My nine-year-old daughter is in her third year of piano lessons. She always wants to learn more songs to play, but I have often had a hard time finding music that I could just hand her; and she could play without having to get help from her piano teacher. This is why I was interested in receiving Discovering Hymns at the Piano – 15 Treasured Christian Songs for Beginning Piano by Colleen Clegg to review with her.

Discovering Hymns at the Piano is a 36 page book that teaches students songs to play along with teaching them about God. It contains 15 hymns for piano students to learn along with a page for each hymn that teaches them Scripture, attributes and aspects of God, and a little bit about each song. These pages are simple enough that young students can read them, but they are designed so that the parent or piano teacher could discuss them with the student. Each page of music has a Bible verse for the song, the song lyrics, and some finger numbers for playing the song. The author does recommend learning the songs in order. The hymns included in this book are:

• God Is So Good
• O God, Our Help in Ages Past
• For the Beauty of the Earth
• Holy, Holy, Holy
• O Worship the King
• Jesus Loves Me
• I will Sing the Wondrous Story
• Nothing But the Blood of Jesus
• When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
• The Day of Resurrection
• Amazing Grace
• My Jesus, I Love Thee
• How Firm a Foundation
• Immortal, Invisible
• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
  
  

This book also has a challenging words crossword puzzle and a page where students can pick their three favorite hymns from the book after they learn them all. It is available to purchase on the website for $10.95.

My daughter was excited to receive this book to review. When it arrived, she opened it up to see what songs were in it and which ones she knew from singing in church. She knew about half of the song titles. She was excited that these hymns looked like something she could play without help. She already knew many of the notes in the songs and she ran to the piano to start playing. My daughter found that she could play quite a few of the songs. We then looked through the book together because I wanted to see what it was all about. We read through the learning page to learn about the song and the Bible verses and then my daughter would play the song for me. We have continued on this way through the rest of the songs. She was able to play the songs in this book without help. We did take the book to one of her piano lessons because I wanted to see what her piano teacher thought of it since I can’t play the piano. Her teacher said that my daughter should definitely be able to play all of these songs without any problems since she is in her third year of lessons, but that they were good practice and great songs to learn. She has challenged my daughter to polish up “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” so that my daughter can play it at church. So my daughter is working on that while continuing to play the other songs too.

I really appreciate all this book has to offer. I enjoy my daughter being able to play the hymns on her own, but more than that I love the learning pages where we can discuss Bible verses that go with the songs. I think this really reinforces the song’s meaning with my daughter and I will never discourage her learning hymns or Bible verses. I look forward to hearing her play “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” at our church. I would recommend this book if you have a piano player in your house.

-Product review by Cassandra Holdeman, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May, 2018

Another Reviewer Perspective:

Discovering Hymns at the Piano – 15 Treasured Christian Songs for Beginning Piano
Colleen Clegg
Deeper Roots Publications
www.DeeperRoots.com

Music was not a big part of my family growing up. My married life was similar. But then we had children, and specifically, we had one little boy who just seemed to “speak” piano from the moment he could touch the keys. This being the case, I am always looking at ways to incorporate music into our homeschooling curriculum.

I was therefore very excited to receive the opportunity to review Discovering Hymns at the Piano – 15 Treasured Christian Songs for Beginning Piano. Written by Colleen Clegg, and presented through Deeper Roots Publications, this paperback piano-size book presents fifteen familiar Christian hymns arranged for the beginning pianist.

These songs include:

• God is so good
• O God, Our Help in Ages Past
• For the Beauty of the Earth
• Holy, Holy, Holy
• O Worship the King
• Jesus Loves Me
• I Will Sing the Wondrous Story
• Nothing but the Blood of Jesus
• When I Survey the wondrous Cross
• The Day of Resurrection
• Amazing Grace
• My Jesus, I Love Thee
• How Firm a Foundation
• Immortal, Invisible
• A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Each song is presented on the right side of the page. On the left, there is information about that particular hymn. For example, the song When I Survey the Wondrous Cross discusses Jesus’ death on the cross and how he died for us. It references John 3:16. Clegg then discusses some of the back story of this particular hymn and who arranged the music. She also defines phrases for the pianist. In this case she defines the phrase “poured contempt on all his pride.” There is also a fun crossword puzzle at the end of the book with words defined on certain pages throughout the book!

What I most appreciated about this book was that it allowed for new piano players to actually be able to play the hymns we all love. In the end, my son with the great propensity toward music, easily played these songs, and they were really even too easy for him. However, my other two children who are taking lessons loved that they were able to play the songs they often can only let their brother play.

This is a great inclusion into any family utilizing piano with their children!

-Product review by Wendi Kitsteiner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May, 2018