How Great Thou Art by Hymn Tutorial/Lesson
How Great Thou Art
G, C, D
Download Printable Guitar Guide
Unlock with Patreon
Are you new to playing the guitar? Watch my free Beginner Series where I show you all of the basics. You'll be playing your first songs in minutes!
Video transcript
Hey everyone, my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play [music] How Great Thou Art on the guitar. Now this is a super simple song and I'm going to teach you three different ways that you can play it at varying [music] difficulty levels so you can pick and choose which ones are the best suited for you. But overall, it's a very simple song that you can definitely get if you're a beginner. So with that being said, let's go ahead [music] and jump into it. All right, so you only need to know three different chord shapes to play through this entire song and we're starting with our G major which looks like [music] this and sounds like this. >> [music] >> And by the way, if you don't know how to read these chord charts you're seeing on screen, I do cover how to do that my free beginner series right here on YouTube so make sure check that out right here. The next chord shape is our C major. >> [music] >> And then the last chord you need to know is your D major. >> [music] >> And those are the only three chords you need to know to play through this song. So go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really look over these chord shapes, [music] get them memorized, and also practice transitioning back and forth between them so it'll make it easier to learn the rest of the song. And if this is skill you're currently struggling with, I do have a practice with me chord transition series right here on my YouTube channel so I will link that playlist in the corner for those of you who need it. But once you have these chords under your belt, we can go ahead and talk about the strumming that I would [music] suggest for this song. All right guys, so the very first strumming pattern I want to show you is the simplest one. What we're going to do is we're just going to play down strums on the quarter note. So it's just going to be four down strums per measure, okay? So basically, if we look at our first chord, we're starting here on our G major chord, you're going to play it four times. One, two, three, >> [music] >> four. Switch to your next chord, C major. One, >> [music] >> two, three, four. And then there are going to be a few places where we're going to split the measure in half. So if you look at the guide that's on my Patreon page, you'll see these little hash marks next to the next G and D chords. And basically, that's just my way of signaling to you guys that we're going to be splitting the measure. So whenever we split the measure, we're going to play two chords within a measure. So I'm going to go ahead and put a vertical line here in the middle and this just represents where we want to change chords. So on this line, we're going to go from our G major on the left half for the first two down strums. Then do a switch in the middle to our D major, [music] finish out the right half with our last two down strums. >> [music] >> All right? Then you go back to your G major and do a full measure, all four down strums. >> [music] >> All right? And that's the simplest way to play this song is just with those quarter note down strums. So all together, it'll sound like this. We've got G, two, three, four [music] to C, two, three, four, G, >> [music] >> split D [singing] to G. That's the verses. [music] >> [singing] and music] >> All [music] right? And you can keep this same simple strumming pattern going through the choruses as well. So again, remember we have those dashed chords which means we're going to split the measure. So we've got G, down switch C, >> [music] >> down switch G, two, three, four to D, >> [music] >> two, three, four, G. >> [singing and music] >> All right? So if you wanted to use the simple strum pattern, you could use it for the entire song and it sounds really great. Just remember to keep an eye out for those little dashed chords where we're going to split the measure. So now let's go ahead and put all of it together, play through an entire verse and chorus. >> [singing] >> I hear the rolling thunder, thy power through all the universe displayed. [music] Then sings my soul, my savior [music] God to thee. How great thou art. >> [music] >> How great [singing] thou art. Then sings my soul, >> [music] >> my savior God [singing] to thee. How great thou art. [music] How great [singing] thou art. >> [music] >> All right, nice. And the rest of the song with all the different verses and lyrics will all go just like that for the verses and choruses and that is the simplest way to play through this song. All right, so now for a slightly harder strumming rhythm but it's not that much harder. Basically, what we're doing now is we're going to add in those eighth notes. So earlier, we were just doing down strums on the quarter notes. Now we're going to go ahead and add some of those up strums in on the eighth note, okay? So it's going to sound like this. We've got one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and down, up, up down up down, down up, up down up. All right? And this strumming pattern, very similarly to the first one, we're going to play one time through per chord except for wherever we have those split measure chords. Remember those little dashes? What you're going to do for those chords is just play the first half, that down down up for each of those chords, okay? So looking at the first verse, we're starting on our G major. We're going to go down down [singing] up, [music] up down up, switch to your C. Down down up, up down up. [music] Here in this next section, we've got G to D and they're both half measures. So we're going to go G, down down up, switch to D, down down up, and then back to G for a full measure. >> [music] >> All right? So all together without stopping, it'll sound like this. >> [music] [singing] >> All right? And then same thing to the chorus. Remember those split measures are just going to get a down down up. Otherwise, the rest of the chords will get a full measure. So the chorus will sound like this. We've got G, down up C, down up G for a full [singing] measure. D for a full measure. Back to G. >> [music] [singing and music] >> All right? So this strumming rhythm again, you can use for the entire song if you like it. So let's go ahead and put all of it together, go through an entire verse and chorus without stopping so you can hear how it all comes together. Oh Lord my God. >> [music] [singing] >> I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power through all the >> [music] >> universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. >> [singing] >> How great thou art. >> [music] >> How great thou art. Then sings my soul, >> [music] >> my savior God to thee. How great thou art. >> [music] >> All right, good. And then that is the slightly more difficult way to strum through this song. And then the last way I wanted to show you guys how to play is with a really beautiful finger picking pattern. So let's go ahead and talk about that next. All right, so before we break down this picking pattern, I wanted to go over just a couple of rules. First of all, I'm going to be numbering my strings. So this top one here is our low E string. So I'm going to number that six and it's going to go five, four, three, two, one all the way down to this bottom