Here is the remainder of the free congregational piano arrangement… “I Love to Tell the Story”.

I enjoy playing for congregational singing because that’s when I can “go outside the box” and play more than just melody.

Having a knowledge of chord theory opens the door for so much creativity!  For example…in measure #12…I knew the chord for the measure was a B Major chord…so I just added moving  3rds in the right hand for a fill-in. I used the same idea again in measure #18.

I’ll point out one more neat idea in measure #22.  Notice the half note octave “A” in the left hand.   An “a” minor chord can replace  a C Major chord because they both have two notes in common….”C and E”.

A “G” from a “C” chord also fits in an “a” minor 7th chord. Now if you know your theory….that will make sense.  Note members for the “a” minor 7th = ACEG

I challenge all church pianists to brush up on their scales and chord theory.  I found an excellent, practical music theory book that has been so helpful to me.  Stay tuned…for my next article on this VERY easy-to-understand book!

I Love to Tell the Story page two

I Love to Tell the Story page one

“I Love to Tell the Story” has always been a favorite of mine.  The story to this wonderful hymn can be found at cyberhymnal.org. This particular hymn came from a rather long poem.  The first part of the poem contained at least fifty stanzas!

I’m sharing a free congregational piano arrangement of “I Love to Tell the Story” for the advanced church pianist.  This free arrangement contains a lot of full chords which is necessary for supporting congregational singing.

I apologize for not posting as often but circumstances haven’t allowed me to do so.  I always hearing from my readers. Thanks so much for your encouragement!  I love to hear how the site has been a help to you.  That’s what keeps me going 🙂

Click here to download free piano arrangement of “I Love to Tell the Story” page one

I will post the remainder of this arrangement as soon as possible.

I Love to Tell the Story page two

This has been a very difficult week.  One of my piano students I’ve been mentoring to be a church pianist passed away this week…very unexpectedly.  Please pray for the family.

I’ve managed to prepare a “free accompaniment” idea for Heaven Came Down.  This particular hymn contains a mundane bass line..making it a challenge for the average church pianist to create an interesting accompaniment.  What to do?  You have to play what’s not there 🙂  Easy said…but a challenge to do right?  For that reason, I’m sharing a free accompaniment idea that can be used for the verse of this hymn.

I”m limited on what I can share because this hymn is still under copyright. Therefore, I can only share a small portion for educational purposes only…(called the “fair use” law). Just use the same accompaniment idea to finish out the verse.  I would tend to use this accompaniment idea ONLY if the congregation is secure with their voice parts…whatever that may be.  Most of our congregation sings melody.

Click here to download Heaven-Came-Down-congregational-idea

I know I’ve shared free arrangements of “Just As I Am” prior to this…but wanted to share a longer arrangement of it this time.  I’m feverishly working on a “congregational” accompaniment book for the pianists at our church.  If all goes well…I will offer it  on my site once I acquire a  generous collection of hymns.

Our church pianists have enjoyed using the “working” copy of this book. They like the pre-made introductions…especially for those awkward entry hymns that require “special treatment” for a comfortable introduction.  The song leader has also commented on it making his job easier.

Without further introduction…here’s your free piano arrangement of “Just As I Am”

Click on the above title in “red” for the arrangement

Special note: I haven’t included an introduction to this arrangement yet because we mainly use background music for invitation. I may consider modulating for some of the other invitation hymns in this book.

Another special note:  This particular arrangement is not included in the first congregational collection but a more elaborate arrangement of Just As I Am is included in the Piano Invitation Collection.

All church pianists understand there are those hymns that just need a little dress-up to bring them to life!  One of those such hymns is When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. Why the need for a dress-up?  Because there are a lot of repeated chords throughout the entire hymn.  What can be done to make this hymn sound more interesting?  Replace the repetitive bass line with a simple improvising idea.

Click on the following song title to see this improvising idea put to use. The pattern can be seen in the first few measures.

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder (part of chorus)  Intermediate version

For those of you at a more advanced level..you’ll find a free sample below of what I would play to accompany congregational singing. (I transferred the stepping down pattern to the right hand for the first phrase of the chorus.

