What a Blessing! – Christ In Song Review

This is such a great app! I use this every morning as I work out on a stationary bike and elliptical trainer... Exercising my spirit as well as my body. It's a wonderful way to start the day, in singing praises to The Lord. It's much better than the hardcover hymnal I had been using for several reasons: 1- it has many more hymns in it than any hymnal I have. and the ones in it are excellent. 2- it fits nicely in the book rest on the machines (a problem with a paper book is that if the hymn I pick is at the front or back end of the book, it doesn't fit in the holder) 3- It PLAYS the music!!! That is such a great help since I don't read music well enough to always sound out the tune. I'm learning many hymns I never knew before, and am enjoying even more that I do already know. This also allows me to focus on reading and singing the words as I listen to the tune 4-the music is a recording of an actual piano, not a midi synth. It's REAL music being played by talented human hands! This is great for using as accompaniment in nursing homes and other groups I sing with, especially if people request a hymn I don't know! 5- the search function is great, not only to find specific hymns by name, but also if I can only remember one word in the title. Or if I want to see a list of hymns with a word in the title like "Cross" or "Love" 6-the Table of Contents is AMAZING! I have only scratched the surface of the extensive info it has on authors, tunes, topical groupings, etc. 7- I encountered a problem with playback and contacted support. Elbert responded quickly with the answer I needed. Nothing was wrong with the app, I had just muted my iPad without realizing it. I felt the customer support was fast, professional and courteous. 8- I use the favorites list to, well, mark my favorites! I use the notes feature to record what certain ones specifically mean to me. 9- the biographical info after many of the hymns helps set the hymn in context, and makes the words that much more meaningful. ********* Seriously, this is the best $10 I've ever spent! ******* There are some things I wish it did, or did better... 1- the search function only seems to bring up hymns with the search word in the title. If I don't know the title of the hymn I'm looking for, but only the first line or the chorus or the tune or the author's name, I have to go to the table of contents, then to the index of first lines or authors or whatever and find it there. That's still pretty cool, but I'd prefer being able to just enter any of that in the search. 2- one drawback of a live recording of REAL piano music is that you can't change the key or the tempo. If the tune is out of my range, I have to listen and try to remember it well enough to sing in a key that works for me. Some tunes seem very slow, which is most likely the way they're written. That slow speed allows me time to think about the words. But there are times I'd like to sing faster to express more joy or richness as I sing. Not sure what could be done about this... 3- I'd really like to see dates of when hymns were published whenever possible. Besides that just being good info, I have a particular need to know what hymns were sung prior to Autumn of 1865. I'm in a Civil War reenactment group and we try to limit our hymns to those that are period correct. Again, the piano music is very helpful as accompaniment since I don't know many of those older tunes. 4- tunes play twice through the piece whether the 'loop mode' button is pressed or not. Maybe I'm not using it correctly... I haven't written to support about that yet. Overall, these little 'Druthers' don't begin to compare to the great benefits and features of this app. I absolutely love using it because it helps me draw close to Jesus every morning. I recommend it highly!!! Joel G Orange County, CA
Review by kopuga on Christ In Song.