Caleb's First Original Hymn Arrangement!

Caleb has loved playing so many different hymn arrangements, and has enjoyed creating some violin arrangements for his sister to play with him, but he had never really made his own piano arrangement. 

Sure, he has dabbled a little bit with writing his own music.  He's composed little songs for school competitions and a song with violin and piano for a local music competition.  He's won different awards for his original compositions, so why not try making his own hymn arrangement?  

Caleb wanted to try, but he wanted it to be a little different.  He seemed to like playing songs in minor keys a lot to give them a sort of "haunting" personality, so he thought of how he could incorporate a minor key into a church hymn without it making it too weird.  

He came up with his own arrangement of the hymn Love at Home in which he would start out in a minor key to make it sound a little scary and forbidding.  He said it was how your home can be a scary place without peace and love or your knowledge of the gospel.  Then the song transitions into a major key where he says the family learned about the gospel and it the home was filled with love.  An interesting take on a familiar hymn, but we congratulate Caleb on his very first church song arrangement.  

Caleb played his arrangement for week 15 of Sundays @ 6.

A Song Dedicated to Caleb

Caleb first began playing church song arrangements when he discovered music written and arranged by composer Aaron Waite.  It was only fitting that Aaron Waite himself contacted us and asked if it was OK to dedicate one of his arrangements to Caleb.  Well, of course we said yes!

Here is the piece Aaron Waite arranged and added a special dedication note to the top.  

Caleb played the piece for week 14 of Sundays @ 6;

The Week with 2 Songs

Caleb performs a new church song arrangement every week for Sundays @ 6, but one week in particular, he decided to do 2.  He wanted to play We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet, but there were 2 different arrangements that he had found and wasn't sure which one he liked better.  So, instead of choosing one over the other or waiting to play them spaced apart, he decided to play both of them and let people vote for which one they liked best.  

First he played an arrangement by Spencer Magnum;

Then he played an arrangement by Aaron Waite;

So, which one do you like better?

Inviting Special Guest Musicians to Sundays @ 6

Over the years Caleb has loved accompanying other musicians and more recently he has enjoyed accompanying his sister Jewelia on her violin.  

So, what could be more fun than inviting her to perform with him on Sundays @ 6?

Caleb invited Jewelia to play with him in week 8 and 11.

Here they are playing Heavenly Father Loves Me;

There aren't always violin arrangements that Caleb can find for his sister, so he started arranging some violin music to go with piano arrangements that he likes.

Here he wrote the violin arrangement to go with Aaron Waite's arrangement of There is a Green Hill Far Away.  (Pardon the extra squeakiness of Jewelia's violin, she was waiting to get a better one.)

Hymn Arrangements by Chas Hathaway

As Caleb was searching online for other composers who arranged church hymns, he stumbled across another local composer, Chas Hathaway.  Again he had found an extremely talented musician who arranged beautiful hymn arrangements.  He immediately began purchasing and downloading some of Chas's songs.  Chas is a bit of a new-age pianist, and so his arrangements had a certain flair to them that Caleb loved.  The next few weeks of Sundays @ 6 were songs arranged by Chas.

Here are weeks 7, 9 and 10:

Week 7: Come Thou Fount:

Week 9: Battle Hymn of the Republic:

Week 10: We'll Bring the World His Truth:

Soon through Sundays @ 6, Chas Hathaway must have stumbled upon Caleb playing his songs and began commenting.  This made Caleb so happy.  He found a new friend in Chas.  

Hymn Arrangements by Aaron Waite

Caleb first began playing hymn arrangements when he stumbled across a website by Aaron Waite.  Aaron Waite is a local composer who has arranged many beautiful hymn arrangements and primary song arrangements.  Caleb loved his style and how he used more variety in the left hand for playing these hymns.  This is why for the first few weeks all of Caleb's Sundays @ 6 songs came from very talented composer Aaron Waite.  

Here are weeks 2-6:

Week 2: I Stand All Amazed:

Week 3: I Believe in Christ:

Week 4: Army of Helaman:

Week 5: I Often Go Walking:

Week 6: I Know That My Redeemer Lives:

Soon Caleb found an online friendship with Aaron Waite and they would send messages back and forth.  Caleb loves Aaron Waite arrangements!

The Beginning of Sundays @ 6

Here he was in the middle of Summer and Caleb wanted to create something big.  He had been playing the piano at different churches and for different care centers, nursing homes, and for friends' parties, church lessons, and talks, but he wanted a way to reach more people.  

Caleb already had a piano blog and he had even created a facebook fan page a few years ago so he could share his music with others, but he wanted something even more.  

He decided he could create a weekly series where he would upload a new song every week.  He loved playing so many church hymn arrangements and he wanted to play so many.  So, he thought up a way how to make it into a weekly webcast.  

At the University where he often took lessons, and I think downtown, he saw they had something called "Sundays @ 7" where they would offer free concerts on Sunday nights at 7 where people could come and enjoy music for free.  This gave him the idea for the name "Sundays @ 6".  

On July 22, 2012, Caleb created "Sundays @ 6" where he vowed to play a new church song arrangement each week.  

Here he is with his very first song called "Faith";