I just looked at the latest information on MusiCarolina and the workshops are definitely worth the church pianist’s time!

I’m having a hard time deciding which workshops I want to attend.  I think I’ve narrowed it down to:

On the Spot Arranging by Mac & Beth Lynch

Congregational Leading & Accompanying by Ron & Shelly Hamilton

Accompanying Made Simple by Shelly Hamilton

There are plenty of workshops to choose from for the song leader, church pianist or singer!

Click here to see the rest of the workshops

Early registration (adult/teen)  $59 by June 30th (Register three by June 30th and get one FREE!)

Registration $69  July 1st through July 24th

Registration at the door $79

Free Arrangement

Click on song title at bottom of article… to download FREE copy.

Whispering Hope….definitely an old hymn! My husband has been wanting me to arrange this hymn for a long time. He finally got his wish 🙂  I’ve written an early advanced piano arrangement of “Whispering Hope” which I’m offering for FREE to my church pianist readers.

I decided to read up on the composer of this song and was surprised at what I found. (in the numbered list below)

Septimus Winner, an American songwriter of the 19th century, was born in May 1827 and died of a heart attack in 1902.  He used the following stage names (pseudonymns) for his written poems and music: Alice Hawthorne, Percy Guyer, Mark Mason, Marion Florence, Leon Dore, Apsley Street, and Paul Stenton.

Septimus’ wife, Mary Ann, was a relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne which explains the generous use of the stage name, Alice Hawthorne.

See if you recognize the following songs written by Septimus Winner. (this will date some of you including myself)    🙂

1. Listen to the Mockingbird (Alice Hawthorne)

2. Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone (lyrics only) *German folk tune

3. Carry Me Back to Tennessee (better known as Ellie Rhee)

4. Whispering Hope (1868)

I could not locate the story behind the writing of “Whispering Hope” so without further ado…click on the following song title to download your free early advanced arrangement of…

Whispering Hope

Click arrow below to hear complete audio of this free piano arrangement.

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Just wanted to alert my church pianist readers of an upcoming music event hosted by Majesty Music called MusiCollege for 2015.

The title of the event this year is MusiCarolina being held in Raleigh, NC at Friendship Baptist Church. (July 30 – 31st)

July 30th: Registration begins at 5:30pm

July 30th: Official opening begins at 7pm

This will be my first time to attend a music event by Majesty Music and really looking forward to it!  Would love to meet up with my readers at this event!

More information about the workshops… should be posted to the following page on Majesty Music’s website within the next few days.  Click here: MusiCarolina

My grandson, Nathan

Church Pianist Update

Every now and then I go through a dry spell and it’s been one of those times.

I have three arrangements I’ve been trying to complete but no ideas would flow when I sat at the piano.  Very frustrating!  I guess you could say I took a break and now I’m back on track 🙂

I think the latest congregational collection project burnt me out for a while. Don’t get me wrong….I LOVE to write music but sometimes I need to back up and just “not think” music for a spell to rejuvenate myself.

Before I sat at the piano today, I prayed “Lord, please guide my fingers and help me think clearly.”  The Lord answered my prayer 🙂

I just finished the final editing and layout for “I’d Rather Have Jesus” and conversing with Warner Chappell today to see what needs to be done to procede with publication. Yay!

Also working on an advanced piano arrangement of “Whispering Hope” which will be FREE 🙂  and…..trying to finish an advanced arrangement of “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

Hope to publish something soon!

Gotta go!  More music to write!

Next article:

As church pianist, I find it a challenge to locate nice patriotic vocal specials.

Need any song ideas for July 5th Sunday?  I’ll share a few with you soon!

I decided to share for FREE….transitions for an Easter prelude.

A late intermediate to early advanced church pianist would benefit most from this IF they already know how to improvise hymns from the hymnal.

The following PDF includes four hymns that I printed from Timeless Truths Free Online Library.

Keep in mind that the hymns in the following Easter prelude are taken from a hymnal as is  but I’ve also included  a separate sheet which includes the transition for each song in the prelude collection. (These hymns are in the correct keys to match the transition sheet below.)

