I asked my readers to provide the name of an ‘awkward to play’ Christmas carol.  I would then create an article concerning that carol. “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” was the most mentioned piece.

Last year, I did an article on this very song but it was for ‘piano solo’ style. Today’s free piano arrangement of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” will be congregational style.

As I was arranging this carol, I had to force myself to stay within the chords “as written”.  I could have added a lot of minor chords to “warm up” the piece but I stayed true to the voice parts 🙂

Due to frequent chord changes, the church pianist will have to play in a more ‘chorale’ (solid chord) style in order to support the ever-changing voice parts.  There is still time to throw in ocasional dress-ups to create a more interesting sound as you will see in today’s free piano arrangement of “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”.

Click here to download “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” before viewing editor notes below.

Editor notes for “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”

General information:

I tried to create smooth harmonic (chord) changes throughout… in spite of the frequent chord changes in this beautiful Christmas carol.

Here and there you’ll see where I deviated from the melody line to create a smoother move for the hands.

Notice how the right hand at the beginning…started with three notes and gradually worked into an octave format.  One of my former piano teachers always taught me to write in a more “user friendly” style for pianists in general…to avoid awkward moves/leaps.  Hopefully, this arrangement will be comfortable and beneficial for other church pianists.  I did keep the early advanced to advanced pianist in mind when creating this arrangement.

Measure #4:

Beat 2 and 3 of right hand is an echo fill-in during the held word “me”

Measure #5:

A sixteenth note improvised pattern on beat 2 is added… to dress-up the melody line and continues through measure 6.

Tip!

Church pianist tip: Learn to analyze other people’s arrangements; applying ‘learned ideas’ to your own playing. Over time, you will develop your own style but you must learn to apply learned ideas as a  springboard to developing your own style.

I shared this free arrangement of “Silent Night” last year on my site on the “Free Christmas Piano Arrangements” page.  Since I’m rather busy this week getting ready for my annual Christmas recital to be held on Thursday…I will share a video recording of this free arrangement of “Silent Night”.

Now…looking ahead to my next article…I need my reader’s help! What Christmas carol do you find to be  the most awkward to play from the hymnal?   Leave a comment below…giving me the name of a Christmas carol fitting this description. I will create an article on the “most mentioned” Christmas carol.  I will give everyone until Friday to leave a comment.  Thanks for your help!

“Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” was the most mentioned Christmas carol in the comments below. So…I’m working on it right now and will post an article soon! Thanks for your feedback.

 I’m hosting a giveaway of my Christmas CD entitled: Simply Christmas

Everybody enjoys listening to instrumental music at Christmas…especially if the music is familiar. I published this CD several years ago and have a limited amount remaining in stock.

The traditional sounds of Christmas ring out in this creative CD featuring well-known Christmas carols.  You’ll hear bells or  harp in several of the carols.   Several of the two piano numbers on this CD are available as printable sheet music in  the music store. The main instrument on this CD is piano.

* This CD was created with  a Kawai digital piano.

Rules for Giveaway of Simply Christmas CD

1. Leave a comment at bottom of this article to enter your name one time.

2. Share the link to this  giveaway on your personal blog, facebook or twitter and leave a second comment saying you did so. This allows you to enter your name a second time in same drawing.

3. Drawing will be held on December 5th by 8pm EST

4. The winner will be notified by email the day of the drawing.

Important Information:

US Residents:  The Church Pianist will pay all shipping (media rate)

Residents outside the US:  The Church Pianist will cover up to $5 in shipping (media rate). Any shipping above $5 must be paid by winner.

Click here to hear samples from Simply Christmas CD

*Click on image for a larger view

One of my favorite improvising ideas is adding contrast for an interesting sound.  The excerpt listed above is taken from the hymn “Count Your Blessings”. The phrase is the last sentence of the last verse.   This idea can be used on any of the verses at this point in song…but I like to save special effects like this for the final verse.

Here’s what helped me come up with the idea:  I knew that an A7 chord was the basic chord for the first two measures of this example. So… I played “stepping notes” within the A7 chord frame and entered into a D major chord on the syllable “jour-” and back to an A7 for “ney’s” and ended with a D chord on “end”.  The ascending notes in the piano score ran contrary to the melody in the vocal score…creating an energetic drive to the message of the song.

The complete arrangement of “Count Your Blessings” congregational style can be purchased below.

Price:

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 Over the past ten years, I’ve learned ALOT of theory amidst many hours of  composing hymn arrangements.  There’s so much more I need to learn but I just pick up tips here and there and put them to use.  Now…I’ll share one of those tips with you.

The following improvising tip has made a difference in my hymnplaying; creating a more open, balanced sound.  I apply this tip to my congregational and solo playing.

The following hymn example contains “Come Thou Fount” in D major and the improvising tip.

Click here to download “Come Thou Fount” with improvising tip.

Just for fun: After playing  the above improvised example…add the 3rd of the chord in the right hand too…just to hear the difference.

 Just sharing a video of my dad’s recent solo during my visit this past weekend. I feel most free at the piano when accompanying my dad.

*I believe this particular arrangement is out of print but I found it at rejoicemusic.net As of right now…they only have 13 copies left at $1 each.  Click here to see if any copies are still available.

1. Exposes the pianist to various styles of music helping to develop his own style over time.
2. Teaches self-discipline
3. Empowers the pianist to learn any song providing the pianist with a well-rounded diet of music.
4. Opens many doors of opportunity to serve as an accompanist or soloist at various activities.
5. Teaches one to play with correct harmonic and rhythmic structure if exposed to well-written music.
6. Enables the pianist to express his own music in writing to share with others.

I’m visiting my parents this weekend and will have to post an article this coming week.  Just finished practicing with my dad. He’s singing “Finally Home” tomorrow for a special.  Now I need to practice something for offertory.

I think I’ll play a simple arrangement of a hymn since I’ve not had time to practice 🙂  I pray everyone has great Sunday services tomorrow.

Since believing on Jesus Christ at the age of 29…I can truly say: “Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine”.  This became one of my favorite hymns after becoming a Christian.

Shortly after being saved I arranged an offertory that included: “Blessed Assurance, Saved by the Blood and Since Jesus Came Into My Heart”.  I will have to write it out in my (ha ha) spare time.

This free sacred piano arrangement of “Blessed Assurance”  is a result of preparing several of our own soon-to-be church pianists to play for congregational singing.  We now have a rotational schedule for our intermediate to advanced pianists to allow them to play for our congregational singing.  It’s exciting to see them gain experience to better equip them for serving the Lord.

Click here for the free sacred piano arrangment of “Blessed Assurance” page one.

I’ll share the rest of this free arrangement in the next article.

Just discovered a practical instructional book on  improvising hymns found on Alfred Publishing’s site.

This book is a great starter for the intermediate pianist who wants to improvise from the church hymnal.  The pianist will learn how to do the following:

*Add tenor to the right hand

*Double the bass note

*A couple of easy-to-learn  left hand fill-in ideas

*PLUS…a collection of hymns already arranged for the intermediate church pianist using the improvising ideas that are taught in the book.

Click on the following book title to view the book and sample pages!

“How to Play Hymns & Gospel Songs in an Evangelistic Style”