Choreo Keeper Notebook Giveaway!

December 10, 2021 – December 19, 2021… 8 pm EST

No Page Turns for the Church Pianist!  

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

One of my viewers recently asked me what I use for a connector chord going from the end of a chorus back into another verse of a hymn.

I like to use the IV chord. (It usually is an inverted IV chord).  The IV chord spices up the sound a little bit too.

Hope the following examples are beneficial to you!

Click on the following title for free download: Add a Connector Chord!

Part One:  The Call for Reapers 

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)

The Call for Reapers

“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”…an excellent reminder to focus on Jesus as we travel through this earthly life.

As I grow older…the words to these old hymns become even more meaningful.

Here’s a homespun hymn arrangement of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”   I just played from my heart and tried to replicate via paper 😉

I especially love the last verse:

“His Word shall not fail you_HE PROMISED 🙂

Believe Him and all will be well.

Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!

This arrangement is VERY advanced due to at least a half dozen runs…measure #42 contains a run I’ve never used or seen before…but it just seemed to fit.

I will admit it’s the hardest run for me to play in this arrangement.  But…with practice it can happen 🙂

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Advanced sacred piano solo, 4 pgs. A majestic entrance to this arrangement opens up to the chorus and then goes into a verse with a final chorus. At least a half dozen runs are included in this exciting arrangement!

Price: $4.00

I just finished the final copy of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”.

This is a very advanced piano hymn arrangement with at least a half dozen runs sprinkled throughout the piece.

To be honest, I didn’t think this arrangement was worthy of publication.  Why? Sometimes I feel like my homespun arrangements aren’t that interesting.   But this is the style I like to play….just straight from my heart.

My piano friend, Meryt Wilson encouraged me to publish this piece.

Maybe there are other church pianists that could make use of this homespun arrangement.

I’ll be creating the video today and hope to publish it by no later than the end of this week.