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Are you in search of easy hymn arrangements for piano? As a church musician, pianist and composer with over 20 years of experience, I’d like to share some of my own arrangements that would be perfect for use in sacred services, and really anywhere that you might find yourself playing hymn and folk tune arrangements. The best part about these? They don’t need much practice from you, and they are still beautiful to play and listen to! The arrangements I’d like to share are from my piano at daybreak and piano by starlight series. I created these easy new age arrangements to be accessible for all pianists, and while there are some that are intermediate and maybe even advanced, there are many that are on the easy side. Let’s look at them now, and I’ll share videos and links to the sheet music along the way. First up is Amazing Grace , which is one of the most famous hymns. This arrangement is only two pages, with the melody played at the beginning and at the end with a cinematic interlude in between. The left-hand part is repetitive, and there aren’t any big chords in the right hand, so no Rachmaninov hands are needed to play this arrangement. This is one of my favorites and I’m sure you will like it too! Purchase Amazing Grace from Sheet Music Plus Next is Come, Thou Almighty King, otherwise known as Italian Hymn. The melody begins simply in the upper register over a repeating left hand pattern. The interlude here is a little longer than in Amazing Grace and briefly takes a dramatic turn with the shift to minor, but there are no big chords or embellishments here. It returns to the simplicity of the opening, with the melody now in octaves in the right hand. It ends with some small 16th-note flourishes, and then you’re done! Holy, Holy, Holy (Nicaea) is in a similar style - you may be noticing a pattern here. The left hand follows a repeating pattern over a simple chord progression. The well-loved melody is played as a solo instrument floating in the high register. The interlude here is one of the easier ones, bringing us gently to the new key of Bb before the melody repeats. There are a few small embellishments to the melody, but they fit the hands well and won’t be a challenge. Another two-pager, Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun (Duke Street), is given the tempo marking “Simply” for a reason. This is possibly the easiest arrangement in piano at daybreak, vol. 1 with its lightly adorned treatment of the melody, few and small chords and repetitive left hand. I truly believe less can be more, and hope you will enjoy this easy arrangement. I could share more from Volume 1, but I want to make sure I save some space for piano at daybreak, volume 2. So, here we go! First up is Children of the Heavenly Father which is based on a Swedish folk melody. This one is only two pages. I stretched out the melody from 3/4 time to 4/4 time to give it space, and it adds some freshness to the arrangement without sacrificing recognizability. The interlude is extremely simple, and the melody sings above an easy repeating left hand pattern that flows between familiar chords. Morning Has Broken was popularized by Cat Stevens, and my arrangement also has a folksy quality to it. This is a 3-page arrangement that starts in C major, and then changes to Gb. The left hand is using simple broken chords similar to many of my new age piano arrangements and the melody floats effortlessly above with gentle embellishments. There are a few short 16th-note runs, but you won’t need to cross over or under to get the fingering. The last one I want to share is O How I Love Jesus. It is the longest arrangement I will share in this post, but it is still pretty easy throughout. The melody sings in the upper register above a simple left hand, and then continues with an improvisation in the interlude. This one doesn’t modulate at all, it stays in D major for the entire arrangement. There is one 16th note run towards the end, but if you have been practicing your scales you won’t have any trouble with it. There are certainly more easy arrangements in my piano at daybreak collection, so please consider picking up a copy of the full collection to explore for yourself. Plus, you will get much better value buying the whole collection than purchasing individual pieces. If you enjoyed this article you might want to read more about the theory behind my arrangements. Interested in a challenge? Check out my blog posts covering intermediate hymn arrangements for piano and Ten more intermediate hymn arrangements for piano. I also have an article about postludes for piano, and they are intermediate difficulty as well. For preludes, head on over to this article. More below: Great hymn arrangements for piano: offertories and special music Great postludes for piano Comments are closed.
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AuthorIan Good is a published composer and arranger. |