http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/life/daytoday/rediscovering_hymns/
[sydneyanglicans.net]22 July 2009--A couple of years ago, I was pretty much fed up with hymns. As a guitarist, I found them difficult and unpleasant to play, and very old-fashioned sounding. I was ready to dump them for good.
But, slowly, my thinking changed. I kept finding inspiring references to the hymns in the books I was reading. Great truths would be illustrated with a verse from a hymn. I’d think, “Those words are great!”, and I’d look up the whole hymn and be excited by it. I began to realise my own faith would be impoverished by the passing of these grand old songs.
But my musical difficulties remained. For a guitarist, hymns were almost always written in difficult keys, using difficult chords and unnatural rhythms. After searching fruitlessly for better chord charts, I set about “re-chording” some popular hymns myself. I shifted them into guitar friendly keys, spaced out the changes, and restricted myself to using the most basic, “open” chords only. I did this for about 40 hymns.
I was really pleased with the results - the hymns were now much easier to play, and they sounded better on the guitar too. Indeed, many of them sounded surprisingly modern.
And it seems I’m not the only one who appreciates this approach. Last year I put my charts up on a website which I called Guitar Chords for Hymns . Since then it has received nearly 100,000 hits, and Google consistently ranks it in the top one or two sites for hymn chords. And I regularly receive “thank you” notes from guitarists all over the world.
Church musos tell me their number one difficulty is sourcing good songs. If that’s your problem, perhaps it’s time to have another look at the old hymns…
3 comments:
There must be a recovery in this area also.
“Now Thank We All Our God”[2]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5KqahRwNPo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzX42Z0McFU&feature=related
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
My experience of the last few years is that the younger generations are not necessarily turned off to hymns. What turns them off is the hymn tunes, arrangements, and the instrumentation. I included this article because it reflects a positive trend to continue the use of hymns in worship, repackaging them for contemporary congregations--something that has always been done, with each generation composing new tunes or arrangements for hymns and giving them a new lease on life. It also gave a link to some useful guitar chords. As a worship planner and worship leader I have learned to appreciate the difference a new tune or arrangement could make in a hymn. The lyrics were often transformed. People heard them as they sang as they had never heard them before. Singing the hymn over and over again to the same old tune, they had ceased to pay attention the words that they were singing and had even become "innoculated" against the message of those words. I also came to recognize the need for guitar chords for hymns that enabled guitarists to lead the hymn singing.
Robin:
Thanks for your thoughts. My experience as a Navy Chaplain and as a college instructor informed me that the younger generation will respond to serious theology, serious questions, respectful and thoughtful answers. That's what God's elect do--it's in the DNA of the situation.
Second, as to guitar chords, no lo contendre. I am interested in the underlying theology, the motives and thoughts if you will, that creates the creation of lyrics. I must confess that my exposure--wide enough--is that theology and respect for God's Word, over a long time, does not inform much that is out there.
Third, your post is helpful and encouraging, to wit, that there are younger warriors in the Church Militant that are not necessarily "turned off" to hymns.
Fourth, my wife is a professional musician. Plays the pipes at a local TEC congregation. She worships there and loves it. I just can't go, for mental health reasons, to wit, liberalism. But, in talking with her, lex ordandi, lex credendi. They are old school and conservative Episcopalians who were reared on the old hymns, with pipe organ, and want to retain that.
Fifth, I think there is an educational dimension here that works with youth. Respect their minds and thoughts, teach, and they listen.
Sixth, I find it hard to compare what I've experienced with the following at: \
http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2009/07/ein-feste-burg-battle-hymn-of.html
The sources are far wider than that above URL.
Thanks for the engagement on the issues.
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