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

Here is a free easy choir arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.   This is an easy two-verse arrangement for young girls and ladies’ SA group.

The young girls sing the first two lines of each verse and the ladies (soprano and alto) join on the third line.

Not a lot of prep time involved in learning this easy selection….allowing the singers to focus on the message.

I wrote this arrangement to go with the easy Christmas Program found at the following link:

The Christmas Story

Our church has REALLY been using “The Best of Ron Hamilton” vocal special book Volume One.  I just noticed that it’s on sale right now.

Book Description:

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

Early advanced sacred piano arrangement, 3 pgs. Approx. length: 1:53

Price: $3.50

I have two Christmas arrangements that will be published very soon!

One is an early advanced arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and the other is an easy two-part ladies’ arrangement of “What Child is This?”

Also working on other Christmas arrangements of various sorts that I hope to publish in time for this year.

I’ve been writing ALOT lately..getting ready for our church’s Christmas program.

Our church choir is presenting the “Christmas Story”.  Several choir members have been chosen as narrators to present the Luke 2 passage.  Christmas carols have been inserted at appropriate times to support the scripture.  We also have the younger kids singing a couple songs and using them for the manger scene characters.

Even simple programs require ample practice in order to present an effective message on the birth of Christ.  I’m SO excited about this year’s program!  Since the program is rather easy..we’re adding a few touches to make it extra special.

More details soon 🙂

As most of you may remember… I lost one of my voice/piano students this past March to a very tragic accident.   I was training her to be a church pianist.  She was doing very well…at the age of sixteen.

God had truly blessed Letha with musical talent.  In earlier years…Letha’s vocal range was very limited to about a five or six notes.  In the past several years, she had begun to strengthen her high voice and was doing quite well.

This particular song soars up to a high “G” which you will hear toward the end.

I”m sharing an audio of  her last solo she sang at church. The song is entitled “Jesus Lover of My Soul” by Dave Mincy.  Dave has given me permission to share this song with you.

When and if available…I will provide a link to this song for purchase as soon as I get the information.

Jesus Lover of My Soul 03-18-2012 AM

In the next article, I will share a video of Letha playing my arrangement of “What Child is This?” which is now owned by Lorenz Publishing Co.

I guess you can tell I’ve been very busy lately…hence…fewer posts.

I’m preparing to be GRANDMA for the second time and busy with music writing projects for my site.

So, I’m sharing a free SAB choir arrangement of Yes I Know that  I recently finished.

Feel free to share this with your choir director and make as many copies as you like!

Click here to download: Yes I Know (Free SAB choir arrangement)

Click on complete audio below:

You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode

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