Amazing Grace
Words: John Newton, 1779 · Tune "New Britain," c. 1829 · Public domain
Verse 1
GAmazing G7grace, how Csweet the Gsound
GThat saved a Emwretch like Dme
DI Gonce was G7lost, but Cnow am Gfound
GWas Emblind, but Dnow I Gsee
Verse 2
G'Twas grace that G7taught my Cheart to Gfear
GAnd grace my Emfears Drelieved
DHow Gprecious G7did that Cgrace Gappear
GThe Emhour I Dfirst Gbelieved
Verse 3
GThrough many G7dangers, Ctoils and Gsnares
GI have Emalready Dcome
D'Tis Ggrace hath G7brought me Csafe thus Gfar
GAnd Emgrace will Dlead me Ghome
Verse 4
GWhen we've been G7there ten Cthousand Gyears
GBright shining Emas the Dsun
DWe've Gno less G7days to Csing God's Gpraise
GThan Emwhen we'd Dfirst Gbegun
Chords in the key of G
- G
- G7
- C
- Em
- D
About this hymn
- Words
- John Newton, written around 1772, published 1779
- Music
- NEW BRITAIN, American folk melody, paired with these words by William Walker in 1835
- Meter
- 8.6.8.6 (Common Meter)
- In
- 1,786 hymnals
- Scripture
- 1 Chronicles 17:16-17, John 9:25, Ephesians 2:8
The story
John Newton worked the slave ships before he ever preached. A bad storm at sea in 1748 turned him around, and years later he backed Wilberforce and the fight to end the trade, though his own thinking changed slowly. He wrote this one around 1772, and it reached print in 1779 in Olney Hymns, the book he put together with the poet William Cowper. He headed it with 1 Chronicles 17 and called it Faith's Review and Expectation. The tune came much later. NEW BRITAIN is an American folk melody, and William Walker set it to these words in 1835. The closing verse about ten thousand years is not Newton's either. It got attached along the way.
It is printed in the African American Heritage Hymnal and other historically Black church collections, and it carried real weight in the civil rights movement and at the 2015 memorial in Charleston for Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
Where it fits in a service
Often used at an altar call, at a testimony service, and at a homegoing. It also works as a quiet closing song after preaching, when the room needs something everybody already knows by heart.
Get the next chart
One email when a new hymn goes up, and the free starter guide to go with it — three chords and the shortest honest route from nothing to accompanying a congregation. It assumes you do not read music.
No cost, and unsubscribe from any email.
Take it further
Print this hymn
The same chart as a clean one-page PDF — with large-print lyrics, a guitar chart and a Nashville number chart of the same hymn.
See the printable set →Why these chords work
Gospel Piano Chords by Ear is the book behind these charts — how to hear the I, IV and V, and how to move between them without reading music.
About the book →Learn it with Henry
Online lessons, by ear, from the author of the book — a camera on the keys and this hymn ready for Sunday.
About lessons →