I’m feverishly writing an advanced two piano Christmas duo for another SMPress competition. I have to turn it in by October 10th!
Meryt Wilson and I will be premiering this Christmas piano duo on October 12th at 8pm….live on facebook at the following link… https://www.facebook.com/thechurchpianist/
Please join us for an evening of fun as other church pianists gather round to learn a few tips on modulation and accompanying 6/8 hymns.
Here’s a sampling of “Gesu Bambino” two piano arrangement (It’s similar to the arrangement on my“Simply Christmas” CD.
Today is the last day to turn in your suggested topic(s) for the upcoming Facebook live session for church pianists on October 12 at 8pm.
The “most suggested” comment will be our main topic. I will announce our topic in a couple of days.
Click “comment” below to leave your suggested topic(s).
Oh…wanted to mention….my friend Meryt Wilson will be my cohost! She teaches piano at Ambassador Baptist College. We’ll open the session with a brand new Christmas two piano number (which I’m working on at the moment for anotherSMPress Contest).
Excited about this event! Mark your calendars now!
For those of my readers on facebook….I’ll be going live on Thursday, October 12th from 8-8:30pm (could last longer)
I will make this video available on my website a couple days after the live facebook session.
I’m asking my church pianist readers to give suggested topics. I will choose the “most mentioned” topic for this session…if reasonable enough 😉 You have until September 25th to enter your topic!
Submit your suggested topic(s) below. Thanks! Looking forward to this time of fellowship and learning!
Just sang “Will You Receive His Gift?” in a trio for our recent revival with Dwight Smith.
I enjoyed singing this song about Jesus’ free gift of salvation and how one only needs to believe and receive this wonderful gift. This particular arrangement was easy to learn…great harmony…allowing us to focus on the message. Thank you Niki Lott for writing such a beautiful song!
Your ladies’ ensemble will love singing this beautiful song by Mina Oglesby. The text describes how we are just plain old clay and how God is our Potter. He’s molding our lives to make us vessels of love.
I hope to reunite the ladies’ ensemble I directed years ago that sang this actual arrangement and share it with you all via video.
I do have a youtube video of Mina singing “The Potter’s Hands” and will share below…(THE ACCOMPANIMENT ON THE VIDEO IS NOT MY ARRANGEMENT) *LISTEN TO AUDIO SAMPLE)
Sacred vocal two part arrangement for ladies' ensemble. Words & music by Mina Oglesby and arranged by Jenifer Cook. *Price covers two or more copies.
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I met a nice young lady at the Composer Symposium this past summer who attends the church where my husband and I were married!
She is a great violinist and offered to add the violin bow & slur marks to my arrangement of “Nearer My God to Thee”. It has taken me a while to finalize the arrangement but now complete and available in our music store.
A big thanks to Abby Phillips for adding the violin markings! See video of Abby below playing her own arrangement of “I’d Rather Have Jesus” in her home church.
Sacred violin solo w/ piano accompaniment; 4 pgs. *Price covers two copies.
A nice solo piece for any occasion. The beautiful melody of this hymn flows gently back and forth between the piano and violin. *Bowing & slur marks included for violin.
Most of the editing was the result of a private lesson with Marty Parks. Very thankful for his input! He shared a great pointer on how to better communicate rhythmic interpretation in written music.
(Thanks to Robert Sterling and Brad Nix for pointing out the 9 over the tuplets for clarity). I just honestly had shied away from learning how to input tuplets with Finale and FINALLY learned how! 🙂 Thanks to Joseph Martin for his overall encouragement and teaching spirit 🙂 Also, thanks to John Parker for his written comments on the arrangement!
For example, instead of a breath mark (large looking comma)…just insert a rest…makes a clearer statement. Also, NOT to show key change too early which is what I ALWAYS do! 😉 *See key change illustrations below the video.
Due to requests for the critiqued version…there are now two different arrangements of Abide With Me in our music store…the advanced original version & Critiqued version. Those who like a challenge will enjoy playing the critiqued version….which contains minor editing changes…ending with a run up the keyboard. Listen to the critiqued version below…
Now to show you the original and new key change correction 🙂
I never really noticed the time signature change in “Just When I Need Him Most” until today.
We sang this at our church last night for a congregational and the people REALLY enjoyed singing it. The words are so comforting!
It’s just one of those seasons at our church where there’s a lot of physical needs and such a song reminds us of Jesus’ ever-present help 🙂
We sang this song in a prayerful mood with a slow walking speed so I had time to add left hand flowing patterns similar to the following free pdf of “Just When I Need Him Most”.
Most importantly, notice the key change at the chorus….but the flow will still be pretty much the same 🙂 I actually changed to 6/8 timing one measure earlier than the hymnal shows… because it felt more natural to not hold as long before entering the chorus.
Maybe this will help a beginning church pianist to see what fill-ins could be used for a slow to medium hymn in 6/8 or 9/8 timing… such as my arrangement of “I Must Tell Jesus”.
Warning: This arrangement is NOT intended for piano solo use… due to missing melody notes at the beginning of the chorus…unless of course you know how to add them in 😉
I have a chord speller book by John Thompson that I use to teach my church pianist students who need to brush up on theory.
This book provides foundational information needed for the church pianist to effectively improvise.
Short synopsis of book:
John Thompson’s Chord-Speller
The purpose of this book is to present the Triads (including the Dominant and Diminished Seventh Chords) in a way that will enable the student to read them, write them and recognize them by sight or sound.
Having a working knowledge of scale and chord structure will help the church pianist with improvising hymns.
If you’re interested in seeing sample pages or purchasing the book…just click on the image of the book above.
I’m always looking for simple-approach type books and this one fits the bill! (I don’t get paid to sell this book) 🙂
This book has been around for awhile so you may find it on Ebay or Amazon.
