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For ward accompanists

Easy hymns to learn first

New to playing the hymns for your ward? Start with hymns that are easy to play and that the congregation already knows. This guide rates every hymn Easy, Moderate, or Challenging, so you can pick where to begin.

Short on time? Jump to the hymns to start with, or filter all the hymns by level and topic.

How we measured difficulty

We read the published sheet music for each hymn in the 1985 hymnbook and in Hymns: For Home and Church. Then we measured five things that make a hymn harder to play.

Key signature
More sharps or flats means more black keys to keep track of. C, G, and F are the easiest.
Notes per beat
How many notes both hands play for each beat. Busy hymns ask for more speed.
Accidentals
Sharps, flats, and naturals that are not in the key. They are easy to miss.
Rhythm
Sixteenth notes, triplets, compound meters like 6/8, and changes of meter.
Texture
Key changes, a separate accompaniment part, and three notes in one hand.

The key matters, but it is only one part. A hymn in an easy key can still be hard. "Called to Serve" is in C, with no sharps or flats, and it is still one of the harder hymns. Its dotted rhythms, triplets, and fast moving parts carry the difficulty. "How Firm a Foundation" is in A♭, with four flats, but it moves slowly and it is only Moderate.

We add the five parts into one score. Then we sort the hymns into three levels of about the same size.

The three levels

Easy
Simple keys, steady rhythm, and few accidentals. A good place to start, even if you are still building your skills.
For example: I Need Thee Every Hour, The Spirit of God, Nearer, My God, to Thee, Amazing Grace.
Moderate
More flats or sharps, a busier left hand, or some accidentals. Practice them a few times before Sunday.
For example: How Firm a Foundation, We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
Challenging
Fast notes, tricky rhythms, meter changes, or many accidentals. Give yourself a week or two.
For example: Called to Serve, Let Us All Press On, Come, Come, Ye Saints, I Stand All Amazed.

None of the hymns are extremely hard. Challenging means harder than the rest of the hymnbook, not hard for a trained pianist.

Start here: easy and well known

These hymns are Easy to play, and wards across the Church sing them often. Your congregation will know them, so they will sing out and carry you. That makes them a good first set to learn.

Sacrament hymns 5

Christmas and Easter 6

Other hymns 19

Easy new hymns 11

"Well known" comes from LDS Hymn Stats, which counts what wards sang in about 72,000 sacrament meetings since June 2024. For the new hymns, the list shows the Easy ones that many wards already sing.

Find hymns by level and topic

Pick a level, a topic, or a book to narrow the list. Tap a title to open the hymn on the Church's music site, where you can see the sheet music and hear a recording.

Level
Book
Showing all hymns

The list holds 387 hymns. Seven hymns have no published score we could measure, so they are not listed. The For Women and For Men arrangements and the Children's Songbook are not included.

See the level when you plan

Numbered is an app for ward leaders. Music coordinators pick hymns for sacrament meeting in its hymn picker, and every hymn shows its level there: Easy, Moderate, or Challenging. When your accompanist is new, or a substitute plays this week, you can see at a glance which hymns fit.

Get the app How hymn suggestions work

A note on these levels

These levels are an estimate from the notes on the page, not a judgment of any hymn. A hymn you have played for years will feel easy, whatever its level. Organ and piano also differ. Pedals add a part that this guide does not measure.

If you play the hymns and a level looks wrong to you, please tell us at support@pday.app. We will use your notes to tune the levels.

Levels are measured from the sheet music that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publishes on its music site. Familiarity uses data from LDS Hymn Stats by Joey Stanley. Numbered is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Church.