[LadyDoc]

I used to get my used religious books on Ebay, including my hymn book collection, and bought my copy of St Gregory there, so you probably could find one there at a low price. also Amazon used books.

The Ignatius hymn book is great, but when I tried to get one, they wouldn’t sell to me: apparently a lot of folks are only buying one book and giving out the words to the congregation instead of buying the more expensive “congregation” version. so I merely copied the list of their hymns and found the hymns elsewhere.

I sight read music but play by ear also, so having only the melody is not a problem for me.

Modern hymns that are lousy from a musical standpoint ARE a problem. And so is Gregorian chant, which makes it hard to figure if you should use a major or a minor chord for accompaniment.

[AnAmericanMother]

Chant is not major or minor - that's the problem. It's modal, so just check the large Roman numeral at the head of the chant to see which. But as long as you stick to fifths and thirds you're golden. That practice (organum) has a long history - at least back to the 11th c. and the School of Paris.

Proulx's accompaniments in the ECUSA hymnal are a good pattern also and very adaptable.