by Don Chapman
HymnCharts was 10 years old on March 6, 2012.
I started the website soon after I became
a church music director. As most of you have
found, mixing hymns with contemporary worship
songs is quite a challenge and in 2002 resources
were non existent.
The young church I was serving
had a praise
band and contemporary music yet
I was getting
requests for hymns. I arranged
"All
Hail the Power" for the
band one Sunday
(download it for free here) and it was a smash. A mid twenties year
old guitarist in the band wondered where
I found this "great new praise song"
and an older lady came up to me and was thrilled
to hear this old hymn.
Shortly thereafter I started
the website
and since then thousands of churches
have
used my arrangements. Especially
satisfying
was the fact that I had spent
five years
trying to get my songs and arrangements
published
in Nashville with very little
success. In
this unique Internet age a small
guy like
me can leap ahead of big, traditional
music
publishers and be successful
by doing things
that make them cringe... allowing
sheet music to be downloaded and copied freely, offering Finale files so the key and arrangement can
be changed, and giving unrestricted access to MP3s for downloading, emailing them to musicians
and making CDs.
Along the way I've had lots of fun opportunities.
My buddy Chris Sligh, who has sung many of
my demos, ended up in the top ten of season
six of American Idol. I was seen on the show
(my 15 minutes of fame!) and a few years
ago attended the premier of the new American
Idol Experience at Disney with Chris.
It's been fun watching Chris
have success
with his popular single "Empty
Me"
which was nominated for a Dove
award, and
I had the wonderful opportunity
to orchestrate
several songs on his CD, working
with renowned
producer Brown Bannister. This lead to more work with Brown - I orchestrated
a song on Jeremy Camp's recent CD.
I also got some media attention
from CBN
and was on the 700 Club with Chris.
All that to say, it's amazing how you can
make it in the music world these days without
any help from a major label. The help I have had is from you, worship leaders all over
the world. To the thousands of churches that
have enjoyed my music over the years, I want
to say "thank you" for your business.
Your support has enabled me to do what I
love for a living...
writing and arranging music for
the Church...
for busy, overworked worship
leaders...
for people who haven't been to
a church in
years, visit and hear a familiar
tune from
their youth in an unexpected
way...
for new believers who learn truths
through
these timeless hymns...
I hope my music has helped worship
leaders
draw their congregations into
a deeper relationship
with God. And I hope my work
here has made
your life as a worship leader
just a little
bit easier and more rewarding.
 Start a quick tour of HymnCharts: Learn how our arrangements are the best sheet
music value on or off the Internet.
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 I have just become a GREAT fan of you and
your wonderful website. When I found your
site, it was like it was written about our
church and the problems we are having between
praise music and hymns! We have used at least
4 of your songs with great success! |
| Sue Jacob |
Clough UM Church
Cincinnati, OH |
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Now Thank We All Our God with a
pop/classical Amen
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Don Chapman talks to Mighty to Save
authors about songwriting
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