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.
I have not really taken the time to learn someone else’s piano arrangement in many years. It is too much work. But I certainly remember how I used to learn arrangements. One of the things that always used to frustrate me was that I would very often come to sections of the arrangement where I […]
Here is a fifteen minute video that discusses an arranging idea.
Pine Lake Music is one of the larger retailers/distributors of Christian music in the country and they are only a short distance from my house. They host various seminars throughout the year including some geared toward church pianists. Sometimes I will go to them and there is always something I can learn.
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.
In mid-2009, my family and I were on vacation in Washington DC when I made a startling discovery about my business. I realized that unless we had a very good sales day the next day, payroll checks were going to bounce.
Many young musicians come to me and ask me how they can earn a living in Christian music. For someone who is passionate about music, making music your occupation seems like a dream come true.
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.
I have been trying to relax for a few days after Friday’s concert, but the reality is that I am just very happy working. So yesterday, I worked on the kid’s school stuff all morning and at my office all afternoon. It felt good. The comments coming in from the concert have been interesting and […]
Some of you have no interest in the topic I am going to discuss today but others of you really get into the technical side of recording. For that reason, I want to talk about the audio set up for my concert next week.