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 number-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 number-coded notations
have been added and complex notes 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.
The steel tongue drum and the handpan are percussion musical instruments designed to help you focus on your feelings, sensations, and body.
You don't need classical music training or knowledge of music theory to play them. The primary purpose is relaxation, meditation, and traveling through your inner world.
No previous training or skills are necessary to enjoy these fascinating instruments.
For tongue drums that have numbered musical notation, numbers 1 to 7 represent the keys of the diatonic major scale. For example, a C Major scale would be:
1 =C (do), 2 =D (re), 3 = E (mi), 4= F (fa), 5 = G (sol), 6 = A (la), 7 =B (ti / si), 8 (i) = C (do)
Your drum can be numbered from 1 to 8, where 8 is note C of the next octave. We use the number 1 with a dot above the digit for this note because the most popular models of tongue drums use this enumeration.
All songs in this book have been written with numbers because most modern tongue drums have numbers engraved or painted on their keys.
This book is aimed at those new to music and musical instruments, whether child or adult. It allows for simple and easy learning that requires no previous knowledge of reading music.
Because most tongue drums include and are tuned to involve the notes of the main octave, all songs from this book are possible to play in one octave.
You may need to skip some songs if you have less than one octave of keys on your drum. Each tongue drum is very different and it is impossible to accommodate songs for all kinds of tongue drums in one book.
There are the following hymns and spirituals in this book:
Amazing Grace
Babylon's Falling
Be Still My Soul
Christ Was Born on Christmas Day
Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly
Elijah Rock
Every Time I Feel the Spirit
God Is So Good
Great Big Stars
Great Day
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
Holy, Holy, Holy
I've Got Peace Like a River
Jesus Loves Me
Jingle Bells
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
Joy to the World! The Lord is Come!
Just As I Am
Kumbaya, My Lord
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
O Sanctissima!
Praise Him, All You Little Children
Shall We Gather at the River
Silent Night, Holy Night
Sinner Man
Soldier of the Cross
Song of Praise
The First Noel
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder
We Are Marching (Siyahamba)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
When the Saints Go Marching In
Who Built the Ark?
