And Can It Be That I Should Gain Hymn Chords

How to Play And Can It Be That I Should Gain

This is one of those hymns everyone learns at some point and then immediately forgets the chord progression for. The tune is "Dykes," set to Charles Wesley's lyrics. Most people play it in D, which works fine for average voices. You can transpose it lower if the person leading wants to sing comfortably, but D is the standard. Here's the progression for the verses: D | A/C| Bm | F#m | G | A | D

That's four measures if you split it: D to A/C#, Bm to F#m, G to A, then back to D. Each line of text gets two beats per chord usually. "Alleluia! Christ is risen" lands on the D, then you move through the turnaround.

And Can It Be That I Should Gain Hymn Chords Breakdown

The bridge is where people mess up. "Deeply wounded, though I am" goes: Bm | F#m | G | A Then it resolves back to D for the next verse. The A chord at the end of the bridge is the dominant that pulls everything back. If you play a D instead of the A there, it sounds unresolved and flat.

Full structure repeated: Verse: D A/CBm F#m G A D | D A/CBm F#m G A D Bridge: Bm F#m G A | Bm F#m G A

Final resolve: G A D Play it straight. No fancy fingerpicking needed. Strum pattern is down-down-up-up-down-up at moderate tempo. I've seen people try to add jazz extensions to this and it sounds terrible every single time. This song doesn't need a Maj7 or a 9. It needs clean triads and decent timing. I ran into a problem once where the congregation was singing along and the pianist kept playing A major on the last chord of each verse instead of resolving to D. The singers would lose their place because the harmony kept stalling. I just wrote "RESOLVE TO D" on the chart and taped it to the piano lid. Worked immediately.

If you're tabling this for a church setting, here's a practical tip: keep the bass movement simple. The A/Cto Bm descent is the signature sound of this tune. Don't skip the Cin the bass. Play it as an A chord with Cin the lowest note, then let it walk down to B naturally. If your hands are small, you can arpeggiate it rather than strumming all the notes at once. For guitar players who want this in a different key, transpose in quarter steps. E major is the next common choice and it rings open strings nicely. B major works for darker-toned guitars. Avoid capo tricks unless you're trying to match a specific singer's range — they often complicate things more than they help. You can find chord charts for this hymn on sites like Hymnary.org or various PDF repositories. Search for "Dykes tune chords" and you'll get plenty of options. I'd recommend cross-referencing two or three since some of them have the bridge wrong.