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Hymn study versus praise song study
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Hi there, pretty new to the forum. I am going to be implementing SCM this year for my rising first grader son and I am very excited! I realize the importance of hymn study. I guess. I definitely do for music in general. My question is, has anybody, or does anybody do more comtemporary praise songs instead of an actual hymn?
Thank you!
Jenn
I study the traditional hymns with our girls because they are so beautifully written and have such meaning – they also have wonderful history – I am a traditionalist at heart, and though I like some Praise music, some of it, could be just contemporary music because there is no mention of Jesus or God – and the lyrics suggest it could even be about a boy and girl, meaning it is pretty generic. My daughters listen to Praise music and I do as well, but they prefer the hymns of old and actually told me they find more meaning in them. Having said that I love I can Only Imagine, and songs like that – but there is such a wealth of history in the old hymns, I find myself using those more. If you tend to have more praise and worship type music in your church, then maybe a study of hymns would be very good, if you get mostly hymns maybe you could mix it up with your study covering both. If you enjoy the music and find it inspriring I think you should enjoy studying it.
Thank you for your reply. I do love music and I want to instill that love in my child. I guess I’m just worried about him actually liking the hymns. He does like poetry, so there is no reason that he wouldn’t like hymns. All this to say, we probably will do a mixture of both.
When a hymn is studied, what exactly does it look like in your home? Reading it, playing it on piano, listening to it?
Hi Jenn,
In our house, we read a short bio. of the composer (or is it author or lyricist) if one is available. We have a few books for this – Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, Mr. Pipes series, The Gift of Music. Then we sing the hymn together at least once per week and set a goal of learning all of the words. Other than that, we simply try to listen to it a couple of times during the week. We do the same thing with patriotic and folk songs.
Now, I am not gifted musically and am in no way a good (or even ok) singer, but I can make a joyful noise. My oldest dd9 loves the songs/hymns, but dislikes singing so I am working on finding a singing instruction or something to help her learn to sing well and enjoy it.
I GREATLY prefer the old hymns because of their depth of meaning. I like some praise and worship (which our church mainly uses), especially those taken right out of Psalms, but I prefer the words to the old hymns of the faith – Great is Thy Faithfulness or Abide with Me, etc. speak to me in a way that the new pop sounding praise and worship can’t. With that said, my favorite cd is one that a friend did with New Hymn Tunes. He took lots of old hymns and wrote new music for them. This, to me, is the best of both worlds.
I think your son will like the hymns, but your idea of studying both will work just fine. Don’t be afraid to try them, esp. if you can do it with a book like Mr. Pipes, he’ll be drawn in.
Blessings,
Christie
I use the recommended hymns straight from the curriculum guide. The first and last week we read from The Complete Book of Hymns by William J Peterson available at Amazon for about 15 bucks. Our church sings more praise and worship music which I love but there is just nothing like the original Amazing Grace (As A Deer, Go Tell it on the Mountain, etc) which we do occasionally use but I have a real sadness for kids to not FEEL and love those songs I grew up with. I figure they get enough contemporary at church. So we read the 1-2 paragraph bio of the song/writer (600 titles) then at least once per week we sing all the verses and then I let my 2 kids each pick a previous song. I plunk them out on our piano but I can’t do any cords, just melody so if isn’t beautiful, but it is a joyful noise! I just found http://www.nethymnal.org which I think I will use next year. It contains all verses and plays the song (minus the words) featuring over 10,000 hymns, author bios, composer bios, and more from many denominations. I have not been on the site enough to see all the features, but it looks amazing (I think I read about it on another post here). Anyway, that is our take on hymn study and it has been a suprisingly fun addition to our week. I just love hearing our 4 year old playing in the other room singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, something she would not learn at our church. My mom passed away last year and I imagine her hearing her grandaughters singing these songs (she was a church pianist and chior leader for many years and had three musically inept children!) and I know she would be very pleased so that is my gage of success.
I so prefer the old hymns as well. We were in a chuch that sang contemporary and I enjoy some of it. Our church now sings Psalms from the Psalter and hymns and I love it. I, too, feel like our children are missing out on the richness of these hymns. Please don’t do a study without including “It is Well With My Soul.” The faith of this man after losing his entire family will bring you to tears.
Jenn – I think sometimes if we just introduce the music to a child and don’t show any negativity about it, they will generally like it. I have introduced my daughters, to the symphony, opera, and operetta by just occasionally sitting them down with a dvd or pice of music (DVD for the opera/operetta as it makes it easier with the visuals) and I make no comment. I love classical music and traditional hymns, but I never let on how much I loved it, and I never made any negative comments either – they came to the music themselves and found themselves liking a lot of it. Now they have favorite hymns, favorite operas/operettas and favorite composers. My one daugher only listens to the classics and praise music, and when asked what her favorite music is, she will also say classical especially Bach, and Mozart. I often had classical music or hymns playing when they were younger and they really did quite naturally learn to enjoy it. There are some fabulous hymns out there that I am sure your son will love.
