Church Pianist in a Rut!
So…I admit…I’m a church pianist in a rut! What to do? Time to surround myself with different arrangers’ music….which means….sightread!
Do you have a collection of books that you use mainly for sightreading purposes? I do. Most of the arrangements in these books are too long for our offertory time. I could shorten some of them but that’s not always the best option since the arrangement usually builds in intensity and I don’t want to interfere with a well-rounded presentation of an arrangement.
It seems like the longer offertories are a lot of times the more challenging ones. I NEED that extra challenge to keep my fingers limber.
Occasionally, I’ll play a longer arrangement because I REALLY like the arrangement and want to share it.
Have you heard of Abiding Radio? I’m listening to it (online)… for musical inspiration 🙂
I’m curious….what do other church pianists or pianists in general do to get out of a rut? Would love to hear your ideas!
I come to your site to see if you have published anything new 🙂
LOL!
Me too, in all honesty! I also surf Youtube looking for great examples of piano solos, and I search for ideas for music that’s relevant to the service I’m thinking about.
I’m not very good (totally rubbish by Jennifer’s standards) but, having looked for ideas online, I then often just sit at the piano and wait until I stop thinking and start to play something half decent, then I work it into an arrangement.
Admittedly, half decent by my standards isn’t actually so great 🙂
Hope this video will inspire you as you write more music. I do like to sightread also. It helps you learn more from other pianists.
Oh, by the way, I have Abiding Radio on my desktop also. I listen to it all the time when I’m surfing the web or just cleaning the house. It’s wonderful! Such beautiful music!
Thank you Jennifer for being in touch with church pianists. With so many churches using guitar bands, it is harder to find places for young pianists to minister at the piano. But I won’t let that stop me from writing new Sacred piano arrangements too! Sheetmusicplus
has been the best place to publish piano arrangements! Keep it up!