I just had to let my readers know what’s coming up this week…

A book review on a sacred piano arrangement book geared to the early intermediate church pianist.  I’ll also provide a chance for my readers to win this book…compliments of Soundforth Publications.  I just finished playing through the entire book and thorougly enjoyed each arrangement!  

If my articles seem somewhat shorter  lately….well…it’s because I’m on a writing spree and seriously want to write around the clock!  My inspiration to write music comes in spurts and I have to take advantage of those moments.

Look for the book review sometime this week. 

This is the time of year that I research piano offertories for church  and recital pieces for my students to play at the upcoming spring recital.

 The following book “In the Light of His Glory” by Martha Mier, contains twelve late intermediate to early advanced piano arrangements.  The book was produced by Alfred Publishing Company.  I like Alfred’s website because they show sample pages from the different sacred piano books or any other music for that matter. The sample pages from this book sound beautiful! 

 The three samples available at the time of my search were: “Near to the Heart of God” , His Eye is on the Sparrow” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.

Being nervous can definitely affect the church pianist!  I can remember my early years of playing for church….knees knocking together….heart beating fast, etc.   I could barely keep my foot on the damper pedal for my leg shaking so bad!  Ever been there?

I enjoy visiting our local nursing homes and playing the piano for the elderly.  Sometimes I will play an upcoming offertory for church at the nursing home; allowing me the  opportunity to share the piece in a more relaxed setting before playing it at church.

Joy Morin, of Color in My Piano shares some practical tips for the nervous pianist.

Dealing with Performance Anxiety by Joy Morin of Color in My Piano Blog.

 Who has TIME  to memorize music?! 

Memorizing music requires planning ahead doesn’t it? A challenge for all church pianists. 

Many pianists like myself, serve as a volunteer pianist for their church. I enjoy every minute of it…but…it does takes time to adequately prepare for offertories and other special music.

One of my goals this coming year is to spend more time planning/preparing my offertories.  I always know at least one month in advance when I’ll be playing my next offertory. I want to be as effective as I can for the Lord by being prepared. There are times I just have to play an offertory on the spot but for the most part…I know ahead of time.

Memorization should be a natural outcome of consistent practice on a particular piece over a long period of time.  Yeah…like a year!  No 🙂   Memorizing a piece can easily happen in a month to two months time with daily practice.

Choosing an offertory arrangement within your capability is of upmost importance.  Choose an arrangement well within your level so you can focus on the message and not struggle through it. It’s ok to choose a challenging piece…but be realistic 🙂  I like to find arrangements that clearly communicate the message of the hymn without too much frill.  Occasionally, I’ll play a more involved piece such as: “Saviour Like a Shepherd Leads Us’ arranged by Roger House, “Onward Christian Soldiers” arranged by Duane Ream or maybe “Blessed Assurance” arranged by Marilyn Ham.  I really enjoy these particular arrangements because each one of them conveys the meaning of the text with little deviation from the main melody of the song; allowing the listeners to follow along in their minds or in some cases (out loud)  🙂  Personally, I like hearing those in the congregation singing along with me. It means they are focusing on the message instead of me.

I”m getting off track. (Sorry about that). Back to memorizing…one of my piano teachers from high school days gave me the following memorization tip that has really helped me. He told me to “find several escape hatches” (easy places in the arrangement) that I could return to in case I got disoriented when playing from memory. To this day,  I still use this tip when playing from memory.

Joy Morin, of Color in My Piano website, offers practical memorization tips (including my favorite tip mentioned above) in the following article:

12 Tips for Memorizing Music

Are you constantly searching for piano offertory music?  It’ nice to be able to find a piano offertory book where you can use more than one or two songs.

As a church pianist, I’m always looking for offertory music.  Over time, I have created my own favorite  list of piano offertory books that I have purchased through the years.

Take a look at the list in progress under Offertory Resources at the top of my website. Hopefully, this page will be a great help to other church pianists too!

I have compiled several of my free Christmas piano arrangements under the ” Free Hymns Pdf” page for easier access. 

 Most church pianists are gearing up for Christmas; searching out Christmas piano arrangements. Hope these free arrangements are a help to your music ministry.

Alot of times, our choir will sing a special from the church hymnal.  Sometimes I just want an introduction other than the regular last phrase of the song. 

 Congregational introductions do require introductions that are self-explanatory.  But…for the choir and other specials, it’s nice for the church pianist  to have a creative introduction as long as it fits the song. 

I”m sharing an introduction idea today that would work for offertory, choir or other vocal special. 

For example, if you’re giving an introduction for a song in C Major…start the introduction with an F chord…then to a C chord and finally end with a G (7) chord right before the first word of the song.  

Sound clear?   Check out the example below that illustrates this type of introduction.  In this particular case, I used the introduction idea in an offertory special entitled  “We Gather Together”.

Click on image to enlarge for clearer view.

Here’s another nice resource for church pianists.  I found this website not too long ago and thought I’d share it with you. It’s an easy name to remember….pdfpiano.com

The site contains gospel piano solos and piano duets.  Many of the arrangements require minimal practice…making it a nice resource for church pianists with limited practice time.

All piano books are on sale right now until September 6th at Bible Truth Music.

One of my favorite books from Bible Truth is Wonderful Grace of Jesus (piano duos). Two of these books are being sold for only $16.95!  Two copies are necessary to play two pianos unless you have two pianos side by side plus a pianist with super eyesight 🙂

I also discovered another neat site where you can purchase individual piano arrangements. I’ll have to share this information soon!

I announced earlier about the soon coming release of my book entitled: Showers of Blessing. This piano arrangement book is now available through Soundforth. Soundforth did an excellent job putting the book together!

The book contains eight early intermediate sacred arrangements. The final arrangement is a peppy piano duet of Stepping in the Light.

Here are sample audios for each arrangement…

America the Beautiful

A Shelter in the Time of Storm

Come Thou Fount

It is Well with My Soul

Onward Christian Soldiers

Showers of Blessing

Stepping in the Light  (duet)

What Child is This