Hints And Tips

Hints and Tips To Help You

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Hymns Without Words has millions of users, and this is a collection of hints and tips to help you with any issues with using the Hymns Without Words recordings.

Can I Use A Recording Using A Particular Tune For Another Hymn?

By default, each hymn recorded is ‘pointed’ in a way to match the punctuation in the lyrics. This makes the hymns easier for congregations to sing. This also means that unless the pointing is similar or the same in the other hymn, a tune for one hymn may not be always be successfully used for another.

Workaround

Please Contact Us and request a recording of the hymn you want to use, stating the tune you need and number of verses.

Can I Use These Recordings For Other Purposes?

Because of Covid, many congregations have started to use Zoom and YouTube, etc. to have virtual services. There is no issue with using the recordings with Zoom, but YouTube may throw you a copyright warning. In most cases, this can be ignored. Please find details of our Copyright Policy Here.

Workaround

For use of the recordings on the website for purposes other than personal use or in services (including virtual services), please Contact Us.

I Cannot Submit A Contact Form

Security and privacy are an increasing problem facing both users and website operators. Many of the hints and tips on this page suggest that you Contact Us, however in some circumstances the Contact form will produce the error  “The form was unable to submit. Please contact the site administrator.” This can be most galling!

Workaround

As far as we are able to determine, this error occurs when third party cookies blocked, or you are using a Private Window. In Chrome, go to Settings, Privacy and Security, Customised behaviours and Add https://play.hymnswithoutwords.com to Sites that can always use cookies. If this does not work, you can contact us by leaving a message on our Facebook Page.

MP3 File Will Not Play

MP3 recordings are made from a mastered Wave file at 320k/bits/s, which is the highest quality available for MP3 files. On rare occasions, these will not play from a USB stick. Unfortunately, some equipment does not appear to support MP3 files of this quality.

Workaround

There is a free cross-platform utility called Audacity, which allows you to export the recording at a lower quality. For most people, they will not be able to tell the difference.

The Hymn Is Too High For Our Singers

Often, particularly with older singers, some hymns are too high to be sung comfortably.

Workaround

When requested (subject to copyright restrictions), we can make available an alternative recording in a lower key. Please Contact Us and request a new recording of the hymn you want to use, stating the tune you need and number of verses.

Wrong Number Of Verses

There are a huge number of variations in the number of verses a hymn may have, dependent upon the hymn book. As a standard, most hymns are recorded according to the number of verses given in the Representative Text at Hymnary.Org, which has details of a huge collection of hymns.

By default, each hymn recorded is ‘pointed’ in a way to match the punctuation in the lyrics. This makes the hymns easier for congregations to sing, because of this, verses in each recording are not necessarily interchangeable.  It is therefore easier to remove a verse than add one.

Workaround

There is a free cross-platform utility called Audacity, which will allow you to cut a verse from a recording and then export the file as a new MP3 file. Audacity can also be used to add a verse by copying and pasting an existing verse, but be aware of the pointing issue.

Need More Hints and Tips?

If you have any difficulties with using our website, please feel free to Contact Us for support. If you have any hints and tips that might be useful for any of our other users, please let us know, and we will endeavour to include them.