Hymns are traditional religious songs of praise and adoration of God. Some of the earliest Christian hymns were based on the psalms of David. Probably the most famous American hymn is Amazing Grace. Though most people are used to singing hymns with traditional organ or piano accompaniment, the younger generation has embraced hymns as part of Christian pop and has often made modern arrangements to traditional worship music in new, rock-radio styles. Click here to listen to a great example of this, a new popular arrangement of What Wondrous Love Is This, at Spiritrax.com, which offers songs both with vocals and as karaoke tracks.

Often traditional songs make their way into hymnals when they are given a religious text. A traditional Irish tune was used for the hymn "Be Thou My Vision". Click through for an arrangement with an Irish flavor (listen for the bagpipes!)

The time is past when people carried a small hymnal in their pocket, to be ready to sing hymns in harmony at any time. It's much more common now to carry an iPod in your pocket and sing along to a backing track. The popularity of karaoke tracks have created a great demand for interesting new karaoke arrangments for hymns. A few other interesting recent examples (click through to listen or download) are:

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
How Great Thou Art
Wonderful Peace
Beautiful Savior