Elephant Dance

My Grand Daughter is learning to play the piano, so I write her simple songs to teach new concepts. This short solo is called "Elephant Dance." It features the left hand notes 8va lower. It is in the Fun Solos section of my downloads page.

Silent Night Tweaked

We are singing my arrangement of Silent Night for our Ward Christmas party this year. I have made a few minor changes in the accompaniment. You might want to download the latest version if your Ward plans to use it this year.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

I Believe in Christ

Linda,
I used your arrangement of I Believe in Christ yesterday in my Relief Society lesson.  I asked a couple of ladies to sing with me,  so we had to modify the parts a little bit. It was definitely a challenging song for us all! But It was lovely,  and the spirit was felt by all.  I am grateful how the spirit is so easily brought by music.  Thank you for sharing your talent so that we could share ours :) it was beautiful.  I look forward to looking up more of your pieces in the future. 

   Everyone: Feel free to modify my music to fit your personal needs.  - Linda

Postlude Chain - Finished!

The Postlude Chain is ready to be downloaded. And just in time for me to play in Relief Society this Sunday!

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

From the "What Was I Thinking" department:

So, I'm going through some older arrangements and I see that I crunched all the triplets in "How Gentle God's Commands" onto one page! And I thought that was a good idea WHY? Yikes! So, I spread it out a bit to make it actually readable! Also, I stretched the ending out just a bit too. It was a bit sudden before.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Halloween Night

Yes. You read that right. I wrote a song for Halloween. Don't worry. It is not for ward choirs! It is for the Fun Piano Solos section. I wrote it for my grand daughter who is just starting to learn to play the piano, so it is super easy. But I thought there might be some other beginners out there who would like a fun Halloween song to play.

Boo!

Something New

I have added another category in freewardchoirmusic.com. Now you will be able to download prelude and postlude chains that run smoothly from one hymn into another. You can start at any double line and end at any double line. Also, you can start again at the beginning after the last hymn if you need more prelude time. 

The first prelude chain is ready for download. I am working on a postlude next. Then I will post Christmas prelude and postludes.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

A funny Thing

Thank you! to all of you who have found one of my songs or arrangements on http://freeldssheetmusic.org and left comments there. They always forward those comments to me and I am always so grateful to know when something is working for someone.

The funny thing is that freeldssheetmusic forwards the comments, but not which song or arrangement the comments are referring to. LOL. But, I am always glad when someone finds something they can use - even if I don't know what it is.

As always: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Come, Come Ye Saints Piano Duet

Really? Not one piano duet of Come, Come Ye Saints anywhere? How is that possible? So, once again, I have written an arrangement out of desperation.

It wasn't posted in time for anyone to use it this year, but, never fear, Pioneer Day will come around again I am told.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

Love One Another for Mother's Day

Comment or Question: Just a quick note to tell you we used \"Love One Another\" on Mother\'s Day! ALL of the men were invited to come up to the stand to sing. There were about 75 men. Of course, most sang melody, but when possible, the tenors came in sing some harmonies. The \"real\" choir will sing this song in September.

How Great Thou Art

Comment or Question: I wanted to thank you for this wonderful accompaniment of How Great Thou Art. We had a dear elderly woman die in our ward this week and she had requested this piece be played at her funeral. I know that the accompaniment to this piece can get very ornate and loud. When I found this I was perfectly satisfied and welcomed it to be played at her funeral. It has all the aspects of respect but still has the frills some are looking for. Thank you so much for your efforts in working on this favorite hymn of many a listener and singer. Jill

Thanks for Sharing!

Just letting you know that the piano/vocal arrangement of this song will be sung by a 13 year old New Zealand lass at the upcoming Tauranga Eistedford.

It will be sung in Maori – Whakaaria Mai as well as English.

Thank you for allowing the use of this most poignant song.

Kind regards

Watch out for Gibberish!

Remember, if you have trouble downloading an audio file of any of the music, try a different browser. I was using Mozilla Firefox and tried to play an M4A file and only gibberish appeared. Apparently Google Chrome is set up better to play those files.

Who knew?

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Lower Key

I posted Be Still My Soul SAB in a lower key. Check it out!

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Updates

Apparently I revised the notation for "All Creatures of Our God and King" but did not update the audio file. I will try to get that done this week.

Also, you will now be able to search my downloads page by section. So, instead of scrolling endlessly looking for vocal solos or Fun Piano music, you will be able to snap right to them! Check it out!

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Love One Another

I rewrote the SAB version of Love One Another. I brought the descant down from the rafters. I hope you like the change.

From a Dedicated Choir Director

Comment or Question: I thank you for this wonderful site geared to help Ward Choirs. I was called to Choir Master a year ago, I can\'t read music, I only can tell if someone is singing flat or in tune. However, I have a fantastic 18yr old young lady who plays the piano and puts up with me asking what may appear Dumb Questions. we have sung last year about 5-6 songs from your Web Site, so I just wanted to say Thanks. Regard Wayne Stephens Perth, Western Australia

Where Love Is

Hello Sister Pratt,

We chose your arrangement for sacrament mtg on 2/12 ("Love" and Valentine's Day - that was the tie in).  We used your SAB arrangement for three men, dropped the SA parts an octave, Acapella on the third verse, and it really turned out nice.  I've attached a recording, if you are interested.

Thank you for sharing your talent.  Many were very touched by the arrangement.

Comment

Comment or Question: Hello Linda! I have to tell you that I LOVE your arrangements! They are simple and so, so beautiful. I use your arrangements almost exclusively. I am not the most musically talented person but I was called to be the Ward Choir Director in my ward last summer. We have a very transitional ward, so musical talent is sometimes in abundance and sometimes not so much. Your arrangements have been life savers for me! They have been so easy for our accompanists and choir members to learn in a short time and don\'t require a director to have lots of musical theory or skill in order to conduct them. They also retain so much of the sweet simplicity of the Spirit the hymns should bring to our worship, with just enough enhancement from their original format to give the congregation something \"new.\" I also prefer to have the choir stick with hymns for sacrament meeting (easier to get Bishopric approval, and I think sometimes new works can be a bit distracting because they are so unfamiliar to the ward members), and you have such a wonderful selection of hymns!! Please keep arranging more! I do have one question for you... I\'m trying to print \"Know This That Every Soul is Free\" for SATB and have found that the pages are set at around 14\" long and the spacing between some of the staves are quite wide. Do you have a version of the SATB arrangement that has already been formatted to fit on an 8.5 x 11? When I shrink the existing document to fit a page, it prints a bit small. Thank you, again, for sharing your amazing talent and tender testimony with the world through the music you offer on this website. I just can\'t thank you enough or quite convey to you what your music has done for me, the choir, and our ward. Thank you!! Melanie

Melanie: I will look at that hymn and repost it. Linda

Called to Serve/Let Us All Press On

This energetic duet of Called to Serve and Let Us All Press On is written for a group of Young Men and Young Women. But it would be fun and easy for a Ward Choir to sing also, so it is in the Ward Choir Arrangement section on my site, rather than the duet section.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Cut down on Paper Use

comment: I love this piece because it sounds so beautiful and it's very doable for a pianist and choir without a lot of experience.  My only concern is printing the 11 pages for each choir member seems like a lot of paper waste.  Is there a choir version that is condensed into fewer pages?

Hi Kami!

Excellent question! I have tried several ways to cut down on paper use myself, but my choir was unhappy when I printed only the choir parts for the singers. They like seeing what the piano is doing so they feel more confident when they come in. I have found copying on both sides of a page works best for us. That way a 10 page piece only uses 5 pieces of paper.

If you come up with a better idea, please share!

Linda