of when I accepted Christ as my Saviour at the age of 29.
A quick tip for church pianists on how to enrich congregational singing…
1. Start in a lower key. The congregation sings out better in lower keys…especially if you have a congregation like ours that mainly sings melody.
2. Modulate up a half or whole step higher on the final verse.
In the following video…we started in E flat major and ended in F Major.
The church pianist CAN add zest to congregational singing! Learn to play a hymn in different keys for added enrichment.
I will attempt to write out Amazing Grace in a user-friendly version for congregational piano accompaniment within the next two weeks and share for FREE! (transposed verse will be included)
The wide note range of O Holy Night makes for a challenging vocal solo!
B Flat Major seems to be a comfortable; reasonable key when singing “O Holy Night”. Therefore, I will provide a FREE copy of O Holy Night in this key.
Keep in mind…I’ve already shared this arrangement on my free Christmas music page in the key of A flat major. I simply transposed the same arrangement to B flat major. The key of B flat major works great for a male solo or duet. Sopranos like this key too because the high notes are easier to reach.
See video below of a male vocal duet I recently played for…using the key of B flat major for O Holy Night. Special note: I used a different arrangement 🙂
**Click on link below video to get your FREE copy of O Holy Night in the key of B Flat Major.