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.

Due to the recent home going of one of my piano students…I’ve been preparing music for her funeral.  I came across these two songs that I thought I’d share with other church pianists in case they have not heard of them.  Both of these pieces are VERY comforting and appropriate for any occasion but especially for funerals.

 His Way is Perfect by Betsy Kistler

Be Not Afraid by Craig Courtney

Click here to see PDF sample of

Here’s the only youtube recording I could find.

Recently, I’ve been working on an arrangement of “Rock of Ages”.  The introduction contains what I call “weighty chords”…chords with three or more notes.  Thus, the following tip…

Scenario: A pianist sees a chord with three or more notes…(brain computes)…HEAVY touch!  Your brain thinks….I can’t possibly mash all those notes down at once without attacking them 😉   Word of caution:  Relax and apply gentle even pressure as though you’re lightly kneading dough… to avoid a “chunky” or “weighted” sound…especially when the full chords occur on the weak beats.

For example, in 4/4 time, the 1st and 3rd beats are naturally accented. Therefore the 2nd and 4th beats are weaker. In 3/4 time…only the first beat of each measure receives the accent. Why? To produce a more shapely rhythm and to avoid a mechanical/laboured sound.

The following excerpt is from an arrangement that will be included in a “Funeral Collection” which I hope to finish within the next several months. Notice the full chords in the left hand. I will give a brief demonstration of a suggested way to interpret these chords…fighting against the natural tendency of “heavy hand” treatment.

Click here for: video clip of following example

Every church pianist probably owns a copy of the traditional “Wedding March”.  I’ve personally been wanting a new arrangement of this well used tune.  So…I finally finished a new version of  the “Wedding March”.

The majority of the weddings that I use this song for…want it to last long enough for the married couple to exit and then transition into another tune for the rest of the wedding party. The bride is usually open to suggestions for this separate song after the wedding march.  I usually suggest “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”…an old hymn tune but very majestic and happy!  Of course there are other tunes  that work beautifully. (another article)  🙂

I just like the smooth transition from “Wedding March” to “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”. Here’s an audio sample of  this transition…

Wedding March transitioning into Praise My Soul the King of Heaven

It took me forever to find this alternate tune for Praise My Soul the King of Heaven by Mark Andrews. I found that this tune is copyrighted…so I can’t create an arrangement of it.  Sorry about that.

An absolutely beautiful two piano arrangement of it is available in “The Wilds” online music store.  The following link takes you to their music store.  (I couldn’t get the specific page link to work). Once you’re on the main page…click on “product search” on the left and type in “Praise My Soul the King of” to find  the two piano arrangement.

Wedding March

Early advanced piano arrangement, 3 pgs. Length: Approx 1 minute & 20 seconds (without repeats)
You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode

Price: $3.50

Since I’ve been sick all this week…I’ve had a little spare time to write music.  One of my music writing projects has been to write a  piano arrangement  of the traditional “Wedding March” recessional.  (This is the march that is played at the end of the wedding)

There’s nothing wrong with the traditional arrangement.  I’m just ready for a change. The last few times I played this song… it sounded so repetitive. If I could just add some different chords and melody twists.

It’s a challenge to draw this song to a close at just the right moment. I always work out my escape hatch (premature ending) in advance for short weddings.  (I’ll share alternate repeats and endings in the finished arrangement).

I decided to google piano arrangements for the “Wedding March”. What a variety of styles! I heard everything from slow romantic to party time renditions of this traditional tune.   It made me think…”What mood am I trying to create?”  I think…Happy! Yeah! I’m married! Joyful!

Therefore… a happy, joyful, triumphant mood…right?  So, I’m trying to add some spice to the already traditional “Wedding March” but not overdo it… or my changes will sound out of place/out of character.

This upcoming  arrangement of the “Wedding March” will be available for sale very soon.  I will offer the arrangement at a discount for a limited time.

Click here to see new arrangement of “Wedding March”

Recently, a friend of mine was searching for “Finally Home” by Don Wyrtzen  in a lower key to sing for a funeral.  I was able to point him to MusicNotes.Com

MusicNotes.Com is an online music store specializing in downloadable sheet music.  They have over 200,000 songs in downloadable format and over 260,000 music books.  If you subscribe to their weekly email newsletter…you’ll receive coupons!  All you have to provide is your email address and a password.  Prices for their sheet music are fairly reasonable for the convenience of having the music pronto!

A great feature I absolutely love is being able to choose a lower key for the song I want to order…especially for vocal music.

Finally Home is one of those songs with a very wide note range…making it a challenge to sing  for the average soloist.  The last line of the song contains the highest note of this beautiful song.  Not everyone feels comfortable trying to hit this note…so…there is a solution…sing the alternate notes…E flat to C.  (shown below on the word “glory”).

©  Copyright 1997 by Majesty Music, Inc. (Majesty Hymnal)

*Tip: I would recommend the key of F major for bass soloists.

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)…