Mpstrax is the result of over 40 years experience as a pianist. I began my musical life just prior to my sixth birthday. My training was non-classical. I was raised on the old Southern Gospel groups (Blackwoods, Stamps, Statesmen,etc.), Western Swing (primarily Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys), big bands (Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, etc.), and Floyd Cramer. I was able to attend one term of the Stamps Quartet School of Music in the early '70s and study piano under Tony Brown, who was their pianist at the time. I played church services, starting with Sunday School assemblies by the time I was 8, main worship as pianist or assistant pianist from my 11th birthday until I graduated from college (at first because my older sister and I were the ONLY pianists in the church-it was that small), then for most of the next 8 years I was staff pianist at a slightly larger church (where God introduced me to my wife). Since we married in 1986, most of my church work has been as a sound technician, but I was keyboardist to a local Southern Gospel group known as "Good News" for more than 15 years.
Over the years, I began to experience hearing a piece of music and thinking of 2 or 3 different ways that I might arrange it, given the opportunity. My dream at that time was to arrange some well-known Christian standards, hire a small orchestra, go into the studio and record them. The problem with that dream was the thousands of dollars that it would cost to hire the musicians and pay studio time, followed by thousands more dollars to manufacture the tapes or albums that might or might not sell. As a struggling young piano tuner living in a small city in the Texas Hill Country, those thousands might as well have been millions. Fast forward about 20 years. Enter 2 life-changing technologies called the personal computer and the Internet. Now, instead of having to do arrangements with pen and paper, I do them on a computer screen, and when through I can print as many copies as needed. Now, instead of having to rent a studio and hire musicians to play each instrument, I can play a very good digital approximation from a digital keyboard into the computer.Even if I do have to occasionally bring in other musicians for some parts, they can plug a good microphone into their own computer, record their part, then e-mail me the resulting file which can be integrated into the finished product. Now, instead of giving a music publisher or record label a major chunk of the profits to market the finished product, or spending 100-200 nights a year on the road doing concerts and hawking albums afterwards (something I am physically unable to do anyway as the result of a back injury), music books and CDs can be marketed on the Internet. I can even, for a small commission, leave the manufacturing and shipping details up to a firm known as a "just-in-time" publisher, as I do here. That which was financially impossible 20 years ago, now just takes a little time.
EZ-Play Hymnal for Young Players is the first tangible result of this dream. This book is aimed at the piano student with 1-2 years of playing experience, who wants (or needs) to learn to play hymns. Many times such a student will be called on to help with music in a Bible Study, Vacation Bible School, or (especially in missions or new churches) in worship services where no other pianist is available. In most cases, these students are subjected to struggling with standard hymnal arrangements which, after all, are written to be sung - not played!! These arrangements are as simple as they can be while maintaining the character of the hymn as commonly used.
Future efforts either being planned or currently in development include an Easter musical, more advanced versions of the hymnal (so students can progress as their skills develop), advanced solo piano arrangements, and that album I mentioned earlier (although it will be on CD now, instead of vinyl). Please check back from time to time to see what's new.
CONTACT US -This link will take you to a form where you can send us an e-mail message. Whether you have questions or comments about this website, the EZ-Play Hymnal, or any of our upcoming projects, we would love to hear from you.
Yours in Christ,
David E. Miller
Owner/Webmaster, MPStrax