This blog is dedicated to the amateur or beginner musician with music written in a simple and easy to read Alpha Notes format and with Chords for the left hand. This is to assist those with little or hardly at all note reading skills. This is a blog that shows all the chords in Alpha Notes format too which you can find the notes for the chords in one of the blogs. Please feel free to leave a comment or any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
In 1953, he graduated from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and shortly thereafter settled in Pennsylvania to continue his songwriting career. He then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where for over ten years he was President and Editor-in-Chief of Singspiration, a sacred music publishing company. While there, he compiled and edited a hymnal called "Great Hymns of the Faith", (c) 1961. He also served on the board of Gospel Films, Inc. of Muskegon, Michigan.
He also had direct contact with popular Christian musicians of the day such as Bill Pearce and Dick Anthony. He resided in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he continued to write music. Peterson died September 20, 2006, aged 84, following a bout with prostate cancer.
Some of his more popular song titles include "It Took a Miracle", "Over the Sunset Mountains", "Heaven Came Down", "So Send I You", "Springs of Living Water", "Jesus is Coming Again", "Surely Goodness and Mercy", "This is the day that the Lord hath made" and "O Glorious Love". His cantatas include Night of Miracles and Down From His Glory.
To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!
Lyrics:
Verse 1
Here's my life! I lay it on the altar -
here's my life! No more to wait or falter -
here's my life! Lord divine
I've heard Your voice, so tender,
That calls to full surrender,
I can no longer disobey;
I've made the great decision,
My eyes have caught the vision,
I gladly yield my all today.
Verse 2
Here's my life! No more for self to hold it -
here's my life! For faithful service mold it -
here's my life! Use me, Lord,
Wherever You may need me,
I'll follow where You lead me,
Your perfect will is best for me;
To far and distant races,
At home in friendly places,
I'll bear the news of Calvary
Bridge
Here's my life, here's my life, here's my life!
"The Angels Rolled the Stone Away" is an African-Amarican spiritual song.
“Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to see the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint” (Matthew 28:1-4 New Living Translation).
Matthew 27:65 says Pilate said to the chief priests and Pharisees, “You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how” (New King James Version). This was his response to their request to make the tomb of Jesus secure until the third day. They wanted to forestall a situation where Jesus’ disciples would come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people that He had risen from the dead! They claimed that the last deception would be worse than the first. What they called the first deception was probably Jesus ‘pretending’ to be the Messiah, a truth they rejected.
The point is that nobody had any plan to steal the body of Jesus. His disciples were actually in hiding. Pilate who had reluctantly handed over Jesus to them to be crucified granted the request of the chief priests and Pharisees. They went and made the tomb secure; they sealed the stone and set the guard to keep watch (verse 66).
What does it mean to seal the stone? The Greek word for sealing in Matthew 27:66 is sphragizo which means “to stamp (with a signet or private mark) for security or preservation.” It also means to authenticate or confirm. In the Old Testament, the word sealed is used in Daniel 6:17. The word translated sealed is chatham (Aramaic), which means to seal. “Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signets of his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed” (Daniel 6:17 New King James Version).
The stone at the door of the tomb of Jesus was sealed to secure the tomb. Nobody could remove the stone without breaking the seal. Only the person who sealed it could authorize the breaking of the seal. It would be a crime for anyone to remove the seal without authorization. This is similar to when a regulatory authority or an appropriate authority seals up a property putting its seal, stamp, or notice to that effect and an unauthorized person goes there to remove the seal and open the place. This would be a crime.
The chief priests and Pharisees probably sealed the stone with the seal of the Sanhedrin, thus preventing anyone to gain access until the seal is officially broken. Unless the seal was broken, the stone could not be rolled away from anyone to enter the tomb.
On the third day after Jesus’ burial, He rose from the dead. Matthew 28:1-4 says, “Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to see the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint” (New Living Translation).
Please take note of this phrase in the scripture you’ve just read: an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. Why did the angel roll away the stone and sat on it? Many people often think that the angel rolled away the stone so that Jesus could come out of the tomb. This is not correct. The stone that was rolled away was not a barrier to Jesus coming out of the grave. Therefore, the angel didn’t roll away the stone for Jesus.
The Bible says the angel of the Lord rolled away the stone and sat on it. It was as if the angel was waiting for anyone who would challenge him because he didn’t receive anybody’s permission to rolling away the stone! The seal must have been broken in the process. If anyone was in doubt the person who broke the seal, he would meet the angel sitting on the stone!
The resurrection of Jesus demonstrated the indisputable, absolute power of God over the High priest and other religious leaders in Israel, their collaborators in the crucifixion of Jesus, and the guard posted to secure the tomb (Matthew 28:4, 11-15).
The sealed stone was a barrier to Mary Magdalene and the other women to enter the tomb, and without entering the tomb they wouldn’t be able to anoint His body which was their original mission on the morning of Jesus’ resurrection. They were even already worrying about who would help them roll away the stone (Mark 16:3). But when they got to the tomb, the stone had been rolled away.
