| The Church Pianist |
| A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! |
Just wanted to alert my readers that I just posted two new books for sale on my “used music for sale” page.
I have accumulated so many books over the last couple of years and just parting with some of them. I will post a few more for sale soon.
I found out today by accident that the melody of “I’d Rather Have Jesus” that I’m using in my piano solo… is copyrighted. I always check to make sure hymns are public domain before arranging them and had checked this one out as well.
I verified that the tune and melody were public domain and didn’t click on the music image to view the song and later discovered the tune was different than the one I was arranging. Guess it’s better to find out BEFORE publishing!
So…I’ve been online with Music Services (provides a variety of ‘a la carte’ services to music publishers – song registration, licensing, royalty collections, royalty accounting) to obtain a “print” license for this arrangement. This is my first time to deal with a copyrighted work. I won’t do too many of these for the sake of added expense but will try this with “I’d Rather Have Jesus” since I had already promised it to my readers.
The downside is…there will be a delay in publishing until I get the clearance from Music Services. I will keep you all posted and sorry for the delay but I want to be above board!
Done! Finally! I was extra picky with this collection and hope it’s useful to many church pianists.
I tried to create exciting accompaniments to enhance the congregational singing. Each arrangement contains an introduction as well as a couple verses/choruses worth of accompaniment. Three of the arrangements even have key changes!
But relax 🙂 The arrangements are written in a lower key than the hymnal (at least two to three half steps lower). We have discovered that the congregation sings out even more when they can sing in a reasonable key 😉
10 Late intermediate to early advanced piano congregational arrangements. (All Hail the Power, Are you Washed, Blessed Assurance, Does Jesus Care, Dwelling in Beulah Land, I Love to Tell the Story, Praise Him! Praise Him!, Rock of Ages, Sweet By and By, Sweet Hour of Prayer) 34 pages
The arrangements in this booklet are in lower keys; making it easier for the average congregation to sing. *Three of the arrangements have key changes!
Each arrangement contains an introduction and at least two verses & choruses…several of the hymns contain three verses worth of accompaniment.
*Special note: The arrangements in this booklet do not support the four-part singing found in most hymnals. *Other suggested uses: vocal solos, violin specials, unison choir specials. **Another special note: These arrangements can not stand alone as piano solos since some of the melody is absent during the piano accompaniment. *Complete audios not included with collections.
I just wanted to let my readers be aware of the latest products published in our online music store. The following arrangements are also available in the Funeral Hymn Collection that was published earlier this summer.
I know…not all church pianists have big hands like Rachmaninoff! With that in mind…I created alternative fill-ins for the runs in The Love of God advanced piano solo that I just published a couple days ago.
I hope these alternative fill-ins will be more user-friendly for those with small hands. The whole piece is really written for a pianist with large hands but maybe those of you with smaller hands can adapt this arrangement with these alternative fill-ins.
Click here to download alternative fill-ins
Just published the sheet music for the advanced piano solo of “The Love of God”.
I love to play runs as you will notice in this arrangement. I guess you could say this arrangement is “overrun” with runs 😉
Seriously, I tried to bring the words to life in this beautiful hymn.
“The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring chile He reconciled And pardoned from his sin.
Chorus:
The love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure, The saints’ and angels song.“
The touching message of verse three was found written on the wall of an insane asylum….penned by a male patient. These soul-stirring words were discovered at the time of his death.
“Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill, And ev’ry man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Tho’ stretched from sky to sky.”
What an awesome message all wrapped up in one verse! I would venture to say this man was in his right mind when he composed this heart warming message.
Hear complete arrangement on my youtube channel
*Special note: I will be providing an article with free fill-in alternatives for the runs to those who prefer the less busy passages 🙂
Finally! The Love of God advanced piano solo is complete! I wrestled with the ending for quite a while.
Thanks to Hannah Myers, one of my advanced students, for giving some excellent suggestions!
This hymn is one of my favorites. Have you heard the story behind the writing of verse three? Very touching! I will have to share it soon 🙂
Just wanted to share the video of my completed arrangement for The Love of God. Sheet music coming tomorrow!
News for my church pianist readers: I’ve been creating video recordings of The Piano Invitation Collection and publishing them on my youtube channel.