10,000 Reasons Guitar Chords (Bless the Lord) by Matt Redman

The standard chord chart for "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)" by Matt Redman uses four chords: C, G, D, and Em, all in the key of G major with no capo needed. The chorus runs C, G, then D/F# into Em, then C, G, Dsus4, D. The verses cycle through C, G, D, and Em on a loop. Fuller charts add D/F# and Dsus4 as passing chords that smooth out the bass line without changing which chords you are actually playing. Everything below covers the easy version, the fuller chart, the full song structure, why it sits in the key of G the way it does, and how to make the changes clean enough to actually lead a room with it.

The Easy Version: C, G, D, and Em

If you already know open C, G, D, and Em, you already know every chord this song needs. That is not an exaggeration to sell the song as beginner-friendly, it is the actual chord chart nearly every source agrees on. Here is each shape, string by string. Strings are numbered 1 to 6, thinnest to thickest, and fingers use standard numbering: 1 is your index finger, 2 is your middle finger, 3 is your ring finger, 4 is your pinky.

C Major

G Major

D Major

E Minor (Em)

None of these four shapes ask for a barre or an unusual stretch. Em is the easiest chord most guitarists ever learn, and C, G, and D are the three chords nearly every beginner method book teaches first. That is exactly why this song shows up so often as a first full worship song to learn: the challenge here is not any single shape, it is keeping four familiar chords moving cleanly at a tempo that does not wait for you.

Song Basics at a Glance

Before the section-by-section breakdown, here is what you are working with.

The tempo is worth reading twice. Different charts list this song anywhere from the low 70s to the mid 140s, and both numbers describe the same recording. The song feels slow and spacious because it is usually counted and conducted in half time, two big beats per bar rather than four, even though the underlying pulse is close to 146 quarter notes a minute. Strumming along with a metronome set to 73 rather than 146 is the difference between this song breathing the way the recording does and it feeling rushed.

The Story Behind "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)"

Matt Redman wrote "10,000 Reasons" with Swedish songwriter Jonas Myrin, who brought an initial idea for part of the chorus melody to a writing session. Redman has said he found that idea "immediately inspiring," and by his own account a good chunk of the finished song came together in a spontaneous burst rather than being labored over line by line.

The lyric draws directly on Psalm 103, an Old Testament psalm that opens with the line "Bless the Lord, O my soul" and spends its verses listing specific reasons for praise: God's holiness, patience, goodness, and enduring love. Redman and Myrin also drew on "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven," a 19th-century hymn by Henry Francis Lyte that opens with a close cousin of the same phrase. The song's title itself, "10,000 Reasons," is not a line pulled from either source directly, it is the song's own way of saying the list in Psalm 103 could run far longer than the psalm's five verses, and worship could keep finding fresh reasons for as long as a life lasts.

Released as a single in May 2012 from Redman's 2011 album of the same name, the song spent 13 weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart and 16 weeks atop Christian radio. It won the 2013 Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance, along with the Dove Award for Song of the Year. CCLI, which tracks what churches actually report singing, ranked it the single most sung worship song of the entire 2010s decade. That scale of use is part of why the song is worth learning properly rather than just well enough to fake through once, there is a real chance you will be asked to lead it more than once.

What the Lyrics Are About, Verse by Verse

Knowing what each section is actually saying changes how you play it, since this song's dynamics track the lyric's own shape more than they follow a fixed strumming formula.

The first verse opens on a plain, physical image, "the sun comes up, it's a new day dawning," before turning that ordinary moment into an act of worship, "it's time to sing Your song again." That pattern repeats across the verses: each one takes something true and sometimes hard about the passage of time, a new morning, growing older, the eventual end of life, and turns it into a reason to keep singing rather than a reason to stop. That is a different move than most worship songs make, which tend to stay in the abstract. Here the imagery grounds the praise in something a listener can actually picture, which is also why a heavy, unchanging strum across every verse undersells the lyric. The verses are closer to a quiet, patient observation than a declaration.

The chorus is the direct address drawn from Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul," repeated as both an instruction to oneself and an act of worship in the moment it is sung. It is fuller than the verse but, notably, still not the loudest part of the song. The chorus is the song's steady center, the phrase everything else in the lyric orbits.

The bridge, when a version of the song includes one, and the tag that closes most arrangements both return to that same "bless the Lord" phrase, stripped down and often repeated quietly, sometimes unaccompanied. Rather than building to a louder climax the way many worship bridges do, this song tends to end by settling, which is a real and deliberate difference worth planning for on guitar rather than defaulting to a louder final chorus out of habit.

The Chorus Chords

The chorus is where the fuller chart's extra chords show up.

In the fuller version, D/F# replaces plain D on the way into Em, and Dsus4 appears briefly before D resolves the phrase. Neither substitution changes which chord your ear hears as the harmony, D/F# is still a D chord and Dsus4 still resolves to D. What changes is the bass line underneath: D/F# lets the bass step down smoothly from G to F# to E (the root of Em) instead of jumping, and Dsus4 adds a brief moment of tension right before the plain D chord releases it. If you only know plain C, G, D, and Em, you can play the entire chorus correctly using only those four shapes. The fuller chart is a more polished reading of the same four chords, not a different song.

The Verse Chords

The verses are the simplest part of the song to play, which is part of why they work so well as the quiet section between choruses.

That same four-chord loop, C to G to D to Em, repeats through every line of every verse with only small variations at the very end of some verses in fuller charts, where a passing chord occasionally appears before the next chorus. You do not need to chase that passing chord down to play the song correctly, plain C, G, D, and Em carries every verse on its own.

