To purchase this ensemble….click HERE

I’m trying VERY hard to publish my Easter/Palm Sunday Piano trio + flute duet + optional clarinet part….by this weekend!

Here are sample pics thus far….Click on image below to enlarge for better viewing.

I just need to enter the optional clarinet score into Finale and my piano part (Piano #1)

I created this as an easy-to-learn ensemble since we will have limited group practices.

Piano #1 (early advanced)

Piano #2 (late intermediate)

Piano #3 (early intermediate)

Flute & Clarinet are rather easy too.

Customers from several years ago may have purchased this collection “Congregational Piano Hymn Arrangements Booklet Two”.

I published this collection several years ago but for some odd reason had not been showing up in my store.

I’ve also just published a congregational piano accompaniment for “Great is Thy Faithfulness” thanks to a reader who prompted me to publish it.

Both of these items can be found in my store HERE or you can purchase below.

Congregational Piano Hymn Arrangements (Booklet Two)

10 Late intermediate to early advanced piano congregational arrangements. 37 pages Songs include: And Can it Be, At the Cross, Come Thou Fount, Heaven Came Down, Higher Ground, I Shall Know Him (My Saviour First of All), It's Just Like His Great Love, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, Near the Cross, What a Friend We Have in Jesus) *Special note: The arrangements in this booklet do not support the four-part singing found in most hymnals. *Other suggested uses: vocal solos, violin specials, unison choir specials. **Another special note: These arrangements can not stand alone as piano solos since some of the melody is absent during the piano accompaniment.

Price: $16.00

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Congregational piano accompaniment, late intermediate to early advanced, 4pgs Contains two verses and two choruses. *Supports unison or soprano and tenor voice parts. Not intended for four part singing.

Price: $4.50

I recently ordered “Simply Hymns” by Molly Ijames and it just arrived today.

Just finished playing through the entire book. I love it!

Simple…yet elegant is the best way to describe this sacred piano arrangement book.

Molly provided a nice array of lush chords without sounding too complex.

I like the description of the book: “Accessible Piano Settings for the Church Year”.

Church pianists at the early intermediate up through advanced will enjoy playing this book!

Tastefully done!  The pieces even accommodate the church pianist with small hands!

Molly’s book can be purchased from Lorenz Publishing.

See sample and hear audios HERE.

If you’re a beginning church pianist and learning to play from the hymnal…this lesson is for you 🙂

There are always exceptions to the rules as we’ll see in this lesson dealing with five part playing style from the church hymnal.

The thumb cannot always comfortably plug the tenor note into the right hand as we’ll see in the last video below.

Watch this video first if you need a more involved description of the five part playing style and then proceed to the latest video below which describes the exception to the five part playing style.

A BIG thanks to all of you! I came in second place for the Sheet Music Plus Holiday arranging contest 🙂

Being a winner also gives me more exposure on Sheet Music Plus which in turn draws more people to my website where I can share my music with a growing audience of church pianists/readers.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! Looking forward to sharing more church pianist tips and piano arrangements in the upcoming year!

Here’s a very festive sounding two piano Christmas arrangement which I wrote last year.   I already published it on Sheet Music Plus last year and just now remembering to plug it into my online store.  I thoroughly enjoyed playing this duo with a friend on facebook live a year ago. I’ve included  a video of myself playing with my keyboard recording 🙂

Gesu Bambino

Advanced two piano Christmas arrangement by Jenifer Cook 10 pages, Approx. length: 4:00 Great piece for offertory or recital! A very festive sounding selection with lots of contrast! The performers will appreciate the balanced interchange between parts.

Price: $5.50

Just to make my readers aware of our piano book sale going on now through December 19, 2018

Click on either picture below to view all of the available piano books on sale.

Spending the morning browsing Lorenz’ Fall Piano 2018 Piano Solo Books for Christmas and beyond 🙂

Lorenz Publishing has a youtube channel dedicated to providing church pianists with visual and audio samples from most of their sacred piano books.  It’s a great resource!

Some of my favorites so far… from the Fall piano 2018 series are: Click on each image for details. (See video below)

Enjoy browsing below to find your favorite piano books!

Does your hymn playing sound cloudy or too choppy and you just can’t figure out how to fix these issues?

I’ll share several tips that will hopefully help the beginning church pianist to  sound smoother.

Prep list for correct pedaling:

1.  Sit on the front half of the bench
2.  Knees barely under the keyboard
3.  Right leg will be at an angle (heel remains on the floor when pressing pedal)

When to pedal? Pedal once  per chord change

To avoid choppy sound in playing: NEVER lift pedal and hands at the same time during a hymn that needs to sound smooth.

Lift the pedal while the hand is going down on the new chord

I’m preparing a video tutorial on pedal suggestions for the church pianist who would appreciate some helpful tips on how to sound smooth when playing hymns.

Get ready with these prep tips!

1. Sit elbow length from the keys (knees should be slightly under keyboard.)
2.  Sit on front half of bench

More pedaling tips coming soon!