New chapter for the LGH

The Liturgical Guitarist's Hymnal (LGH) is entering a new phase. Until now, I have only been able to share my arrangements for hymns in the public domain. Most modern hymns are under copyright, so that means a large body of music used in chuch today was off limits. That is changing, but there is a price for the change. Publishers charge royalty fees for distributing their music. So far, I only have a contract with Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) to use their music. I can now share my arrangements of the songs in Breaking Bread, which is the hymnal used in my parish. So far, I have posted 6 hymns: On Eagles Wings, I Have Loved You, Ashes, Song of Farewell, Prayer of St. Francis and Ubi Caritas (Hurd). 

Years ago, I learned that it was illegal for me to posess my own written arrangements of copyrighted music, so I stopped writing down my arrangements of copyrighted songs around 2003. However, I still played my arrangements, which were stored in the excellent memory of my fingers, and I continued to make new arrangements. Now I can share them, but for a small price to cover my royalty costs and to help support the maintenance of and upgrades to this website. 

It will take me some time to build up my catalog as I enter my arrangements into Sibelius software, make 30 second sound files and make more tutorial videos. Not every hymn lays easily on the guitar, but I will continue to look for new hymns that are both musical and playable. I will also eventually reach out to other publishers to pursue permissions and contracts to sell my arrangements of their music. And I will also continue to add free arrangements as old hymns reveal themselves to me, but I've picked through most of those hymns and don't think there are that many easy pickings left in the free realm. You'll likely have to be content with the 90 or so hymns already freely available in the LGH for awhile.

And finally, if you have a hymn you think I should consider arranging, feel free to contact me.

Peace,

jim