| The Church Pianist |
| A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! |
“Christ Arose” is a very well-known hymn that most churches only use around Easter. We use this beautiful hymn periodically throughout the year as a reminder of Christ’s glorious resurrection.
Robert Lowry, a well-known hymn composer/preacher, wrote “Christ Arose”
Click on song title below to download your free congregational arrangement:
Christ Arose in A Flat (lower)
I have been grabbing my rare spare moments….trying to finish the “funeral collection” for church pianists!
I hope to complete it by no later than mid-March. All the arrangements except for one have been entered in Finale. Now the finishing touches begin such as: key changes between each song; dynamics,visible lyrics for each song to help the church pianist focus on the message of each song. Each arrangement in the funeral collection can also stand alone as an offertory.
Each piece is written in (hopefully) a simplistic yet artistic style…making it easier for the average pianist to prepare with minimal practice. Most of the songs are in easy keys such as: C, F and G Major with the exception of at least two in the key of E flat Major.
The funeral collection will consist of at least fifteen minutes playing time.
Looking forward to publishing this collection soon!
Just thought I’d let you all know what’s going on in my little corner of the world 🙂
I’m trying to complete the funeral collection I’ve talked about for the past 5 or so months. The collection is almost finished! The hymns in this funeral collection are songs of comfort..played from the heart.
We have had so many funerals this past year at our church and so these songs have been soothing to me during the arranging process.
Song list so far for this funeral collection:
Rock of Ages, Amazing Grace, Trusting Jesus Medley, Saviour Like a Shepherd Lead Us…(this amounts to about 8 minutes of playing thus far). I hope to add a couple more.
Writing has come slow for me lately but it’s flowing more now 🙂 I hope the flow continues!
I just finished the hand-written organ accompaniment for my recent free congregational arrangement of “Amazing Grace”. Hope to publish it for FREE by this weekend. I even created an audio of the piano and organ part including the vocal score…turned out real nice! Looking forward to sharing all of this soon!
Until then…may God bless you all as you seek to honor Him in your music ministry.
I love to sing “Amazing Grace”! It reminds me of when I accepted Christ as my Saviour at the age of 29.
A quick tip for church pianists on how to enrich congregational singing…
1. Start in a lower key. The congregation sings out better in lower keys…especially if you have a congregation like ours that mainly sings melody.
2. Modulate up a half or whole step higher on the final verse.
In the following video…we started in E flat major and ended in F Major.
The church pianist CAN add zest to congregational singing! Learn to play a hymn in different keys for added enrichment.
I will attempt to write out Amazing Grace in a user-friendly version for congregational piano accompaniment within the next two weeks and share for FREE! (transposed verse will be included)
I just published an early advanced Christmas piano solo of “The First Noel” in the key of C Major. This arrangement, containing two verses, would be easy to learn for the average church pianist.
Just thought I’d give my readers an opportunity to win a copy of my Christmas CD entitled: “Simply Christmas”.
Rules for Giveaway of Simply Christmas CD
1. Leave a comment at bottom of this article to enter your name one time.
2. Share the link to this giveaway on your personal blog, facebook or twitter and leave a second comment saying you did so.
This allows you to enter your name a second time in same drawing. (use my social share buttons at bottom of article for your convenience).
3. Drawing will be held on December 20, 2012 by 8pm EST
4. The winner will be notified by email the day of the drawing.
Important Information:
US Residents: The Church Pianist will pay all shipping (media rate)
Residents outside the US: The Church Pianist will cover up to $5 in shipping (media rate). Any shipping above $5 must be paid by winner.
If you are a church pianist or play specials in the church service…you know what it’s like to turn pages while playing an offertory or choir special.
You (maybe) can get by with page turns for a choir special… but not for an offertory.
How to turn pages without disrupting the flow of music? Two solutions come to mind that I have used: Find someone to turn pages or turn your own pages using the following tips:
1. Memorize a few measures before and after the page turns (very helpful!) Tip: Try highlighting the measure where you pick up reading after a page turn to avoid disorientation 🙂 Depending on the note content…it may be too tricky to turn a page a few measures before. In that case, I memorize a little more so I can turn the page at a more convenient spot.
2. Turn the page(s) with the hand that’s not playing the melody to maintain a logical flow
Face it…you may just have to miss a few notes with the non-melody hand to make this happen.
3. I also turn back the corner of each page…making the page easier to grab
*I have copied pages to avoid page turns but ONLY with special permission from the publisher; so as not to infringe on copyright laws. (I should probably devote an article on copyright laws).
If I have someone turn pages…I have them stand on my left side if at all possible…. so as not to block the congregation’s view of the person playing.
For those of us who’ve ever had “page turn” issues…I recommend the following video. I’m just glad the girls knew their parts real well…especially the girl on the left.
How many other church pianists besides myself, find it a challenge to dress-up the hymn, “Wonderful Words of Life”? A piano friend of mine recently asked me to show her improvising ideas for this hymn.
To be honest, it took some thought to come up with some REALLY fresh ideas. I hope to post a free pdf tomorrow of an improvised verse for “Wonderful Words of Life”. It’s been fun coming up with some different moves to liven up this simple but well-written hymn.
Finally finished the “I Am Resolved” piano quartet! Pianos 1 & 2 are more of an early intermediate level and pianos 3 & 4 are late intermediate to early advanced.
The various levels of this piano quartet brings several levels of church pianists together making for an exciting rendition of “I Am Resolved”.
We are planning to play this at our church toward the end of September.
I’m offering a great discount for “I Am Resolved” piano quartet now until August 22, 2012.
One of my church pianist readers recently asked me for some help on measures 29 and 30 of the free piano arrangement for “The Old Rugged Cross”.
In measure #29…The right hand has to reposition on the second beat in order to compensate for the upcoming busy movement. I created a quickie video demonstrating a suggested fingering to make this area feel more comfortable to the hand.
