Learned from the Hymn Book

The premise is the hymns are written for the voices of the congregation; that is to say, no special training required.
The range of most melodies stays within one note above or below the octave. For example,the notes of the popular "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" in CMaj fall on or between the e notes. ( "clo-ser" is lower a-e. "dai-ly walk-ing" is higher e-e-e-e)
To sing that tune requires the use of one octave plus or minus one note. Does that come as a surprise to anyone? It did to me.
Even the dreaded "Silent Night" can be sung by a vocalist whose range is limited to three notes above the octave. My score in eb has a range from eb to ab. Even the best are not beyond reaching for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOylzf9_EBU
Though most of the hymns I work with were written in the 18th and 19th centuries, I suspect the idea was to include at least one low note and one high, to give expression to both bass and soprano voices. Just guessing.
The range of "Old Rugged Cross" is e to e. Normally, we can hear the men strain to hit that high e for "sin-ners" while the men often carry the pickup, "On a."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrXH3xe4mHY

Ed,

Thanks for sharing that. It's one of those things that kind of seems obvious in hindsight as it makes sense.

Did you find that tidbit in a how to use the hymn book guideline?

I can't provide a resource, Jim. It is something I discovered while fighting with "God be with You 'til We Meet Again." That hymn has a range from G to B in the key of Gmaj and from C to E in Cmaj. While two notes above the octave might not sound like much, it is. A soprano, of course, could raise the octave and still harmonize.
In Cmaj, I reasoned, well, what if I dropped the key three notes to Gmaj, wouldn't that be enough to lower the top notes into my range? So I thought. I mean, after all, isn't that what singers are always on about, "their" key? As you might have guessed, it did not work. The issue is not the notes, it is the spread, the range. I set about experimenting using a Snark tuner.
That led to having a look at the song book. My lead sheets are a lot easier to scan than full scores. That's when I noticed a pattern: ranges of an octave plus minus one, two, maybe three notes.
In conjunction, watching church leaders, it suddenly occurred that the leaders were expecting the congregations to automatically sing in 12 keys. No wonder people have a time of it.
(As always, open to further learning.)

For songwriters, Biab makes easy to see & set the range of their created melodies,
allowing them to experiment & adjust the melody until an acceptable range is found.
Oftentimes its fun trying to create a melody with an extreme short range of notes.

That's thoughtful and observant Ed. I wonder if present songwriters think about crafting songs that untrained voices can sing? I find that while many Contemporary Christian songs do have limited note range, many more are recorded in uncommon meters that highlight the performance while minimizing sing along capability. If you think about how many hymns have likely been created over time the fact that most Protestant hymnals contain only 300 - 400 hymns means they are likely the cream of the crop; especially when you look across all different denominations and realize all those hymnals share many of the same hymns.

Jim, BiaB has so many excellent songwriting tools it's easy to forget how adaptable the Melodist is. Perhaps since the Melodist was enhanced in 2019 and can use RealStyles to generate chords and melodies more users will make an opportunity to use the feature. I've got to admit, I haven't played with it yet but it is high on my to-do list of features to learn in Band-in-a-Box. Creating unique melodies have always been an obstacle for me.

Jim (Texas) : Thanks for that. Your mention of Melodist is one to those many features of Band-in-a-Box that I have been wanting to get into. Being used to Crescendo, and currently fascinated by Real Tracks and DAW technology...hopefully, one day.
Jim Fogle : Jah, Man, good observations. We like to take things apart to see how they work, do we not? I mean, the cultural trait. It follows that the hymn book is no exception. Amazing Grace in Cmaj has a range of G to G. May I call that one octave? The first note is a 1/4 note g, which happens to be as low as it goes in this song. Further along, there is a high g, which is as high as it goes. That's how I conclude the range is g to g. (Bearing in mind, the g is the #5 of the C scale. In this song, there is nothing lower.)
I've not had voice lessons, but it stands to reason, using an audible tuner, I can identify the lowest and highest notes of my comfort zone, or range. This assumes the idea is not neither strain nor shift. Also, we know from observation, the hymns tend to stay within two, rarely three, notes, plus or minus, of the notes of the key.
I tried this, and found that I could comfortably hit the low g. Not much lower. F if I pushed it.
So, my hypothesis says, go a note up from the lowest comfortable. In this case, it is an a. The A-note is the #5 of the D-scale. In the D-scale, then, the song starts off with the A. That is a transposition from the key of Cmaj, where the first note was a g.
If I try the song in the key of Dmaj, should be able to handle the range, with a one note cushion. Crazy, or what?
All in the spirit of analysis.

Instead of an "audible tuner", why not let Biab help you out. Notate the diatonic scale notes in C major
over a 2 octave range and then sing along with the melody to discover what range of notes is suitable
for your voice (your comfort zone).

Two caveats... First, in a live performance, you will probably surprise yourself by being able to sing higher
or lower than you think you can. Secondly, in a live performance, you may not be able to hear the pitch
of your lowest notes through the PA monitors with all of the stage noise that is also crowding into your ears.

However, once you know your range, you can notate any hymn you choose into the melody track of Biab
and then transpose the song into a key that fits the range of your voice.

Hope this is helpful...

Thanks, Jim. I'm going to have to get into those melody features in BiaB.
So little time.
Thing about the Snark, you talk into it and it shows you right away, in big bold letters, the pitch of your note -- flat, sharp, or right on. There are certain points, above and below the roots, where the going starts to get tough, and it shows.
Funny you mention live performance. It is a different world altogether. For one thing, once the energy kicks in, as it will, fear of failure vanishes, we no longer anticipate with dread that high or low note coming up in the next bar.