Features

Search

Find a hymn by words from the lyrics, a title, a first line, an author or composer, a hymn number or a hymn code.

How to use

1. Use the search box at the top of any page. On a phone, tap the magnifier in the header; on a computer, press / to jump to the box.
2. Suggestions appear as you type. Use the arrow keys and Enter, or tap a suggestion, to open it. Press Enter with nothing highlighted to see all results.
3. Search forgives small differences: capital letters, punctuation, accents, "O" or "Oh", spellings such as "thru" and "through", and small typos in a title.
4. To go straight to a hymn by number, type the number, with a book if it is not an English hymn: 396, #396, English hym #396, c1 or chinese 1, ns12 or new song #12, nt5, child42, ts120 or chinese supplement no 27, 12b for an alternate tune.
5. A number of six or more digits is treated as a hymn code and finds hymns that share a tune.

More about numbers and hymn codes: jump to a number and hymn codes in the FAQ.

Text tab: lyrics, chords and transpose

The Text tab is the default view of a hymn: the lyrics by stanza, with chords above them when the hymn has chords.

How to use

1. Open any hymn. The tabs above the lyrics are Text, Lead Sheet and Learn.
2. Open Display and turn on Show Chords to see chord letters above the words. Repeat Chords (shown only when the hymn has something to repeat) shows them again on stanzas that share the same chords, and Guitar or Ukulele Chord Charts opens fingering diagrams.
3. To change the key, use the − and + buttons beside the key name above the lyrics. The chords and the audio follow the new key.
4. In Display you can also repeat the chorus after each stanza.

Lead Sheet

The Lead Sheet tab shows the sheet music instead of just the lyrics, for playing or singing from a score.

How to use

1. Open a hymn that has a lead sheet and choose the Lead Sheet tab.
2. If the hymn has more than one version, switch between them: Dynamic (piano score that follows the key you choose), Piano and Guitar (each fixed at its own printed key), and Numbered (the melody in numbered notation, which also follows your key).
3. Use the − and + key buttons to transpose Dynamic and Numbered. They are hidden for Piano and Guitar.
4. When you are signed in, the Downloads row under the sheet offers the piano and guitar PDFs and the MIDI file. On a computer, the Print button above the lyrics has the same links.

Not every hymn has every version. Details: Lead Sheet tab, transposing and numbered notation in the FAQ.

Learn tab

Learn walks through a hymn one line at a time with the recording, so you can follow the words and the notes while you practise.

How to use

1. Open a hymn and choose the Learn tab, then press Play. The current syllable lights up and the matching line of notation scrolls into view.
2. Use the Tune and Piano buttons in the player to hear just the melody or the piano recording, and the Speed menu to slow it down.
3. In Display, the Learn group has Learn notation (Lead Sheet, Numbered or Off), Pitch Contour, Show Chords, Spread Notes and the Chord Charts.
4. Click the progress bar to jump back to the part you want to repeat, or press Replay.

See the Learn tab in the FAQ.

Display settings and reading aids

Display changes how a hymn looks on your screen: text size, columns, theme and reading aids. Choices are remembered in this browser.

How to use

1. On a hymn page, press Display above the lyrics.
2. Change the Text size with the smaller and larger buttons, choose 1 Column or 2 Columns (two need a wider screen), and pick Light, Dark or Match device.
3. For Chinese hymns, turn on a Pinyin or Bopomofo reading aid above the characters. Russian, Hebrew and Sinhala hymns can show a transliteration. Reading aids appear only where a hymn has one.
4. Press All settings to set the same preferences on the Settings page.

Meeting languages, hymn numbers and Announce

If your meeting sings from more than one hymnal, hymnal.net can show a hymn's number in each of them and display the numbers large for the room.

How to use

1. In Display (or on the Settings page), choose your Meeting languages in the order you want them.
2. Under the hymn title, number tiles show this hymn's number in each of those languages. Press a tile to open that version.
3. Press All (phone) or All numbers (computer) to see the number in every language the hymn has. There you can Edit your meeting languages, Copy numbers, or press Announce.
4. Announce shows the numbers full screen in large type, for a projector or the room.

See Display and meeting languages and numbers and Announce in the FAQ.

Present mode

Present shows the lyrics full screen in large type, for a projector or a shared screen.

How to use

1. Open a hymn and press Present above the lyrics.
2. The hymn is fitted to the screen. Use the font size buttons and the 1, 2 or 3 columns buttons to change it.
3. If the hymn has a counterpart in another language, the Bilingual button shows both side by side, and a menu picks the language.
4. Press Esc or the close button to leave.

Audio player

Listen to a recording of the hymn while you read or sing along.

