Free Digital Sheet Music

Using the web to improve your ward choir

I’ve changed the banner image of my blog to better reflect its choral theme. So, I wonder, can you name the tune I used in the image?

I am a listener of Steven Kapp Perry’s excellent podcast The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat, and I was excited to hear his recent interview with Rob Gardner, someone who I hadn’t heard of before.  Gardner is performing his presentation of “Joseph Smith the Prophet” with a 300 voice choir, orchestra, and soloists on April 25 [...]

I just saw this announcement at NBC’s website. This is definitely a first — kind of American Idol meets Ward Choir. CLASH OF THE CHOIRS Two-Hour Premiere, Monday, December 17 ( 8/7c ) , then airing Tuesday, December 18 ( 8/7c ), Wednesday, December 19 ( Special Two-Hours, 8 /7c ) with the final competition on Thursday, [...]

http://www.irvnelsonmusic.com - More excellent free arrangements. You can hear a recording of Silent Night at his website of his arrangement. I wish I had discovered it a little earlier this year! The arrangement would be appropriate for sacrament meeting. Good stuff.

Last week we sang David Naylor’s arrangement of Abide with Me at our Ward Conference. The a’capella verse (second) has some nice harmonies that are a little adventurous without pushing the boundaries. We had a great turnout for the performance and I was quite pleased with how it sounded. If we could just get that [...]

Ronald Staheli's SATB arrangement of Awake Ye Saints of God Awake. David R. Naylor's SATB arrangement of Abide with Me. (audio) more to come…

A nice website at BYU about LDS composer Merrill Bradshaw. It features sections on His Life, His Music, and His Words. He wrote an a cappella piece set to the text of the Articles of Faith as well as many other excellent LDS religious works. Here is a picture of him at the piano with my grandfather, Ralph [...]

In 1975, Ralph Woodward, Professor of Music and Choral Director at BYU, wrote an essay titled Choral Music in the Church. Woodward gives guidelines and sets standards for selecting choral music for use in sacred services, such as sacrament meeting. The three page article is worth reading.At the end of the essay I was excited [...]

As you can probably tell by the links I am compiling, I have been trying to identify sources for good ward choir music on the web, especially places where you can download and print music directly from the site. I will gradually be highlighting and reviewing these sites in future posts.Today I added a new [...]

I just found the guidelines from the Church Handbook regarding choirs online. On the same page are guidelines about appropriate music for church meetings. Really, the whole page of guidelines is worth reviewing. It reminds me that the hymns are supposed to be the staple of the ward choir repertoire. This is something that I [...]