As a church pianist, I’m always looking for offertories that don’t require alot of practice since I play quite often. I also attend a small church so shorter offertories work best.
While snowed in this week, I decided to write and finish a piano hymn arrangement in one day like I use to when I first started this website.
Grace Greater Than Our Sin has been on my mind a lot lately, so decided to try writing an arrangement and the thoughts just flowed for a change!
Hope you enjoy this early advanced arrangement of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin with Amazing Grace”.
I love to look through old hymnals for long forgotten hymns that I can try to revive.
But I stumbled across this forgotten hymn in one of my devotional books this week, entitled, “Amazing Grace 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions” written by Kenneth W. Osbeck
I absolutely LOVE this book and not sure how I acquired it.
“May the Mind of Christ My Savior” had two authors: Words by Kate Wilkinson and Music by A. Cyril Barham-Gould (what a long name!) I couldn’t find much information about either author but had to share this hymn loaded with rich meaning!
Here’s an excerpt from my devotional book which introduced this hymn…
“Each day our prayer life should include the request that the Holy Spirit reveal the mind of Christ to us. It is vitally important that we nourish our minds daily with quality materials_ things “that are just, pure and lovely.” Philippians 4:8
Time to escape to an island where it’s just me and my piano and all I have to do is write music!
Working on…
Advanced piano arrangement entitled “Assurance Medley”…an arrangement I worked up after getting saved in 1991…so it’s about time I put it in writing.
Also VERY excited about creating piano accompaniments for Mina Oglesby’s music!! The one I’m working on now is her song “Rest Will Come in the Morning”…here are some of the lyrics:
“Rest will come in the morning, When the battle is o’er;
When the saved and blest enter to their rest On that hallelujah shore…”
What a blooper I made today in the Sunday morning service!
I prefer (congregation included) to play short and sweet arrangements which don’t last much longer than the offering. Occasionally I’ll play a longer offertory for extra special events.
I had a longer than normal offertory special this morning and decided at last minute (like right before offertory prayer)…to play a different arrangement…something shorter… since the preliminaries had lasted longer than usual.
So…right before prayer I dreamed up a home-spun offertory which worked out great since it was the same length as the offering 🙂
But….one major problem! I forgot all about accompanying my son and his wife to sing after the offertory. I was SO wrapped in the change of plans that I totally forgot them! After playing the offertory, I went out back to the restroom like normal and then to slip in quietly for the preaching portion.
As I came out of the restroom my husband was waiting for me in the foyer with a concerned look on his face. “Are you ok?” he said. “Weird!” I thought, “he’s never done this before.” “Well….yeah…why?”
He quickly replied, “David and Jenny were up on the platform waiting for you to play for them.” “Oh my goodness! I forgot all about them!” I quickly tried to explain myself away to him and one of the deacons who had come out back too. Both of them got this funny smirk on their face but also relieved at the same time that I was “Ok”.
Several years ago, I published a piano solo (elementary level) of “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus“. Later on, I came up with a simple accompaniment on a second piano while my student played the solo arrangement on another piano. We played it in church and I shared the video on my youtube channel.
Since that time, several church pianists have asked for the teacher accompaniment part which was in my head until now 😉
The teacher’s part may not sound identical to the youtube version…. but it’s close!
Hope you enjoy using this free accompaniment version for “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.” (elementary piano solo)
Low to medium range sacred Christmas vocal solo; 4 pgs *Price covers two copies.
The haunting melody of this selection takes our Lord from the manger to the cross.
I’ve been sick for the past three weeks and feeling much better now!
Unfortunately I was unable to finish “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” piano solo but will be publishing a brand new Christmas vocal solo arrangement by my dad, Reece Yandle, sometime this week. The song is entitled “Hallelujah, Christ is Born!” and is just beautiful! The verses begin in a minor key and the chorus changes to major…I will say this has become my favorite Christmas song written by my Dad. Yes, he has written others but just haven’t published them yet 🙂
Here’s an audio sample of Dad’s song with printed words below to follow along as you hear the tune…
I have also posted some Christmas piano arrangement books for sale on our “Used Music” page. These books come from a growing stack of books I purchased this past year and just don’t need them all. I plan to post more for sale as time allows.
