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

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

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