Koerts Music

If you follow this blog at all, and if you know I’m a piano player, then you already know the answer to this question: Yes. I found myself agreeing with this video on the issue. Honestly, I don’t think this is an issue in most mainline churches today, and I certainly don’t want to create an issue out of nothing. I do, however think it’s good to think about these things. AK...

Great choirs have great accompanists. The extent of a choir’s success, to a large degree, is dependent upon it’s accompanist. The choir accompanist plays a vital role in the overall choral ensemble. As a musician, there’s always room for growth and development. There are some excellent resources out there for church choir accompanists. (An excellent recommendation is Choral Ques...

That is the question. I’m a big A.W. Tozer fan. I’ve read many of his books over the years and much of my spiritual growth as a younger Christian was due to his writings. But he did strongly speak out against the use of drama in church, calling it a “violation of sincerity,” among other things. Drama, of course, is not a substitute for the Word of God, and it could never re...

Preparing for worship in church music ministry is essential. Part of that preparation involves developing a service order, or order of worship. Your worship order is a means of communication to those who are involved in your church’s services. Someone recently asked me to provide examples of our worship order at Mikado Baptist Church. Below you’ll find a couple of examples from this la...

Is it possible to effectively “minister” through music without any distractions? A friend of mine recently encouraged church musicians to avoid as many distractions as possible; to “get out of the way” and let the message (of Christ) go out uninhibited and unencumbered by whatever novelties or dressings an artist might be tempted to add to their song. Noble advice. But is...

Here’s a new arrangement of I Surrender All for piano solo or violin duet with piano accompaniment. Recently commissioned for an upcoming recording, I wanted to keep in mind that not all church pianists would have two violinists “at their disposal,” so I decided to arrange this song to stand alone, if need be, as a piano arrangement. However, I am pleased with how the string part...

At the time of this writing, it’s been a little over a year since the release of my piano and orchestra CD, Wondrous Love. I could never adequately describe to you what a joy it was to be given the unique privilege to work with such talented musicians in the production of this project. It just seems like yesterday that we were in the studio recording with the orchestra, then laying down th...