Easter Prelude Contents:

There is a Fountain (B flat Major)

When I See the Blood (C Major)

Since I Have Been Redeemed (F Major)

Glory to His Name (G Major)

Click here to download Easter-Prelude

Click here to download Transitions for Easter Prelude

Hopefully this helps the church pianist who has difficulty with adding transitions/modulations between hymns during a prelude.

Just thought I’d share an incident that happened last night at church…

I’m surprised my church hasn’t fired me from being one of their pianists!   😉
I’m SO forgetful! ….like playing the wrong song intro for choir opener….and then my son, David, (who happens to be the choir director) looks at me with a big smirky smile and says for all to hear….”that’s the choir special.”
“Oh yeah…” I say.

Oh well…at least we could laugh about it… (including the whole congregation)   🙂

                            Anybody else have a similar experience?

Downloadable Link Below

I was going to share a free sampling of left hand improvising ideas for Revive Us Again but I wound up writing a full verse and chorus of this challenging hymn.  It’s not a hard hymn to play but difficult to dress up for congregational singing.

The first line of the hymn is basically the same chord!  Most church pianists realize that they have to adhere to the chord structure in the hymnal when playing for congregational singing IF their congregation sings parts…to prevent chord clashes.  I can’t help but add chord substitutions on this hymn!  Our congregation doesn’t sing parts so I can have fun!  🙂

I’m sharing several improvising ideas for Revive Us Again (congregational style).  I tried to liven up the 1st line of music by creating broken chord tones and alternating bass notes within the same chord. A broken chord tone pattern already exists in the hymnal version but offered a little different one and added a little more variety than the hymnal version.

Revive-Us-Again-congregational-or-prelude

In my opinion, “Saved, Saved!” is one of the most awkward hymns to play for the church pianist.

It pays to have large hands for this song! Lots of octave spreads!  But…there IS an art to playing repetitive octaves in a relaxed touch…making it easier on the hand.  (I learned this art by playing classical music with lots of octave action!)

Classical music helps to develop SO many technical moves which can aid the church pianist in hymn playing. (another post!)

To be honest…I  leave out a lot of melody on this particular hymn when accompanying the congregation…freeing up the hand  to provide more of a  supportive accompaniment and to prevent awkward hand movements.

I didn’t stray too far from the melody in this version to prevent church pianists from getting disoriented. (Hee hee) Want a challenge? I’ll have to share the FUN version another time.

I will share a couple of tips via video soon for the following free pdf of “Saved, Saved!” (congregational accompaniment: verse excerpt)

Click here to download “Saved, Saved!” congregational accompaniment excerpt

Who wants the FUN version sampler?  (VERY advanced)

I know…not all church pianists have big hands like Rachmaninoff!  With that in mind…I created alternative fill-ins for the runs in The Love of God advanced piano solo that I just published a couple days ago.

I hope these alternative fill-ins will be more user-friendly for those with small hands.  The whole piece is really written for a pianist with large hands but maybe those of you with smaller hands can adapt this arrangement with these alternative fill-ins.

  “Diminish” (verb) to make smaller vs. “Augment” (verb) to make larger

A diminished chord is a minor chord with a lowered 5th

Example:  C Eb Gb   Or expressed as: C°

Suggested role of the diminished chord: creates suspense

An augmented chord is a major chord with a raised 5th

Example:  C E G#    Or expressed as:  C+

Suggested role of the augmented chord: generates amazement; surprise; anticipation

The diminished or augmented chord is not found within the scale. The pianist must alter the notes of a chord to create either one of these chords.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Visual examples of the d diminished in the key of C Major

d diminished = D F A flat

*diminished 7ths are more common; create fuller sound

d diminished 7th = D F A flat C

The symbol ° after the chord letter name… represents diminished chord

The / separates the diminished chord from the bass note (the slash is used when the bass note is NOT the root note of the diminished chord.)

Special note:  Yes, I should have included a “slash” indicating the “C” as the bass note for the last example on the word “leads”.  Hope you caught it!  🙂

 I will share augmented examples in the next article asap!

These diminished chord examples are just a tip of the iceberg! 

This lesson does not contain a thorough list of diminished chord possibilities  within a key/scale.