Amazing Grace 2026

female vocal mix (E major)

male vocal mix (F major)

I Think I Just Wrote the Amazing Grace Arrangement I’ll Be Known For

from Hymncharts arranger Don Chapman:

I’ve arranged a lot of hymns over the last 20 years! Over 150 of them live at Hymncharts right now, blended, contemporary, modern, you name it. It’s been 21 years since my last Amazing Grace arrangement and it was definately a time for a modern makeover! So when I tell you I think this new version might be the biggest thing I’ve ever written, understand that I don’t say that lightly. I’ve been doing this a while… I AM old 😂. Up until now, my biggest “hit” has been my arrangement of Christ Arose (with 2,078,379 various organic Youtube views as of this writing) so will Amazing Grace surpress it?

Time will tell! But I think this one is special, and I want to tell you why.

Here’s a secret about modern worship: almost every modern worship song you sing on a Sunday is built on a simple, repetitive pattern. Four chords, around and around. The simplicity is what helps your volunteer worship band of amatuers sound pretty amazing as they try to pull off that 6 song set every week. The problem is that most hymns weren’t written that way. So when you try to drop a 200 year old hymn into a modern set, the chord complexity makes your band want to pull their hair out (a big reason why a modern worship leader typically loathes hymns!)

For the past few years as I’ve morphed from my classic worship style to my modern style, I’ve been chasing a particular puzzle: can I find a repetitive, modern pattern that fits underneath an old hymn melody without fighting it? Sometimes it simply can’t be done. The melody just won’t cooperate. But when it works, it really works. And with “Amazing Grace 2026,” it worked better than I ever expected!

1. It starts on a minor chord. I’ve never heard an arrangement of “Amazing Grace” that opens this way. Starting on the minor does something subtle to your ear. It puts a little ache under “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” which, when you think about the lyric, is exactly right. This is a song about a wretch being saved. A little tension belongs there. In this case, the female mix starts on C#m and the male mix starts on Dm (I created two mixes so you can hear how the song can easily be led by a male or female worship leader.)

2. The pattern carries that tension through almost the whole song. This is the part I’m proudest of. The repetitive pattern begins on that minor chord and holds the tension across verse after verse. Most people in the pews won’t be able to tell you what’s happening, they’ll just feel it. The song progresses forward the entire time, waiting for something to resolve.

3. The final verse lands on the tonic, the major root chord, and the whole thing releases. That’s the payoff. After carrying that subtle tension the entire song, the last verse finally arrives home on the major root and you feel the weight lift. “When we’ve been there ten thousand years,” and suddenly the ground is solid under you.

4. A little tag at the end of each verse. I added a tag that repeats the last line of each verse. Here’s why: it fills the song out and adds a build and a sense of power, but it doesn’t make you feel like I’ve tacked on a whole new chorus. It’s still “Amazing Grace.” I just gave the song room to breathe and grow.

I think this is going to be the de facto modern worship arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” with a chance it becomes a standard that worship leaders are still using years from now. I’ve written a lot of charts, but very few have made me feel this way when I finished. My drummer said he “might have cried a few times” when he first heard it, so that’s a good sign 😂

Bottom Line: I think I just wrote the version of “Amazing Grace” I’ll be remembered for, and I’d love for you to try it in your church!

Download Amazing Grace 2026

Get this arrangement of Amazing Grace 2026 only at Hymncharts.com and Worshiphymns.com – you won’t find this fresh take anywhere else! As the arranger, I’m offering this new version exclusively on my sites.