| The Church Pianist |
| A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! |
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)
An upcoming young musician, Joshua Harrison, contacted me a while back about previewing his piano arrangement book entitled: “Christmas Inspirations”. Joshua’s desire is that the Lord be glorified through his playing which is refreshing to hear…especially from a young gentleman 🙂
The book consists of nine Christmas carols as follows:
Joy To The World!
Silent Night
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing!
The First Noel
Away In A Manger
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
Angels We Have Heard On High
O Come All Ye Faithful
I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day
Most of the arrangements are a page and a half and a couple are longer in length…making for a nice collection of short offertories or recital pieces for students.
After clicking on following link…you must click on individual song titles to hear sample of each song…not the book cover picture.
Click here to listen to audios of Joshua’s book entitled: Christmas Inspirations
Joshua has generously offered to give away one copy of his Christmas book (pdf format). Simply leave a comment below to enter the drawing. Leave a separate comment if you share the link to this article on facebook or your personal blog…allowing your name to be entered twice!
The drawing will be held on December 19th, 2011 at 10pm EST
The winner will receive his or her free downloadable pdf copy of “Christmas Inspirations” by email from the author of the book: Joshua Harrsion
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.
I’m hosting a giveaway of my Christmas CD entitled: Simply Christmas
Everybody enjoys listening to instrumental music at Christmas…especially if the music is familiar. I published this CD several years ago and have a limited amount remaining in stock.
The traditional sounds of Christmas ring out in this creative CD featuring well-known Christmas carols. You’ll hear bells or harp in several of the carols. Several of the two piano numbers on this CD are available as printable sheet music in the music store. The main instrument on this CD is piano.
* This CD was created with a Kawai digital piano.
Rules for Giveaway of Simply Christmas CD
1. Leave a comment at bottom of this article to enter your name one time.
2. Share the link to this giveaway on your personal blog, facebook or twitter and leave a second comment saying you did so. This allows you to enter your name a second time in same drawing.
3. Drawing will be held on December 5th by 8pm EST
4. The winner will be notified by email the day of the drawing.
Important Information:
US Residents: The Church Pianist will pay all shipping (media rate)
Residents outside the US: The Church Pianist will cover up to $5 in shipping (media rate). Any shipping above $5 must be paid by winner.
Click here to hear samples from Simply Christmas CD
My dad just told me about a reputable website that sells used church choir music. I was SO 
excited to find out about The MusicLibrary.com!
This site sells used music for churches that are trying to get rid of music they no longer use.
For the last several weeks I have been brainstorming…trying to figure out what to do this year for our church Christmas program. I checked out TheMusicLibrary.com and found enough books for the “Christmas at Home” cantata by Ron Hamilton…reasonably priced!
Our books should arrive next Friday just in time to start learning the songs on Sunday, September 18th. The music in Christmas at Home are SATB arrangements. Our choir is mainly a two part choir but getting use to three parts now… due to new choir members 🙂 (Praise the Lord)
We are going to simplify the songs by singing unison on some and two parts on other songs.”Christmas at Home” is one of my favorite cantatas because of the strong emphasis on salvation. This is an excellent cantata to bring unsaved family and friends to.
So…if you’re looking for Christmas program material or music in general…check out TheMusicLibrary.com
I’ve always enjoyed singing the Christmas carol, “Angels We Have Heard on High”. My favorite key to sing this hymn is E flat Major. We have a small congregation and this key works out very well for them. Generally, we transpose all hymns at least one step lower; making it easier for the congregation to reach the melody with confidence. (All of our congregation sings melody).
I understand not all church pianists know how to transpose. Therefore, I’m sharing this transposed version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” in E flat Major; simple four-part style as it would appear in the hymnal.
*Keep in mind…the chords in the piano score will not match the four parts from the hymnal version.
“Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” is a beautiful hymn to use at Christmas time. This particular hymn contains a lot of accidentals…creating awkward moves for the church pianist. I will attempt to create smoother harmonic changes making it more user-friendly for the average church pianist.
Editor notes for Part One of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”
Download the free pdf example here to view as you read the information below.
1. I like to use a ‘G’ natural in place of the ‘G’ sharp on the last word of line one. I just think it sounds better.
2. Notice the chord number labels in line two. Whenever a I chord is lasting more than one beat and moving to a V chord…you can substitute a vi chord in place of the I chord before moving into the V chord. The vi chord creates a warmer tone.
In plain English…a I chord in the key of D = DF#A and the V chord in the key of D = AC#E
I look forward to sharing more improvising ideas with the rest of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” in part two.
*Keep in mind…the chords in the piano score will not match the four parts from the hymnal version.
I have compiled several of my free Christmas piano arrangements under the ” Free Hymns Pdf” page for easier access.
Most church pianists are gearing up for Christmas; searching out Christmas piano arrangements. Hope these free arrangements are a help to your music ministry.
A Shelter in the Time of Storm
Stepping in the Light (duet)