Songwriting is the act of baring one's soul to another in the form of words and music.
There is so much beauty and order in the universe, including our own human race and all the animals and plant life! I have a hard time believing it was all by chance. I choose to believe in God. To me, there is too much evidence not to. 🙂
Hello! This week I created a vocal arrangement of the old Christian hymn, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, which is one of the suggested songs for this week’s Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson. I pushed myself on the speed of the left hand notes for the instrumental section and last verse of the song. It took some practice for me to get it up to speed and I had to record it multiple times to get it right. I never know what I am going to do with a hymn when I first look at it. I just start playing around with it and eventually come up with something. It takes some effort! ha ha.
Hello! This week, I created a piano arrangement of the upbeat hymn, Called to Serve, which is one of the suggested songs for this week’s Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson. I had a blast putting it together. This lesson studies Alma 17-22 and is called “I Will Make an Instrument of Thee”. It is an astounding and exciting section of scripture!
Hello! Come Unto Jesus is one of the suggested songs for this week’s Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson studying Alma 13-16. This lesson is called “Enter into the Rest of the Lord” which phrase can be found in Alma chapter 13:
Help Me Teach with Inspiration is one of the suggested songs for this week’s Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson studying Alma 8-12. In this arrangement, I slowed down the speed of the hymn significantly which gave me more time to play around with the melody and rhythm a bit. It isn’t an oft sung hymn, at least in my experience at Church, but actually has a really pretty melodic structure.
Hello! This week, for our Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson, I chose to select The Lord is My Shepherd. This is an arrangement I did for a men’s musical number we needed at our recent church conference for the adults in our area. I had adapted it from a previous piano solo to suit this Men’s trio. RD Parsons, Kevin Forbush and Josh Pack are on vocals and did such a wonderful job recording and interpreting this beautiful hymn. I am grateful to them for allowing me to record and film them for this setting!
Hello! I Stand All Amazed is one of the suggested songs to go along with the Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson this week. I Stand All Amazed, in some places called, “I Stand Amazed”, was written by Charles H.
Hello! Love One Another is one of the suggested songs to go along with the Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson this week. Love One Another is a popular LDS hymn with a beautiful melody and just one single verse. This arrangement is a vocal solo with an instrumental piano part and reprise of the second half of the verse at the end. The sheet music for this arrangement is available for free here.
Hello! Keep the Commandments is one of the suggested songs to go along with the Come Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson this week. This is a short and simple piano solo arrangement. This lesson studies Mosiah chapters 11-17. In this section, King Noah rules in wickedness, Abinadi prophesies that the people will be taken into bondage & King Noah will die because of their wickedness. Abinadi is imprisoned. He speaks to the false priests and King Noah, teaching them the Ten Commandments and that Salvation does not come through the law of Moses alone, but through Jesus Christ. Alma, one of the wicked priests, believes his words. Abinadi suffers death by fire and Alma writes his words, separating himself from King Noah and the priests.
This lesson studies Mosiah chapters 7-10. This hymn goes well with the text of this lesson. In this section, the people were in bondage and seeking deliverance. They came to a determination that God would deliver them and he does….