The angel rolled away the stone to prove that Jesus had actually risen from the dead and the tomb was empty. The stone was rolled away so that it could be obvious that Jesus had resurrected and the tomb was empty. If the stone had not been rolled away, these women would not have been able to gain entry to the tomb to discover that the body of Jesus was ‘missing’ whereas he had resurrected.
Furthermore, without the seal being broken and the stone removed, Peter and the other disciples wouldn’t have been able to enter the tomb, especially with the guards posted there to secure the place. Therefore, they wouldn’t have been aware that Jesus had risen before he began to appear to them. (John 20:1-18; Matthew 28:1, 5-8).
What announced the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the great earthquake and angel’s removal of the sealed stone and the empty tomb! I believe that If Jesus had resurrected quietly with the seal and stone intact and thereafter showed himself to His disciples, the propaganda that he didn’t resurrect would have been worse.
The removal of the sealed stone without human participation tells us that there is no barrier that God can’t remove; there’s no embargo that God can’t lift; there’s nothing that the enemy has done that God can’t undo; there’s no human finality that God can’t overturn. Proverbs 21:30 says, “Human plans, no matter how wise or well advised, cannot stand against the LORD” (New Living Translation). With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26b).
Any stone that the enemy has rolled against your life, marriage, health, business, finances, career, destiny, etc. is rolled away now in Jesus. The seal of the devil is broken now in Jesus’ name. The power of resurrection shall break every evil seal on every department of your life and cause life to replace death in Jesus’ name.
The power that raised Jesus from the dead shall give you life. You shall live; your family shall live; your ministry shall live; your destiny shall live, your business shall live, every good thing in your life shall live and not die.
Jesus is risen! Hallelujah! The propaganda of the chief priests and the elders to discredit the truth about His resurrection by bribing the guards to lie that His disciples came at night and stole Him away while they slept, failed woefully (Matthew 28:11-14). For forty days after His crucifixion, Jesus appeared to the apostles from time to time and, by many infallible proofs, presented Himself to them that He was actually alive and talked to them about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
Jesus is alive forevermore!
To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!
1 The angel rolled the stone away! The angel rolled the stone away! 'Twas on a bright and shine day, When the trumpet began to play, The angel rolled the stone away!
2 My Jesus spurned that dreadful tomb! My Jesus spurned that dreadful tomb! 'Twas on a bright and shine day, When the trumpet began to play, My Jesus spurned that dreadful tomb!
3 My Lord will come again for me! My Lord will come again for me! And on a bright and shine day, When the trumpet began to play, My Lord will come again for me.
This folk-style hymn for Easter was written by American social justice advocate and at-the-time Roman Catholic seminarian, Ray Repp (1942-2020).
To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here.
It was the title-track of an album released in 1966 under the FEL Records label, which also included the second Mass for Young Americans. The song was included in the Hymnal for Young Christians, Volume 2 published in the USA in 1966 - but no other publications have been found. Second-hand copies of this book are the only known place to find sheet music for the song. It is set to an unnamed tune, also by Repp. This has a Cut-common (2/2) time signature, changing to 3/2 in the second line of the verse. In the key of A, the first few notes are A E A_ A E A_ AAAA A G FE.
Ray Repp, the liturgical musician who spearheaded the concept of the folk group-led “guitar Mass” with his “Mass for Young Americans,” died April 26 in Palm Springs, California, of complications from cancer. He was 77.
Repp’s first songs, issued in the years following the Second Vatican Council, were staples in thousands of parishes for decades afterward. Some of his best-known songs, more than a half-century after they were penned, include “Allelu!”, “Peace, My Friends,” “I Am the Resurrection” and “Hear, O Lord.” His song “Wake Up My People” was sung during a demonstration chronicled by author Jonathan Harr in his 1995 book “A Civil Action,” later made into a movie starring John Travolta.
Born in 1942 in St. Louis, Repp was a seminarian when he wrote “Mass for Young Americans.” Recorded in 1965, it set the tone for a new form of liturgical expression for a church that had just started celebrating Mass in the vernacular less than a year earlier. His works reportedly sold millions of copies and were translated in 28 languages. His composition “Into Your Hands” is popular at Spanish Masses as “Entre Tus Manos.”
Repp, who left the seminary prior to ordination, said later that demand for his music paradoxically increased after dozens of bishops across the United States banned the use of guitars at Mass. Ten years after “Mass for Young Americans,” there were about three dozen composers working in the contemporary liturgical idiom; by 2006, estimated Jesuit Father John Foley — one of the “St. Louis Jesuits” — at the time, about 175 were actively writing music for the church in that genre.
At concerts in the 1980s, Repp would say he was teaching a fourth grade religious education class when he realized he had nothing prepared one Sunday. So he took his guitar with him and worked with the children to write, on the spot, “Here We Are.”
After making five albums with FEL Publications, Repp was quite likely the first Catholic recording artist signed by Word Records, which specializes in evangelical and fundamentalist Christian musicians. The resulting LP, 1972’s “Hear the Cryin’,” featured top sidemen such as guitarist David Spinozza, who later produced a James Taylor album and worked with three Beatles, and drummer Rick Marotta, whose list of credits includes Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Hall & Oates and Paul Simon.
