Quote of the Week: "Saying thank you is..."

"Saying thank you is more than manners.

It is good Spirituality."

~Alfred Painter

Video of the Week: "All Creatures of Our God and King"

Today's Video of the Week celebrates my love for hand bells and is a two for one!

I have been playing with a group from Central UMC in Lawrence, KS for the last couple years.  I was so glad to find a church that had a hand bell group when I moved back home from Kansas City.  We recently played an arrangement of "All Creatures of Our God and King" during Sunday worship.  I am so proud of our two newbies that were playing for with us for the first time.  I'm the first person on the table on the right wearing dark glasses and hopefully smiling.  

"All Creatures of Our God and King" 
played by the Central UMC Lawrence Bell Choir




One of my fellow bell ringers was experimenting with her smart phone and took video of herself playing during rehearsal.  I of course had to give that a try.  I was able to prop my android smart phone right above my music while using my reading lights to keep it secure.

I think there are quite a few uses for videos like this.  An obvious use would be to check your form and watch how you ring.  A fun thing might be to have each ringer make a video and then create a video mash up of everyone ringing their part.  I would definitely do this again.    


"All Creatures of Our God and King" 
Featuring Emily Elliott and the Central UMC Lawrence Bell Choir
 

If you love hand bells like I do check out this cool Facebook page!

Holiday Music at Your Fingertips

Source: Koerts Music

It's that time of year when musicians are hurrying to put together their holiday music.  I usually like to have most of my Advent, Christmas and Epiphany selections chosen months in advance so that I have time to rehearse and plan.  This year I have not been so lucky.  I started a new interim music director position a couple months ago so November and December planning has been rushed quite a bit.

The list I have created below are some of my favorite websites that I go to again and again for sheet music of all kinds.  Each one makes downloading and printing at home easy so you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail.  I also love anything I can get for free especially with the limited budgets I usually work with in music ministry.

I hope these resources help you wrap up your holiday season planning and give you some extra time with your family and friends.  You deserve it!

  

• Holiday Sheet Music has a great collection of PDF's you can download for free to use when caroling this holiday season.  

• The piano page on About.com has a few free holiday piano solos with stories behind each song for free download.  

• I love Susan Paradis and her collection of music for piano and teacher resources.  She has been my go to place for several years now.  Her collection of seasonal music is awesome.  I especially like the early non-reader arrangements so even my youngest piano students just starting out can enjoy playing a song for the holidays.  

• Worship Together is my go to place for free contemporary Christian music resources that are hot off the press.  They have compiled a list of 10 original songs for you to use this holiday season.  Each song has a free lead sheet and links to buy full accompaniments and recordings when available.   

• Making Music Fun has quite a few pieces for piano that you can print and use whenever the spirit moves you.  Their list is arranged by level making it easy to find the perfect holiday song for each of your piano students or yourself.  There are also midi recordings of each arrangement to aid in practice.  Check out the Jazz piano Intermediate level 4 arrangement of "Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella".  

• Do you work with a children's hand bell group?  I would encourage you to visit The Inspired Instructor.  There is a wonderful collection of Christmas songs already marked for your color coded bells.   

• Joy Morin at Color in my Piano has a fantastic list of free Christmas music from all over the web.  She continues to update it so don't forget to bookmark this site for next year.  

• 8notes.com has another collection of easy sheet music that is helpful if you are working with many different instrumentalists.  You pick the song and the instrument that is going to play it and download the arrangement.  These are also good choices when you want simple arrangements or are working on sight reading.  

• Free-Scores.com is another wonderful site for free sheet music of all kinds.  You can search by instrument and find arrangements from all over the world.  I have been thinking about borrowing a xylophone for the holiday season so I can play a few carols along with piano accompaniment.  I was able to download a free arrangement of "O Holy Night" that will do quite nicely.  

• Koerts Music offers a nice arrangement for piano of "Joy to the World" matched with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" for free download.  I downloaded this one for myself this year.

This is no where near an exhaustive list of what the world wide web has to offer.  Tell us in the comments your favorite site for sheet music.  

Quote of the Week: "I would maintain that..."

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of though, 

and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

~G.K. Chesterton