I’m feverishly writing an advanced two piano Christmas duo for another SMPress competition. I have to turn it in by October 10th!
Meryt Wilson and I will be premiering this Christmas piano duo on October 12th at 8pm….live on facebook at the following link…   https://www.facebook.com/thechurchpianist/

Please join us for an evening of fun as other church pianists gather round to learn a few tips on modulation and accompanying 6/8 hymns.

Here’s a sampling of “Gesu Bambino” two piano arrangement (It’s similar to the arrangement on my “Simply Christmas” CD.

GESU BAMBINO

Click here for sheet music.

Just sang “Will You Receive His Gift?” in a trio for our recent revival with Dwight Smith.

I enjoyed singing this song about Jesus’ free gift of salvation and how one only needs to believe and receive this wonderful gift. This particular arrangement was easy to learn…great harmony…allowing us to focus on the message. Thank you Niki Lott for writing such a  beautiful song!

Your ladies’ ensemble will love singing this beautiful song by Mina Oglesby.  The text describes how we are just plain old clay and how God is our Potter.  He’s molding our lives to make us vessels of love.

I hope to reunite the ladies’ ensemble I directed years ago that sang this actual arrangement and share it with you all via video.

I do have a youtube video of Mina singing “The Potter’s Hands” and will share below…(THE ACCOMPANIMENT ON THE VIDEO IS NOT MY ARRANGEMENT) *LISTEN TO AUDIO SAMPLE)

The Potter's Hands (duet)

Sacred vocal two part arrangement for ladies' ensemble. Words & music by Mina Oglesby and arranged by Jenifer Cook. *Price covers two or more copies.
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Price: $8.00

I met a nice young lady at the Composer Symposium this past summer who attends the church where my husband and I were married!

She is a great violinist and offered to add the violin bow & slur marks to my arrangement of “Nearer My God to Thee”.  It has taken me a while to finalize the arrangement but now complete and available in our music store.

A big thanks to Abby Phillips for adding the violin markings! See video of Abby below playing her own arrangement of “I’d Rather Have Jesus” in her home church.

Nearer My God to Thee

Sacred violin solo w/ piano accompaniment; 4 pgs. *Price covers two copies. A nice solo piece for any occasion. The beautiful melody of this hymn flows gently back and forth between the piano and violin. *Bowing & slur marks included for violin.

Price: $4.50

The critiqued version of Abide With Me is a result of my critique at the Composer’s Symposium this past summer in Atlanta.

Most of the editing was the result of a private lesson with Marty Parks.  Very thankful for his input! He shared a great pointer on how to better communicate rhythmic interpretation in written music.

(Thanks to Robert Sterling and Brad Nix for pointing out the 9 over the tuplets for clarity). I just honestly had shied away from learning how to input tuplets with Finale and FINALLY learned how! 🙂 Thanks to Joseph Martin for his overall encouragement and teaching spirit 🙂 Also, thanks to John Parker for his written comments on the arrangement!

For example, instead of a breath mark (large looking comma)…just insert a rest…makes a clearer statement. Also, NOT to show key change too early which is what I ALWAYS do! 😉 *See key change illustrations below the video.

Due to requests for the critiqued version…there are now two different arrangements of Abide With Me in our music store…the advanced original version & Critiqued version. Those who like a challenge will enjoy playing the critiqued version….which contains minor editing changes…ending with a run up the keyboard.  Listen to the critiqued version below…

 Now to show you the original and new key change correction 🙂

Original key change:

The new key change:

I periodically downsize my sacred music library and have several sacred piano and vocal books available. Just click on image above for more details.

I never really noticed the time signature change in “Just When I Need Him Most” until today.

We sang this at our church last night for a congregational and the people REALLY enjoyed singing it.  The words are so comforting!

It’s just one of those seasons at our church where there’s a lot of physical needs and such a song reminds us of Jesus’ ever-present help 🙂

We sang this song in a prayerful mood with  a slow walking speed so I had time to add left hand flowing patterns similar to the following free pdf of “Just When I Need Him Most”.

Most importantly, notice the key change at the chorus….but the flow will still be pretty much the same 🙂  I actually changed to 6/8 timing one measure earlier than the hymnal shows… because it felt more natural to not hold as long before entering the chorus.

Maybe this will help a beginning church pianist to see what fill-ins could be used for a slow to medium hymn in 6/8 or 9/8 timing… such as my arrangement of “I Must Tell Jesus”.

Warning: This arrangement is NOT intended for piano solo use… due to missing melody notes at the beginning of the chorus…unless of course you know how to add them in 😉

Click on song title for free download: Just When I Need Him Most

I have always loved the words to A Passion for Souls by Herbert G. Tovey but have always wished for a different melody.

While looking over the words last week…a melody begin to flow in my head and I quickly penned it to paper.

At first I thought of writing it as a solo but while singing through it with a friend I soon realized a harmony part would be nice 🙂

My friend and I sang it this morning at church.  Here’s the video.

I’ll be out of town this coming week but plan to publish it when I return.

Just published the Easy to Play Congregational Collection One today!  I will be out of town this upcoming week but will supply video or audio samples for this collection when I return.

Easy-to-Play Congregational Collection-One

Early intermediate to intermediate piano congregational arrangements, 16 pgs. Jenifer wrote these arrangements in an easy-to-learn fashion for the beginning church pianist. You'll find these arrangements to be fairly structured making for minimal practice. Song list: Amazing Grace, Day by Day, Grace Greater Than Our Sin, I Need Thee Every Hour, It is Well, Nothing but the Blood, Only a Sinner, O Worship the King, Satisfied, Trust and Obey. *Amazing Grace contains optional key change into Grace Greater Than Our Sin

Price: $14.00

Here’s a visual sampling of the Collection

So many times I have wanted to play “A Passion for Souls” for the invitation but not many people know this song…at least not in our church. The melody is ok but felt like it needed a face-lift.

I like to play familiar songs during invitation…hymns that the people know since I play background music during invitation. (I miss the days of  hearing the congregation sing during invitation).

Back to topic!  I thought…if I could re-work the melody on this song…maybe it would revive a long lost hymn…at least for our church 🙂

So…a new melody to “A Passion for Souls” flowed out of my mind during a recent spurt of inspiration last week. Hope the song is a blessing to you.

I’m singing it as a duet with a friend this Sunday morning. (The arrangement can either be a duet or solo) I’ll share a video of the duet asap.

Here’s a sampling of sheet music for “A Passion for Souls” which I will publish next week. (Click on image below for larger view)