Amazing Grace (one verse)

Background

The words were written by John Newton, an Englishman who had worked in the Atlantic slave trade as a young sailor and ship's captain before becoming a clergyman. As curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire he wrote the hymn for a New Year's Day service in 1773, and it was published in 1779 in Olney Hymns, a collection he produced with the poet William Cowper. Years later Newton publicly spoke out against the slave trade and supported the campaign to abolish it.

In Newton's time the words were sung to several different tunes. The melody now used everywhere, known as "New Britain", is an American folk hymn tune; it was first printed with these words in 1835 in William Walker's songbook Southern Harmony.

How to practise it

This version is one verse in G major, in 3/4 time. The right hand plays the tune and the left hand plays two-note chords: G with D above it, C with G, and D with A.

It starts with a single upbeat note, a D, before the first bar line. Count "3" for it, then the first G arrives on "1". After that, every bar has three beats: feel a slow "ONE two three" sway.

The tune spans D up to the D an octave higher, more than one hand position. A comfortable choice is an open hand: thumb on D, finger 2 on G, 3 on A, 4 on B. The thumb can also take the E in bar 3. When the high D arrives in bar 7, reach up for it with finger 5 and hold it for five beats, right through bar 8, until the B on beat 3. Count "1 2 3 | 1 2" while you hold it; the left hand plays the D chord on the first beat of each of those two bars.

The quick pair B, G (two eighth notes) appears in bars 1, 5, 9 and 13. Practise it on its own: B and G with fingers 4 and 2, gently, as if the voice is curling around the note rather than hitting it.

The left hand is simple but needs care in bars 2, 6, 10 and 14. There the G chord is held for two beats and the D chord comes on beat 3. Move the whole hand up so the lower finger goes from G to D, and arrive exactly on beat 3.

Clap the first four bars counting "3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3", then work hands separately at 50 beats a minute. Put them together at 50, then 60, then the full 72.

This is a hymn, so aim for a singing, connected line. Breathe where a singer would breathe, at the end of each four-bar phrase, and let the final G last its full five beats, like the long D in bars 7 and 8. Keep the left hand softer than the melody throughout.

The upbeat is covered in the ties, dotted rhythms and upbeats unit, and G major in the sharps, scales and G major unit.