Proofread Musical Notation š¼ with PÄ«nyÄ«n Lyrics Available for All the Songs for Mandarin 2024–2025 Circuit Assemblies
[NOTE: For spiritual food (which is for you yourself to learn spiritual things from, and which ideally should be in your own mother tongue), please go to jw.org.
The supplementary language-learning material mentioned in this post is for helping you to learn about how the Mandarin language is used in an official publication, so that you will be better able to help others in the Mandarin language field.]
Thankfully, an official PÄ«nyÄ«n 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 PÄ«nyÄ«n PDF file (2020 NiĆ”n 3 YuĆØ Printing) only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation š¼. Also, it does not contain songs 152 to 158, which were added in the Mandarin 2024 NiĆ”n 3 YuĆØ Printing.
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 š¼) can in certain situations force the PÄ«nyÄ«n text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people. (This relegation of PÄ«nyÄ«n to being ruby text reflects the traditional/orthodox but erroneous and unjust view that PÄ«nyÄ«n can only be a pronunciation aid, when it really qualifies as and works well as a full writing system.)
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 PÄ«nyÄ«n “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) material that is now available in the JW Library app (iOS/iPadOS; Android; Windows) and on jw.org and the WOL does much to address the above challenges, but it still does not put musical notation š¼ together with PÄ«nyÄ«n, and it still gives prime display real estate to Chinese characters, at the expense of the PÄ«nyÄ«n.
Unofficial language-learning materials for all the songs for Mandarin 2024–2025 circuit assemblies, in the forms of proofread musical notation š¼ with PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics and proofread PÄ«nyÄ«n web material (more correct than computer-generated PÄ«nyÄ«n like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or better, 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,
2020-08 / 2024-03 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;
PÄ«nyÄ«n Plus: “flashcards” integrated with the text,
(tap/click on a PÄ«nyÄ«n expression to reveal its “flashcard”,
tap/click on a “flashcard” or its PÄ«nyÄ«n expression
to hide it the “flashcard”),
carefully done human-translated
context-appropriate English translations
with literal & effective meanings,
Simplified & Traditional characters,
š Reveal All, š Reveal Advanced, and
š Reveal None controls
for all the “flashcards” in a
song, verse, etc.,
Night Theme that can be turned on or off
using the ☀️/š 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 web resource on iPhone and on iPad š±. (It can also be used offline with apps like GoodReader, Documents, etc.) Tap/click on a screenshot to see it full-size.
Scheduling notes:
- Partially proofread PÄ«nyÄ«n material (more correct than computer-generated PÄ«nyÄ«n like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or better is available for all the songs in the “Sing Out Joyfully” (sjj) songbook.
- Mandarin 2024 conventions: Proofread PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics or better and proofread musical notation š¼ with PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled, including the 2024 convention song “ ‘Good News’!”.
- Mandarin 2024–2025 circuit assemblies: Proofread PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics or better and proofread musical notation š¼ with PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled.
The PÄ«nyÄ«n 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 š± running iOS, iPadOS, Android, etc. Some of the ways in which it does so are:
- Song material with musical notation š¼ automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics in as large a size as possible.
- In the song material with musical notation š¼, the typeface (font) chosen for the PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
- The lyrics-only material uses PÄ«nyÄ«n 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 PÄ«nyÄ«n 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 PÄ«nyÄ«n as a writing system on its own.
In the material with musical notation š¼ in the above resource, expressions in the PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics do not trigger a PÄ«nyÄ«n Plus “flashcard” to appear next to them as usual, because the lyrics need to stay aligned with the musical notation š¼. As time allows, links will be added to PÄ«nyÄ«n lyrics in the material with musical notation š¼. Each of these links will cause a PÄ«nyÄ«n Plus “flashcard” to appear near the top of the display.
Previously, musical notation š¼ in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that š), though, that the musical notation š¼ for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation š¼ 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 š±.
[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.]