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder (part of chorus) Advanced version

 I recently composed a congregational piano arrangement of Away in a Manger for one of my upcoming church pianists to play for church while I’m away.

So..I’ll share it with other church pianists that may be able to put it to use this Christmas.

Click here to download Away in a Manger (free congregational piano arrangement)

I asked my readers to provide the name of an ‘awkward to play’ Christmas carol.  I would then create an article concerning that carol. “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” was the most mentioned piece.

Last year, I did an article on this very song but it was for ‘piano solo’ style. Today’s free piano arrangement of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” will be congregational style.

As I was arranging this carol, I had to force myself to stay within the chords “as written”.  I could have added a lot of minor chords to “warm up” the piece but I stayed true to the voice parts 🙂

Due to frequent chord changes, the church pianist will have to play in a more ‘chorale’ (solid chord) style in order to support the ever-changing voice parts.  There is still time to throw in ocasional dress-ups to create a more interesting sound as you will see in today’s free piano arrangement of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”.

Click here to download “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” before viewing editor notes below.

Editor notes for “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”

General information:

I tried to create smooth harmonic (chord) changes throughout… in spite of the frequent chord changes in this beautiful Christmas carol.

Here and there you’ll see where I deviated from the melody line to create a smoother move for the hands.

Notice how the right hand at the beginning…started with three notes and gradually worked into an octave format.  One of my former piano teachers always taught me to write in a more “user friendly” style for pianists in general…to avoid awkward moves/leaps.  Hopefully, this arrangement will be comfortable and beneficial for other church pianists.  I did keep the early advanced to advanced pianist in mind when creating this arrangement.

Measure #4:

Beat 2 and 3 of right hand is an echo fill-in during the held word “me”

Measure #5:

A sixteenth note improvised pattern on beat 2 is added… to dress-up the melody line and continues through measure 6.

Tip!

Church pianist tip: Learn to analyze other people’s arrangements; applying ‘learned ideas’ to your own playing. Over time, you will develop your own style but you must learn to apply learned ideas as a  springboard to developing your own style.

*Click on image for a larger view

One of my favorite improvising ideas is adding contrast for an interesting sound.  The excerpt listed above is taken from the hymn “Count Your Blessings”. The phrase is the last sentence of the last verse.   This idea can be used on any of the verses at this point in song…but I like to save special effects like this for the final verse.

Here’s what helped me come up with the idea:  I knew that an A7 chord was the basic chord for the first two measures of this example. So… I played “stepping notes” within the A7 chord frame and entered into a D major chord on the syllable “jour-” and back to an A7 for “ney’s” and ended with a D chord on “end”.  The ascending notes in the piano score ran contrary to the melody in the vocal score…creating an energetic drive to the message of the song.

The complete arrangement of “Count Your Blessings” congregational style can be purchased below.

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Since believing on Jesus Christ at the age of 29…I can truly say: “Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine”.  This became one of my favorite hymns after becoming a Christian.

Shortly after being saved I arranged an offertory that included: “Blessed Assurance, Saved by the Blood and Since Jesus Came Into My Heart”.  I will have to write it out in my (ha ha) spare time.

This free sacred piano arrangement of “Blessed Assurance”  is a result of preparing several of our own soon-to-be church pianists to play for congregational singing.  We now have a rotational schedule for our intermediate to advanced pianists to allow them to play for our congregational singing.  It’s exciting to see them gain experience to better equip them for serving the Lord.

Click here for the free sacred piano arrangment of “Blessed Assurance” page one.

I’ll share the rest of this free arrangement in the next article.

Click here to download worksheet before watching video for “Improvising Hymns” Lesson Two 

Have a pencil handy!

The following short video tutorial on improvising hymns is geared to the beginning church pianist.  Playing straight from the church hymnal can sound rather plain. Learning how to dress up the hymns adds a new dimension of sound! This lesson gives some simple left hand fill in ideas for the first line of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.

Special clarification about the theory rule mentioned in this lesson concerning omitting the 3rd of the chord…The 3rd can be omitted from either hand.   Wait until you see the video below to understand this explanation 🙂

The next video tutorial will reveal more improvising ideas for “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.

Click here to see My First Improvising Lesson