How to use

1. Open a hymn and press Play in the player. Hymns without a recording have no player.
2. Where there is more than one recording (for example Singing, Piano or Piano (verse)), pick it in the Recording menu.
3. Press Speed to play slower or faster, from 0.8× to 1.1×. Audio options sets how many times to play it; the default is Play once.
4. Replay starts again from the beginning. Click the progress bar to jump to a spot.

Recordings play on the page; they are not offered as downloads. See downloads in the FAQ.

Jukebox

The Jukebox plays hymns one after another, handy for background music or a time of singing.

How to use

1. On the home page (or Menu, then Jukebox), choose what to play: All Songs, Classic, New Tunes, New Songs, Children, Songs with Comments, or one of your My Songs lists.
2. Choose how many times to loop and the delay between songs, then press Start Playing.
3. The Jukebox moves on by loading the next hymn, and browsers often block sound that starts by itself. If it stops or shows Start Playing again, tap it, or allow auto-play for hymnal.net in your browser.

How to allow auto-play in each browser: the Jukebox FAQ answer.

My Songs

My Songs keeps your own lists of hymns, for a meeting, a study or favourites. It needs a free account.

How to use

1. Sign in or register, then open a hymn and press the My Songs star in the About this hymn section. Choose a list or type a name to create one.
2. Open My Songs from the menu (phone) or the header (computer) to see your lists. You can rename, delete or create lists and play one with Play all.
3. To put a list in your own order, drag a song by its handle, or focus the handle and press the Up or Down arrow key.
4. To share a list, open it, choose Share, then Create Share Link. Anyone with the link can view and play it; Turn Off Sharing ends it.

See lists and sharing a list in the FAQ.

About this hymn, See also, Recently Viewed and next/previous

Below and beside the lyrics are the details of a hymn and ways to move on to related ones.

How to use

1. About this hymn lists the category, subcategory, lyrics author, composer, key, time, meter and hymn code. Most are links to more hymns of the same kind. It also has the My Songs star, Share and, on a computer, Embed.
2. See also suggests related hymns, such as an alternate tune, and links to the same hymn in other languages.
3. Recently Viewed shows the hymns you opened lately. It is kept in this browser only, and you do not need to sign in.
4. The arrows at the top of the hymn page go to the previous or next hymn in the book.

Comments and ministry excerpts

Under the lyrics, readers share what a hymn means to them, and ministry excerpts show related words from the ministry.

How to use

1. Open the Comments tab under the lyrics and press Comment. Write in your own words rather than quoting the lyrics.
2. New comments and excerpts are reviewed before they appear, so they may not show up right away.
3. The Ministry excerpts tab appears when a hymn has excerpts. With more than one, a search box filters them and highlights the matches. Videos and audios have tabs too, where a hymn has them.
4. To see recent comments across the site, use Recent Comments on the home page or in the More menu.

See comment review in the FAQ.

Children's Songs and TheBibleTellsMeSo.com

Children's Songs are hymns for the young, with lyrics, recordings and lead sheets like the other books.

How to use

1. Choose Children in the menu to browse by category, or search for a title or a number such as child42.
2. The Children page also has the songs from TheBibleTellsMeSo.com, with a link to Visit TheBibleTellsMeSo.com.
3. The home page also links to The Bible Tells Me So audio app for Google Play and the App Store.

Catalog

The Catalog lets you find hymns across every hymnal by topic or by Bible passage.

How to use

1. Choose Catalog in the menu.
2. Switch between Topics and Scripture. Pick a topic category, or a book of the Bible, from the list.
3. Use the filter to limit the results to one type of hymn, or the search box to find a hymn title.

Settings

Settings holds your display preferences in one place, so each hymn opens the way you like. They are saved in this browser, not on your account.

How to use

1. Open Settings from the menu (phone) or the account menu, the person icon (computer).
2. Under Appearance, choose the theme. Under Hymn pages, set the text size, meeting languages, the default Lead Sheet instrument and Chord Chart instrument, and the Classic Hymns language.
3. Reading aids and the Learn tab options have their own groups.

Preferences do not follow you to another device or browser. The site language is chosen separately, at the bottom of the menu or page.

Share and embed

Send a hymn to someone, or put a hymn's player on your own web page.

How to use

1. On a hymn page, press Share in the About this hymn section to send the hymn's link.
2. On a computer, with a hymn that has audio, press Embed next to Share. Pick a light, dark or plain colour and a height, then copy the HTML into your page.
3. To share a whole list of hymns, use Share in My Songs.

See embedding a player in the FAQ.

If you lose your connection

Pages you have already opened keep working for a while when your connection drops.

How to use

1. Hymn pages, Settings, the FAQ and Contact that you opened earlier are saved by your browser and still open offline.
2. While offline, an Offline chip appears in the header. Search then looks only through hymns saved in your browser, and audio, lead sheets, Learn, videos, comments and sharing are switched off.
3. Once you are back online, everything works again.

Details: offline use in the FAQ.