Tag: With a Joyful Noise music

"Reflections of the Cross" album update

Published on by Amanda TeroLeave a comment
After a few months at a stand-still with “Reflections of the Cross” piano solo album (you may remember the announcement trailer here), I kind of had a “duh” moment. The stand-still was that my brother couldn’t find a certain key to his program (yeah, fancy equipment stuff and all)… but why not me try and use a free program to enhance (aka, “master”) the music myself? So far, with the help of YouTube and my brother’s fancy speakers, things have commenced.

I’m not sure why I didn’t attempt mastering audio before (actually, I think it always intimidated me.).. but so far, it’s gone much more smoothly than I would have imagined! Still continue to pray for this project though! God’s timing is perfect, I fully realize that. I have a lot on my plate, and I don’t want to try to force something to happen if it’s not God’s timing.


What’s something new you learned this week?
What is your favorite hymn about the cross?


Oh, How I Love Jesus | Violin, Piano Duet

Published on by Amanda Tero2 Comments
I have enjoyed teaching violin the last couple of years. Before we moved, I had about four violin students. But at the time being, I have thirteen violin students (one video student in Nigeria!). One of my favorite things to do is to arrange hymns for them to play in church. I love that most of my students strongly desire to share their music for God’s glory. 
Here is one that I recently arranged for a student to play (recorded by myself).
Sheet music available at WAJN

Just as I Am | Two Piano Solos

Published on by Amanda Tero2 Comments

Last week, I wanted to arrange “Just as I Am” for a student. So, I compiled a couple of verses and went to save… “This file already exists.” Oh wait! I already *had* an arrangement of the song! However, it was a slightly higher level. 😉 But, since it was in the archives, I brushed it up a little and decided to give you two variations of the favorite invitation hymn–two different levels.

Sheet music available at WAJN

And then the slightly more advanced version:

Sheet music available at WAJN

Standing on the Promises | Music Video

Published on by Amanda Tero6 Comments
A few years ago, I began arranging an advanced piano solo. It actually began when my family and I were singing at a church. Before service, I was playing around on the church piano just for fun. It’s interesting, but sometimes playing on a different piano will inspire different ideas. As I played, I threw in a descending scale-type progression where I went down, retraced a note up then went down further, etc. It was a keeper-idea, and before long, the Lord allowed me to piece it together with “Standing on the Promises” (you’ll hear that progression throughout the arrangement). 
However, after about halfway into the song, I hit a brick wall. I put the piece down for about nine months (in that time, we actually moved states–so yeah, a lot went on between measure one and the final bar line in this piece!). I loved the beginning and it was such fun to play, but I didn’t have an ending. As I thought about it, I’d pray for ideas, pull it out, toy with it, and let it set again. Finally, there was a breakthrough and God gave me just the ideas I needed to finish the arrangement.
Now, about two years later, I’ve finally gotten around to recording it to share with you all!
The sheet music for this is available at WAJN (but I’ll give warning, it is advanced–there are a lot of notes in the ten pages!).

Welcome to my Music Studio (free downloads)

Published on by Amanda Tero2 Comments
I have mentioned teaching occasionally, but it’s not something that I have really looked at on this blog. Today, I’d like to give you a glimpse at this year’s music studio:
I  haven’t had much opportunity to decorate my studio in years passed, because for most of my teaching life, I have either shared my studio with someone else (i.e. I started teaching in my room), or just didn’t feel that creative. This year, however, I decided to do something kind of fun–and the kids loved it (which, I’ll admit, always feels rewarding!). As you can see, I went for a “back to school” theme (time will tell if I change it up every month or quarter or at all…). I did a fun play on words…

Then I also have some “cheat sheets” up there. The younger me would have frowned on this; after all, they need to KNOW their answers, right? But… I’d rather the student review it 100 times and KNOW it than get frustrated fifty times, because they just can’t remember. We’ll see if these remain up all year or not.

In addition to all of this, I make my students track down their practice minutes. Their weekly time goal is different, depending on their age and level. This year to keep track for their diligence the entire year, I have created a chart. Each week, I will color in whether they have practiced ALL of their time (four keys), HALF of their time (two keys), a quarter of their time (one key), etc. Here’s hoping it’s incentive to get those keys colored!

Now, the freebies I mentioned in the title. All of the charts I mentioned are uploaded here (PDFs) for you to have full access to–print and use to your heart’s content! And, if you use them, I would love to hear how they worked for you!
If you are new to teaching or are considering teaching and don’t know where to start, I published a short book (most people can read it in an hour) to help musicians get started teaching. “Me? Teach Piano?” is only $1.99 for Kindle (though you may also get the paperback for $7.99).
Now that I’m done jabbering, how many music teachers do we have out there? What instruments do you teach? What have you found to be your most helpful teaching tip?

I Need Thee Every Hour | free music

Published on by Amanda Tero6 Comments
Monday was the first time I really touched the piano all summer (we’re not counting the times I played for camps and church services… I’m mainly speaking of personal one-on-one time with me and piano 😉 ). I started to practice, but after five minutes, I just had to arrange (it’s been more than two months, okay?). God blessed that arranging time, and there’s now a new arrangement in the books (or on the web… or something like that). 🙂
“I Need Thee Every Hour” has been on my heart a lot this summer. It is such a beautiful, simple reminder that I need every day!
Not only did I upload this to YouTube as usual, I also have it for free (both sheet music and audio file) on my website. Check it out here.
What song has been on your heart lately?

The Love of God | Music Video

Published on by Amanda Tero2 Comments
It has been too long since I’ve posted a new video — I started out the year well with one a week… and then my focus shifted to working on the 10-song album, Reflections of the Cross. I’m just now able to put my focus back on other stuff, and then a busy summer hits. 😉 So we’ll see how I do with a new one a week.
But for this week, I have an old hymn favorite of mine. This is actually the first piano solo I’ve arranged of “The Love of God.”

You can get this piece of music as part of the 5-for-$5 digital sale!
(in other words, you can get sheet music for this and four other songs for only $5)