O Little Town Of Bethlehem For Piano – A Couple Arranging Ideas

Here is a transcription of the video in case you would like to follow along:

Let’s take a look at some of the things we might do arranging a Christmas carol such as “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem For Piano.” I think I’ll start out with a parallelism. A parallelism is where you play a chord and then you move a whole step or a half step below or above. If I move up like that, that would be an up parallelism, and this is a down parallelism. Start like this: Oh Little Town of … See that? What I’m doing is, I’m playing … I’m giving the right hand up. That’s the melody. Between it I’m putting in “B”, which is a major 7. We have a major 7th parallelism. My left hand I’m just playing a root 5th of the chorus. Then the chord goes to “F”, “D minor”, and then could do “F minor 6th.” That’s a good place to do a ostinato with the left hand. We’ll put a solid “G” there and then use a frozen hand idea on the right hand. My hand is shaped like that. You see I’m not moving my fingers at all. They’re stiff. That was a “C major 7th”, and then a run on “G 7th”, and that’s “C major 7th” over “G.” I just ran it up and back down. Then I played “G 7th.” The melody’s on top. It doesn’t look like a “G” chord, but it is. There’s the 7th, there’s the 3rd, that’s the melody, and I’m putting a flat [inaudible 00:01:49] into it.

That wouldn’t be a bad introduction to it, listen. There’s that free frozen hand. That’s a “C” chord, of course. There’s “E major 7th.” That’s a “B flat” raised a level. It’s a “B flat” chord, “B flat” [inaudible 00:02:33] left hand. The 5th is “F”, the 7th is “A flat”, the 9th is “C”, and at 11th it would be “E flat”, but the melody’s “E”, so I maybe have to raise the level. Then that’s an “A 7th” but it’s in suspension. I’m suspend … Instead of going to the third right a way, I’m suspending it by playing the 4th instead of the third and then I’ll move to the third. I’m playing the sixth there, and then I’ll “flat” it.
That’s “G minor 7th” but I’m playing “D” and “A” on the left hand [inaudible 00:03:12] fifth and on the right hand the fifth, the seventh, the ninth, and the eleventh. Notice I slid off the 9th to give it a little effect. That’s a [playgul of cadence phonetic 00:03:35]. This is chord “C” that we’re heading towards, but instead I used an inside playgul cadence. I’m playing the “F” chord which is a four chord and then I turn around a “F”, “G”, “F”, “E”. The left hand I just move from “A” to “C”.

It would be nice to do some contrast so I think I’ll work my way up the keyboard to find the “C” chord. Do you see how that contrast with the heavy sound down there, I just got through with the heavy sound, and I came up the keyboard lightly and then … That’s an “E 7th” but it’s in suspension, the fourth taking the place of the third. Use suspensions whenever you can because it adds one more chord to the sequence and it makes it nice.
That’s a suspension again. That’s that half-step parallelism again. We can play it a half step higher, or we can play it half step higher, or we can play it a half step higher.

I encourage you to get to know all the keys because it gives you so much variety. After I played that in the key of “C” then I went up to “D flat” but I could have gone to any key. I could have gone up to “E flat”, or “G”, or “F”, or “A flat”, or “B flat”, or whatever, and it freshens up the song so much. If you need some help in that area I have a course called “How to Think in the Key of …” and I walk you through all twelve keys and we think through each key. In order to play in the key, you really have to think in the key. When I’m playing in the key of “D flat” I don’t have to think, “Let’s see, should I flat that ‘B’? Should I flat that ‘G’?” I’m not going to make a mistake with a flat in a key because I can think in that key, but until you think in the key, you’re going to struggle with it, and you’re going to think, “What notes do I flat and what notes do I sharp, blah, blah, blah,” right? I encourage you to master each key. That’s my point, because it gives you so many more things you can do when you arrange.

If you like this sort of thing and you want to learn how to play “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” in a full sound like that, I encourage you to get a hold of my “Christmas Course on How to Play Spectacular, Beautiful Christmas Carols,” and I’ll put the link down below the video so you can go to that.

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0-pXGwXa3Q

https://www.playpiano.com/musical-courses/christmas-carols.htm

That’s just a few ideas, a little preview of what some of the things you might want to do.

Thanks. Bye, bye for now.

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