Category: folk music

Resignation

This arrangement of mine is a musical reflections on the hymn tune, Resignation, a melody of anonymous authorship from William Walker’s “Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion” (1835).

The second “verse” of the arrangement is a minor key treatment of the melody. It returns to a more upbeat character on the “third” verse, and an even more positive statement on the “fourth” verse.

The sheet music is available at https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/resignation-for-solo-piano-digital-sheet-music/22511247 and https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1330431/Product.aspx.

I don’t have videos of me playing a lot of these solo piano arrangements. I recorded them before I got into the practice of making videos. When there’s no video, I’m using a score synchronized with my audio recording.

New EZ Intermediate piano solo: “I Will Give My Love an Apple”

I’ve been having some sales of my solo piano pieces through the sheetmusicplus and sheetmusicdirect websites. It’s gratifying to actually make some money from something I’ve written. The only creatives who typically make less from their art than composers are poets! Right now I’m doing a bunch of EZ intermediate piano arrangements of folk tunes. Here’s the video of my playing the newest, “I Will Give My Love an Apple” – https://youtu.be/SX_xHIKMnwY. This video was made when I was about 85 pounds heavier than I am now. If one of your students would enjoy playing it, they can get the sheet music at
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/i-will-give-my-love-an-apple-piano-solo-digital-sheet-music/22492319 or https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1318783/Product.aspx. #music

Finally…!

Composers, painters, writers, poets, photographers, dancers, artists of all kinds have the occasional project they’re never quite satisfied with, that they continue–throughout their career–to fiddle with and change and rethink. My arrangement of the famous old hymn tune, Amazing Grace, is one of those for me.

Part of the problem, I think, is that this is a piece I also improvise on in live performance and no matter how hard you try, how good an ear you’ve got, how adept you are at using technology, it’s impossible to capture in music notation every tiny nuance of an improvised performance.

Nor is it possible to capture every detail of how you imagine the piece ought to be…could be…must be.

I’d had Amazing Grace on the two websites for self-published scores I use, SheetMusicPlus and SheetMusicDirect, but I grew dissatisfied with my arrangement and withdrew it, even after it had had sales.

I finally got what I think might be a better, more likely to be permanent, arrangement of Amazing Grace, and it’s now up and available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/r2ojjBLohk0) and on the two sheet-music sites at:

You can also stream just the audio for free at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/amazing-grace-piano-solo-arrangement.

Shenandoah

Arranged for a chamber mixed ensemble of flute, bassoon or alto saxophone, harp or keyboard, cello or viola, and glockenspiel or celeste. The difficulty level is of the percussion part and string part is very easy, and the difficulty of the harp part (or keyboard) and woodwind part is easy-intermediate. Free streaming of audio & video as well score & parts available purchase at these two sites:

St. Columba (revised, free score)

Wouldn’t ya know it: someone just now bought my previous version of my arrangement. Whoever you are, thank you! But, I hope you see this post so you can download this revision. I really do think it’s better and more playable.

If you have a student who you think would enjoy playing this piece it can be purchased from my composer page at either SheetMusicPlus or SheetMusicDirect. (Those probably won’t have be listed until sometime next week…it always takes them a few days to review.) The audio can be streamed for free at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/st-columba-pf-solo-revision.

st-columba-piano-solo-revised-scoreDownload
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