I’m feverishly writing an advanced two piano Christmas duo for another SMPress competition. I have to turn it in by October 10th!
Meryt Wilson and I will be premiering this Christmas piano duo on October 12th at 8pm….live on facebook at the following link…   https://www.facebook.com/thechurchpianist/

Please join us for an evening of fun as other church pianists gather round to learn a few tips on modulation and accompanying 6/8 hymns.

Here’s a sampling of “Gesu Bambino” two piano arrangement (It’s similar to the arrangement on my “Simply Christmas” CD.

GESU BAMBINO

Our choir is singing “What Child is This?” in unison.  We’re singing it in a lower key.  Since the choir is unison….I like to insert chord substitutions to dress it up a bit.

I wrote a simple piano arrangement of “What Child” just so our other pianist could follow my chording to avoid chord clashes between us 🙂

Feel free to use this as accompaniment for unison choir or a vocal solo.

It wouldn’t be appropriate for a piano solo  because the melody is missing here and there.  Although, most of you could probably insert the melody in those places 🙂

Hope all is going well with your church’s Christmas program practices.

Click the title below for the free Christmas piano arrangment:

What Child is This?

Bell sounds add life to Christmas carols.

Here are several examples of different
bell ingredients I used in my arrangements
on the “Simply Christmas” CD… mentioned
in a previous article.

Click here for free Sounds of Christmas  for piano

Explanation for the Examples:

1. Joy to the World (right hand bell tones)
Notice the intervals of the bell tones and try
in several different keys for reinforced learn-
ing and versatile application.

2. Joy to the World (right hand bell clusters)
I simply add a ‘D’ to a C chord to create
a dissonant sound for the bell effect.

3. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
This is one of my favorite chime sounds.
Notice how all the notes in the right hand
chords are a 4th apart. This is how to create
the chime sound!

4. O Little Town of Bethlehem (bell echo)
Bell echos add a sweet; dreamy texture to
lullaby-type melodies.
The bell echo occurs in the right hand (last measure).
It’s just a broken octave ending with a nice harmony note
occuring a 3rd under the broken octave.
Remember: 3rd and 6ths create beautiful touches of
harmony.
I just used the ‘Alberti bass’ pattern in the left hand.

Alberti bass means a broken chord in this order:
“Bottom~top~middle~top”

Hopefully, you can incorporate these Sounds of Christmas

into your own Christmas carols this year.

This is a very easy Christmas program I put together several years ago for our church. 

We like to involve as many ages of people as possible. Here are the groups of people we used.

Narrators: young teenagers

Adult choir

Children’s choir for: “Away in a Manger”

The manger scene characters were young children in costume.

The actors did not have speaking parts…just showed action as indicated on the program order.

Click here for: Free easy Christmas program