Working With Hymns And Spiritual Songs By James D Janzen
The Janzen hymnbook is a fairly standard Gospel-style collection that shows up in a lot of smaller churches and Bible study groups. It covers traditional hymns, some newer worship songs, and spiritual songs arranged for congregational singing or solo performance. The exact contents depend on which edition you find, because there have been several printings over the years. If you are looking at a physical copy, it is usually bound in a leather-look cover with gold-stamped lettering. The pages are thin enough that you can see text through the back of each page, which is annoying if you read with a light. I ended up just buying a cheap desk lamp and angling it from above instead of trying to deal with the bleed-through.
Hymns And Spiritual Songs James D Janzen What You Should Know
The collection is organized roughly by theme rather than strict liturgical order. You will find sections on salvation, the Holy Spirit, missions, mourning, and praise. Each entry typically includes the hymn title, lyrics, and chord symbols for guitar or keyboard. Some editions add a small melody line in standard notation, but most rely on lyrics and chords alone, which is fine for people who already know the tune. One thing beginners miss is that the chord symbols use a shorthand that assumes familiarity with jazz and Gospel progressions. You will see things like A7#9 or Dm9 without any explanation. If you only play basic triads, you can simplify these to the root chord and it will still sound right in most congregational settings. Just don't expect it to match the guitarist who knows what those extensions are supposed to sound like. I ran into a real issue when preparing a funeral service. The widow requested a specific hymn that appeared in the Janzen book, but the chord notation did not match the piano arrangement the organist had memorized. The lyrics were identical, so it was clearly the same hymn, but the harmonic treatment was completely different. I solved it by cross-referencing the first line against a online hymn database, found the standard meter and key, and then transposed the Janzen chords to fit the organist's part. It took about twenty minutes and saved the rehearsal from falling apart.
How To Find And Use This Hymnal
Physical copies show up on used-book sites like eBay and AbeBooks, usually priced between fifteen and forty dollars depending on condition. Some church surplus stores carry them too, sometimes for five or six dollars. Digital versions exist in PDF form but the quality is inconsistent. A few scanners captured the pages at low resolution where the chord symbols are blurry and nearly unreadable. If you go the PDF route, look for a listing that mentions high-resolution scanning or a table of contents screenshot so you can verify legibility. When using the book for actual ministry or group leading, here is the practical workflow I stick to. Pull the hymn you need, note the key signature listed in the chord symbols, check whether your accompanist can play in that key, and transpose if necessary. Most contemporary musicians carry keyboard apps or transcription software that makes this take about three minutes instead of guessing by ear. Another thing the book does not make clear is that some of the spiritual songs include original melodies that are not public domain. If you plan to record performances or stream them publicly, check the copyright notice on the copyright page of your edition. Older hymns are generally safe, but the newer compositions in the later sections may still be under protection. I learned this the hard way when a church I consulted for got a Cease and Desist for a livestreamed worship set that included three of the Janzen-original spiritual songs without permission. Licensing those tracks through CCLI cost them roughly two hundred dollars annually, which is not trivial for a small congregation.
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Limitations And When To Look Elsewhere
The Janzen collection is not comprehensive. If your church serves a diverse congregation that expects contemporary worship music alongside traditional hymns, this book will feel thin in the modern section and overly narrow in the traditional section. It sits in an awkward middle ground where it satisfies nobody completely. The chord notation is also geared toward guitarists. Pianists and keyboard players will often find themselves reharmonizing or ignoring the symbols entirely because the voicings are written for a six-string instrument. This is not a flaw in the book so much as a mismatch with your ensemble. If you have a full band, the symbols work reasonably well. If you only have a piano player, plan on spending extra time adapting the parts. For a more complete resource, Better Hope Praise and Worship is a widely used alternative that covers a broader range of styles and includes more detailed notation for multiple instruments. It is not free either, but the breadth of coverage means you spend less time cross-referencing other sources. I would recommend keeping the Janzen book as a supplemental volume if you already own it, rather than relying on it as your primary hymnal.
