Worship With Limited Resources

Worship leader, teacher and speaker Kenny Lamm recently reviewed The Hymn Project for his web series about “finding the right tools for worship with limited musician resources.”

Kenny says,
“Churches with limited musician resources seem to be occurring in epidemic proportions. Also, many churches want to be able to utilize modern worship songs in their times of worship, but find it difficult to do so without proper instrumentation. Today, we have technologies available that provide great solutions for churches that need help.
”The Hymnal Project CDs are perfect for churches that no longer have a church pianist or need a temporary ‘substitute’ for a few weeks. They are extremely well produced and work wonderfully in church worship. I would probably rip the CDs and use the mp3s in a audio player app for convenience, but if you do not play two hymns close together in your service, the CDs will serve you well.”

Kenny’s website Renewing Worship features a wealth of articles and resources for churches and worship leaders of all types and situations - it’s definitely worth a visit!

Vintage Worship

Interested in the continuing role of hymns and singing hymns as part of church services?

Author and pastor Matt Boswell gives voice to several of the benefits of continuing to incorporate hymns into worship services both now and into the future, and the important roles hymns can play as part of corporate worship.

Matt says:

“When I mention historic hymns, maybe you cringe as you recall a ‘worship war’ in your local church. Maybe you’re eager to only sing the old hymns. Or maybe you wonder why it is important at all. My aim is not to renew local church disputes or bolster mere sentimentality, but to commend something else altogether — to encourage younger churches to remember their history by joining with the countless men and women who have shared these songs over hundreds of years.”

Read the entire article by clicking HERE.

The Back-Up Piano Player

One of the most common uses for The Hymn Project that we hear about from our customers is that of the ‘Back-Up Piano Player.’ 

Whether due to sickness, an accident, or lack of availability, the absence of a piano player who a congregation relies on for musical accompaniment can make for a difficult last minute situation!

The Hymn Project provides a perfect ‘just in case’ solution for those situations and is easy to put to use regardless of the technical capabilities of a church.  If someone can use a CD player, they can use The Hymn Project.  Each CD has a variety of hymns that cover different subjects, tempos, and keys, providing the capability for a wide range of song services from just one CD!  Multiply that across the seven CDs that make up the two CD sets and you have a vast selection of hymns for any occasion.

The information about which hymns are on which CD is located in the CD booklet that comes with each CD set, with the hymns organized both alphabetically and sequentially - making it easy to find the hymns you’re looking for!  If you’d like even more information, you can download our resource sheets that include additional information for each hymn including the number of verses, key, and more: 
Set 1 Resource List
Set 2 Resource List

We hope that The Hymn Project can provide for that 'back-up' need for you - and for much more. 

Where Did The Hymn Project Come From?

Hymns have been a part of our story from the beginning.

My father in law is a preacher, and all four of his daughters took piano lessons as children - specifically to be able to play the hymns.  Laura, the pianist and co-founder of The Hymn Project, has played piano hymns in churches from her childhood onward, and continues to travel home to play the hymns on occasion.

This project began with a need we encountered, a need that’s since been experienced by so many of our customers over the past many years, in so many situations:
The pianist at church is sick and unable to play - could you come play?
We’d like some simple piano hymns to accompany this funeral - could you come play?
We don’t have any music to accompany the congregation’s singing - could you come play?

For us it started with a specific ask: Could you just record yourself playing some of the hymns that we could use?

We began thinking about how to put together a collection of piano hymns like that - with a depth of hymns selection, that would be easy to use and well laid out for any congregation or group or individual, presented beautifully in a way that honored that music and usage, for any situation that might be needed.  

Fast forward to now, and over the past 10 years of The Hymn Project we’ve heard of these hymns finding a home in so many churches as a backup or supplement if a pianist was unavailable.  We’ve heard of them being used for home gatherings, with chaplains, overseas.  We’ve heard of them finding a home with groups leading singing at nursing homes.  And we’ve heard of them finding life in individuals' homes, as a connection to a tradition of faith reaching back generations.

When beginning The Hymn Project, we believed that there were situations that people could really use something like this.  From your feedback, we’re so happy that we did, and for this music and tradition to continue on today.

Where Can I Obtain Lyrics to the Hymns?

When creating The Hymn Project, we chose not to include lyrics, because there are so many hymns for which the words vary from tradition to tradition. We also wanted to keep costs down for churches and other organizations, so we set out to make The Hymn Project work easily with the resources these groups already have on-hand, including their current hymnals, songbooks, Powerpoint files, etc.

However, if you do need to find or purchase lyrics or hymnals, we generally recommend The Celebration Hymnal, as well as the non-profit online resource hymnlyrics.org which allows looking up any hymn by title or excerpt.

While we are not affiliated with either of these companies, we've found them to be excellent resources for our customers. The Celebration Hymnal includes 196 of our hymns, and it is also available in a Large Print edition. (The four hymns not included in The Celebration Hymnal are "Burdens are Lifted at Calvary", "Dwelling in Beulah Land", "Ivory Palaces", and "Wounded For Me".)

Is The Hymn Project Easy To Use?

Whether you have musical training or not, the The Hymn Project is made to be easy to use for anyone.

The Music

The hymns were played directly from the hymnbook, as one would hear them in a church setting. There are no embellishments or stylizations, no voices, and no additional instruments. This very simplicity is what distinguishes The Hymn Project and makes it useful for congregational singing, background music, and lots of other situations.

The key and number of verses for each hymn was carefully chosen from consulting the experience of many church musicians, church-goers, and church leaders.

Listen to samples by clicking here!

On CDs

If you can operate a CD player, you can use The Hymn Project!  Each individual CD was designed to include hymns with a variety of song tempos, subjects, and styles - all so that you can plan a service or event using just one of the CDs if you wish.

The booklet that's included with each CD set includes a list for the track number for each hymn, making it easy to organize and plan music services.  If you'd like to see how many verses are included in a particular hymn, we have provided documents just for that purpose that also show the musical key and track number.  These can be conveniently printed off and kept with you as you plan services or music.

Download the list for each set by clicking the appropriate link below:

Set 1 Information List

Set 2 Information List

We wanted to create an extensive collection of instrumental piano hymns that was compact, graceful, and easy to use. Our feedback from users leads us to believe we achieved our goal!