Jim Brickman -- Faith and Songs of Inspiration, Vol 4: Piano/Vocal/Chords (The Essential Jim Brickman, Vol. 4)

I am a longtime Jim Brickman fan and his arrangements suit my own skills and playing style. I was happy to see some of Brickman's songs of faith available in a music book. A bonus is that these songs have been recorded by Brickman so those recordings serve as a learning template when working from the sheet music.While nearly all of the sheet music arrangements mirror the recordings, I was disappointed that the sheet music version of Amazing Grace is not the same as the Brickman recording. Also, I wish this (and all music books) were spiral bound, making it easier when performing.Otherwise I am enjoying these arrangements, which I would say are advanced intermediate to early advanced in difficulty.

I took piano lessons as a young child but stopped, in favor of other instruments, while still in elementary school. While I excelled with other instruments, I was never very good at piano. I struggled to even read the left hand. Now I am 35, and a couple of years ago my husband and I inherited a digital piano. Ever since it arrived I have played daily, some times multiple times per day, and my skills have vastly improved. That said, I'm no expert. I would guess you could put me somewhere in the intermediate range. Many of Jim Brickman's songs are not too difficult for me to master with practice, and they still sound lovely. There are times when I can't stretch my fingers to reach the range of notes with one hand, but I just play what I can, and it still sounds good. Some pieces are much easier than others as well. I play from this and one of the Christmas piano books. In my entire collection, these two books are my favorites to play from.

Many of the songs were a little difficult for me. I do enjoy some odd chords now and then, but I did't care for some of the interludes. I ended up giving the book to our choir director.

Jim Brickman is always a good bet! The book is full of beautiful arrangements and compositions. I am VERY satisfied.

I purchased this for our church pianist as a Christmas gift. She has already played out of it. There is just nothing like the smooth tunes of Jim Brickman!

The music in this book is great, but the physical book was not adequately planned for a pianist. It's a fairly thick book but with a typical book spine, so it's almost impossible to keep it open while playing from it without ruining the book.

Nice to see the songs written out - some look playable by average keyboardist skills

Very beautiful arrangements.