I’m sharing a brief list (below) of some of the ideas I walked away with after my annual meeting with my piano friend Meryt Wilson.

Hopefully they are a benefit to you as well.

Before I forget, one of the sacred piano books I recommended to Meryt was “Sacred Reflections” by Virginia Halberg.

This book has my favorite arrangement of “Great is Thy Faithfulness”  Suggestion:  I delete measures 45-50 and I end earlier at measure #91. (see image below)

I ended earlier because I didn’t feel the need to continue any further with the extra triplet note section. (personal opinion)

I LOVE meeting with my piano friend, Meryt Wilson, at least once a year for a time of encouragement and to share offertory resources and other ideas.

Do you ever do the same?  I live in a rather sparse land of church pianists and long for someone I can confer with to revitalize my playing.

It’s SO easy to get in a rut!

Meryt is such an encourager!

We usually sit down and play spontaneous hymns together.  This time we talked more and heard each other play.

Meryt previewed my new Congregational Piano Hymns Booklet Three….which I’m getting ready to publish.

We both were classically trained in our younger years.

Meryt is much more advanced than me in the area of classical music.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her play some of her own hymn arrangements.  She definitely writes VERY advanced hymn arrangements!  She has a way of weaving in classical melodies with hymns as though they truly belong.

My top favorites of what I heard her play was  “I’ll Fly Away” (my top choice!) and Who Is He in Yonder Stall (amazing! and VERY challenging!)

Meryt just published both of these pieces today!  You can find them on her Sheet Music Plus page at the following link:  Sheet Music Plus (Meryt’s page)

She has about 31 hymn arrangements on Sheet Music Plus ranging from level one to level 5.  Go take a peek at the link above and  see sample pages of her music.

In my next post, I’ll share my little  odds & ends list I compiled during our visit this past week.

Meryt Wilson and I REALLY enjoyed getting together a couple weeks ago to discuss Accompanying Vocal Specials.  We came up with a series of short videos talking about various ideas on accompanying the vocalist.

Here are several practice tips for the church pianist who plays for vocal specials.

In our next video…we’ll share a couple thoughts when creating an intro for a vocal solo.  Meryt sings while I try to create intros!

Practice Tips

Part One

Finding time to practice vocal specials is a challenge for most church pianists!  Listen to Meryt Wilson and Jenifer Cook as they discuss this challenging topic.

Meryt Wilson, one of my dear piano friends and myself, try to get together at least once a year to boost our music creativity.  This year we decided to discuss the topic of “Accompanying Vocal Specials”.

I’ll be sharing video excerpts of our discussion along the way.

We usually spend the day sight reading each other’s books that may be new to us. We also enjoy playing spontaneous numbers as you will see below.

Meryt has been playing for church since at least junior high age. She also taught piano at Ambassador Baptist College for a number of years in addition to giving private piano lessons. 

You can find Meryt’s sacred piano arrangements at the following link: Sheet Music Plus

Meryt will be adding more arrangements as time permits.

Now on to our spontaneous fun 😉    Just sharing the part that seemed to go well 😉

  Special note:  I’m almost finished editing my Dad’s song “His Name is Wonderful to Me”.  I hope to publish this song tomorrow!  (Sunday August 18,2019)

Meryt Wilson, one of my dear piano friends and myself, try to get together at least once a year to boost our music creativity.
We decided this year to discuss the topic of Accompanying vocal specials.

This is just a candid conversation that took place between us.

Choosing the song for a singer may not be needed most of the time… but here are some suggestions on how it could benefit some singers.

Next video excerpt will discuss practicing tips with vocal specials!   Have you ever heard of audacity?  I’ll mention it in the next video.

What is the accompanist’s role? Should the vocal soloist sing a song just because it’s their favorite? What to do if a singer forgets his or her words? Should you play melody throughout?

Come join Jenifer Cook & Meryt Wilson for a time of discussion on the above topics and more…including funny or embarrassing moments as accompanists at the keyboard.

To be aired here on Jenifer’s website this Saturday, August 17, 2019.