Just wanted to announce to my readers that the piano funeral collection is now available in the music store.

In the near future, the songs will also be sold separately.

Hear audio excerpts from several of the hymns below:

Rock of Ages & Like a River

Amazing Grace & Saviour Like a Shepherd

Funeral Collection

Early advanced to advanced sacred piano solo collection. Song list: Amazing Grace, Saviour Like a Shepherd, Trusting Jesus Medley, Does Jesus Care, Rock of Ages, Like a River, He Hideth My Soul, Sweet by and by Medley, Wonderful Peace. *Key changes and song order included for the benefit of church pianists using this as a funeral prelude or offertory medleys. *Approximately 18 minutes playing time. *These songs will also be sold separately in the near future.

Price: $16.00

Just so everyone knows…I’m working feverishly…trying to finalize the piano funeral collection today.  Due to being sick, I fell behind a little but now editing the last song in the collection today!

We will be visiting our grandson tomorrow so I’m hoping to publish the piano funeral collection tonight or no later than tomorrow night.

This versatile; nine piece collection can be used for: funeral prelude, individual offertories or as vocal specials due to the included lyrics in the piano score of each hymn.

Well, back to work…almost finished!

Timeless Truths, an online resource, containing public domain hymns has a feature that church pianists will love!   Simply go to their site and search a hymn by title.  The page for the hymn will show the words on the right column.  Scroll down and look for the choice in left column that says “View Scorch sheet music” and click on it.

The sheet music for the hymn will appear (if you have downloaded scorch player). If not…it can be done for free.  The nice thing about viewing the music with scorch player is you’re given the chance to transpose the hymn to any key you desire before printing it for free!  Just look for the (2 flats symbol) at the top of the music  and click it.  A small box will appear allowing you to choose how far down or up you want to  transpose.

I have been grabbing my rare spare moments….trying to finish the “funeral collection” for church pianists!

I hope to complete it by no later than mid-March.  All the arrangements except for one have been entered in Finale.  Now the finishing touches begin such as: key changes between each song; dynamics,visible lyrics for each song to help the church pianist focus on the message of each song. Each arrangement in the funeral collection can also stand alone as an offertory.

Each piece is written in (hopefully) a simplistic yet artistic style…making it easier for the average pianist to prepare with minimal practice.  Most of the songs are in easy keys such as: C, F and G Major with the exception of at least two in the key of E flat Major.

The funeral collection will consist of at least fifteen minutes playing time.

Looking forward to publishing this collection soon!

Just thought I’d share a free sheet with key changes to connect the following hymns for a  piano prelude on the “Blood of Jesus”.

(Our prelude lasts anywhere from five to ten minutes…depending on how soon I can make it to the piano.)  I usually play two verses per hymn.

Prelude List:

Power in the Blood (B flat major)

When I See the Blood ( C Major)

Nothing but the Blood ( G Major)

Are You Washed in the Blood? (A flat major)

The sheet contains the final phrase of each hymn; followed by the key change to connect each hymn in the list above.

Just wanted you all to know I’m still alive and working on the next article as well as future articles that I’m excited about!

Tomorrow, I plan to share a free sheet containing key changes for a thematic prelude on the “Blood of Jesus”.  I love creating transitions and key changes between hymns during prelude or the Lord’s Supper.  I will share some EASY key changes soon…stay tuned!  🙂

I’ve got to organize my music!  Currently, all of my music is stashed away in our front living room closet in a two drawer file cabinet and several boxes.  I plan to replace the boxes with two plastic drawer carts from Walmart.

I will store my piano books in the two-drawer file cabinet due to their heavier weight.   The sheet music will be filed away in the plastic drawer carts.

I’ve also thought about filing my own arrangements (sheet music) in labeled notebooks by category such as: Christmas, Wedding, Offertories, Preludes, Vocal Solos, etc.)

What storage ideas can you share that would help the rest of us?  Feel free to share your comments at the bottom of this article and I will post them as I see them come to my email  inbox.

I do like the pocket storage idea that Laura Lowe, author of Lowe Piano Studio, shared on her blog. Since my piano studio is in the living room…I would probably hang the pocket storage in my closet along with my music.

Joy Morin of Color in My Piano Blog also has a great idea with a simple bookshelf…

Using the hymnal for specials can be done but does take some planning.  Why?  The songs in the hymnal were written for four different voice parts that rely on each other to create a complete harmonic sound.  Omitting any of the parts can result in unbalanced harmony, with the exception of the melody which can stand alone.  Most hymnals do contain some ready-made duets or trios but are usually mentioned in the topical index if available.

Say I was wanting to use “Day by Day” for a female vocal duet.  The alto would lack a close harmony part  because the tenor contains the closer harmony for the first two lines…then the bass takes on the closer harmony for a bit before returning it to the tenor for the last line of the song. (see hymnal excerpt below). Notice how the alto basically sings a B flat for the majority of the first line.  Not a problem…IF the other voice parts are singing; creating a more shapely harmonic structure.

Now, for the fun part!  In order to create a more pleasing harmony the following alterations would work nicely:  I simply kept the parts in 3rds as much as possible for a closer harmony.  You’ll notice the soprano (top note) began with harmony and flowed back to melody near the middle and then back to harmony toward the end.  This type of part swapping created an easier note transition for sopranos and altos.

*See clickable link at bottom of this article

Click here to download “Day by Day”

This free organ arrangement of “Amazing Grace” for unison congregation or choir goes with the piano arrangement of “Amazing Grace” which I recently published for FREE.

Please understand…I am not an organist and it’s my very first attempt at writing an organ arrangement!

I’m glad one of my readers pointed out the need for organists needing the same arrangement in order to prevent chord clashes…an excellent observation! Our church doesn’t have an organ…just two pianos (one being a digital).

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this organ arrangement!

Amazing Grace: Complete Audio

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

Just thought I’d let you all know what’s going on in my little corner of the world 🙂

I’m trying to complete the funeral collection I’ve talked about for the past 5 or so months.  The collection is almost finished!  The hymns in this funeral collection are songs of comfort..played from the heart.

We have had so many funerals this past year at our church and so these songs have been soothing to me during the arranging process.

Song list so far for this funeral collection:

Rock of Ages,  Amazing Grace, Trusting Jesus Medley, Saviour Like a Shepherd Lead Us…(this amounts to about 8 minutes of playing thus far).  I hope to add a couple more.

Writing has come slow for me lately but it’s flowing more now 🙂  I hope the flow continues!

I just finished the hand-written  organ accompaniment for my recent free congregational arrangement of “Amazing Grace”.  Hope to publish it for FREE by this weekend.    I even created an audio of the piano and organ part including the vocal score…turned out real nice!  Looking forward to sharing all of this soon!

Until then…may God bless you all as you seek to honor Him in your music ministry.