Our choir is singing “What Child is This?” in unison.  We’re singing it in a lower key.  Since the choir is unison….I like to insert chord substitutions to dress it up a bit.

I wrote a simple piano arrangement of “What Child” just so our other pianist could follow my chording to avoid chord clashes between us 🙂

Feel free to use this as accompaniment for unison choir or a vocal solo.

It wouldn’t be appropriate for a piano solo  because the melody is missing here and there.  Although, most of you could probably insert the melody in those places 🙂

Hope all is going well with your church’s Christmas program practices.

Click the title below for the free Christmas piano arrangment:

What Child is This?

Yes, I have been rather busy but taking time to send you all another free  Christmas piano arrangement.

It’s an intermediate piano solo of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”.

I wrote this arrangement for a student of mine last year for the Christmas piano recital.

Hopefully you or one of your students can make use of it.

You will see fingering suggestions throughout the arrangement.

Piano solo: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

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I am giving away one of my piano arrangements off my Christmas CD…entitled “Simply Christmas”.

For more information on this CD, click the following link:

 https://thechurchpianist.com/christmas-cd-simply-christmas/

Free Audio: Silent Night  

This arrangement is written in a free style…which means not as structured as my other arrangements.

Click here…for Free Piano Arrangement of Silent Night

Anyone in need of an intermediate

christmas piano arrangement?

 I arranged this song for one of my students.

 It’s well suited for a small church.

The chorus can be repeated if needed.

You can use this free arrangement as offertory or prelude special.

Click the following title for a  free piano arrangement of

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

I enjoyed creating this sacred piano arrangement of “To God be the Glory”.

Part one of this free arrangement is available at the following link:

https://thechurchpianist.com/free-piano-arrangement/the-church-pianist-free-sacred-piano-arrangement-part-one/

Click here for part two of “To God be the Glory” arrangement

It is getting closer to Thanksgiving and thought I would share a free sacred piano arrangement of “To God be the Glory”.

This piano arrangement would work for a short offertory or prelude.

I usually play this style for prelude.

Remember, this is only part one of this  free arrangement.

Click here to download:  To God be the Glory part one

I wanted to share this free piano arrangement of The First Noel.

Natalie Wickham of Music Matters Blog arranged this easy piano duet of The First Noel. Natalie gave me permission to post an audio of her arrangement but I will share the link to her blog for this nice piano duet.

This free arrangement would be nice for a beginning piano student to play with a teacher or more advanced piano student.

The arrangement is short but would work well in the smaller church. You could always play it two times for a longer offertory.

Click below for a free copy of The First Noel:

http://musicmattersblog.com/2005/10/13/the-first-noel-piano-duet/

Audio:  The First Noel

I enjoy simple offertories…meaning…piano arrangements with a clear melody presentation.

Here’s part one of a free piano offertory.

The lyrics are added to help the church pianist focus on the message of the hymn.

In a future article, I will share the editor notes for this piano selection;

giving you explanations for my improvising ideas in this free offertory.

I don’t normally do this, but I’m creating this piano medley as I go. Part two

will present the rest of this free piano arrangment of the “Heaven Medley”.

Hope you all had a great Sunday serving the Lord.

How_Beautiful_Heaven_Must_Be

How Beautiful Heaven Must Be Part Two

1. Emphasize melody throughout

2. De-emphasize anything that’s not melody
to avoid a sluggish tempo or mechanical tone.

3. In 3/4 time….heaviest accent is on the first
beat of each measure. (for a more shapely tone)

4. Measure #10: Careful to keep inner voice move-
ment notes on beat one (eighth notes only)
of right hand softer than melody.

I’ll discuss inner voice movement in a future article.

Try some of these left hand accompaniment ideas out on a simliar hymn…such as…..Jesus Saves.

Here’s a youtube video of my arrangement entitled:

“America the Beautiful”.

Youtube url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3DU2Y1_7tc

Click here for free pdf piano arrangement of America the Beautiful