My Hope is Built On Nothing Less - Guitar Chords, Tabs, and Fingerpicking Arrangement

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My Hope is Built on Nothing Less is a classic hymn by Edward Mote, with music by William B. Bradbury.

Whether you’re playing in a worship setting or just want to enjoy this classic at home, this lesson will help you learn it step by step on guitar.

We’ll start with the basic chords, then the melody with tabs, and finally a fingerpicking arrangement that ties it all together.

It’s a great piece to grow your skills in chord changes, reading tab, and finger-style technique, all while playing a meaningful song you can enjoy solo or share with others.

Grab your guitar and let’s get started!

How to read the guitar chord charts

To clarify how to read the chord charts in the next section, 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, on the C Major chord, you use the:

1st finger on the 2nd string, 1st fret
2nd finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret
3rd finger on the 5th string, 3rd 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.

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less guitar chords

The basic chords for this song are C Major, A minor 7, G Major, D minor 7, C/E, and F Major. 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.

By the way, you can get all the PDFs of this post below.

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less – Get the PDFs

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less - Chords

Here are some resources on chords related to this song:

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less guitar tabs and chords

This section shows you the melody of the song with guitar tabs and the chords written above the staff. Keep in mind that the melody and chords are meant to be played as separate parts. We’ll look at how to connect these parts later in the arrangement section of this post.

You can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols if needed.

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less – Get the PDFs

You can also learn the finger-style guitar arrangement of this song after the lyrics below.

My Hope is Built On Nothing Less Lyrics

Verse 1:
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

Chorus:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

Verse 2:
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. (Chorus)

Verse 3:
His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. (Chorus)

Verse 4:
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. (Chorus)

Reference: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. hymnary.org