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.
Today is the last day to turn in your suggested topic(s) for the upcoming Facebook live session for church pianists on October 12 at 8pm.
The “most suggested” comment will be our main topic. I will announce our topic in a couple of days.
Click “comment” below to leave your suggested topic(s).
Oh…wanted to mention….my friend Meryt Wilson will be my cohost! She teaches piano at Ambassador Baptist College. We’ll open the session with a brand new Christmas two piano number (which I’m working on at the moment for anotherSMPress Contest).
Excited about this event! Mark your calendars now!
For those of my readers on facebook….I’ll be going live on Thursday, October 12th from 8-8:30pm (could last longer)
I will make this video available on my website a couple days after the live facebook session.
I’m asking my church pianist readers to give suggested topics. I will choose the “most mentioned” topic for this session…if reasonable enough 😉 You have until September 25th to enter your topic!
Submit your suggested topic(s) below. Thanks! Looking forward to this time of fellowship and learning!
I never really noticed the time signature change in “Just When I Need Him Most” until today.
We sang this at our church last night for a congregational and the people REALLY enjoyed singing it. The words are so comforting!
It’s just one of those seasons at our church where there’s a lot of physical needs and such a song reminds us of Jesus’ ever-present help 🙂
We sang this song in a prayerful mood with a slow walking speed so I had time to add left hand flowing patterns similar to the following free pdf of “Just When I Need Him Most”.
Most importantly, notice the key change at the chorus….but the flow will still be pretty much the same 🙂 I actually changed to 6/8 timing one measure earlier than the hymnal shows… because it felt more natural to not hold as long before entering the chorus.
Maybe this will help a beginning church pianist to see what fill-ins could be used for a slow to medium hymn in 6/8 or 9/8 timing… such as my arrangement of “I Must Tell Jesus”.
Warning: This arrangement is NOT intended for piano solo use… due to missing melody notes at the beginning of the chorus…unless of course you know how to add them in 😉
I have a chord speller book by John Thompson that I use to teach my church pianist students who need to brush up on theory.
This book provides foundational information needed for the church pianist to effectively improvise.
Short synopsis of book:
John Thompson’s Chord-Speller
The purpose of this book is to present the Triads (including the Dominant and Diminished Seventh Chords) in a way that will enable the student to read them, write them and recognize them by sight or sound.
Having a working knowledge of scale and chord structure will help the church pianist with improvising hymns.
If you’re interested in seeing sample pages or purchasing the book…just click on the image of the book above.
I’m always looking for simple-approach type books and this one fits the bill! (I don’t get paid to sell this book) 🙂
This book has been around for awhile so you may find it on Ebay or Amazon.
So many times I have wanted to play “A Passion for Souls” for the invitation but not many people know this song…at least not in our church. The melody is ok but felt like it needed a face-lift.
I like to play familiar songs during invitation…hymns that the people know since I play background music during invitation. (I miss the days of hearing the congregation sing during invitation).
Back to topic! I thought…if I could re-work the melody on this song…maybe it would revive a long lost hymn…at least for our church 🙂
So…a new melody to “A Passion for Souls” flowed out of my mind during a recent spurt of inspiration last week. Hope the song is a blessing to you.
I’m singing it as a duet with a friend this Sunday morning. (The arrangement can either be a duet or solo) I’ll share a video of the duet asap.
Here’s a sampling of sheet music for “A Passion for Souls” which I will publish next week. (Click on image below for larger view)
Every now and then I have a splurge of music ideas run through my head. Last week was one of those times. The results: an early intermediate piano arrangement of “I Must Tell Jesus” and a new melody for an old hymn “A Passion for Souls”. (Here’s a sample of the new tune)
At the time of my overwhelming inspiration, I was in final editing stage on “Jesus Paid it All” ladies two-part arrangement, “Nearer My God to Thee” adding violin bow marks….thanks to help from one one of my violin friends… Abby Phillips AND an updated version of my advanced piano arrangement of “Abide With Me” written as I performed for the recent Composer’s Symposium.
Just so you know…silence doesn’t mean I’m not writing 🙂
Modulating between hymns during a prelude or other background music event can create a seamless presentation.
The absence of this art makes for a disjointed sound when going from hymn to hymn. (unless of course the songs are in the same key) 🙂
Ah….but just because the songs are in identical keys doesn’t mean the songs will always sound seamless without some type of transition. (another lesson!)
Every church pianist should try and learn the art of modulation to the best of his or her ability…in small bits at at time. For starters, learn to modulate between songs with same time signature as I have provided below. (The modulations will feel/flow a little different in 3/4 time versus 4/4 time.)
Below is a free pdf showing how to modulate up a fifth using the chord formula: ii7 to V7 of the new key. I’ve also shared a list of these two chords in the keys found on the free pdf of modulations.
One of my former piano students approached me at church a couple months ago and asked if I would write her an offertory arrangement of “I Must Tell Jesus”.
Well…I finally got around to it! 🙂 But what a surprise! This arrangement just flowed out of my little brain this week and I quickly penned it to paper. It’s not always that easy for me to arrange a hymn!
I tried to arrange this piano solo well within her early intermediate level…hoping she could learn it soon. Even though I’m an advanced pianist…I wouldn’t mind playing this for offertory.
