In August, we recorded a song I wrote called “This God Alone” in the live taping. The lyricist wants the music for a concert she is doing so I promised her I would write out the piano part (all the other parts are already written out).
Category Archives: Free Lessons
Someone emailed me a very good question tonight and I thought I would share it along with my answer.
Playing the piano for congregational music is the most important skill a church pianist needs to have. As you have heard from me and others many times, a church pianist has a very significant impact on how the congregational singing goes.
Here is a fifteen minute video that discusses an arranging idea.
If you are like me, getting started on a piece of music (arrangement or composition) is often the hardest step. We all have tendency to get stuck looking for that idea that will define the song.
Today, I am going to walk you through two things you can do to get a more interesting sound in your music. If you have followed the blog for any amount of time, one will be familiar to you and the other less so.
In many churches, the offertory is traditionally instrumental and has become the one spot in a service where a pianist often plays solo. As a result, it is the biggest focus of many church pianists, who learn planned arrangements to fit into that slot.
We were at our new and good friends the Bates this weekend. We love those guys and I love sitting in their music room and playing their music with them. (Zach on guitar or bass, Tori on fiddle and Erin on fiddle/piano.)
I remember reading a book by Julian Johnson called Who Needs Classical Music a few years ago. It was a defense of art music and Johnson discussed in length the difference between art music and folk/pop.
I recently helped a recording artist on a new project during mixing. The mixing process involves a lot of listening as the artist and engineer work together to tweak tiny things that will make the music more impactful.
Someone was over at the house when I was practicing yesterday and noticed me repeating a 4-bar phrase over and over for a long time. Later on, she asked me how she could get her children to practice that way. As it turns out her children are like almost all children; they practice by playing songs all the way through and rarely stop to practice on problem areas.