| The Church Pianist |
| A help ministry for church pianists all over the world! |
Finished! I’ve had this arrangement of “The Cleansing Wave” on the burner for quite some time.
I would like to thank Abby Phillips Lockaby for adding the violin accompaniment. She made it sound SOOOO pretty!
I didn’t do justice to her part but tried my best.
I’ve been fine tuning two vocal arrangements to use around Easter time.
The first one is complete! It’s a fairly easy two part ladies’ arrangement of “Jesus Paid it All” by John T. Grape.
I usually schedule at least 6 practices for this selection to make sure we have time to work on the expression once the notes are learned.
I’ll do my best to provide a video of this piece asap.
The second vocal arrangement of “The Cleansing Wave” is actually a two-part mixed choir piece with an optional beautiful violin accompaniment created by one of my music friends….(Abby Phillips) Lockaby. She added just the right texture/sound to this flowing arrangement. I’ll share an audio sample of the piano and violin score this week.
I’m hosting a giveaway for a free Choreo Keeper! (retails for $35.99)
No page turns?! It’s possible with the Choreo Keeper! I bought one of these notebooks a couple of years ago and absolutely LOVE it! I use it for offertories, choir arrangements and funerals, etc.
Meet Catherine, the designer of the Choreo Keeper in the video below. She will give the best description!
Thanks Catherine for providing this free giveaway!
Giveaway Guidelines:
Simply leave one comment below to enter the drawing. The giveaway will last until December 19th, 2021….8 pm EST.
The winner will be announced here on my website by 10 pm EST on 19th.
Please note: If you’re located outside the US, you can still enter and win, but will be asked to defray international shipping charges by paying $17 (US$). Please remember that the sheet protector pockets are sized for US Letter.
More details on paper size at https://www.choreokeeper.com/blog/will-this-work-with-a4-sized-paper .
Now hear Catherine give a great description of the Choreo Keeper!
Ever had a person in your church pass an encouraging note to you… after you returned to your seat from playing for whatever?
I have two notes I’ve saved from many years ago during my early teen years. (see pic below)
Both of the encouraging notes seemed to come at the right time! I guess there’s never a bad time for an encouraging note 😉
Which reminds me….maybe all of us could send encouragement via text, hand-written note, etc. to someone who played or sang in a recent service to encourage those involved in the music ministry.
Before I forget…I’m going to text one of my piano students who filled in at the last minute this morning for the offertory and a note to the gentleman who sang the special this morning before he went over to preach for children’s church. We have such a great group of people who are faithful to sing or play for God’s glory.
Have any notes of encouragement you want to share from times past or recent?
Have you ever wondered what to play for a funeral or how loud or soft to play? Watch this video for tips on playing for a funeral at your own church.
Funeral Hymn Suggestions (List of hymns)
Funeral Hymn Collection (sheet music)
Look who covered for me last night during prelude!
It’s so nice to have my students help out in our music ministry.
We had a few kinks (due to my oversight).
I had Allissa (the more advanced student) play the intros for the couple hymns they played together. They all played a review piece by themselves too. The prelude lasted about six minutes.
I’ll be playing a handful of John W Peterson songs in addition to a new advanced arrangement of God Will Take Care of You.
I plan to publish God Will Take Care of You by this Saturday. Speaking of comforting hymns…WHAT a comforting hymn! The words and melody are SO soothing. Once you hear the story behind this hymn written in 1904….the hymn will mean even more to you! From the mouth of a young one this hymn was born!
Please join me for an evening of music around the piano. Wish you all could be here in person so we could hear everyone sing together!
See the playlist below for tonight’s list of Comforting Hymns for June 17, 2021 at 8pm EST. Grab your hymnals so you can sing along!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ARCHIVED VIDEO
This past Sunday I had to play in E Major (four sharps) for a male vocal solo and survived! He was singing “The Call for Reapers” out of the hymnal. The hymnal version was in the key of A flat major.
In his first practice I discovered E Major was the most suitable key for his baritone range. I decided I would brave the sea of black notes and make it work!
Usually I would have had the vocalist go to another nearby key that I could reasonable transpose to.
As I’ve mentioned before….E major is NOT my most comfortable key to play in. Some of my readers are sharp key lovers but I’m quite the opposite!
A simple sketch of “The Call for Reapers” was all I needed to keep me on track. It worked wonders! I was able to follow the piece fairly easy. The gentleman sang two verses and choruses but I just wrote out one verse and chorus as more of a guide.
Most hymns in the church hymnal don’t go beyond three sharps or five flats. That explains why I don’t feel as comfy beyond the hymnal key range.
Maybe there are other church pianists who could benefit from this simple sketched out arrangement of “The Call for Reapers”.
This particular hymn makes a great choice for Mission’s Conference or other mission related meeting.
I’m sharing the verse in this post and will publish the chorus by hopefully next weekend.
Click on following title to download your FREE copy of the verse
Part Two (chorus) by next weekend. (March 8 – 10, 2021)