Nothing but the Blood of Jesus…a hymn with a great message and simple chording.  I decided to spice up this hymn by adding different chords and came up with the elementary level piano arrangement below.

My student, Noah, really enjoyed playing this arrangement of Nothing but the Blood of Jesus for offertory.  Of course I had fun making up a second piano part to accompany him.  I hope to publish the teacher’s part for “free” when I get a chance to write it out.

An arpeggio is a broken chord.  I like to use fast arpeggios in my hymn arrangements.  So…how do I determine where to place a fast broken arpeggio?  Anywhere a word can be stretched (broadened) or held if you were singing the hymn.

One of my free piano hymn arrangements entitled “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” contains a fast arpeggio on the second page. (Shown below)

This fast arpeggio consists of 12 notes.  If you look closely, you’ll notice that I played 3 groups of one-octave arpeggios within the 12 note passage.  Each group has four notes beginning and ending with note “G”.

I’m basically using a g minor one-octave arpeggio made up of the notes: G-Bflat-D-G

How to finger this? Use right hand thumb (of course) to start each group.  For each group use the following fingering:  1 2 3 5

To properly blend this run into the arrangement…emphasize the right thumb at the beginning of the first group only; allowing the hand to relax and glide across the fast arpeggios in an even rhythmic flow.  How to do this?  Practice s-l-o-w  🙂

Careful not to play SO fast that it sounds “thrown in” …causing an interruption in the flow of thought.

Slow Motion Demo

 Now…for the complete arrangement at regular tempo…

Finally finished the “I Am Resolved” piano quartet!  Pianos 1 & 2 are more of an early intermediate level and pianos 3 & 4 are late intermediate to early advanced.

The various levels of this piano quartet brings several levels of church pianists together making for an exciting rendition of “I Am Resolved”.

We are planning to play this at our church toward the end of September.

I’m offering a great discount  for “I Am Resolved” piano quartet  now until August 22, 2012.

I Am Resolved

Early intermediate to early advanced, four pianos, 4 & 1/2 - 5 pgs. *Price covers two copies each of pianos 1 & 2 and pianos 3 & 4 Time length: Approx. 1 min. 35 sec.

Price: $5.00

Amazing what you can find when you get organized!  I came across a piano quartet (four pianos)  of “I Am Resolved” that I wrote back in 2008.

We have gained another pianist at our church…praise the Lord!  For me…the more the merrier 🙂

So…four of us will be playing this quartet in church very soon.

This arrangement is at an early intermediate level…but sounds like an advanced piece with all four parts.  No part can stand alone.   Pianos one through four take turns playing short sections of the  melody.

Click arrow below to hear an excerpt of this upcoming exciting piano quartet…(hope to publish it by the end of next week).

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*Special note:  This arrangement will be on sale for a limited time…so be watching for it to appear by next weekend or…before.

Several months ago, I offered a free piano solo arrangement of “The Old Rugged Cross”; written in loving memory of one of my students who has gone home  to heaven.

This free piano solo arrangement of The Old Rugged Cross can be downloaded at the following link:   More Free Hymn Arrangements!

Here is a video of me playing the arrangement:

One of my students, Hannah Myers, has just published her first sacred piano arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision”. (late intermediate level)  Hannah will be a freshman in junior high  this fall.

She has had some wonderful piano teachers.  I only started teaching her this past school year.  God has richly blessed her!

Below, is a video of Hannah playing her arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision”.

You can view a sample page and purchase this arrangement by clicking on the following title:

Be Thou My Vision

After publishing a video of me playing “How Great Thou Art” in a nursing home…I began receiving requests on youtube and my website for a copy of this arrangement.  The funny thing about this arrangement…it was spontaneous.

After at least two years in the make (on and off–during this time frame)…I am about to put the finishing touches on this arrangement. It will be available by March 15th !

Keep in mind…the arrangement of “How Great Thou Art” won’t be exact note for note as played but…will be VERY close 🙂 It took me about 20 minutes to re-create about 3 measures at a time.  I would watch my youtube video by the piano and pause ALOT to write what I heard.

Thanks to all who encouraged me to write this arrangement of “How Great Thou Art”.

Sometimes it’s refreshing to hear a simple offertory.  I like to be able to distinguish the melody when hearing an instrumental special. My son, and another gentleman in our church were suppose to play a guitar/harmonica offertory this past Sunday night. Unfortunately, they hadn’t had much time to practice.

They asked if I would play along on the piano with them for support. They wouldn’t be able to practice until Sunday evening before church during the time I had to practice with the vocal special for that night. So…I quickly wrote a simple piano accompaniment that Sunday afternoon and had my daughter-in-law practice with them that evening.  They did great for a last minute ensemble!

Here’s the video of them playing “In the Sweet By and By”.

Click here for free copy of the piano arrangement for this simple offertory  (including melody score for an instrument)

Tip: The accompaniment may also be used to accompany a vocal solo

Just sharing a video of one of my newer arrangements entitled: “Angels We Have Heard on High”.  This piece was written for the elementary level pianist.

Shelley Roberts, one of my students, played it this year for the Christmas recital.

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