Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the current songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has the link and additional information.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file (2020 Nián 3 Yuè Printing) only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation 🎼.
While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.
Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation 🎼) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.
Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.
The official Pīnyīn “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) web material that is now available on jw.org and on the WOL addresses some of the above challenges, but it still does not put musical notation 🎼 together with Pīnyīn, and it still gives prime display real estate to Chinese characters, at the expense of the Pīnyīn.
Proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) and proofread musical notation 🎼 with Pīnyīn lyrics for all the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2020 conventions (including the last song) have been posted to this resource that seeks to help with the above-mentioned challenges:
- “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
(Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
(rich information about the Mandarin speech
used for Kingdom songs,
as represented by the text of the
Mandarin “Sing Out Joyfully” book,
2019-11 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
links for getting around,
song links sorted by number;
Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
easy-to-read font,
guitar chords included;
Pīnyīn Plus: “flashcards” integrated with the text,
(tap/click on a Pīnyīn word to reveal its “flashcard”,
tap/click on a “flashcard” to hide it),
carefully done human-translated
context-appropriate English translations
with literal & effective meanings,
Simplified & Traditional characters,
📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
📘 Reveal None controls
for all the “flashcards” in a
song, paragraph, etc.,
Night Theme that can be turned on or off
using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
adjustable text size)
(Info re offline viewing and printing)
- Short Links:
Links > Publications > Books >
“Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)
Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)
Scheduling notes:
- Partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more is available for all the songs in the “Sing Out Joyfully” (sjj) songbook.
- Mandarin 2019–2020 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for all the songs scheduled.
- Mandarin 2020 conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation 🎼 are available for all the songs scheduled.
The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:
- Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
- In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
- The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.
The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.
In the material with musical notation 🎼 in the above resource, expressions in the Pīnyīn lyrics do not trigger a Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” to appear next to them as usual, because the lyrics need to stay aligned with the musical notation 🎼. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation 🎼. Each of these links will cause a Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” to appear near the top of the display.
Previously, musical notation 🎼 in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation 🎼 for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.
[NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, since such material should NOT be considered to be infringing on copyright, and since such material is specifically designed to be, NOT SPIRITUAL FOOD, but rather, material FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING. See this disclaimer for more information.]
