Songwriting is the act of baring one's soul to another in the form of words and music.
The suggested song for April 10-16’s Come Follow Me lesson is “I Believe in Christ”. In my opinion, this is one of the more powerful hymns found in the LDS hymn book; I love it. The title of the lesson is “Thou Art the Christ” and studies Matthew 15-17 and Mark 7-9.
The suggested song for this special Easter week topic is “Jesus Has Risen.” As I was looking over this song in the Primary Songbook, I noticed the song next to it is “To Think About Jesus.” I played around with both of them and decided to combine the two into a medley. “To Think About Jesus” is one of my Mother’s favorite primary songs. She plays the piano and has accompanied for Primary many times. I felt that combining the two songs adds to the depth of the arrangement. I hope you enjoy!
How Great the Wisdom and the Love (Hymn no. 195) is a hymn that is usually sung as a congregation during the sacred sacrament portion of a latter day saint Sunday meeting.
The Come Follow Me lesson is called “Be Not Afraid” and is studying Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6. John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 69 And we believe and are sure27 that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
We Are Sowing (Hymn no. 216) is a hymn I wasn’t as familiar with so it was fun to do a piano arrangement of it. The lyrics reflect the principles of the Parable of the Sower and are interesting and poignant!
The suggested song this week is the beautiful hymn “How Gentle God’s Commands,” Hymn no. 125 The Come Follow Me lesson is called “I will give you rest” and is studying Matthew 11-12 and Luke 11.
The suggested song this week is “When Faith Endures” which can be found in the the LDS Hymn Book. This song has only one verse, so it one of the shortest hymns in the hymn book. One of the scripture references at the bottom of this hymn is the following: 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
This week’s suggested song is “Master, the Tempest Is Raging” which can be found in the the LDS Hymn Book. This song is depicts in musical form the story found in Matthew and Mark 7 when Jesus Christ calms the stormy seas while out with his disciples. What I found striking about this hymn, was it’s use of metaphor to expand the meaning of that story to what we may face in our daily lives. This music video includes LDS bible film depictions of three miracles performed by Jesus Christ, which are just some of what is related in this section of scripture.
This week’s suggested song is “The Wise Man and the Foolish Man” from the LDS Children’s Songbook. This song is a beloved song to sing during Primary at our church. All the youngest kids especially love it and you can’t forget to do the hand motions when you sing it: “the rock” (plant right fist in palm of left hand), “rains” (let hands descend from high in the air), “floods” (raise hands with palms up), “Sand” (wiggle fingers and move arms back and forth in front of body), and “washed away” (wiggle fingers and move arms out away from the body)! 🙂
I picked “Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise” from the LDS Hymnal, for our song this week. I think it goes well with the scripture passages and is a beautiful hymn. It was really fun arranging a Viola part to go along with it. I had never done that before! I got my good friend Janei Evans, to play it and she did such an amazing job!
“God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son” is a song from the LDS Hymnal and is one of the hymns that is usually sung right before the administration of the sacrament to prepare hearts and minds for that sacred ordinance. This hymn bases it’s text on one of the scriptures from our lesson, John 3:16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.