Does anyone else JUST KNOW hyms?

I'm watching a Christmas service on TV and I started singing along, I had to use the subtitles for the words, but I suddenly realised, I had never heard that hym before, yet I sang it note perfect, and then it also dawned on me, whenever I have attended church for funerals and such like, I have done the same, although I need the book for the words, I can sing them perfectly.

I'm just finding it strange that I can sing a song that I have never heard before at the right note / pitch.

Anyone else have a similar experience? Anyone have an explanation as to why?

Maybe someone sang them when you were a child and you just don't remember. I'm from the south (USA) and hymns are a very common lullaby for babies and children.

And whilst we're talking about hymns, I happened to ask my wife earlier today if she has any idea why Christian hymns, chants, music, songs, etc are so god-awful somber, funereal, dirge-like and just plain out and out dull, boring, depressing and monotonous.

Neither of us had an answer ... but if it's intention is to be uplifting, it's certainly failing big time in my opinion.

reply to post by maybee


I thought about that, but I have a very good memory, from about 2-3 years old, and all I remember was my dad telling a story he made up about two dogs called puddle and poop

I watched videos from christmas plays I was when I was in infant school (1984-1987) and they weren't in them either, in fact other than away in a manger and hark the herald angel, I've never heard any of the other ones I sang since.

anticipation? do you know the notes without music or just by reading the hymms alone?


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reply to post by tauristercus


I think maybe in the old days, church wasn't necessarily suppose to be uplifting but more somber and reflective and about repenting from sinful ways. Maybe there were rules about making the music to "lively".

reply to post by tauristercus


I know where you are coming from, but the meaning is in the words, I think black people are the best when it comes to hyms, is it gospel choirs you call it? The one where you end up bopping your head and clicking your fingers, lol.

reply to post by strafgod


Reading the music, I don't recognise the notes, but when I sing it just naturally comes out right, I think what I am getting at is that, is the hym somehow embedded in us as christians? I know that sounds daft, but I'm lost for any other explantion, other than we really do have past lives where we sang them and our subconscious remembers.

Reply to post by woogleuk

its kinda like when im riffing (freestyling on guitar) with my friend. he plays drums he switchs beat and i anticipate the switch its more or less instinct to follow the motion of music.


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reply to post by strafgod


Good try at an explanation, I do the same, it's even more impressive when switching styles, like rock to blues etc, but I don't think thats it. With improvising, your making it up on the spot and anticipating other musicians change of pace, in our case the drummer usually leads. But with hyms, the music has already been made.

EDIT: BTW try to improv from the bassist, always a good challenge

Reply to post by woogleuk

thats true but i believe it relates to improvision. idk. is it only with hyms? probly should of asked from the get go. could just be good intuition?


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Alot of movies have hymns in them. Especially Amazing Grace it seems. That's one of my favorite songs.

reply to post by strafgod


Yeah, its just hyms, i've never been able to sing a "normal" song on karaoke if I have never heard it, even with the words, I'm actually wondering now if all hyms just follow a similar pattern which makes it easier to sing one your unfamiliar with.

Just shows the power of religious education/indoctrination that after all these years I still know all the words to hymms and their tunes yet am a devout non believer. What other medium has that power, I guess its like knowing all the songs from your old favorite TV commercials.

Reply to post by woogleuk

i havent been religious since i was young so i dont know much about hymns or the note pattern. maybe hymns are similar, easy to learn an sing for anyone or maybe theres something more like a higher connection you have towards hymns idk. could be your calling?


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The reason most of those old Christian hymns *and yes it's spelled hymn*, sound like funeral songs is because there were indeed many many funerals during the Medieval period of European History. Battles were frequent and brutal.

So that's why it sounds like a funeral. Because it always was!

reply to post by muzzleflash


Your right, it is spelled hymn, I can't believe I missed that, i feel silly now, lol. But they date well older that medieval times, in fact I think they even go BC, but I could be wrong.

I sometimes sing all kinds of melodies in the shower, its like birds chirping, music and melody is a natural expression of our beings.

reply to post by tauristercus


I'm far from a musicologist . . . however, per my understanding . . .

1. Many hymns were written by people under oppression as TRUTHS they could cling to as hope in the midst of despair.

2. Some such were black spirituals set to African melodies which were also associated with despair in their origins.

2.1 AMAZING GRACE is beautiful, uplifting, joyous. Yet, some might think of it as somber in tone.

3. There evolved an ethos [incorrect, imho] that RELIGION was SERIOUS business. Gaiety and light-heartedness were seen as worldly, frivolous. Often even joyous, uplifting words were set to very seriously toned melodies.

4. The 'Charismatic Movement' of the 1970's as well as other hymns from Pentecostalism altered that significantly and there are a lot of contemporary Christian musical numbers/hymns, choruses--which are joyous, uplifting, light-filled. MAJESTY by founding Pastor Jack Hayford of CHURCH ON THE WAY, in Van Nuys, comes to mind. There are many dozens of others. Even some of the old Pentecostal hymns were joyous, uplifting.

5. The Hallelujah Chorus, as old as it is, is not somber.

reply to post by woogleuk


I don't know to what degree the following is true . . .

It seems to me that . . . somewhat like a certain slice of popular melodious songs. . . e.g. love songs, ballads etc.

hymns have a somewhat predictable melody sequence. Someone sensitive to such, even unconsciously, would naturally be able to anticipate and flow with the music . . . particularly after say a few bars of the melody.

I have noticed that I can often anticipate the next sequence in the melody even wtih songs I've never heard before.

I had a close friend in my BA program who was a music major and avidly into it in a list of ways . . . He asserted that there were more or less rules--not rules in an authoritarian sense--just in a sense of what "sounded right," what 'felt right,' what was perceived to be pleasant, comfortable, normal etc. And that within certain parameters, many types of melodies would ALWAYS follow those rules.

IF I RECALL CORRECTLY, IIRC, several decades ago . . . 30-+? someone programmed a computer to detect if a new song fell within those parameters like most of the previous most popular songs say in the top 40. Those that did most were anticipated to be most popular and marketed and produced accordingly--with significant reliability, IIRC.

I think that's about all I know on the topic.