A Few More Christmas Hymns

Last week, we had a Christmas devotional at my ward, and one of our Bishopric, who happens to sing quite well, little did I know, sang, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."  I have never really liked the song too much until his acapella singing, but it had a great message, so I decided to write it in Uke tab as well.

I also noticed a few other hymns I hadn't done last year, so I added them as well.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
It Came upon the Midnight Clear

Someone requested the snowman song, but I think I forgot to share it, so just in case, here it is.
Once There was a Snowman

And, the Christmas song I have sang in church like twice over 33 years.
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

Have a Merry Christmas.

-Brad

Snow-mageddon 2013

Well, we all survived the snow-mageddon 2013 in the midwest here.

Brad (not me, Brad) but a different Brad, requested Once There Was a Snowman, so here it is!

Once There Was a Snowman

As always, let me know if it did not work.

Merry Christmas

-Brad

Excellent Song Request

Thanks to Travis B for the request

I hope this song is enjoyable (and accurate!)  Please let me know if you find any errors, spelling, or notes...etc.  I had to make it all 1 note higher cause there were too many b's in it.

Lead, Kindly Light

Also, if you are playing some chords in primary, I think I am a Child of God   is a great one because it is a well known tune, and the chords mimic the melody somewhat well.

Another good one, for ease of chords (although Bflat isn't my favorite/easy chord) is I Hope They Call Me On A Mission

Have a great day
-brad

How to change keys

So, i am not super at music, but i figured out how to easily change keys for songs with the computer program thingy i use to make the tabs. So i fixed one. (i actually did it for the song on the previous post, but i had done this one a while back, thought i had posted it, realized i hadnt, and so here it is)  My first transposition...albeit not in chronological blogger order.

It sounds super way better, bytheway

Check it out.

 If I Listen With My Heart - arr

-brad

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

A nice request from Lani.  I switched the key it was in so that more notes could be played well. (wow...i am getting quite fancy...i better stop it)

And a big mahalo nui loa to you too!

My Heavenly Father Loves Me


Brad

Great Request Idea

Tanner, requested, "When I am Baptised," and had links to an arrangement by someone named Joan Soward.  It is a sweet little jingle, so have fun playing.  The site where the arrangement came from is a nice resource for free LDS sheet music too. In fact, the name is quite appropriate:

freeldssheetmusic.org/

And now for the tabs

When I Am Baptised (regular Songbook version)
When I Am Baptised - alt. arrangment


As always, hope you enjoy!

brad

All Critters of ...

We have just changed wards, and it is fun getting to know the new folks here, and one pleasant lady performed a beautiful version of All Creatures of Our God and King.  So I was inspired (no, not literally inspired like angels, and visions, and what not) to transcribed that song to Uke tablature. 

So this is like three days in a row with new songs posted on here....what is this, like a professional blogger's blog or something?  Man, I am putting a lot of social media pressure on the readers to come here more often to get updates!  I am so sorry to you all for that! 

Not to worry, the chances of this rate of songs continuing (ie...1 new song per day) is below zero.  It may be years before I post again.


All Creatures of Our God and King

thanks
brad

Sweet Hour

I just did Sweet Hour of Prayer.  Hope it works. It was a pretty easy file to transcribe, as I only had 1 formatting error after coding the whole thing out!  Imagine that!  I gave myself a high five.  Usually, I have to laboriously scrutinize each note/chord/word to make it all format well.

Let me know of any errors in the file. My printer printed it without the title, so it may be formatted not so Sweetly.

Sweet Hour of Prayer


-brad

"Unknown" Request

Abide With Me; 'Tis Eventide

Some kind soul requested Hymn 165 while I was in the process of moving.  They left the request anonymously, so I have no way of thanking them, or sending it to them, but here it is. 

I guess it is sort of appropriate in that I have switched homes and in a new place we would want the Savior to abide with us.  If you read it in the context of having just moved, it has some new meaning!

Thanks to Mr or Mrs "Unknown" for requesting this song, and may He abide in us always!

Abide with Me Tis Eventide


-brad

Memorial Day

Thanks to all the current and past vets!  We appreciate you.

The patriotic songs in the hymn book are pretty straight forward, but the our National Anthem has a few hairy spots.  There are a bunch of low-A's and millions of flats.  Also, some of the ties and slurs dont go well cause the composers of that piece, didnt really do a great job of matching words to chords/notes. 

It is as close as I could get it, but not perfect.

My Country, 'Tis of Thee
The Star Spangled Banner
America the Beautiful

Hope all goes well. 

Love America! I even decorated this post with an American Flag.  I am getting pretty fancy here!  I know, I know....I should stop, this blog is pretty frilly as it is with all that plain white background and black text and what not.

-brad

Two More Requests from Tiffany

Thanks to Tiffany for requesting the following songs. They are quick and simple, and despite that, it still took me a few weeks to get them done.  Well, I should say, it took a half hour or so, but it took two weeks to get started.  Well, here is to finally having them done! Come Follow Me has a few C#'s that cant be played, but other than that, it is a pretty good transcription.


