Amazing Grace

About this piece

Hymns were among the first music Hawaiian choirs sang from printed notes in the 1800s, and hymn singing shaped many later Hawaiian songs. This one is in 3/4: count 1-2-3 and strum the waltz pattern, a thumb note on beat 1 and two light strums. The tune starts on beat 3 with a single pickup note, so the first chord comes on the next downbeat.

What it practices

• 3/4 time
• the waltz strum
• G, C, Em and D7
• a pickup note

Chords in this song

G · C · D7 · G7 · Em

Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.

Where the notes come from

Melody as in our piano version of Amazing Grace, which was checked note by note against the Mutopia Project’s “New Britain” hymn setting (public domain). The chords are our own, chosen so that every strong beat of the tune is a note of its chord. Our checking script compares the two melodies beat by beat.

How to practice with it

1. Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
2. Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly, before you add the strum pattern under the tab.
3. Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
4. One part at a time. Choose Tab only to hear the tune alone, or the other part alone, then put them together.
5. Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.

Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.