Author Archives: Laurie

About Laurie

Church musician; composer, arranger, co-founder of Glorious Assurance Music

Away in a Manger – Piano Solo

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Well, I must admit that you all blew me away this past week! We reached over 500 likes in no time!

Thank you all for posting, sharing, liking, etc. I’m happy to share with you all this new Christmas piano arrangement of “Away in a Manger.”

The arrangement is late intermediate level with broken chords providing movement in the left hand and the simple melody in the right hand. The middle section changes to a quick 3/4, felt better in a combined one, then changing back to the original tempo and legato movement.

I hope you all enjoy the arrangement (click on link below)!

Away in a Manger – Piano Solo

 

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Giveaway – Free Christmas Music

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I love giveaways where everyone is a winner! That is why I’m offering this easy giveaway to you!

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The details.

Between now and this Saturday, November 8, you have to help our Facebook page reach 500 likes! We are SO close! Just visit the page Perspective of a Church Accompanist and like the page…it’s that easy!

When we reach 500 likes, I’ll post a Christmas piano solo for everyone! I already have it ready and I’m super excited to share it with you!

If you already follow us on Facebook, invite your friends to like us as well!

Looking forward to a great Christmas season…

Sunday Lyrics – Be Thou My Vision

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Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Irish Folk Tune

Spring has Sprung

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This past Sunday was my least favorite day of the year – Daylight Saving Time/Time Change Sunday. My body has a very difficult time adjusting, even though I try to go to bed early, etc.

I still don’t understand why they don’t have the time change Friday night/Saturday morning. But they didn’t ask me, right?

Anyway, I’m always paranoid that I’m going to set my clock in the wrong direction, or miss my alarm, or forget to set it altogether. In this day of “smart” technology, we can’t even set our phones ahead. They change automatically. Or, they are supposed to.

I knew someone whose phone didn’t update correctly and they were late for practice before Sunday service. Ever since then, I’ve set multiple alarms and even pulled out the old “manual” alarm clocks.

This year I set my alarm an hour earlier just in case something didn’t go right. The only clock I could set ahead was my oven clock, which I did. Then when my alarm went off at 5:15am, I got up and went out to the kitchen to see if my phone matched the oven clock. It did! Score! Then I went back to bed for another hour. 🙂

We got to church on time and had a wonderful worship service. We sang/played one of my favorite packages – Crown Him King of Kings/Crown Him with Many Crowns. I love playing those songs!

The weather even cooperated and was absolutely gorgeous!

Perhaps Spring has (finally) sprung!

(We are supposed to get back down in the 50s tomorrow, but we won’t think about that right now.)

Do you have any stories from Time Change Sunday? I would love to hear them!

Encouraging the Next Generation

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Happy New Year!!

December and January have been super busy months, but that’s no excuse for neglecting to post anything. This won’t be long, but I wanted to share a thought with you.

This past Sunday, we had a college singing group visit the church. (These groups are near and dear to me because I was in a group in college as well.)

As I watched the group warm up before the service and sing during the service, it struck me that these young people are choosing to use their talents for the Lord. No one forced them to be in a singing group (as far as I know). No one was making them practice and travel. Good for them!

Most, if not all, of us have been in this same situation. We chose to serve in the music ministry at church growing up or while we were in college. Those were not the easiest of times. There were many times that I wanted to quit. It just didn’t seem “worth it.”

Encouraging words from kind church members made all the difference. Now that I am in the position on the other side of college (aka: getting older), I need to speak up and encourage the next generation.

Everyone needs encouragement. You may not know what someone is going through while they choose to serve the Lord in a church ministry.

But the next generation definitely needs our encouragement. If they quit serving in church, who will we have left?

Just a thought for this week. Sorry if it’s so deep. Enjoy your day!

Cyber Monday – Digital Music on Sale

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Christmas pianoWelcome to Cyber Monday! The one day of the year when we can spend money as easy as pushing a button! Anyone up for going shopping?

