Hymns and Spirituals for Those Who Have Never Played Music

You have never played music before or you cannot read sheet music, but you want to play famous

and inspiring hymns and spirituals. Don’t worry! You will begin to play right away. We made our

pictured sheet music as simple as possible. You’ll play by letter-coded circles. No musical staff

or notes. The easy-to-play songs and melodies were adapted especially for beginners.

The melodies have been transposed to one octave and simplified. Also, the letter-coded notations

have been added and complex notations and symbols have been reduced. Such simplification makes it

possible for people to play melodies, especially those who can’t read music or who have never played

music before. Additionally, it makes it possible to play on the most primitive instruments, such as

a child's xylophone, bell sets, chime bars, and even a kid’s piano.

You will be able to begin to play right away if the keys of your instrument have letter notations on

the keys. Some percussion instruments already have them. They are printed by suppliers (for example,

a simple xylophone or kalimba).

For other instruments, you just need to get and apply stickers with letter notations. For most songs,

just 8 stickers will be enough. You can create your own using post-it notes or stickers, or you can

buy them. Write the notes with a marker - A B C D E F G and C of the next octave. Apply the

stickers correctly. Find note C. Now apply the stickers alphabetically starting with C,

then D E F G A B, and next C.

Most songs from this book are possible to play on an 8-note instrument, so a one-octave instrument,

for example, a 10-key kalimba, 8-key xylophone, small tongue drum, handbells, or even toy piano

will be enough.

But some songs here involve the neighboring with the main octave notes. For these songs, you

will need a 2-3 octave instrument. It might be the kalimba with 17 keys, 15+ key xylophone, melodica,

synthesizer, or piano. All of them need to have special note stickers for beginners. These

transparent removable stickers are available on Amazon for 88/61/54/49 key instruments and they

can really help in your musical experience.

We don't use most musical symbols and notations here: the length of the notes, bars, beams, etc.

This book is aimed at your first musical experience no matter what age you are. There is no wrong

time or not enough preparation to take up spiritual pursuits.