About GodSongs.net

GodSongs.net is dedicated to sharing  hymns and religious songs that ordinary people sing together.   The site aims to share information and resources, and help you find commercial sources for materials that are still subject to copyright restrictions.

The site has these main parts:

• Hymn pages have background about a hymn/song, PowerPoint slides for it, and sheet music, chord charts and on-line examples where they are available.

• Book listings contain the bibliographic information and detailed contents of each hymnal that is included - enough so that you can definitely identify whether the hymn is the one you are looking for, and whether the score provided has enough detail for your needs.

• The topic index and quick links (in the sidebar) give quick access to hymns with particular themes, or from some countries / themes.

• People pages - biographical information about selected "Christian folk" composers and writers

• Hymn requests - where you can request hymns and songs as candidates to be researches.

Where did the site come from

LiturgyTools.net was set up in 2010, to share tools and templates for music and worship-arts programmes in liturgical churches.
The material that was loaded initially included "an eclectic collection" of hymns that I happened to have made PowerPoint slides or sheet music (usually in lead-sheet format) for.  As such there is a leaning towards Catholic "folk" style hymns that were used from the 1970s onwards - but the site is by no means limited to these.
Copyright restrictions meant that only public-domain or copyright-cleared songs could be loaded. Even so, many people came to the website looking for some very specific religious songs and hymns that were hard to find elsewhere.
However publishing information about hymns wasn't ideal for the website - many people who are looking for them aren't interested in formal liturgies, and people who are interested in liturgy planning aren't necessarily interested in non-liturgical songs.
So GodSongs.net was established to complement LiturgyTools.net and all the hymns were moved to this site.
The basics are the same: Copyright laws are respected. Good quality PowerPoint slides are provided for every hymn that is loaded - because PowerPoint can be loaded into almost every other display program in common use. Sheet music (generally in lead-sheet format, sometimes chord-charts) will be provided where it's available.
But instead of just loading songs that I happen to already have, I am now actively researching and documenting religious songs that people actually use and are looking for. Many of these are the sacred-music equivalent of folk-music, and this has led me to one of the guiding principles for this site: a focus on songs that people actually sing together, not ones that are mainly suitable for trained singers/musicians or commercial "talent".
As well, I have plans to gather information about some of the seminal publications which  accompanied the sea-change in the music used in some liturgical churches from the 1960s onwards, which are not incorporated in the other hymnal-compilation sites on the web.

Folk-hymns?

Initially, I thought that "folk hymns" was a good word to describe the types of songs that people were clearly looking for. However this phrase has a specific meaning, relating to early American writing and use.
And the "folk music" connotation is too narrow - there are hymns which are known, used and highly significant to people who do not identify with the "folk" attitudes and behaviours associated with the term "folk".
Similarly, "contemporary hymns" is also limiting, because of the links with so-called "contemporary Christian music" that is often inaccessible to average singers.

Why bother?

People have asked why I bother with hymns and songs that some say have little musical merit, or are theologically weak or "unsound".   There are a few reasons for this:

• No matter how bad a hymn is, experience shows that it is meaningful and significant for some people - for whatever reason, God's people have continued to sing, and often cherish, it, even though musicians despise it. 
• There is a pastoral dimension too. Some of the early "Christian folk music" is associated with childhood / adolescence memories for people who are now approaching mid-life and beyond. If they've had little religious involvement in the interim, then this music may be particularly significance to them as they face the life-challenges of mid-life and beyond. People who are providing pastoral care to this group may need to access these resources for the next 50 or so years, even if many of the materials totally fade from use after that.
  (This is nothing new either - there are "bad" old hymns from every generation, it just happens that we don't know about the ones from hundreds of years ago, because people stopped publishing them after their initial use.)
• Lastly - who says what is theologically sound and what isn't.   Christianity is a broad church, and we don't all agree on the details.   I don't like or subscribe to some of the songs which I describe - but some readers don't like the songs which are precious to me, either.

Contact

Your enquiries, are welcome, especially suggestions about songs or books to be included.   The Hymn Request form is set up for requesting specific songs, but can be used for general contacts.  Or you can leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of this page.

Subscribe or Follow

This page has a form to can use to get updates-by-email, and links for the social media feeds.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The same applies to Sheet Music Plus, Apple Music. Music Notes, Printful, Blooms Today, Internet Ink, ActiveFaith.

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