Summer Hymn Challenge with Piano Marvel

Last week we got to meet with one of the creators of Piano Marvel to talk about some of the fun new things they are working on. One of those is a special worldwide hymn challenge—we won't spoil anything, but they did ask us to help with it by learning 1,000 hymns as a studio!

Here's what you need to know:

Between all of our UPC students and faculty, our goal is to complete 1,000 hymns total by the end of 2018
These hymns can be learned from the Selected Hymns or Hymns Made Easy
Each hymn must be learned IN Piano Marvel in either minced or chopped mode, to 100% (minced mode starts hands separate, chopped mode only does hands together)

And, as an incentive to students, every 5 hymns learned in Piano Marvel will earn either $15 music bucks or one candy bar!

We're excited for this project for a couple of reasons! Hymns are a fantastic way to improve sight-reading skills, especially because students know many of the melodies already. Learning the hymns with the Piano Marvel software is great, too, because it helps students develop smart practice habits. But more important than either of those is that knowing hymns gives us a chance to serve! I love this quote included in the preface to the LDS hymnbook:
“Hymns can lift our spirits, give us courage, and move us to righteous action. They can fill our souls with heavenly thoughts and bring us a spirit of peace.”
I can't tell you how many times I've been called on to play a hymn or a few for church—sometimes about ten minutes before the meeting starts—and I've been so glad that I was ready! I love seeing my students start to be able to do that, too.

Even if you're not a UPC student, you can totally do this with us! Here's a little tutorial video that Aaron Garner shared with us:

Access to the hymns boot camps is available with a free trial account, so let's get practicing! Let us know how you're doing and we'll even add you to our tally!