I don’t know about other church pianists…but I find myself in the role of “encourager” many times!  I love to get our young people involved in the music ministry.  In order to fully utilize them, I find or write music with their level in mind; prodding them along…equipping them for the ministry.

It’s a rewarding experience.  Any other church pianist having similar experiences?

 I’m re-structuring one of the invitational arrangements into a medley.  “I Must Tell Jesus” flows nicely into “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.

Just inputted one of my most recent invitational arrangements today to Finale…”I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”.  (great for messages with a mission’s emphasis)

The invitation collection will consist of twelve arrangements and the pieces mentioned above are the last two!

I REALLY like this particular sacred piano duo arrangement book entitled “Wonderful Grace of Jesus”!

The book contains eleven arrangements. The “Children’s Medley” is one of my favorites!   “Softly and Tenderly” is one of the easier ones but yet SO pretty!

I always buy two copies of piano duet books or piano duo (two pianos) books to prevent illegal copying of music.  Buying multiple copies can be rather expensive so I try to buy when on sale.

Just found out this book is on sale right now…an “ongoing” sale 🙂

You can purchase two copies of this book plus a CD containing all the arrangements for only $24.95 from Bible Truth Music’s website.  Head over and get your copies before the sale expires!  You can also hear audio samples of each arrangement on the sale page!

Date of article:   May 20,2014

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

Just wanted to let my readers know I’m working on the 11th invitation song now…only one more to go!  My invitation collection will contain 12 arrangements designed as “background invitation” music.

One of my favorite pieces in the collection is “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”. I got a little carried away with this particular one but REALLY enjoyed creating it!

What’s neat about this collection is that the arrangements can also be used for offertories!

“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

Yes, I’m still here!  We have had a very hectic schedule for the past three weeks and just getting back to our normal (we hope) routine.

I’m working on this week’s article right now which is a free sheet of improvising ideas for accompanying a vocal solo to “Down From His Glory”.

The ideas will be similar to Faye Lopez’ spontaneous arrangement which took place at this past year’s annual Wild’s Music Conference.

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.”  

 ~   ~   Faye Lopez   ~   ~

“You can infuse the service with energy and vitality in the singing…from the keyboard.” 

~   ~   Duane Ream   ~   ~

Enjoy the following brief… yet informative video on:

“The Experienced Church Pianist vs. The Inexperienced Leader”