XA Hymns · Free
A hymnal that costs nothing
Public domain hymns with the lyrics big enough to read, chords in any key if you play, the scripture each one is built on, and the story of how it came to be written. No account, no adverts, nothing tracked.
What is in it
Lyrics first
Most hymn apps are built for guitarists. This one opens as a hymnal — large, readable text and nothing between you and the words. If you play, Show chords is one tap and gives you the chart, transposed to whatever key you like, with the capo worked out for you.
Come Thou Fount
Robert Robinson · 1758 · key of D
Verse 2
Here I raise mine Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Lyrics first · chords are one tap away
Search any line
Nobody remembers hymn titles. They remember a fragment. Type prone to wander and it finds Come Thou Fount and takes you to the third verse; type sea billows and it finds It Is Well. Titles and every line of every verse, and it works with no signal.
Verse 1 · key of A
AAmazing grace, how A7sweet the Dsound
That Asaved a wretch like Eme
I Aonce was lost, but A7now am Dfound
Was Ablind but Enow I Asee
Transposed from G · the capo works itself out
The story behind each one
Joachim Neander wrote Praise to the Lord and liked to walk in a valley near Düsseldorf. After he died the locals named the valley after him, and when quarrymen found old bones there in 1856 the species was named after the valley. Neanderthal means Neander’s valley. He is on this hymn and on a branch of the human family.
Every hymn carries a few hundred words like that — who wrote it, when, and what it cost them.
It Is Well
Horatio Spafford · 1873
Spafford put his wife and four daughters on the Ville du Havre in 1873. The ship went down in twelve minutes. All four girls drowned. His wife survived and sent him a telegram of two words: saved alone…
Every hymn carries where it came from
The scripture it is built on
Here I raise mine Ebenezer is the line everybody sings and nobody can explain. In 1 Samuel 7 the Philistines are driven back and Samuel sets up a stone and calls it Ebenezer, saying hitherto hath the LORD helped us. It is a rock in a field.
Every hymn links straight through to its passage in the King James Bible, which is already on this site and free to read.
A note to start on
Tap the starting note and the app plays it, so you are not guessing where to pitch it in a room with no piano. Transpose the hymn and the note moves with it.
Why it is free
Because it already belongs to everybody
Every hymn here is in the public domain. The newest was published in 1875; the oldest, Luther’s A Mighty Fortress, in 1529. Nobody owns them any more, which means you may sing them, print them, project them on a Sunday morning and pass them on without asking anyone, including us.
Modern worship is a different matter — it is under copyright and licensed for good reason, and you will not find it here.
Two taps
Put it on your home screen
It is a website, so there is nothing to download and no app store involved. Add it once and it opens full screen with its own icon, and every hymn you have opened works with no signal.
iPhone
- Open xtraamerican.com/hymns in Safari. It has to be Safari.
- Tap Share, the square with an arrow out of it.
- Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
- Tap Add.
Android
- Open xtraamerican.com/hymns in Chrome.
- Tap the three dots top right.
- Tap Install app, or Add to Home screen.
- Tap Install.
Sing something old
Fifteen hymns to begin with, and more added in batches. Free, and staying that way.