We have used 101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W Osbeck
Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan vol 1 and 2
both are available from Amazon and are great resources.
Good luck
Do any of you have favorite CD’s that you listen to? I love the old hymns but do not have any CD’s. I would love to have some good CD’s hymns.
Wow! Thanks for all the inspiration and book recommendations. I, personally, love hymns. Our church does a mixture of both and when the hymns are sung (sang? LOL!) they play them just tad bit different with an orchestra. Now when we sing them, I can really listen to the words and hear them. Instead of just humdrumming along and not really knowing what I am singing. Know what I mean?
DS loves classical music and has always been drawn to opera for some reason. One of his favorite “classical” CD’s to listen to is Beethoven’s Wig. I bought it from Sonlight, I think, and it was a terrific way to introduce him to classical music. The lyrics are funny and now he knows who plays each song. The songs with lyrics are played first, and then the original song afterwards.
I don’t know why I just assumed that he wouldn’t like hymns. I found the 101 Hymns from a children’s book supplier near me.
Can’t wait to get started!
That is fantastic Jenn, I am sure you are going to have loads of fun listening to all kinds of great music. Glad you found one of the books as well – enjoy. Linda
I also prefer hymns to the praise choruses because many of them are so full of deep theological meaning. My children enjoy singing them as well, and hearing me read about the background. This year I am going to be doing a worldview course with my 15 year old, and I have also been doing some reading about the reformation and reformed theology. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to study some of the praise songs and try to discern their focus – man centered or God centered? I have become much more aware of this aspect of the more contemporary songs since studying reformed theology. I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has done a study like this. We certainly won’t stop singing our hymns though! i really miss singing them in church(we do it only occassionally) and I wish my kids had grown up hearing more of them.
I grew up singing all the old hymns in our church along with songs you might learn at camp or VBS. I love the old hymns and when we start our hymn study this fall that is the way we’ll go. My 8yo uses hymns for copywork right now and he just loves to sing the songs.
Our church uses the old hymns and on the occasion we don’t have a pianist so we use a video screen with words to contemporary praise music. I love that occasional mix, but would not like that as our main choice of worship music. I’m certain that those who have written these new songs have done so for their own purposes (probably to glorify God), and some have great meaning, but I do not want my own children to not know (by heart) the old hymns. I personally have sung them in desperate situations and have found great comfort (like a scripture) that I haven’t quite found with the new praise music (I’ll admit I have with 1-2 of them).
Some people feel the new contemporary music speaks to the younger generation better than the old hymns (and for some that may be true), but my kids (11, 8 and 4) love to sing from our hymnasl at church. They always hold a book of their own and want to know the words. We haven’t purposely kept them away from the contemporary music, but we aren’t necessarily encouraging it either:) And, we’re not old fuddy duddies, we listen to lots of music and by boys know alot of kids friendly songs, but for a study we’ll be using hymns.
Boy, I got off on a tangent, didn’t I??
There are many hymns that are put to contemporary worship music. Koine is one band I know of that has done this and I am sure there probably are others. It might be an interesting opportunity to compare to musical styles yet still sticking with the “traditional lyrics”. As I understand it, some (possibly many) of the old hymn arrangements (at least in the Lutheran church) were actually put to the tunes drinking songs of old….(ie tunes that would be familiar). Just a thought….or maybe even a comparison of contemporary Christian songs vs traditional hymns. There is a lot of meat in the traditional hymns to be sure.
Just another angle
I don’t have much to interject here, but I do love this topic. We use only old hymns for our hymn study. I, too, love the way they’re written…such beautiful language and expression. The hymns that are familiar to me and my husband from our childhoods are so dear to our hearts, and I find myself humming or singing them as I go about my day. I want my children to know these songs as well as contemporary praise/worship songs. My husband is a music minister at a non-denominational church, so we are very comfortable and familiar with that genre. However, I personally miss the hymns we grew up with. Every once in a while, my husband will sing an old hymn, but he will change the arrangement so that it sounds more contemporary.
One CD that I LOVE was put out by Passion several years ago. It’s called Hymns: Ancient and Modern. It’s the same words we all know and love, but arranged differently. This CD has refreshed those songs (like All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, On Christ the Solid Rock, Fairest Lord Jesus) and given them a whole new light. My kids also light up whenever we listen to a hymn we’ve learned on this CD. I teach them the hymn with the original arrangement and melody, so when they hear it differently they really pay attention and eventually sing along.
Anyway, I’ve rambled, but I hope that gives some perspective from someone who loves both styles of music. After all, as long as we’re making a joyful noise, I don’t think God cares what genre we’re using! ha!
Lindsey
I enjoy a wide range of musical styles. A couple of my favorite hymn recordings come from Michael Card, who has arranged several hymns with folk and Irish instruments. One CD is simply called Hymns and the other is Starkindler. Both contain a cohesive mix of traditional and modern works.
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