Just started revival meetings with Alton Beal this week to last through Wednesday.

My daughter-in-law will be helping me with accompanying this week so I wrote this arrangement (I Shall Know Him)… for her to accompany the vocal solo for tonight.

The vocal soloist happens to take a lot of freedom with the text …lots of ebb and flow. So I freed the pianist from the melody to allow more freedom for the pianist and soloist.

Wanted to share this free piano/vocal solo arrangement  for “I Shall Know Him” before running errands!

Click on title to download free arrangement: I Shall Know Him

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I recently attended a couple piano workshops by Shelly Hamilton.

“Accompanying Made Simple” was a very practical workshop providing the church pianists with simple yet practical ideas for accompanying special music.

Shelly brought her accompaniment suggestions to life by offering a free arrangement of Day by Day which includes three different accompaniment styles.  Thanks Shelly!

I attended Shelly’s workshops so that I could share accompaniment ideas with my church pianist readers.  Click on the following links to download the handouts for this workshop.

Accompanying Made Simple (outline)

Day by Day page one

Day by Day page two

Are you a church pianist that doesn’t know how to transpose?  Do you choose hymns for prelude that are in the same key for this very reason?  I have good news for you!

It is not always necessary to transpose from one song to the next if you go up a perfect fourth between each hymn.  I’m providing a free prelude below but read the important info below before you hurry to print the free prelude.

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Going Up a Perfect 4th Interval From One Hymn to the Next Hymn:

What You Need to Know:

1. An interval is the distance between two notes

Example:

C to D is a 2nd interval because you count from 1 t0 2 to go from    C to D.

C to E would be a 3rd interval and C to F a fourth.

2. Within every key/scale… the fourth interval is called a perfect fourth which consists of five half steps.  So… from C to F is a perfect fourth.  Why is it called a perfect fourth?  Just accept it and go on or if you’re curious…check out the following links 🙂

Music Practice & Theory

Music Reading Savant

Quick quiz in Creating Perfect Fourths:

What is 5 half steps (a perfect 4th) above F? Answer is:  B flat (see picture below)

(Are you noticing that we’re going in order of the flat keys as we go up a 4th?)

The key of F Major has one flat, the key of B Flat Major has two flats.  Cool!

Ok….so what is 5 half steps (a perfect fourth)… above B flat?  You got it!  E flat and the key of E flat has three flats.

Now…let’s apply this “no transposing” concept using the following  hymns which are a perfect fourth apart for a nice topical prelude!

Click on each song title to download for FREE!

Free Prelude for Church Pianists:

At Calvary –  C Major

Since I Have Been Redeemed – F Major

Power in the Blood – B Flat Major

Saved by the Blood – E Flat Major

*All of these arrangements are from our free arrangement page(s)

Working on several music projects right now:

1. “Holy Holy Holy” very advanced piano solo * Almost finished with handwritten version.

2.  Beginning to compile songs for Piano Hymns Congregational Booklet Two

3. Preparing several book reviews for Lorenz Publishing Corporation.

VERY excited about the arrangements I found in these books!  Most of them are advanced.

I decided to share for FREE….transitions for an Easter prelude.

A late intermediate to early advanced church pianist would benefit most from this IF they already know how to improvise hymns from the hymnal.

The following PDF includes four hymns that I printed from Timeless Truths Free Online Library.

Keep in mind that the hymns in the following Easter prelude are taken from a hymnal as is  but I’ve also included  a separate sheet which includes the transition for each song in the prelude collection. (These hymns are in the correct keys to match the transition sheet below.)

Easter Prelude Contents:

There is a Fountain (B flat Major)

When I See the Blood (C Major)

Since I Have Been Redeemed (F Major)

Glory to His Name (G Major)

Click here to download Easter-Prelude

Click here to download Transitions for Easter Prelude

Hopefully this helps the church pianist who has difficulty with adding transitions/modulations between hymns during a prelude.

A Great Find for Church Pianists!

I just subscribed to Dorothy Taubman’s youtube channel. I’ve known of Dorothy’s work and have gleaned from several of her youtube lessons over the years.

I would love to attend piano clinics but distance is usually a factor so I bring learning to my living room via youtube and other internet resources.

If you want to play with ease, you will enjoy the following video.  I was encouraged to discover that I teach some of the same solutions for technical passages but enjoyed hearing Dorothy’s easy-to-understand solutions!

Helpful Resource for Church Pianists!

Over the years, I’ve met many piano friends who are classically trained and say they have a hard time improvising because they only learned to play what was on the page…leaving no room for creativity.

I found the following article to be very enlightening…

Why Don’t More Classical Musicians Improvise?

Sorry for the delay in posting…our household has been down with the stomach bug.

Here is the excerpt of Isn’t the Love of Jesus Something Wonderful which I shared with my hymn playing student last week.  The left hand ideas resemble the improvisation I shared in the free piano prelude arrangement of “I Am Resolved”.

It’s always helpful to see the same ideas in several different keys and songs of like nature for ample reinforcement.

(Due to the copyright still active on this hymn…I could only share a portion as stated in the “fair use” copyright law.)

Having said that…if I could have shared more…I would have branched out the right hand an octave higher during the chorus to stretch my student’s playing ground.

Special note: When trying to apply the above left hand ideas… choose hymns of like nature (same time signature; similar rhythmic structure; peppy mood).

I lied!  😉  I said I would publish at least the verse of I Am Resolved tonight…wound up finishing the chorus too…but don’t think you’ll mind 😉

I’ve been working on fill-ins with my most advanced hymn playing student. She plays for chapel at school and has also begun to play for church when the main pianist (her mom) is out of town or sick.  She’s doing a great job but has such a zeal to advance her hymn playing.  Well….LOVE helping her with that!

Below is a result of her lesson this week 🙂

Click here for free piano arrangement of I Am Resolved

Working on “I Am Resolved” prelude arrangement for one of my hymnprovising students.  She was asking about different left hand fill-ins because of all the repeated bass notes so…I was just going to jot down a few ideas for her and wound up writing the whole verse!  Guess that means I need to write out the chorus too.

I’ll share the verse hopefully by this evening (once I enter it into Finale).

This particular student is needing to expand her right hand playground area. She has always played right hand in the middle area of the keyboard.  I’m gradually conditioning her to broaden the right hand playing area… as you’ll notice towards the end of the verse.

My student and I laughed as I observed her trying to improvise on her own…playing the right hand an octave higher.  The funny part was she had no idea what to do with her left hand at that point since she had all that extra space!  😉

She WILL improve as she broadens her horizon!  I look forward to working with her at this stage of her hymn playing and plan to share with you all… what we do each week.

Look forward to sharing the first part of a  free piano prelude arrangement soon!