One of the things I like is to hear well done contemporary arrangements of great hymns. A few weeks ago for our Thanksgiving service, we did two hymn arrangements that I just love. We typically use studio produced CDs as models for how our band will play various contemporary songs and arrangements.
In this service for one model, we used New Doxology by Gateway Worship from their Wake Up the World
CD. This arrangement has such a big sound (as the song deserves) I hope to hear it live sometime!
We also played Praise To The Lord, The Almighty using Christy Nockels version from the CD, Hymns Ancient and Modern
, as a model. It was actually a challenge for me to keep the piano part as simple as recorded and not embelish it -- much of what makes this arangement so magnificent is the simplicty of the parts working together.
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