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Working on “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night” (early advanced piano solo).
The exciting part…I just came up with an intro and interlude that makes this arrangement long enough using only two verses!
Audio sample: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
Just sharing a video I just found on youtube this evening… of a boy playing one of my arrangements of Amazing Grace.
He did a beautiful job!
* Most of these hymns can be downloaded & printed for free from timelesstruths.org
Place them in a notebook in the desired order for prelude.
Tip: Write brief modulation on a sticky-note staff pad to place at end of a song if needed.
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
Blessed be the Name
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Count Your Blessings
For the Beauty of the Earth
Great is Thy Faithfulness
I Sing the Mighty Power of God
I Will Praise Him
Praise Him! Praise Him!
Rejoice Ye Pure in Heart
There Shall be Showers of Blessing
To God be the Glory
Just had to share one of my favorite transitional parts of the “Gesu Bambino” two piano arrangement. I will be entering this arrangement in the Holiday Arranging competition hosted by SMPress.
I’m feverishly writing an advanced two piano Christmas duo for another SMPress competition. I have to turn it in by October 10th!
Meryt Wilson and I will be premiering this Christmas piano duo on October 12th at 8pm….live on facebook at the following link… https://www.facebook.com/thechurchpianist/
Please join us for an evening of fun as other church pianists gather round to learn a few tips on modulation and accompanying 6/8 hymns.
Here’s a sampling of “Gesu Bambino” two piano arrangement (It’s similar to the arrangement on my “Simply Christmas” CD.
I met a nice young lady at the Composer Symposium this past summer who attends the church where my husband and I were married!
She is a great violinist and offered to add the violin bow & slur marks to my arrangement of “Nearer My God to Thee”. It has taken me a while to finalize the arrangement but now complete and available in our music store.
A big thanks to Abby Phillips for adding the violin markings! See video of Abby below playing her own arrangement of “I’d Rather Have Jesus” in her home church.
The critiqued version of Abide With Me is a result of my critique at the Composer’s Symposium this past summer in Atlanta.
Most of the editing was the result of a private lesson with Marty Parks. Very thankful for his input! He shared a great pointer on how to better communicate rhythmic interpretation in written music.
(Thanks to Robert Sterling and Brad Nix for pointing out the 9 over the tuplets for clarity). I just honestly had shied away from learning how to input tuplets with Finale and FINALLY learned how! 🙂 Thanks to Joseph Martin for his overall encouragement and teaching spirit 🙂 Also, thanks to John Parker for his written comments on the arrangement!
For example, instead of a breath mark (large looking comma)…just insert a rest…makes a clearer statement. Also, NOT to show key change too early which is what I ALWAYS do! 😉 *See key change illustrations below the video.
Due to requests for the critiqued version…there are now two different arrangements of Abide With Me in our music store…the advanced original version & Critiqued version. Those who like a challenge will enjoy playing the critiqued version….which contains minor editing changes…ending with a run up the keyboard. Listen to the critiqued version below…
Now to show you the original and new key change correction 🙂
Original key change:
The new key change:
I never really noticed the time signature change in “Just When I Need Him Most” until today.
We sang this at our church last night for a congregational and the people REALLY enjoyed singing it. The words are so comforting!
It’s just one of those seasons at our church where there’s a lot of physical needs and such a song reminds us of Jesus’ ever-present help 🙂
We sang this song in a prayerful mood with a slow walking speed so I had time to add left hand flowing patterns similar to the following free pdf of “Just When I Need Him Most”.
Most importantly, notice the key change at the chorus….but the flow will still be pretty much the same 🙂 I actually changed to 6/8 timing one measure earlier than the hymnal shows… because it felt more natural to not hold as long before entering the chorus.
Maybe this will help a beginning church pianist to see what fill-ins could be used for a slow to medium hymn in 6/8 or 9/8 timing… such as my arrangement of “I Must Tell Jesus”.
Warning: This arrangement is NOT intended for piano solo use… due to missing melody notes at the beginning of the chorus…unless of course you know how to add them in 😉
Click on song title for free download: Just When I Need Him Most