Headed to meet up with one of my piano friends, Meryt Wilson!  We try to meet at least once a year to trade ideas and just have fun playing the piano or pianos together!  I’ll try to share the highlights of our meeting asap!

I’m almost finished with a very advanced arrangement of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus!”

Meryt will test drive the piece for me today before final publication.

Be in touch soon!

Right after the service this past Sunday night…I noticed my oldest grandson sitting on the front pew with an open hymnal in his lap wearing a perplexed expression.

“Whatcha doing?” I asked.   He points to the hymn title “Doxology” and says to me with a concerned look, “Grandma, this is a weird word and it’s not even one of the words in this hymn!”

Trying not to show my amusement, I explained to him what the word “Doxology” meant and how not all hymn titles are found in the lyrics but how the title will in most cases reflect the main topic of the hymn.

Across the page I noticed the hymn title “Security” and asked him what he thought that hymn was about.  He wrinkled up his face in thought and replied, “Security has to do with policemen.”    I explained it was about feeling secure in God’s arms; God’s protection.

My grandson has had such a fascination with our church hymnal since he was very young.  (He’s now almost nine and hasn’t lost interest in the hymns.)

He actually learned to read by singing through the hymns he knew from the hymnal on their 40 minute commute to church!

On Sunday afternoons, you can usually find him singing through the hymnal as his repertoire has greatly increased!

I LOVE the hymns too!  Sometimes I join in and sing along with him on Sunday afternoons.

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 found an outlet to legally publish “The Lord’s Prayer”!  Yay!   I should have already thought of Sheet Music Plus as an outlet.

I normally focus on “public domain” hymns and thought “The Lord’s Prayer was public domain.  I verified the “public domain” status before writing the arrangement but I discovered after the fact that the public domain version has a different tune than the original one.

So….I hope to publish “The Lord’s Prayer” advanced piano solo by sometime next week! I’ll be in touch.

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’ll be live on facebook tonight at 8pm EST.

You don’t need a facebook account to view the live video. Complete public access.

Event link:  https://www.facebook.com/thechurchpianist

Once you click the above link this evening….just scroll down the page until you see me playing with the following  icon  in upper  left  hand corner of screen.

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