Set My Feet Upon A Rock

Playing "Set My Feet Upon a Rock" on Guitar: A Straightforward Guide

"Set My Feet Upon a Rock" is a Hillsong Worship song from the 2015 album Let It Be Known. It's one of those pieces that sounds deceptively simple when you first hear it, but getting it to sound right takes a bit more attention to detail than most people expect. The song sits in the key of E major and uses a pretty standard worship-guitar approach: open chords, a consistent downstroke-heavy pattern, and a bridge that shifts the feel without changing the fundamental structure too much. The tempo is around 72 beats per minute, which gives you plenty of room to let the chords ring out without rushing. I've taught this song to dozens of people at church workshops over the years, and the most common problem I see is players trying to barre the F#m and B chords instead of using open voicings. You don't need a full barre for the F#m shape — the standard open-position F#m7 at the second fret works just as well and sounds cleaner in this context. Same thing with the B major. If you're barring it across all six strings, you're making it harder than it needs to be.

Chords You Need to Know

The core progression breaks down into four main chords: E, C#m, A, and B. The verse and chorus both ride on the same I-VI-IV-V movement, which is about as conventional as worship music gets. Here's the straightforward layout: E major is your home chord. Open position, standard fingering. No tricks here. C#m uses the open-string shape with your fingers on the fifth fret of the A string, fourth fret of the D string, second fret of the G string, and open B string. Some people prefer the barre version at the fourth fret, but again, the open voicing sounds lighter and fits better with the song's overall texture.

A major is standard open position. Four fingers, no complications. B major is where most people struggle. You can use a partial barre across the second fret with your index finger, ring your middle finger on the third fret of the G string, pinky on the fourth fret of the D string, and ring finger on the fourth fret of the A string. If that shape is giving you trouble, the workaround I always recommend is playing Bmaj7 instead — it's just the B major chord without the fifth, and it's significantly easier to voice because you only need three fingers instead of four. The difference is negligible in a live setting, and it lets you maintain the flow without pausing to reposition your hand.

The Strumming Pattern

The pattern is consistently down-down-up-up-down-up, counted as 1-and-a-2-and-a-3. That's six strokes per measure in 4/4 time. The emphasis falls on the first and fourth downstrokes, which gives the song its characteristic sway. Don't accent the upstrokes too hard — that's where a lot of players mess up and make it sound more like a pop punk song than a worship ballad. I had a guy once try to apply a more aggressive strumming pattern to this during our Sunday rehearsal, and it completely changed the mood. The song became energetic where it should have been contemplative. We went back to the simple pattern and it immediately fit.

Playing Through the Song Structure

The intro follows the same E-C#m-A-B progression but plays slightly sparser — mostly downstrokes on each beat instead of the full six-stroke pattern. This creates space for the vocals to enter naturally when the first verse starts. The verse maintains the full strumming pattern but with a lighter touch. You want the chords to ring together but not drown the melody. Think of it as background texture rather than the focal point. The pre-chorus builds tension by slowing the strumming to mostly downstrokes on beats one and three, then the chorus hits with the full pattern returning. This contrast is what makes the chorus feel like it lifts. Pay attention to this dynamic shift — it's the most important musical element in the arrangement.

The bridge section moves to a different chord progression: C#m-A-E-B. It's the same four chords rearranged, which is a common Hillsong technique. The familiarity keeps the song cohesive while the reordered progression provides enough variation to keep listeners engaged.

Common Pitfalls and How to Fix Them

The transition from B to E is the trickiest change in the song. Your hand has to move from the second fret area all the way to the open position, and if you're not practiced at this shift, you'll lose the groove. The fix is to pre-position your fingers during the last beat of the measure. As you're finishing the B chord, get your E-shape fingers hovering near their target positions so you can land cleanly on the next downstroke. Another issue is chord ringing. Players often dampen strings unintentionally by resting fingers on adjacent strings they don't mean to touch. Check each chord after you strum it. Every string should produce a clear tone. If something sounds muted, adjust your finger placement — usually it's one finger pressing down too hard or at the wrong angle. There's also the tempo trap. It's easy to speed up unconsciously, especially during the chorus when you get caught up in the energy. Keep an eye on a metronome if you're practicing alone, and don't be surprised if it takes a few weeks of deliberate slow practice before the song locks in at the right speed.

When This Approach Won't Work

The open-chord approach I described here works for solo guitar or a standard worship team setup. If you're playing in a full band with a piano and multiple guitars, the open voicings can get lost in the mix. In that scenario, switching to barre chords or adding more harmonic detail to your parts makes more sense. Similarly, if you're performing acoustically in a large venue without amplification, the lighter open voicings won't project as well as fuller chord shapes. There's also the issue of vocal range. The original recording sits in E major, which works fine for most male voices but can be too low for some singers. Transposing up to F or Fmajor is straightforward with these open-chord shapes if you use a capo, but you lose some of the resonance that comes from the open E tuning. It's a tradeoff worth considering based on your vocalist's range.

Recording and Performance Notes

If you're recording this, layering a second guitar playing arpeggiated versions of the same chords in the chorus adds depth without cluttering the mix. Keep the first guitar doing the full strumming pattern, and let the second one pick through the individual notes. This is a standard technique in contemporary worship music and it works well here because the chord voicings are simple enough to articulate clearly when picked individually. For live performance, the main thing to watch is your dynamics. Don't play at the same volume throughout the entire song. The intro and verses should sit lower in the mix than the choruses. This natural build is what keeps the congregation engaged, and it's something you have to manage actively rather than assuming it will happen on its own.

Resources and Downloads

You can find official chord sheets and tab for this song on websites like Songsterr and Ultimate-Guitar. The official Hillsong sheet music is also available through their publishing partners. For a more structured learning approach, YouTube tutorials exist from channels like Marty Music and Andy Guitar, both of which cover this song with clear finger placement demonstrations. I tend to recommend Marty's version for beginners because he breaks the chord changes down more deliberately than most other tutorial creators. Download the chord reference chart I've compiled for this song and keep it on your phone or guitar stand. Having the chord shapes and transition points in front of you while you practice cuts down on the frustration of flipping between tabs and trying to remember which chord comes next during the bridge section.