Reharmonization – That’s just a fancy way of saying “keep the melody somewhat close to the original song and change the chords around it”. There are lots of ways to do this. I’ll go into them in detail in the articles and videos. One thing to remember is that it need not be too complicated. Often “less is more”. Here’s a fairly simple arrangement of “Jesus Paid It All”.
First came Ragtime, then Stride, then modern church pianists. They all share a style for the left hand where a bass note (or maybe an octave or tenth) is played on the first beat of the measure, then (depending on the timing) chords and alternate (alternating) bass notes are played. Little did I know that what I learned playing “The Entertainer” (Scott Joplin) would be so useful in church music. Even though I’ve heard it used by so many church musicians, I have rarely (if ever) seen the notation written down. I’ll be publishing some “stride” arrangements of church hymns. Here’s “When We All Get To Heaven”.
Jesus Paid It All
When We All Get To Heaven
Lead Sheet – Sometimes all you need to see is the melody and chords. I prefer this myself. It’s tells you the chords, and leaves how to use those chords (usually in your left hand) to you, the player.