Come Follow Me
Jesus the Very Thought of Thee

Jesus the Very Thought of Thee, reminds me of my mission. My third companion, who was a rock star, had a CD of Michael Mclean?...maybe, it could have been someone else....John Bytheway? (does he even sing?) and the CD contained a rendition of Jesus the Very Thought of Thee.  I am fairly certain that the artist performed the songs very mellowly and a capella, but I don't hold me to that, cause it has been a few years since my mission.  Hence, we used CDs and not MP3s.

Happy Memorial Day tomorrow.  Hug a Vet.

-brad 

General Conference

What conference means to me:  A weekend without having to leave the house.  Sitting around in my pajamas and watching church.  I think we should consider weekly church broadcasts with an iPhone app or something.

Have fun trying these prophet songs.

Come Listen to a Prophets Voice
Come Come Ye Saints
We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet


Brad

Happy Easter

After 4 different egg hunts, and plenty of delicious ham, we can all sit back, loosen our belts and pick some wonderful Easter hymns.

My testimony of the resurrection and atonement were increased this weekend because we had nice sunny weather to enjoy our Easter egg hunts.  3 wonderfully sunny and warm days were sent down from heaven to contrast to usually dreary gray soaking wet landscape here in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks to HF for the awesome weather and the proof that he loves me: I didnt have to stand in the rain to watch my kids search for tiny plastic eggs filled with candy we would throw away 2 days later.

Christ the Lord is Risen Today
He Is Risen
Jesus Once of Humble Birth

Also, if you havent seen Jim Gaffigan, he has a great (clean too) stand up comedy skit for our funny holiday traditions (ie...bunny rabbit, eggs, and baskets to celebrate the resurrection ... who came up with that?).  Maybe you can YouTube it our something.

Two More Requests

Here are two more requested songs from the Hymn books.  Thanks to AshGam and Cody B for the requests.

If there are any errors or omissions let me know.

Be Still My Soul
Praise to the Man

As always, happy pluckin'


brad

Noah's Ark

Great song requested by Judy.  It has a pretty decent metaphoric message about the ark and being in places of safety when the rains come.

Thanks to Judy for this one!

Build an Ark

Two Songs I Used to Like

I went to Paraguay during my mission, and they loved to sing, "The Spirit of God," however, instead of uptempo and fast like it should be sung (sang? past tense of sing is singed? sang? sung? had been sunging?), they sang it like 45 beats per minute, and it took about a half hour to sing the whole thing.  It was tedious at best.  Then, they also sang, wait, no, sung ... hold up, sanged ... aww screw it ... Then they also PERFORMED it every other week, so it kinda lost its flavor to me. Before my mission I really enjoyed the song, then afterwards, ehhh, not so much!

Since returning stateside many years ago, it has regained some of its flavor, but still has not returned to its former glory in my mind. 

That being said, someone requested it yesterday and so I thought I would transcribe it.  Here it is.

The Spirit of God

Also, in the same spirit of , "I sang it too much on my mission and therefore wasn't quite as cool as it once was," I present, "Called to Serve."  a.k.a, the missionary theme song.

There are some low b's and some c's coupled with e flats that cannot be played on the uke with normal tuning ( i think it is called re-entrant tuning? - someone correct me if i am wrong)

Here is Called to Serve

Thanks to all for requests.  I may not get to them as quick as I did for Mr. Beckstead. ps ... I think there is a Beckstead in my Tacoma, WA stake, are you the same?

-Brad

Christmas Songs I Engraved in November and Never Posted Because I Didnt Think Anyone Cared

Here are my favorite Hymns and Children's Songbook Christmas songs.  I printed them all and never uploaded them to Google Drive for sharing. I did not think anyone ever downloads these songs, but apparently, people are visiting the blog, so here they are!

Happy pickin'

Angels We Have Heard on High
Away in a Manger
Far Far Away on Judea's Plain
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Once in Royal David's City
Picture a Christmas (not great as low B is used a bunch)
Silent Night
Stars Were Gleaming
The First Noel
The First Noel - Alternate Chorus

Again, please tell me if any links are busted, or if any songs have errors in them, and I will try to correct them.


-brad

Father's Day

Here are songs for Father's Day I transcribed back in June.  Enjoy!

The Dearest Names
Quickly I'll Obey
Love is Spoken Here


-Brad

First Request

So, a nice person requested a song, and I actually was able to transcribe it to Uke tab with a fairly rapid turn around time.  Thanks Rosa Rosa.  Let me know if this is unsatisfactory in any manner.

I am still trying to find a way to print the fretboards for each song at the bottom of the sheet music, but I am not having much luck.

Neither were the 49ers tonight. Too bad.

thanks
brad

Tell Me the Stories of Jesus