I am officially a pianist. I’m playing at church each service, and we’ve finally gotten back to singing the service as well as the hymns now that so many of our members have been vaccinated. Yay, yay, yay!
I’m getting better at sight-reading so that’s quite a jump start for the next service’s pieces. I’m still pretty focused on learning the hymns rather than learning pre- and postlude arrangements. I’d like to have that extra music, but I’m still just a little bit away.
Still, I wanted to tell you about my latest find: Floeter Music. Valerie Floeter, pronounced Flay-ter, caters to a very important musical niche! She produces hymntune-based music at a “late intermediate” or “early advanced” level. Also, it’s for piano and not organ.
I think she’s WELS, and she very generously allows churches to use her music in worship without needing any additional license. That makes it especially helpful for smaller, traditional congregations like mine.
Is it still just a smidge beyond me? Well, I just bought a ton of her books. Some look very doable. My difficulty is that I have to prioritize the hymns and it’s hard to know when I’ll have time throughout a week to work something extra up. Maybe I’ll work up an Easter piece or two and then work backwards? That would allow me more than a week or two to get comfortable.
Still generally I’m trying to reorient my thinking. It isn’t that x, y, or z is beyond me: it just needs some additional preparation time. Probably that’s what musicians actually do! 🙂 They plan in advance! They work ahead! And I can get there, too!
You know what? That’s also what writers do! They go on, little by little, believing that eventually they’ll get there. They practice. They take deep breaths and often start over. And it’s totally worth doing, whether a project has been finished or we continue to plod on along on the way!
Anyway, I started with her Short and . . . series and her Piano Stylings series that’s published by CPH. (Here’s an affiliate link to her CPH page.) She also has Hymns for Young Hands (and free Hands Helpers exercises!) for early elementary and elementary, so you can consider that on my wish list. 🙂
I’m working on music for Lent, and I’m just so thankful to think we’ll be in church for Lent & Easter!
Meanwhile, that means I ought to gather up Lenten resources. Let me know if you’ve heard of any recent releases and I’ll try to get a Lent post up ASAP.
Happy reading & writing!
