Hymns for piano in four parts
Hymn tunes as a hymn book prints them: four voices on two staves, soprano and alto in the right hand, tenor and bass in the left. Reading one is a step on from a melody with chords, because each hand holds two moving parts at once, and the parts move slowly enough to read ahead. Each page names the hymn most often sung to the tune, from O God, Our Help in Ages Past and Just As I Am to Shall We Gather at the River, and each has easier versions made from the score itself, starting with the melody alone.
- Pieces
- 30
- Levels
- 2 to 4
- Key signatures
- 4 flats to 3 sharps
- Length
- 8 to 33 bars
Level 2
A tune over a simple left hand, mostly in one hand position. Minuets, carols, Ode to Joy, Czerny's first studies.
Level 3
Both hands busy, the hand moves around, a sharp or flat or two. Most of the Notebook minuets, sonatinas, The Entertainer.
-
Come, Thou Almighty King
Felice Giardini 1 sharp, 3/4, 8 bars -
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
William Croft no sharps or flats, 4/4, 8 bars -
Children of the Heavenly Father
Traditional 2 sharps, 3/4, 9 bars -
From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
Traditional no sharps or flats, 4/4, 9 bars -
Jesus Calls Us o'er the Tumult
W. H. Jude 4 flats, 3/2, 9 bars -
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
John Stainer 1 sharp, 4/4, 9 bars -
Just As I Am
William Batchelder Bradbury 2 sharps, 6/4, 10 bars -
For the Beauty of the Earth
Conrad Kocher 1 sharp, 4/4, 12 bars -
Old Hundredth
Louis Bourgeois 1 sharp, 4/2, 13 bars -
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
Arthur Henry Messiter 1 flat, 4/4, 13 bars -
Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
John Bacchus Dykes 1 sharp, 3/4, 14 bars -
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Lowell Mason 2 sharps, 4/4, 14 bars -
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
Traditional 2 sharps, 3/2, 15 bars -
Break Thou the Bread of Life
William Fiske Sherwin 2 sharps, 4/4, 16 bars -
I Sing the Mighty Power of God
Traditional 3 sharps, 4/4, 16 bars -
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
William Batchelder Bradbury 2 sharps, 4/4, 16 bars -
Shall We Gather at the River
Robert Lowry 2 sharps, 4/4, 16 bars -
Blessed Assurance
Phoebe Knapp 2 sharps, 9/8, 17 bars -
He Leadeth Me
William Batchelder Bradbury 2 sharps, 4/4, 17 bars -
I Am Thine, O Lord
William Howard Doane 1 sharp, 4/4, 17 bars -
In the Bleak Midwinter
Gustav Holst 1 flat, 4/4, 17 bars -
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Richard Storrs Willis 2 flats, 6/8, 17 bars -
O Jesus, I Have Promised
Arthur Henry Mann 1 flat, 4/4, 17 bars -
This Is My Father's World
Traditional 3 flats, 4/4, 17 bars -
Jesus, Lover of My Soul
Simeon Butler Marsh 1 flat, 6/4, 21 bars -
O Come, All Ye Faithful
John Francis Wade 1 sharp, 4/4, 21 bars -
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Traditional 1 flat, 3/4, 21 bars -
To God Be the Glory
William Howard Doane 1 sharp, 3/4, 33 bars
Level 4
Real independence between the hands and more accidentals. Bach's inventions and little preludes, Für Elise, Chopin's easier preludes.
Open a piece to print any of its versions free, or to play it at your MIDI keyboard with every note marked. New to reading? The level 2 sight-reading exercises are a good warm-up.