This has been a very difficult week.  One of my piano students I’ve been mentoring to be a church pianist passed away this week…very unexpectedly.  Please pray for the family.

I’ve managed to prepare a “free accompaniment” idea for Heaven Came Down.  This particular hymn contains a mundane bass line..making it a challenge for the average church pianist to create an interesting accompaniment.  What to do?  You have to play what’s not there 🙂  Easy said…but a challenge to do right?  For that reason, I’m sharing a free accompaniment idea that can be used for the verse of this hymn.

I”m limited on what I can share because this hymn is still under copyright. Therefore, I can only share a small portion for educational purposes only…(called the “fair use” law). Just use the same accompaniment idea to finish out the verse.  I would tend to use this accompaniment idea ONLY if the congregation is secure with their voice parts…whatever that may be.  Most of our congregation sings melody.

Click here to download Heaven-Came-Down-congregational-idea

Recently, I’ve been working on an arrangement of “Rock of Ages”.  The introduction contains what I call “weighty chords”…chords with three or more notes.  Thus, the following tip…

Scenario: A pianist sees a chord with three or more notes…(brain computes)…HEAVY touch!  Your brain thinks….I can’t possibly mash all those notes down at once without attacking them 😉   Word of caution:  Relax and apply gentle even pressure as though you’re lightly kneading dough… to avoid a “chunky” or “weighted” sound…especially when the full chords occur on the weak beats.

For example, in 4/4 time, the 1st and 3rd beats are naturally accented. Therefore the 2nd and 4th beats are weaker. In 3/4 time…only the first beat of each measure receives the accent. Why? To produce a more shapely rhythm and to avoid a mechanical/laboured sound.

The following excerpt is from an arrangement that will be included in a “Funeral Collection” which I hope to finish within the next several months. Notice the full chords in the left hand. I will give a brief demonstration of a suggested way to interpret these chords…fighting against the natural tendency of “heavy hand” treatment.

Click here for: video clip of following example

I know I’ve shared free arrangements of “Just As I Am” prior to this…but wanted to share a longer arrangement of it this time.  I’m feverishly working on a “congregational” accompaniment book for the pianists at our church.  If all goes well…I will offer it  on my site once I acquire a  generous collection of hymns.

Our church pianists have enjoyed using the “working” copy of this book. They like the pre-made introductions…especially for those awkward entry hymns that require “special treatment” for a comfortable introduction.  The song leader has also commented on it making his job easier.

Without further introduction…here’s your free piano arrangement of “Just As I Am”

Click on the above title in “red” for the arrangement

Special note: I haven’t included an introduction to this arrangement yet because we mainly use background music for invitation. I may consider modulating for some of the other invitation hymns in this book.

Another special note:  This particular arrangement is not included in the first congregational collection but a more elaborate arrangement of Just As I Am is included in the Piano Invitation Collection.

Following the song director is a challenge for a lot of church pianists.  Since I’m ancient…and have memorized the majority of the hymnal…I’m more free to look away from the hymnal and watch the director.

Seriously,  the church pianist must learn the hymns well enough  in order to  look away from the music at the song leader or at least have the leader’s arm  within your peripheral vision.

How does the pianist get comfortable playing “by feel”?  Try playing a familiar song in the dark.  I’m serious!  Playing in the dark is an excellent way to sharpen your senses/skills…just as a blind person may have a more keen sense than the average person because they are avidly “tuning in” to the situation at hand.

At least ten years ago…I was playing the prelude  in the Charlotte coliseum at a teacher’s convention.  It was right after 9/11.  All of a sudden, the lights went out!  A sudden rush of anxious, whispered voices stirred through the auditorium.  My thoughts…”Now what?!”

Thankfully I knew the hymns I was playing from “many” years of practice 🙂   The Lord just guided my fingers and I just played  soothing hymns to hopefully calm the concerned crowed (considering we had guards around due to the 9/11 event.  I remember hearing people singing along with several of the hymns.   A little over ten minutes went by before the lights came on.  It seemed like an eternity to me.

Every church pianist probably owns a copy of the traditional “Wedding March”.  I’ve personally been wanting a new arrangement of this well used tune.  So…I finally finished a new version of  the “Wedding March”.

The majority of the weddings that I use this song for…want it to last long enough for the married couple to exit and then transition into another tune for the rest of the wedding party. The bride is usually open to suggestions for this separate song after the wedding march.  I usually suggest “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”…an old hymn tune but very majestic and happy!  Of course there are other tunes  that work beautifully. (another article)  🙂

I just like the smooth transition from “Wedding March” to “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”. Here’s an audio sample of  this transition…

Wedding March transitioning into Praise My Soul the King of Heaven

It took me forever to find this alternate tune for Praise My Soul the King of Heaven by Mark Andrews. I found that this tune is copyrighted…so I can’t create an arrangement of it.  Sorry about that.

An absolutely beautiful two piano arrangement of it is available in “The Wilds” online music store.  The following link takes you to their music store.  (I couldn’t get the specific page link to work). Once you’re on the main page…click on “product search” on the left and type in “Praise My Soul the King of” to find  the two piano arrangement.

Wedding March

Early advanced piano arrangement, 3 pgs. Length: Approx 1 minute & 20 seconds (without repeats)
You need to have the Audio Player Plugin installed to use this shortcode

Price: $3.50

Chord substitutions add color to hymnplaying! Here’s an easy chord substitution for church pianists to use.

Scenario: When a I chord is leading into a IV chord…add a minor 7th to the I chord. The minor 7th note is located a 7th above the root (bottom) note of the chord.  See the following explanation of the chords before viewing the free pdf sheet of this chord substitution.

Editor’s notes for free pdf sheet on this chord substitution:

Key of F:  I chord = F,A,C       IV chord =  Bflat,D,F    I chord with added minor 7th = F,A,C,E flat

Key of G: I chord =  G,B,D       IV chord =  C,E,G        I chord with added minor 7th = G,B,D,F natural

*Special note: The substituted chord ( I 7) does not have to contain all 4 notes as you’ll discover in the examples.

Click here to download free sheet for Chord-Substitution-adding-minor-7th-to-I-chord

Challenge yourself to look for the I (minor 7th)  chord already in use throughout the church hymnal.  Try applying the above chord substitution in other hymns during I – IV chord progressions. Tip: Use hymns with easy keys at first until you gain confidence with the concept.

 I recently composed a congregational piano arrangement of Away in a Manger for one of my upcoming church pianists to play for church while I’m away.

So..I’ll share it with other church pianists that may be able to put it to use this Christmas.

Click here to download Away in a Manger (free congregational piano arrangement)

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.

 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.

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.