As promised,  here are a couple more examples of a diatonic chord substitution.  (Link to FREE download at bottom of this article.)

 

Click here to download your FREE copy of the diatonic chord substitution examples.

 

 

I just created this one page piano arrangement of “At Calvary” this past week for one of my hymn playing students.  I’m teaching her to branch out from the middle of the keyboard when improvising hymns for prelude or congregational style.

She is accustomed to playing octaves with her left hand and now we’re trying to condition her right hand to play an octave higher with some fullness (up to 3 notes) and will gradually work into more right hand octaves.

Editor notes for the free piano arrangement of At Calvary:

Measure #5… Right hand plays octave higher for brief moment before working back to middle of keyboard in measure #7. (Notice the gradual transition)

Measure #8… double duty octaves on the last 3 beats.

Measure #15…Octave workout!

Measure #16…Just had to give her at least one 4 note chord 🙂

Click here to download Free Piano Arrangement: At Calvary

Down From His Glory requires ALOT of ad lib from the church pianist when accompanying someone to sing this hymn.

I could not help but add runs during the chorus due to the frequent held words. The fingering for the runs is included 🙂

I plan to create an audio of the piano accompaniment as time allows.

Click here to download “Down From His Glory” in E Flat Major

Click here to download “Down From His Glory” in F

 

 

 

“Down From His Glory”…a challenging piece for many church pianists!

Many of you requested that I share improvising tips for this very piece as recently discussed in a video from last year’s Wild’s Music Conference.

In this particular video, Faye Lopez shared several tips for dressing up the accompaniment such as adding right hand echoes during held words for the first half of the verse and then broken chords for the second half of verse.

As stated in a recent article…the following free download of “Down From His Glory” is similar to Faye’s accompaniment but not an exact replica 🙂

Tip: Watching the related video to this article would be beneficial while looking over the free download below. Click here to see: VIDEO

 Complete arrangement of Down From His Glory

 

 

 

 

 

I created this SATB choir arrangement of “A Glorious Church” just to have an easy one on hand. Our 30 minute choir rehearsals limit us on how much material we can cover. So…this arrangement came in handy!

I would eventually like to create a collection of easy choir arrangements like this.

Special note: I was short on time when I created the piano score for this arrangement…so I left out the men’s part.  The choir vocal score contains all the parts.

Click on the song titles below to download your FREE arrangement of this unison choir hymn.

 

A Glorious Church (choir vocal score)

 

A Glorious Church (piano score)

 

 

 

Enjoyed tweeking this free unison choir arrangement of “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.I wrote it sometime ago  for one of our pianists to play for choir while I was out of town.

One improvising tip to take note of  (no pun intended)…is when I left out the melody here and there in the piano score.

Most of the time this occurred was when the melody note was an eighth note…making for a smoother form of playing for the church pianist. Skipping a quick melody note in the piano accompaniment is similar to the “understood you” in a sentence.  You know what’s implied even though you don’t hear it.  😉

I just played it straight through without repeats. (two verses and choruses)

Click on audio below to hear the entire free unison choir arrangement of “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”

You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode

Click here to download: “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”

Tip:  This choir arrangement can also be used as a vocal solo.

 

 

 

I’m re-organizing my music at home and came across a simple unison choir arrangement of “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.

I wrote it for one of our pianists to play for choir while I was out of town a good while ago.  This particular pianist was probably an early intermediate at the time and needed something basic to accompany the choir for this particular hymn.

I hope to share this free arrangement with you tomorrow..IF we still have power…in the middle of a snowstorm!  (You can also use this free choir arrangement as a vocal solo too).

A reader recently requested a piano congregational arrangement for “Joy to the World”.  I had almost forgotten about having this arrangement.  I am forever writing music of some sort and it’s easy to forget what I have 🙂

This is a rather straightforward arrangement of “Joy to the World”…no frills but enough fill-ins to add zest to the congregational singing for this joyous hymn about Jesus’ birth.  Hope it’s a help to church pianists looking for congregational arrangements.

Click on song title below to download your free copy!

Joy to the World: piano congregational arrangement

 

Just uploaded my free advanced Christmas piano solo of “In the Bleak Midwinter” on my youtube channel.

  Clickable link to  free arrangement of “In the Bleak Midwinter”

Finished it!  Hope you enjoy this free Christmas piano arrangement of “In the Bleak Midwinter”.  The arrangement is written at an advanced level.

Click on the title to download free arrangement:

In the Bleak Midwinter

(image below is  for viewing purposes only)

Click here to hear youtube video of this free piano arrangement of  “In the Bleak Midwinter”