“Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty” is a classic hymn by Reginald Heber, set to the tune “Nicaea” by John B. Dykes. In this lesson, you’ll learn the chords for the song, sheet music for the melody with tabs, and a fingerstyle guitar arrangement.
Let’s get started.
How to read the guitar chord charts
To clarify how to read the chord charts, the top horizontal line represents the high E string and the bottom horizontal line represents the low E string. The vertical lines separate each fret. The numbers in the blue dots tell you which fingers to use on the fretting hand.
For example, for the A Major chord, you use the:
- 1st finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret
- 2nd finger on the 3rd string, 2nd fret
- 3rd finger on the 2nd string, 2nd fret
- Circles represent open strings
- X means to avoid the string
You can check this link for more on how to read guitar notation symbols.
Guitar chords for Holy Holy Holy
The chords you can use for this song are A Major, D Major, E Major, F# minor 7, B 7, and C# minor 7. You can click on the chords with links to learn different ways of playing that chord.
Try the following chords one at a time until you feel comfortable switching between them. These chords will be written above the melody in the next section.
Here are some other resources on chords:
- Master the basic chords on guitar
- 6 tips to get better at switching between chords on guitar
- How to play the essential 7th chords on guitar
- How to play chord inversions on guitar
Holy Holy Holy guitar tabs
For the sheet music below, keep in mind that the chords and melody are meant to be played as separate parts. We’ll look at how to connect these parts later in the arrangement section of this lesson.
The numbers next to some notes on the top staff indicate which fingers to use on the fretting hand.
You can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols if needed.
Now try the finger-style guitar arrangement of this song after the lyrics below.
Holy Holy Holy lyrics
Verse 1:
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Verse 2:
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert and art and evermore shalt be.
Verse 3:
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
Verse 4:
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Reference: Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! hymnary.org
Holy Holy Holy – guitar arrangement
In this section, we are essentially connecting the melody and chords together using a finger picking method of playing. If needed, check out this lesson to learn how to finger pick on guitar.
If you like this style of playing, you can check out this lesson to learn how to connect a melody and chords on guitar.
Want to learn more songs? Check out the sheet music with guitar tabs resource on this site.
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