Now that Thanksgiving is over…I will be working on the recording of my advanced piano solo of “What Child is This”….which will include tips for the long run on measure #35.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I look forward to sharing this video with you soon.

I just posted another new late elementary piano arrangement of “Gesu Bambino“.   This Christmas piano solo was written for one of my very industrious late beginner students several years ago and I just discovered it in my pile of files 🙂

My student really enjoyed playing this piece because of the flowing texture.

Gesu Bambino

Late elementary Christmas piano solo, 2 & 3\4 pgs. Approx. length: 1:17

Price: $3.00

Just to let my church pianist readers know I just published a new advanced Christmas piano solo of  “What Child is This”.  I thoroughly enjoyed writing this Christmas piece!

 My  keyboard of 76 keys is used to record the complete audios of my arrangements but this particular arrangement contains a fast arpeggio run that  goes beyond the length of my keyboard.

So… a youtube video of this piano arrangement will be available sometime soon.

What Child is This?

Advanced sacred Christmas piano arrangement, 3 pgs. Youtube link below:

Price: $3.50

Here is a free easy choir arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.   This is an easy two-verse arrangement for young girls and ladies’ SA group.

The young girls sing the first two lines of each verse and the ladies (soprano and alto) join on the third line.

Not a lot of prep time involved in learning this easy selection….allowing the singers to focus on the message.

I wrote this arrangement to go with the easy Christmas Program found at the following link:

The Christmas Story

Just to let my readers know that my arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was just published today.

The arrangement is available in our online music store at the following link:

Advanced Piano Solos: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Or…purchase it directly below:

O Little Town of Bethlehem (Advanced Version)

Early advanced sacred piano arrangement, 3 pgs. Approx. length: 1:53

Price: $3.50

Our church is presenting an easy Christmas program on Jesus’ birth this year.  I have shared this program before but have since revised it. The revised copy is also color-coded for a more “user friendly” format.

I had hoped to offer all of the music to this program in my store this year but haven’t had time to finish them all.  Hopefully…by the end of this week…several of the arrangements will be available in the music store.

Please click on the following title to download a free copy of this easy Christmas program entitled…

“The Christmas Story”

Available songs for this program:

O Little Town of Bethlehem (young girls & ladies’ SA)  *FREE!

Angels We Have Heard on High (children’s choir & adult choir) *includes background music

I have two Christmas arrangements that will be published very soon!

One is an early advanced arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and the other is an easy two-part ladies’ arrangement of “What Child is This?”

Also working on other Christmas arrangements of various sorts that I hope to publish in time for this year.

I’ve been writing ALOT lately..getting ready for our church’s Christmas program.

Our church choir is presenting the “Christmas Story”.  Several choir members have been chosen as narrators to present the Luke 2 passage.  Christmas carols have been inserted at appropriate times to support the scripture.  We also have the younger kids singing a couple songs and using them for the manger scene characters.

Even simple programs require ample practice in order to present an effective message on the birth of Christ.  I’m SO excited about this year’s program!  Since the program is rather easy..we’re adding a few touches to make it extra special.

More details soon 🙂

I have always loved the Christmas carol entitled, “What Child is This”.  The music and words seem to go hand in hand…making for an unforgettable hymn.

Here’s Letha, my student that passed away this past spring…playing my arrangement of “What Child is This”.  She played it at one of our local nursing homes last December.

This particular arrangement is now owned by Lorenz Corporation. who recently bought out Soundforth.

As I viewed part two of Christmas at Home highlights…these thoughts came to mind:

The drama and music tips found in the back of the cantata book were very helpful. For example:  Possible seating and microphone arrangement for stage.  Another great tip: “Whenever the readers are seated, their heads should be bowed. This signifies that they are “out of scene”.  (My thoughts: this also keeps the readers from being a distraction while the choir sings).

I almost forgot to mention…we chose not to  sing two of the songs in the cantata because they were more suited for a larger choir.

Notice how transitional/background music can be effective (around 8:20 on this video) * This transitional music is not in the cantata book.  I just made it up to cover a spot while the singing quartet returned to the choir.

One last reminder…this video contains only highlights of the  cantata.  The video presents a portion of the songs and drama to give you an overall  taste of this “down-to-earth” drama packed with a strong salvation message.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the auditorium when we finished this heart-gripping story.   A special thanks to Majesty Music for allowing us to share these highlights of Christmas at Home.

We look forward to learning and improving as we seek to share God’s message through music. The more prepared we can be…the more effective our music ministry will be for God’s glory.

Our church choir thoroughly enjoyed putting on this production of Christmas at Home by Majesty Music.  

Majesty Music has granted us special permission to post these highlights on youtube.

About two-thirds of our choir do not read music.  Also, several of us have about a 40 minute commute to church making for shorter rehearsals. Therefore, we simplified the music to two parts or unison.  Initially, I was to coach the speaking cast… but our other pianist’s husband had to have serious surgery…making it necessary for me to play piano in the beginning rehearsals.  I thought the speaking cast did a superb job in spite of the circumstances.

I’ll share one of our stage secrets…one of our playcast members wrote their lines on a card and stuck them to a stage prop for security.  It worked great 🙂

Enjoy watching part one of Christmas at Home (highlights)…