About GuitarHymns.com

GuitarHymns.com is not here to make a profit, nor to try to rob a profit from those who've earned the right to it. The purpose is to help guitarists play those hymns we already have in our hymn books. The ability of churches to use hymns in worship is beginning to be limited by the ability of guitarists in worship bands to play them. This site hopes to remedy that problem--not by providing an alternative to hymn books, but by providing a tool for guitarists to use to augment their hymn books. Most of us already have, or have access to music books and/or hymn books with these hymns in them. But there are usually no guitar chords for them. Even contemporary hymn books don't always provide chords for the hymns we might want to play. I have found that often when chords are provided for hymns, they aren't adequate, don't sound right, are in difficult keys, or don't fit with what I'd like to do. Sometimes I want to try a hymn in a different way, using different rhythms or harmonizations. This site grew out of my own work trying to play hymns on my guitar. Early on I found some hymns with guitar chords, but as I progressed as a guitarist, I began to find the versions oversimplified. So I started adding chords and passing tones, etc. I even stumbled across ways of playing hymns that sounded more contemporary, sometimes this meant altering the chords a little. Right now I've got about 50 of them, though some are just other versions of the same hymn. When I tried to find hymns with guitar chords on the internet, I couldn't. That's too bad. It would be a shame if these hymns became extinct just because the praise band can't play them without chords! In fact, some should probably be rediscovered. There's something about a guitar, particularly an acoustic guitar, which makes a hymn sound more personal, somehow. The first time I tried Alas and Did My Savior Bleed with my 12 string, it pulled on my heart-strings like never before. When I learned to do Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, it turned out to be joyful, not just theological. When I found a good strumming rhythm for My Jesus I Love Thee, it became one of my favorit worship songs. Am I against Praise & Worship music, or do I think P&W is inferior by definition? No Way! There's some great stuff out there. And even some of the stuff that isn't so great is so fun to play, I can hardly resist (please, don't tell!). We use P&W at our church regularly and I'm usually the one introducing a new song. In fact, I really love what groups like Sonic Flood and Delirious have done with P&W music. But their versions aren't quite ready for prime time at my church (yet!). I really want to help guitarists discover and use hymns in worship. 2000 years of Christian music shouldn't be set asside just because it wasn't composed last week! Think about it, the hymns we have in our hymn books have stood the test of time. They've lasted for a reason. Usually the reason is that they have a great message communicated effectively with the music. If you have any suggestions for how I might help you play hymns (better?), I'd be happy to hear them. If you'd like to contribute to this project, I'd love to consider your contributions!

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