Features
Everything a singer needs, and nothing that gets in the way.
Hymnphony is more than a digital hymn book. It is a reading tool, a rehearsal partner and a service planner, carefully tuned for the way churches and choirs actually work.
Find it fast
Search that understands how people remember hymns.
Nobody remembers a hymn the same way. Some know the number, some the tune, some only a fragment of a line. Hymnphony is built to find the hymn from whatever you happen to recall.
- Number, title or first line. Type any of them and results appear as you type.
- Tune names for musicians who think in tunes rather than titles.
- Any line, not just the first so half a remembered phrase is enough to find the hymn.
- Authors and metres too, so a writer, or a metre such as 8.7.8.7, brings up the right hymns.
- Forgiving search so capitals, accents and punctuation never get in the way.
- Recent and frequently opened hymns are always one tap away.
Read it your way
Lyrics, tonic sol-fa and staff notation, all on the same hymn.
A single congregation can contain a sol-fa-trained chorister, a conservatoire-trained organist and a member who simply wants to follow the words. Hymnphony serves all three from one screen.
- Three synchronised views you can switch between without losing your place.
- Follows the music as it plays, with the current note lit in both sol fa and staff.
- Typeset for screens, not photographed from a page, so text stays sharp at any zoom.
- Zoom and fullscreen on both solfa and staff, with the key shown at the top of every score.
- Adjustable text size and comfortable line spacing for older eyes and low light.
- Light and dark themes for bright sanctuaries and dim rehearsal rooms.
- Landscape and tablet layouts that make the most of a larger screen.
Hear it and learn it
A rehearsal partner that never gets tired of repeating a bar.
Practice is where confidence is built. Hymnphony gives every singer a patient accompanist for the week between rehearsals.
- Part isolation for soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Hear one part alone, any mix, or all four together.
- Background playback so the audio keeps going with the screen off or while you use other apps.
- Every verse, never cut short, with the Amen only at the end, so you rehearse the whole hymn rather than an excerpt.
- Playback speed to slow a difficult passage right down, then bring it back up.
- Choose the tune when a hymn is sung to more than one, such as RICHMOND or LYDIA.
- Another tune in the same metre from the same hymnal, when you would rather sing the words to a tune your church knows. Needs an account.
- Organ, piano or strings for every tune, so practice sounds like Sunday.
- Ten second skip to go straight back over the bar that caught you out.
Plan and organize
From Sunday’s order of service to the hymn you loved last Easter.
Hymnphony keeps the hymns you use most within reach, and helps you prepare properly rather than scrambling ten minutes before the service.
- Favorites for the hymns you return to again and again, kept with your account.
- Songbooks you can order, reorder, share by link and work through during the service itself.
- Lead from a Songbook: an introduction, interludes, pauses between stanzas, voices and instrument for each verse, and changes for today only. Run it from an iPad console with your phone as its remote.
- Share a hymn as a verse card, or as a music card with the staff, the sol fa and the words under the notes, as a picture or a short video. Two music cards a week with an account.
- Playlists from a Songbook, your favorites or the book’s Contents, played one after another on the Now Playing screen.
- Reading history so the hymn you had open last week is easy to find again.
- Home screen widgets on iPhone and Android, plus a hymn of the day and a hymn of the week notification.
- Kept per hymnal so favorites, history and downloads never mix between books.
- An account keeps your Songbooks, favorites and reading history with you, and opens Lead, music cards and singing to another tune. Sign in with your email and a six digit code, or with Apple or Google. Everything else works without signing in.
Built for real conditions
Church buildings are not laboratories.
Thick walls, weak signal, dim lighting, older phones and a service that cannot be interrupted. Hymnphony is engineered for all of it.
Truly offline
Hymn books download to the device. No spinner, no buffering, no dependency on the building’s signal.
Night & low-light modes
A dark theme and darker lyric wallpapers that will not dazzle you or your neighbours during the service.
Large, adjustable type
Scale text and notation to suit your eyesight, from the back row or the organ bench.
Keeps playing regardless
Audio continues with the screen off or while you use other apps, so a choir can rehearse without holding the phone.
Phones and tablets
Layouts tuned for small screens in the pew and larger screens on the music stand.
Sync your Songbooks
An account carries your Songbooks, favorites and reading history to a new device. Sign in with your email and a six digit code, no password to remember. Every hymn, view and voice works without signing in at all.
A look inside
Interface previews
The ten screenshots on the App Store, taken from the app on iPhone.
Real screenshots from Hymnphony.
Availability
What is ready, and what comes next
Version 1.0 is on the App Store and Google Play now, and everything marked In the app is in it. We would rather be honest about status than promise everything at once.
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Five church hymnals in one app, with every verse | In version 1.0 |
| Hymn library with search and filters | In version 1.0 |
| Lyrics, plus tonic sol fa and staff notation that follow the music as it plays | In version 1.0 |
| Offline access to downloaded books | In version 1.0 |
| Favorites, reading history and Songbooks you can share by link | In version 1.0 |
| Four part audio on organ, piano or strings, with speed control and background play | In version 1.0 |
| Any voice part alone or in any mix (SATB) | In version 1.0 |
| Playlists and a Now Playing screen | In version 1.0 |
| Pauses (fermatas) held in the audio where the book prints them | In the app |
| Sync across devices with an account | In version 1.0 |
| Contents: browse by theme, season and occasion | In version 1.0 |
| Share a verse as a designed card | In version 1.0 |
| Themes, lyric wallpapers and text options | In version 1.0 |
| Report a correction from any hymn | In version 1.0 |
| Home screen widgets, hymn of the day and hymn of the week | In version 1.0 |
| Songbook Lead for live worship: introductions, interludes and pauses between stanzas | In the app |
| An iPad service console, with a phone as its remote | In the app |
| Staff view that follows the pauses | In the app |
| Sing a hymn to another tune in the same metre, from the same hymnal | In the app |
| Share a hymn with its music: staff, sol fa and words, as a picture or video | In the app |
| Sign in with your email and a six digit code, or Apple or Google | In the app |
| Hymns in English, Twi and Fante | In the app |
| Additional hymn books and languages | Planned |
Status is indicative and updated as releases ship. See the roadmap for what is coming next.
Try it on Sunday.
Download Hymnphony today, add your hymn book and see how much lighter the week feels.