Lorenz contacted me recently and asked if I would do several sacred piano book reviews for them.  What perfect timing!  I had already spent several hours on their site in the past month…researching their intermediate and advanced sacred piano arrangements. As a church pianist, I’m always looking for fresh arrangements for me or my piano students.

Here’s the first book review of one of my favorite finds!

Get ready to experience a nice variety of arrangements from the following book.  This is a must have for the church pianist!

 “I Know Whom I Have Believed”

Compiled by David Sarandon

Published by Lorenz Publishing Company

  I absolutely LOVE this collection of arrangements by various authors, providing a nice array of styles!  Special note: The arrangements seem more at an early advanced level rather than intermediate. (my opinion)

If you’re like me, you want to utilize the majority of a piano book before investing in it.  I would actually use most of these arrangements!  To me that’s exciting because I don’t come across many books like this.

So, I’m providing audio samples of the arrangements I would use.  “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is one of my favorite ones…simple… yet elegant! (would make an excellent guitar arrangement!)

Contents:

I Know Whom I Have Believed (arr. Lloyd Larson)

*Like this author just not this particular arrangement…it uses a little more syncopation than I’m comfortable with.

I Need Thee Every Hour (arr. Mary McDonald)  INeed

Grace Greater Than Our Sin (arr. Larry Shackley)  Grace Greater

Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus (arr. Hugh Livingston, Jr.)  Stand Up

I Surrender All (arr. Lenny Seidel)  I Surrender

To God be the Glory (arr. Martha Kelsey)  To God

Open My Eyes, That I May See (arr. Michael Wilson) Open My Eyes

Sweet Hour of Prayer with Just As I Am (arr. Janet Vogt)    Just As I Am

What a Friend We Have in Jesus (arr. Martha Kelsey)  What a Friend

His Eye is on the Sparrow (arr. Edward Broughton)  His Eye

  (view sample pages here)

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.

Just letting my readers know I’m in the process of posting the individual hymns from the Congregational Booklet One for sale on the Congregational Piano Hymn page of our online music store. (navigation buttons at top of this page)  So far I’ve posted: All Hail the Power, Are You Washed and Blessed Assurance.

Several have requested the Blessed Assurance congregational arrangement after seeing the first sample page of it in an older article.  It’s now sold separately or in the Congregational Booklet One.

Special note: Multiple uses for the church pianist!  The piano accompaniment arrangements from the Congregational Booklet One can also be used to accompany the following:  vocal soloist, flute or violin.

Our ladies’ ensemble LOVES to sing “The Reason I Sing” written by Niki Lott of christiancompositions.com

This arrangement can be purchased at christiancompositions.com as sheet music or in a book collection entitled “The Reason I Sing” two to three part arrangements for ladies.

We chose to sing the verses in unison due to our short practice time and we sang only a portion of the arrangement due to our limited vocal range which we’re working on.

This song is SUCH a blessing to sing and look forward to singing more songs from the book entitled “The Reason I Sing”.  One of the ladies in our church has already sang several of the songs as a solo too.

*Special note: I didn’t strictly follow the written piano accompaniment but the written accompaniment is pretty 🙂

Now for sale: “Id Rather Have Jesus”  Early advanced sacred piano solo

I'd Rather Have Jesus

Early advanced sacred piano solo, 3&1/2 pgs. Approx. 2:06

Price: $3.95

or go to store at this link to see other advanced piano arrangements: MUSIC STORE

I just looked at the latest information on MusiCarolina and the workshops are definitely worth the church pianist’s time!

I’m having a hard time deciding which workshops I want to attend.  I think I’ve narrowed it down to:

On the Spot Arranging by Mac & Beth Lynch

Congregational Leading & Accompanying by Ron & Shelly Hamilton

Accompanying Made Simple by Shelly Hamilton

There are plenty of workshops to choose from for the song leader, church pianist or singer!

Click here to see the rest of the workshops

Early registration (adult/teen)  $59 by June 30th (Register three by June 30th and get one FREE!)

Registration $69  July 1st through July 24th

Registration at the door $79

Advanced piano solo

Just got off phone with Word Music…..will be publishing “I’d Rather Have Jesus” this week

Free Arrangement

Click on song title at bottom of article… to download FREE copy.

Whispering Hope….definitely an old hymn! My husband has been wanting me to arrange this hymn for a long time. He finally got his wish 🙂  I’ve written an early advanced piano arrangement of “Whispering Hope” which I’m offering for FREE to my church pianist readers.

I decided to read up on the composer of this song and was surprised at what I found. (in the numbered list below)

Septimus Winner, an American songwriter of the 19th century, was born in May 1827 and died of a heart attack in 1902.  He used the following stage names (pseudonymns) for his written poems and music: Alice Hawthorne, Percy Guyer, Mark Mason, Marion Florence, Leon Dore, Apsley Street, and Paul Stenton.

Septimus’ wife, Mary Ann, was a relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne which explains the generous use of the stage name, Alice Hawthorne.

See if you recognize the following songs written by Septimus Winner. (this will date some of you including myself)    🙂

1. Listen to the Mockingbird (Alice Hawthorne)

2. Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone (lyrics only) *German folk tune

3. Carry Me Back to Tennessee (better known as Ellie Rhee)

4. Whispering Hope (1868)

I could not locate the story behind the writing of “Whispering Hope” so without further ado…click on the following song title to download your free early advanced arrangement of…

Whispering Hope

Click arrow below to hear complete audio of this free piano arrangement.

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

Just wanted to alert my church pianist readers of an upcoming music event hosted by Majesty Music called MusiCollege for 2015.

The title of the event this year is MusiCarolina being held in Raleigh, NC at Friendship Baptist Church. (July 30 – 31st)

July 30th: Registration begins at 5:30pm

July 30th: Official opening begins at 7pm

This will be my first time to attend a music event by Majesty Music and really looking forward to it!  Would love to meet up with my readers at this event!

More information about the workshops… should be posted to the following page on Majesty Music’s website within the next few days.  Click here: MusiCarolina

My grandson, Nathan

Church Pianist Update

Every now and then I go through a dry spell and it’s been one of those times.

I have three arrangements I’ve been trying to complete but no ideas would flow when I sat at the piano.  Very frustrating!  I guess you could say I took a break and now I’m back on track 🙂

I think the latest congregational collection project burnt me out for a while. Don’t get me wrong….I LOVE to write music but sometimes I need to back up and just “not think” music for a spell to rejuvenate myself.

Before I sat at the piano today, I prayed “Lord, please guide my fingers and help me think clearly.”  The Lord answered my prayer 🙂

I just finished the final editing and layout for “I’d Rather Have Jesus” and conversing with Warner Chappell today to see what needs to be done to procede with publication. Yay!

Also working on an advanced piano arrangement of “Whispering Hope” which will be FREE 🙂  and…..trying to finish an advanced arrangement of “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

Hope to publish something soon!

Gotta go!  More music to write!

Next article:

As church pianist, I find it a challenge to locate nice patriotic vocal specials.

Need any song ideas for July 5th Sunday?  I’ll share a few with you soon!