Where to Find: Song Slides and Sheet Music

Are you a worship leader looking to purchase song slides or sheet music? Here's a list of where to look!

If you want to introduce a new song to your congregation, it's unlikely that you'll find that song in your pew hymnal. Today's worship leaders use sheet music, song slides, or both.

Below I have listed some of the major websites providing songs for purchase, along with brief commentary. Each site is unique; I recommend considering every resource as you look for new music.

(Also, I deeply appreciate the work these providers have done in allowing us to learn new music quickly and easily. I hope you will, too.)

The Paperless Hymnal - www.paperlesshymnal.com
Taylor Publications - taylorpublications.com

For traditional churches, this is the place to start. TPH currently offers over 1,300 songs in song slide format, most of which come from songs already in hymnals. Initially, they only offered 4x3 slides, but apparently now they offer widescreen options. You can buy song collections ("volumes"), or buy the entire catalog for a discounted price.

Taylor Publications originated separately, offering the ePraise hymnal, but now both sites offer both resources (TPH and ePraise) as well as the Timeless project. In addition, Taylor offers 300+ a la carte options for more contemporary songs (as well as hymnals and other resources) for downloadable purchase.

I haven't personally ordered from either site, and the prices look similar, but Taylor's online store system has a more current look. (My hunch is that these guys work together to provide resources.)

Pros: Extensive selection; no CCLI required for TPH

Cons: Most products are shipping only (no digital downloads)

Praise & Harmony - www.praiseandharmony.com

Keith Lancaster (of Acappella fame) has begun producing material for congregational singing at a breakneck pace. In addition to the sheet music, song slides, and recordings P&H offers, Lancaster also offers church workshops to learn new music and a week-long Worship Leader Institute for individuals to receive in-depth training.

Pros: Newer songs; congregation-friendly

Cons: P&H arrangements occasionally feature extra material not found in the original song. They sound good, but for someone not used to them, it can be jarring.

Fearless4You - www.fearless4you.com

This site features newer songs arranged by prominent worship ministers—Randy Gill, DJ Bulls, and Shane Coffman, to name a few—and has a loose affiliation with ZOE Group. The arrangements are beautiful, but occasionally challenging for congregations without a praise team or worship minister. F4U also promotes the New Music conferences (New Music Nashville/Atlanta/Dallas) where they introduce some of their latest offerings.

Pros: Rapid digital download; praise team friendly

Cons: Doesn't provide older hymnal songs

A View of Worship - www.aviewofworship.com

This site is unique in that it offers a subscription-based service, like Netflix but for song slides. In my experience they've used a different cache of arrangers than the other sites listed here, but I haven't noticed any major issues, just slight variations.

Pros: Newer and older songs; subscription-based digital download

Cons: CCLI is explicitly required

ZOE Group - www.zoegroup.org

Hallal Worship - hallalmusic.com

ZOE Group and Hallal are two of the most prominent praise-team style worship groups in our heritage, and for years they were the primary way worship leaders could acquire new arrangements. Neither group offers song slides on their websites, but they have an extensive back-catalog of arrangements and recorded music for every song. (I will add, however, that the two groups use different arranging styles, so if you learned one group's version, it's sometimes hard to switch to the other.)

Pros: High-quality recordings; they probably arranged any song you learned from 1998-2015

Cons: No slides, although some of their work is available at other websites; Hallal's online store needs a facelift

United Voice Worship - www.unitedvoiceworship.org

UVW began in 2017, led by Josh Kasinger, Luke Coles, and Nic Dunbar. Its stated goal is to celebrate diversity in a cappella worship, and I've heard great things about the first UVW conference. To date, they only have a few resources on their website, but I expect it to grow.

Pros: They're the only website with an arrangement of "King of My Heart"

Cons: Not a large selection (yet)

Getty Music - www.gettymusic.com

Keith & Kristyn Getty, while not affiliated with the Churches of Christ, are the name in modern hymn writing. Virtually every song they've written has an instrumental and acappella version, and every song was written with four-part harmony in mind. (Ever heard of "In Christ Alone"?)

Pros: Solid music composition; usually solid lyrics

Cons: Most (or all) of their recordings feature instrumental accompaniment, which will deter some churches

Public Domain Hymns - pdhymns.com

This is a FREE resource that posts arrangements of public domain (i.e. copyright-free) hymns. They offer sheet music, song slides, MIDI files, and even Finale 2002 files. Their selection is, by its nature, older...but did I mention it was free?

Pros: FREE; instant download

Cons: Limited selection

R.J. Stevens Music - www.rjstevensmusic.com

This group developed the Hymns for Worship hymnal, and they now offer an eChoice digital product. I'm including them on this list in case you can't find a song elsewhere.

Pros: Appears to keep somewhat current with popular songs

Cons: Not my favorite slide design, but that's a personal preference thing

Hymnary.org - hymnary.org

Hymnary.org bills itself as "a comprehensive index of hymns and hymnals"...but I couldn't find the hymnal I grew up using or my favorite song. I'm guessing it's a useful historical resource, and for many songs you can find PDFs and MIDI files. But unless you're doing research on a specific hymn, or trying to find a tune to match lyrics you've written to a specific meter, I'd look elsewhere.

Pros: "Comprehensive"

Cons: Not what you're looking for

Postscript:

If you're still reading, here are some questions you might have:

But which resource is the best? Obviously, they're all different, with different goals and priorities. Look over the pros and cons to see which you'd prefer, and make sure to consider the different pricing models depending on your budget.

How can I figure out which resource has the song I'm looking for? Most of these sites have a 1) song list or 2) search field for their store. In addition, James Tackett at The Paperless Hymnal has built a fairly thorough spreadsheet listing every song, the hymnals it appears in, and where to find it online. You need Excel (and you need to enable macros), but it's the best option out there right now. If only someone would make an online version...