Publisher: Crossway/Getty Music
Release: Available now
Rating: 3 Stars (scale of 1 to 5 Stars)

The Sing Hymnal is a brand-new collection of modern and traditional hymns. The basic hymnal is available in four bindings: hardcover (black), cloth (green), goatskin (black), and TruTone (brown in a green slipcase). There’s also a “lay-flat edition with chords” for musicians. Individual hymns may also be purchased online as digital downloads (standard hymnal, keyboard version with chords, and rhythm/lead sheets) with pricing options for individual or church use.

This review will focus on the lay-flat edition.

497 hymns are included in The Sing Hymnal. Click HERE to browse the entire list. There are nearly as many scripture and poetic readings throughout the hymnal as there are hymns for a total of 900 entries. The hymns were selected by Keith & Kristyn Getty with input from a committee of pastors and musicians. You’ll find classic favorites like “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Only Trust Him,” etc. alongside modern hymns like “10,000 Reasons,” “Christus Victor,” and “In Christ Alone.” It came as no surprise to see 90 total hymns with the Getty name in the credits.

The ad-hype for this hymnal claims it includes “the very best in hymnody past and present.” It doesn’t quite measure up to that bold claim, lacking some obvious titles. “Because He Lives” is the only hymn by Bill & Gloria Gaither that’s included, for example. “He Touched Me” didn’t make the list. Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” is included, but Charles A. Tindley’s “When The Morning Comes (By and By)” is missing. That being said, I did find many of the top worship songs included in this hymnal from both inside and outside the Getty circle.

The most looming problem with the “lay-flat” version of The Sing Hymnal is the chord symbols. In the opening pages, there’s an admission that this hymnal uses harmonic simplification that “may differ SLIGHTLY (emphasis mine) from the written parts.” There’s nothing “slightly” about it. A C chord symbol should never appear over four notes that spell out a B-minor chord and that’s only one of the worst examples. These simpler chords may work fine for a congregation singing in unison with all the musicians playing from the chord symbols, but you’re going to often experience dissonance not conducive to worship when vocalists sing all four parts as written while musicians play these chords. The same problem appears if any one musician is strictly using the chord symbols while the others play from the notes or vice versa. The arrangers really should have simplified the written harmonies to match the simpler chords if making it simpler for the musicians was their primary goal.

Everything else about The Sing Hymnal lay-flat edition is great. The heavy cover and thick metal spiral binding will stand up to years of use. The paper quality, color, and font choices are the absolute best I’ve ever seen in a hymnal, and I say that with 35+ years leading church music and collecting various hymnals. The lay-flat edition is extra thick, as well, due to extensive indices and worship helps at the back of the book.

Due to the chord symbol issues, my rating for the lay-flat edition is 3 Stars on a scale of 1 to 5. My rating would likely be 4 1/2 Stars for the standard edition which doesn’t include the chord symbols. (I say “likely,” because I don’t have access to a standard edition to examine.)