thinnest string, our high E string. So for the rest of this section of the tutorial, I will be referring to these strings as their number. And then our left hand, nothing's going to change with your left hand. You're still going to be holding down these same chord shapes that we've been practicing throughout this tutorial. The only thing that's going to be different now is our right hand. We're going to drop the guitar pick and we're going to use our fingers to pluck the strings now, okay? So, with our right hand, I do want you to assign certain fingers to certain strings. So, I want you to take your pointer and your middle and your ring finger and we're going to put those on the bottom three strings on the G and the B [music] and the E string or three, two, and one. And basically for this whole tutorial, we're not going to move our bottom three fingers from these bottom three strings. The only finger I want you to move is going to be your thumb because our thumb is going to cover the bass note of each chord. All right. So, now with all of that being said, let's go ahead and break down this pattern. Starting with our G major chord on our left hand, the lowest note in our G major is this low E string. >> [music] >> All right. So, your thumb is going to be on this sixth E string. >> [music] >> And the pattern's going to go like this. We have six, three, two, three, one, three, two, three. [music] Okay? Just kind of a simple arpeggiated pattern like that. And remember you want to keep these three fingers glued to those three strings that they're assigned to. It'll make the whole thing a lot easier if you kind of keep these three fingers here, okay? So, we have thumb, pointer, middle, >> [music] >> pointer, ring, pointer, middle, pointer. [music] Okay? And this picking pattern is going to be the same for the other chords as well. So, from there we have our C major chord on our left hand. Your thumb's going to move from this sixth low E string to the fifth A string, okay? Cuz that's the lowest note in our C chord. Um otherwise, the pattern is the same. So, we have five, [music] three, two, three, one, >> [music] >> three, two, three. >> [music] >> Okay? And then again for that last chord, our D major, again your thumb is going to move down one more string to be on the fourth D string cuz that's our lowest [music] bass note in our D chord. But the rest of the pattern's the same. So, we have four, >> [music] >> three, two, three, one, three, two, >> [music] >> three. Okay? So, really just take time to get used to fingerpicking with your right hand. If this is brand new to you, it will take a little bit of practice and patience to get it to the point where your coordination, you know, is all where you want it to be. So, just make sure to give yourself grace with that. But when we're playing through the song, we're going to have to string these together. So, let's go ahead and take a look at that first verse. We're going from G to C on that first line. So, we're going to go G >> [music] >> All right. [music] Then to your C major. >> [music] >> Now, the only time that this picking pattern changes is whenever we have those split measures. So, like we talked about with strumming, the G and the D with the little dashes, that's going to be because we're splitting that measure. So, each of those chords is only going to get two beats, okay? So, what I want you to do for this for picking is on our G chord, you're just going to go down your guitar. You're going to go six, >> [music] >> three, two, one. Okay? >> [music] >> Then for your D major chord, same thing. We're going to go just straight down the guitar. Four, three, two, >> [music] >> one. Okay? So, anytime you see those little dash marks and we're doing a half measure, we're just going to go straight down the guitar like that, okay? So, let's go ahead and play through the verse. We're starting on our G major. We've got >> [music] >> to C, >> [music] >> to half measure G, >> [music] >> to D, back to G [music] for a full measure. >> [music] >> All right. So, again, if you're already getting really confused and you're like messing up which strings you're picking and stuff, you just need to slow it down and practice it at your own pace. So, make sure to do that on your own. Um but once you can speed it up a little bit, we can get it more at full tempo to play through the verses. So, it'll sound like this. O Lord my God, >> [music] >> when I'm in awesome wonder, consider all the works [singing] thy hand has made. >> [music] >> All right. And then bringing that into the chorus, same thing except now we have a half measure of C. So, again for C, we're just going to do the same thing. We're going to go down the guitar. Five, [music] three, two, one. Other than that, you know how to play all of the rest of these chords. So, for the chorus, we've got our G split >> [music] >> to our C split, to a G [music] for a full measure, >> [music] >> to D for a full measure, back to a G for a full measure. >> [music] >> All right. >> [music] >> And again, a little bit more at full tempo stringing it all together, sounds really pretty. It'll go like this. >> [music] >> Then sings my soul, [singing] my Savior [music] God to thee. How great thou art. >> [music] >> How great [singing] thou art. All right. So, with the picking pattern, you can play through the entire song like that. Again, all of the verses and all of the choruses are going to remain the same with the way that you play it on the guitar. So, let's go ahead and put all of that together so you can hear one round through all the way. O Lord my God, >> [music] >> when I'm in [singing] awesome wonder, consider [music] all the works thy hand has made. [singing] I see the stars. >> [music] >> I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout [singing] the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, [music] my Savior [singing] God to thee. How great thou art. >> [singing] >> Then sings my soul, my Savior [singing] God to thee. How great [music] thou art. How great thou art. All right. And if you wanted to end the song with picking, what I would do is on the G chord, I would go six, three, two, three [music] and then a strum. Okay? How great thou [singing] art. How great thou [music] art. All right. I think that's a really pretty way to end it or you can definitely experiment and see how you like to end the song. Again, also with the beginning of the song, if you wanted a lead-in, I would just play those first two lines and then come in with the singing. Um the rest of the song, the lyrics change for all of the verses. However, the way you would play it on the guitar is exactly the same. So, again, I will have the full guide available on my Patreon with all the lyrics and everything written on there. Otherwise, you could totally play through the rest of the song [music] in the same way that we just did. Thank you so much for watching my tutorial. I really hope that it helped you learn this song. [music] I know that if you are a frequent viewer of my channel, this tutorial structured just a little bit differently than some of my other videos. That's because I've been seeing an increase in requests [music] for hymns and other Christian music. So, if this is something that you want to see more of, be sure to leave a comment below with the songs that you want to learn next. Otherwise, thank you again so much for watching and I hope this helped you and I will see you in my next [music] video coming up soon. Bye.