Those of you reading this may know that last year I put out a blog post entitled Tips on How to Use Hymns of Hope and Peace Sheet Music. In that post, I explained what "Hymns of Hope and Peace" was and how you can put the individual songs in the series together to form one hour-long medley. I'll be talking a bit about those things here, so if you want more details or need more clarity, make sure to go back and read part one!
You might be wondering why I am adding a "part two" to the previous blog post. The reason is that I have an update regarding the tips I covered about the sheet music in part one. But before I mention that, here's a little bit of background:
How the Books Work
In the books, each song starts in the key that the last song ended in (with the exception of one), allowing the beginnings and endings of the songs to be tweaked and played through without any stopping (as described in part one). This makes the songs become one long medley.
The Update
I was able to make an edit to the digital books where I added optional transitions, endings, and intros so that you don't have to do the tweaking yourself! It will allow you to start on any song, play through as many songs as you like, and end on any song. This will hopefully make it easier for you to flow from one song into the next. Here's how it works...
How to Utilize the Optional Transitions
Below is an excerpt from the first page of the updated books that details how these additions can be used:
...[Y]ou will notice that throughout the book there are optional transitions, endings, and intros. I will explain what each of these things mean here.
Once you reach the end of a song, you will notice that there are two separate lines. The first line is the Ending. If you reach the end of the line above the ending line and you wish to end the song, just continue to the end of the ending line.
If, once you reach the end of a song, you wish to continue to the next song in the book, you will skip the ending line and jump to the optional transition line. It will be the very last line of each song. For example, at the end of Be Thou My Vision / In the Garden, this line will read: Optional Transition to It Is Well with My Soul.
If you choose to use the optional transition line, you will jump to the continuation line in the next song, which be labeled: Continue from Transition.
To start a brand new song, use the Intro and ignore the continuation line marking that is after it. You will just play through all the lines on the first page consecutively, as if they were not labeled.
There are some songs where you will not see an intro line, only the continuation line. In this case, the intro line and the continuation line are the same and the continuation line can be used as the intro as well.
My hope is that you will enjoy these optional transitions and maybe be able to use these songs as long medleys for a prelude at your church or for some other event where you may not want breaks in your songs. I pray that this edit to the music will be a blessing and a help to you in your playing!
To see excerpts of what these edits look like in the finished product, you can see page samples from the books on their product pages. Also, if you have the original books but would still like to utilize this strategy, part one in this series will explain how to do that. If you have any questions, please make sure to contact us and we will be very happy to help!
Blessings,
Lily