Repp entered into a short-lived agreement with Our Sunday Visitor to create JORAL — an acronym for Jesus Our Redeemer and Lord — Records for his next album, 1974’s “Give Us Peace.”
He then partnered with an Oklahoma priest, Father Bill Kelly, to create K&R Records, which released Repp’s subsequent albums and those by other liturgical musicians. K&R also published a hymnal, “Life Songs,” and a quarterly journal, “Foundations of the Gospel in Life.”
Repp wedded chant melodies to 3/4 and 4/4 time in his 1978 album “Benedicamus: The Song of the Earth.” His last release of new songs was “Ever Bless’ in 1985.
He was involved in lawsuits over his music. First, Repp sued his first publisher, FEL, for breach of contract for not paying him royalties. A federal court in Chicago ordered FEL in 1988 to return the copyrights to Repp’s songs back to him, and to pay him $32,000 in back royalties.
In 1990, Repp sued Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber for copyright infringement, claiming Webber had lifted the melody for “Phantom Song” from the musical “Phantom of the Opera” from Repp’s Marian hymn “Till You.” The case stretched out throughout the 1990s and included a Supreme Court rejection of a bid by Webber to have the case dismissed, but Repp lost at trial when the case was finally heard in 1999.
In recent years, Repp licensed the use of his copyrights to OCP Publications, which released two “best of” collections and has dozens of his songs available for individual purchase.
Lyrics:
Chorus: Allelu! Allelu! Everybody sing Allelu! For the Lord has risen, it is true. Everybody sing Allelu!
1. God said he would send His son, Allelu, Allelu! And salvation would be won, Alleluia!
2. Christ was born in Bethlehem, Allelu, Allelu! So that all would live again, Alleluia!
3. Thirty years he walked the land, Allelu, Allelu! To all in need he lent his hand, Alleluia!
4. On the hard wood of the cross, Allelu, Allelu! He suffered and he died for us, Alleluia!
5. On the third day he did rise, Allelu, Allelu! Now he lives no more to die, Alleluia!
6. Now we too can live anew, Allelu, Allelu! Live in him need all we do, Alleluia!
They Crucified My Lord / He Never Said a Mumblin' Word, (also known as "They Hung Him on a Cross", "Mumblin' Word", "Crucifixion", and "Easter") is an American Negro Spiritualfolk song.
The song narrates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, detailing how he was nailed to the cross, "whooped up the hill", speared in the side, hung his head and died, all the while keeping a dignified silence. Like all traditional music, the lyrics vary from version to version, but maintain the same story.
The songs' writers and origins are unknown. Notes accompanying American Ballads and Folk Songs, an anthology of songs collected by John Lomax and Alan Lomax during the 1930s and 1940s, mention that the song as known throughout Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and was titled "Never Said a Mumbalin' Word." It is known to be a companion piece to, and possibly has the same writer(s) as, "Were You There", another Spiritual.
The Crucifixion motif dominates the imagination of the slave. James Cone [James H Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation, New York: Seabury Press 1972, 52] notes that the slaves were “impressed by the Passion because they too had been rejected, beaten, and shot without a chance to say a word in defense of their humanity.” (Carlton R. Young, Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal, Abingdon Press, 1993, 391, citing William B. McClain, Come Sunday, The Liturgy of Zion. Abingdon Press, 1990, 97)
The entire text of “He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word” narrates the events of the crucifixion scene. Stanza one sets the scene: “They crucified my Lord.” The “my Lord” has the same effect as it does in the first stanza of “Were You There,” placing the singer at the hill of Calvary and actually seeing Jesus on the cross.
After each statement, “and he never said a mumbalin’ word” is sung. This repetitive device is very powerful. It allows one to see the suffering of Christ while Christ does not utter one word of complaint. In the biblical account, Christ actually did say a few words. In the Gospel of Mark 15:34, “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” With these words, Jesus described his emotional, psychological, and physical suffering. The slaves had no problem understanding this type of abandonment. Slaves sang this song because it is about Jesus, who suffered and died on the cross with and for them.
To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!
1 They crucified my Lord, and he never said a mumbalin’ word; they crucified my Lord, and he never said a mumbalin’ word. Not a word, not a word, not a word.
2 They nailed him to a tree, and he never said a mumbalin’ word; they nailed him to a tree, and he never said a mumbalin’ word. Not a word, not a word, not a word.
3 They pierced him in the side, and he never said a mumbalin’ word; they pierced him in the side, and he never said a mumbalin’ word. Not a word, not a word, not a word.
4 The blood came trickalin’ down, and he never said a mumbalin’ word; the blood came trickalin’ down, and he never said a mumbalin’ word. Not a word, not a word, not a word.
5 He bowed his head and died, and he never said a mumbalin’ word; he bowed his head and died, and he never said a mumbalin’ word. Not a word, not a word, not a word.
