Learning to Sing

Adapted from Bryant S. Hinckley, Heber J. Grant: Highlights in the Life of a Great Leader (1951), 45–49.

Illustrated by Mike Eagle

When Heber J. Grant was 10 years old, he took a singing class.

Teacher: You can’t carry a tune, Heber. You’ll never learn how to sing.

Years later Heber heard Horace S. Ensign sing.

Heber: I would give you three months of my spare time if I could learn to sing one or two hymns!

Horace: Anyone can learn to sing. Are you willing to practice?

After two weeks, Heber had learned to sing “O My Father.” Two months later he could sing four other hymns.

Heber enjoyed practicing while he traveled.

Heber: Elder Clawson, Elder Kimball, we have a long journey ahead. Shall I sing 100 hymns on the way?

Elder Kimball: One hundred hymns? Sure!

After 40 hymns, the two General Authorities realized Heber wasn’t joking, and they begged him to stop.

Heber: I said I would sing 100 hymns, and I will. Cheer up, Elders—only 60 more!

When Heber became President of the Church, the wealthy McCune family offered to let him live in their beautiful mansion. He chose to continue living in his humble cottage and instead turned the mansion into a music school.

President Grant also helped establish the world-famous Tabernacle Choir radio broadcast. He understood that music is both a gift from Heavenly Father and a way to praise Him.