John Newton / Traditional · Key of G · Public domain
Opens in the Chord Sheet Maker: transpose to your key, change chords, add strumming patterns, or print a clean copy. No account needed to start.
Amazing Grace began as a poem by John Newton, an English clergyman who had spent his early life as a sailor and slave trader. Caught in a violent storm off the coast of Ireland in 1748, Newton called out for mercy, survived, and dated his conversion to that night. He eventually renounced the trade, took holy orders, and late in life became a voice for abolition. The words were written for his New Year's Day sermon of 1773 and published in 1779 in the collection Olney Hymns, under the plain heading "Faith's Review and Expectation."
The melody the whole world knows, called New Britain, was joined to Newton's words in 1835 by William Walker in the American shape-note songbook Southern Harmony. The famous final verse, "When we've been there ten thousand years," was not Newton's at all: it traveled in from oral tradition and earlier hymns, was popularized in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and settled permanently into the hymn around the turn of the twentieth century. Words and melody alike are long in the public domain, which is why this complete chart can live here freely.
Amazing Grace moves in 3/4, so count "one-two-three" and give the first beat a gentle push: a bass note on one, then two easy strums. The whole song lives on G, C, D, and Em, making it one of the best first songs for changing chords in waltz time. Sing it where your voice is comfortable: capo up a few frets, or open the chart in the Chord Sheet Maker and transpose it to any key with one click.
More gospel to strum: When the Saints Go Marching In chords
Further reading: Amazing Grace (Library of Congress, Songs of America)
