Part One:  The Call for Reapers 

This past Sunday I had to play in E Major (four sharps) for a male vocal solo and survived! He was singing “The Call for Reapers” out of the hymnal. The hymnal version was in the key of A flat major.

In his first practice I discovered E Major was the most suitable  key for his baritone range.  I decided I would brave the sea of black notes and make it work!

Usually I would have had the vocalist go to another nearby key that I could reasonable transpose to.

As I’ve mentioned before….E major is NOT my most comfortable key to play in.  Some of my readers are sharp key lovers but I’m quite the opposite!

A simple sketch of  “The Call for Reapers” was all I needed to keep me on track.  It worked wonders!  I was able to follow the piece fairly easy. The gentleman sang two verses and choruses but I just wrote out one verse and chorus as more of a guide.

Most hymns in the church hymnal don’t go beyond three sharps or five flats.  That explains why I don’t feel as comfy beyond the hymnal key range.

Maybe there are other church pianists who could benefit from this  simple sketched out arrangement of “The Call for Reapers”.

This particular hymn makes a great choice for Mission’s Conference or other mission related meeting.

I’m sharing the verse in this post and will publish the chorus by hopefully next weekend.

Click on following title to download your FREE copy of the verse

Part Two (chorus) by next weekend.  (March 8 – 10, 2021)

The Call for Reapers

“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”…an excellent reminder to focus on Jesus as we travel through this earthly life.

As I grow older…the words to these old hymns become even more meaningful.

Here’s a homespun hymn arrangement of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”   I just played from my heart and tried to replicate via paper 😉

I especially love the last verse:

“His Word shall not fail you_HE PROMISED 🙂

Believe Him and all will be well.

Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!

This arrangement is VERY advanced due to at least a half dozen runs…measure #42 contains a run I’ve never used or seen before…but it just seemed to fit.

I will admit it’s the hardest run for me to play in this arrangement.  But…with practice it can happen 🙂

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Advanced sacred piano solo, 4 pgs. A majestic entrance to this arrangement opens up to the chorus and then goes into a verse with a final chorus. At least a half dozen runs are included in this exciting arrangement!

Price: $4.00

I just finished the final copy of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”.

This is a very advanced piano hymn arrangement with at least a half dozen runs sprinkled throughout the piece.

To be honest, I didn’t think this arrangement was worthy of publication.  Why? Sometimes I feel like my homespun arrangements aren’t that interesting.   But this is the style I like to play….just straight from my heart.

My piano friend, Meryt Wilson encouraged me to publish this piece.

Maybe there are other church pianists that could make use of this homespun arrangement.

I’ll be creating the video today and hope to publish it by no later than the end of this week.

My advanced sacred piano solo of “The Lord’s Prayer” is now available through Sheet Music Plus.

This particular arrangement took two weeks to create.  I always like to allow breathing space when creating the more advanced pieces…always chiseling away…trying to smooth the rough edges.

As a church pianist, I always played the vocal accompaniment for someone to sing but never as a piano solo.

I’ve never come across this particular song as a piano solo. How about you?  I’m sure there’s piano solo arrangements out there for “The Lord’s Prayer” but I haven’t seen one at the advanced level.

I tried to stay true to the flow of the melody score even though I stretched it out a bit with tuplet time.  The tempo  should be brisk to avoid dragging out the melody.  I tried to maintain a clear melody path while meandering through many twists and turns.  😉

I thought The Lord’s Prayer was in the public domain. I searched out the title before creating the arrangement.  Somewhere along the way I discovered that this certain melody of the Lord’s Prayer was still under copyright.  Fortunately I was able to publish it through Sheet Music Plus.  Yay!!!

Click here to buy the Lord’s Prayer (off site product) This link will take you to Sheet Music Plus

Just finished the printed version of “The Lord’s Prayer” advanced piano solo!  A piano friend is proof reading before final copy is made.

The music to this popular tune is still under copyright so I will be publishing this arrangement through Sheet Music Plus.

You can still go to my store to purchase the arrangement once it’s published.  Clicking on the arrangement will take you to Sheet Music Plus’ site for purchase.

I plan to publish “The Lord’s Prayer” by this Friday afternoon.

I know I’m quite late with this arrangement of Silent Night…but had to pen to paper my spontaneous version I played  last week during facebook live.

I just published a volume of ten Early elementary level sacred piano solos originally written for my students to play for congregational singing.

I have up to three students playing along with me in church now whenever they can!  We use these arrangements for offertories and preludes too!

Keep in mind….these arrangements can only work for congregational singing IF the student’s keyboard or piano can be transposed to match the key of the lead pianist.

My students are LOVING playing in church in a group setting. They’re actually progressing much faster!

Click on video below to hear all the arrangements in this volume.

Listen to this video clip for some helpful pointers on the topic of “Playing Within Your Level”

Jenifer & Lauren aired live on facebook tonight with the following video…

Several weeks ago I sat down at the piano to create a congregational arrangement for one of my intermediate level students.

I lacked two measures finishing the hand-written copy when my student walked in for her lesson.

Instead of holding off to share…I assigned her to finish the last two measures on her own for that week.

I reminded her to stay true to the texture of the arrangement which she did very well!

Here’s the finished product that we thought we’d share with other church pianists that may need a quick offertory or as a congregational arrangement.

Click on hymn title for free download.   I’ve also posted Allie playing the arrangement below.

Come Ye Thankful People Come

Here is an early advanced arrangement of “Crown Him with Many Crowns”.

I consider this one of my home-spun arrangements straight from the heart.

This is the style I like writing the best!

I will probably play this piece for Thanksgiving service at our church.