I’m not usually one to get all excited about Black Friday or Cyber Monday, nor do I like to push deals too much. But today I’m making an exception.

Over at my digital music store, Glorious Assurance Music, all music is 50% off! Now, the music is not overly expensive to begin with, so you can get choruses for $.75 and piano arrangements for $1.75. I’m just not sure how you can beat this price.

Unless it’s free, right?

Well, unfortunately, most of the music is not free (but still 50% off). But there are two piano arrangements that are free, all the time.

I Surrender All – free piano arrangement, intermediate level

Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus – free piano arrangement, late intermediate level

If nothing else, be sure to download these free arrangements today! (Note: the site will say these arrangements are out of stock, but you just need to click on the title link under Free Download to get the PDF download.)

Other titles for sale include:

O Little Town of Bethlehem (intermediate)

Silent Night, Holy Night (advanced)

He is Born, the Divine Christ Child (advanced)

Amazing Grace (intermediate)

Christ the Lord is Risen Today (advanced)

Be Thou My Vision (early advanced)

Praise Him! Praise Him! (late intermediate)

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (intermediate)

…and many more. Don’t wait too long, the sale ends soon!

Final Thoughts

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On-the-Go PianistSince this 31 Day Challenge really started the evening of September 30, I did my Day 31 yesterday.

But since today is October 31, I thought I should do a final post to recap the month.

Wow, thirty-one days of blogging. I really did it.

When my sister first suggested I do this with her, I wasn’t sure what I would blog about. Obviously music, but the specifics were a little harder to think of.

Now that’s it over and I look back on my experience, I had a really fun time. The challenge was just that, a challenge.

I loved communicating with all my readers about the different aspects of music.

I picked up some valuable resources along the way.

I made new friends.

I reconnected with old friends.

(I just said “I” a lot, sorry!)

I’m not planning on blogging every day from here on out, but I definitely will be blogging more often. I even have some ideas for some series!

Thanks to all of you who followed and read my posts and commented on them.

Thanks to my sis and hubby for encouraging me in this challenge.

Goodbye, October!

Hello, November and December – the busiest months for church musicians!

This post is part of a series I’m doing this month called “On-the-Go Pianist.” Click here to see all the posts!

Missions Conference Music

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Next week is our annual Missions Conference at church. The music for these services is obviously missions-oriented.

I love the music for Missions Conference. The choir songs are outstanding – “Be the One,” “Somebody Cares,” “I Will Go,” and others.

The traditional hymns for missions are also great songs, but they are not my best to play. Probably because I don’t play them all that often. However, sometimes we don’t sing the “traditional” missions songs.

We will see what hymns are picked this time.

Regardless of the hymns or choir songs or special music, our Missions Conference is just a special time of preaching and sharing from all the missionaries who attend.

We have a very sweet spirit in our church and that is evidenced by the love we show our missionaries.

I’m looking forward to another great Missions Conference.

This post is part of a series I’m doing this month called “On-the-Go Pianist.” Click here to see all the posts!

Piano Teacher Resources: Susan Paradis

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Do you ever come across something online and the next thing you know, an hour has gone by?

That happened to me last night. And it wasn’t Facebook! 🙂

I was looking for a handout to use for my kids explaining whole steps and half steps for their Five Finger Patterns, and I stumbled on this amazing website.

Susan Paradis has put together an extensive compilation of resources for the piano teacher. I was so excited!

Many of the resources are free to download, which is even more exciting!

Her resources include Worksheets, Teaching Aids, Games, Sheet Music for all seasons and holidays, and much more!

In addition to all these free items, she also has a store with even more stuff!

If you’re looking for easy church music for your piano students, she has several seasonal and hymn arrangements you can download.

I downloaded several worksheets that I plan to use for my kids, and I’ll definitely be going back!

Be sure to check it out. Who knows…you might even find something for yourself!

This post is part of a series I’m doing this month called “On-the-Go Pianist.” Click here to see all the posts!