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Down From His Glory requires ALOT of ad lib from the church pianist when accompanying someone to sing this hymn.
I could not help but add runs during the chorus due to the frequent held words. The fingering for the runs is included 🙂
I plan to create an audio of the piano accompaniment as time allows.
Click here to download “Down From His Glory” in E Flat Major
Click here to download “Down From His Glory” in F
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“Down From His Glory”…a challenging piece for many church pianists!
Many of you requested that I share improvising tips for this very piece as recently discussed in a video from last year’s Wild’s Music Conference.
In this particular video, Faye Lopez shared several tips for dressing up the accompaniment such as adding right hand echoes during held words for the first half of the verse and then broken chords for the second half of verse.
As stated in a recent article…the following free download of “Down From His Glory” is similar to Faye’s accompaniment but not an exact replica 🙂
Tip: Watching the related video to this article would be beneficial while looking over the free download below. Click here to see: VIDEO
 Complete arrangement of Down From His Glory
Freestyle is my favorite way to accompany vocalists. To me, freestyle is playing by ear what I feel at the time without written music. It takes years of practice… of course… to get to this point of playing 😉  Dad was the first person I ever accompanied in my early years of being church pianist. He taught me accompaniment tips along the way such as “Follow the soloist”…a MUST for the church pianist.
I do play for soloists that prefer to follow me but I’m trying to help them feel more comfortable being the leader. After all…the church pianist is just the background support for the soloist.
Below, is a recent recording of me playing for my dad. Our parents were visiting with us this past week and Dad sang this solo in our church.
I love to accompany my dad!
There are certain songs that are a challenge for the church pianist to accompany. “Down From His Glory” is one of those songs!
In the video below, Duane Ream and Faye Lopez share some of their insight on accompanying the vocal soloist for “Down From His Glory”.
The following video excerpt came from last year’s Hymn Playing Master Class workshop at the annual Wild’s Music Conference. Please excuse the shaky quality of the video. I didn’t have a tripod available.
I want to thank the pianist for granting me permission to share this video excerpt. He did a great job with his impromptu accompaniment; providing others with an opportunity to learn more about accompanying a vocal solo.
This video was taken during the “critique” session of the class when someone would volunteer to play either a piano solo, prelude style piece or accompaniment style.
Duane Ream, one of the workshop leaders, also volunteered to sing…making it easier for the volunteer pianist to share his accompaniment style. *Please note that Duane sang an octave lower on purpose for the chorus… since it was out of his vocal range 🙂 At least he was willing to help the pianist 🙂
I’ve thought about providing a couple visual examples of the accompaniment patterns Faye was trying to convey to the pianist. Keep in mind…they wouldn’t be note for note what she played but I could produce something very similar. Who would be interested?
If you have been a church pianist for very long or played in different churches as church pianist…then you may have run across this scenario…”playing for an inexperienced leader”.
The intention of this article is not meant to minimize the willingness and faithfulness of the inexperienced leader but rather to give constructive pointers to church pianists on how to deal with such a situation.
My dad, who was my first leader to follow, emphasized to me the importance of the pianist following the leader. I’m thankful for his teaching and preparing me for my role as church pianist. He was the best teacher!
Over time, through experience…I have learned there are exceptions to rules 🙂
I have had to play for at least several different leaders in various situations who just didn’t know “how” to lead and were doing the best they could. Not all of them were non-musical people either. I’ve had the joy of helping some of those leaders along…ONLY because of having a trusting relationship with them; giving me the liberty to do so.
I’ve found it necessary to “lead” as a pianist in some cases IF it was the only way to keep everyone singing together at the same tempo.
On occasion, when a lay person in our church has had to substitute for our regular leader…he will ask me before the service… to help him during congregational singing by keeping things moving since he’s not comfortable with leading.
The following video (taken from the 2013 Wild’s Music Conference) contains more discussion about this topic of “The Experienced Church Pianist vs. The Inexperienced Leader.”
My favorite quotes from the video:
“Part of our role is… we’re support, we’re ministry, we’re behind-the-scenes…serving and helping someone else try to do their job effectively…part of the philosophy of being a good church pianist.” Â
 ~  ~  Faye Lopez  ~  ~
“You can infuse the service with energy and vitality in the singing…from the keyboard.”Â
~  ~  Duane Ream  ~  ~
Enjoy the following brief… yet informative video on:
“The Experienced Church Pianist vs. The Inexperienced Leader”
Just thought I’d share a very informal video shooting of my latest choir/congregational arrangement of “It is Well”.
It was a last minute decision to video the choir and didn’t have a tripod….so excuse the shaky quality.
At least you can get a rough idea of how the arrangement sounds.
The end is kind of funny because our Pastor thought we were done BEFORE we were done. He had us sing it again because he liked it so much AND because he wanted to hear the end without interruption:)
It just so happened that the first recording was our best.
I appreciate all of our choir members taking the time to attend choir practice each week. They are a blessing!
I created this SATB choir arrangement of “A Glorious Church” just to have an easy one on hand. Our 30 minute choir rehearsals limit us on how much material we can cover. So…this arrangement came in handy!
I would eventually like to create a collection of easy choir arrangements like this.
Special note: I was short on time when I created the piano score for this arrangement…so I left out the men’s part. The choir vocal score contains all the parts.
Click on the song titles below to download your FREE arrangement of this unison choir hymn.
A Glorious Church (choir vocal score)
A Glorious Church (piano score)
I am VERY excited about this arrangement! This particular arrangement has been in the making since December but took plenty of time to refine it before sharing the finished product.
It is Well takes on a whole new meaning to those who have heard the story behind the writing of this hymn.
Click on the following link to read about the heart-rending events that led to the writing of “It is Well”. Only by God’s grace…this song was born.
Enjoyed tweeking this free unison choir arrangement of “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.I wrote it sometime ago for one of our pianists to play for choir while I was out of town.
One improvising tip to take note of (no pun intended)…is when I left out the melody here and there in the piano score.
Most of the time this occurred was when the melody note was an eighth note…making for a smoother form of playing for the church pianist. Skipping a quick melody note in the piano accompaniment is similar to the “understood you” in a sentence. You know what’s implied even though you don’t hear it. 😉
I just played it straight through without repeats. (two verses and choruses)
Click on audio below to hear the entire free unison choir arrangement of “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”
Click here to download: “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”
Tip:Â This choir arrangement can also be used as a vocal solo.
I’m re-organizing my music at home and came across a simple unison choir arrangement of “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.
I wrote it for one of our pianists to play for choir while I was out of town a good while ago. This particular pianist was probably an early intermediate at the time and needed something basic to accompany the choir for this particular hymn.
I hope to share this free arrangement with you tomorrow..IF we still have power…in the middle of a snowstorm! (You can also use this free choir arrangement as a vocal solo too).