Because the verse loop never changes shape, the real skill here is not memorizing new chords, it is keeping the same four-chord cycle sounding fresh across three verses without rushing ahead of the vocal or falling behind it. Let each chord ring for close to a full bar rather than choking it early to prepare for the next change, and keep your strumming hand light. This song builds slowly by design, and a verse strummed at chorus volume erases that arc before the chorus even arrives.

How the Whole Song Fits Together

Seeing the full structure in order makes the song far easier to play start to finish. Arrangements vary from a simple congregational lead sheet to a fuller studio recording, so treat this as a reliable map rather than a fixed script.

The tag near the end is the one structural surprise for anyone who has only heard the chorus and verses. It reworks the same chord pool, C, G, D, and Em, into a short repeated phrase that opens on Em rather than C, giving the ending a slightly more reflective color right before the song's final pass through the chorus. Nothing about it requires a new shape, but coming into it expecting another verse rather than a shift in chord order is the single most common place players lose their footing on this song.

How This Song Sits in the Key of G

Naming the chords by their role in the key explains why this specific set keeps showing up together. In the key of G major, G is the I chord (home base), C is the IV chord, D is the V chord, and Em is the vi chord. Written that way, both the verse and the chorus are variations on a I-IV-V-vi pool of chords, just entered in a different order each time, C (IV) to G (I) to D (V) to Em (vi) in the verse, a similar rotation with a couple of passing chords in the chorus.

What stands out is that the song never opens on G, its own I chord. The intro, every verse, and the chorus itself all start on C, the IV chord, before ever landing on G. Starting away from the I chord is a common way to open a phrase with forward motion rather than a fully settled feeling, which suits a song whose lyric keeps turning toward praise rather than simply announcing it. The tag near the end briefly opens on Em, the vi chord, for the same reason, a small harmonic signal that this section feels different from the verses and choruses that came before it, even though it is built from the exact same four chords.

The Fuller Chord Chart: D/F# and Dsus4

Look at more than one chord chart for this song and you will find two chords that do not appear in the easy version: D/F# in place of plain D on the way into Em, and Dsus4 briefly before D resolves the chorus. Neither is required to play the song correctly. Both are a smoother, slightly more polished reading of the same underlying chords.

D/F# Instead of D

D/F# is a plain D major chord with F#, its own third, moved into the bass instead of D. If slash-chord notation is new to you, the Dm/A chord guide covers exactly how the naming works, chord name first, bass note second, using a different chord as the example. The logic is identical here.

The only change from plain D is fretting the 6th string at the 2nd fret with your index finger instead of leaving it muted, which puts F# underneath the chord. Since the chord right after it is Em, whose root E sits one fret below F#, this creates a smooth, stepwise bass line moving into the next chord instead of a jump.

Dsus4 Instead of D

Dsus4 swaps D major's third, F#, for a fourth, G, creating a moment of unresolved tension that the following D chord then releases.

The only change from plain D is moving your finger on the 1st string from the 2nd fret to the 3rd fret, right next to where your ring finger already sits on the 2nd string. That brief half-step move and release, Dsus4 into D, is a small, recognizable piece of ear candy that shows up constantly in worship music once you learn to hear it.

Some fuller charts also mark a passing Csus2 or C/G at the very end of a verse or inside the tag. Those are optional color, functionally interchangeable with plain C wherever they appear, and skipping them changes nothing about which chords the song is built from.

Why Your Chords Are Buzzing or Sound Dead

Most of the buzzing and dead strings in this song trace back to one of a small handful of causes.

Your C Chord Is Muting the Open Strings Around It

C asks three fingers to land on three different strings while two strings, the 3rd and 1st, stay open. If your ring or middle finger arches too flat, its underside can brush the neighboring open G or high E string and choke part of the chord. Curl your fingertips more vertically and check that only the strings you intend to fret are actually touching skin.

Em's Open Strings Aren't Ringing Clean

Em uses only two fretted notes across six strings, which means any buzz usually comes from one of the two fretted strings, not the open ones. If the chord sounds muddy rather than buzzy, check that your middle and ring fingers are pressing just behind the 2nd fret rather than in the middle of the fret space, where more pressure is needed for the same result.

D/F#'s Bass Note Isn't Cutting Through

D/F# depends on a single low note ringing clearly underneath the rest of the chord. If that note is muted, weakly fretted, or lost under the rest of the strum, the slash chord just sounds like a slightly muddier version of plain D and stops doing the job it was written for. Pick the bass note on its own after fretting the shape and listen for it specifically before strumming the full chord.

Dsus4's Extra Finger Is Crowding the Neighboring String

Because Dsus4 puts two fingers on the same fret, on adjacent strings, it is easy for one finger to lean into the other and mute a string that should be ringing. Angle your fretting fingers so each one contacts its string near the fingertip rather than the pad, giving the neighboring finger room to do the same.

The G Chord's Stretch Is Muting a Neighboring String

G asks three fingers to spread across four strings, from the 6th down to the 1st. If your index finger, reaching for the 5th string, isn't arched enough, its underside can lean into the open 4th string beside it and choke part of the chord's sustain. Isolate G on its own, strumming slowly and listening for every string ringing clearly, before assuming a buzz elsewhere in the song is coming from a different chord.

Easier Versions for Beginners

If you are still building comfort with any of the four core shapes, there is a real order to work through rather than trying to force all four at once. Em is the easiest chord in the entire song, two fingers, no stretch, and a good place to build confidence first. C and D come next, both asking for three fingers in a compact shape. G is usually the last of the four to feel solid, since it is the only one that spreads across the full width of the neck.

For D/F#, plain D is a complete substitute anywhere the fuller chart calls for it. The difference is a smoother bass line into the next chord, not a different chord, so plain D is never a wrong answer in this progression.

For Dsus4, plain D works just as well. The moment of tension before the resolution is a stylistic touch, not a structural requirement, and skipping it loses polish, not correctness.

None of these substitutions are a permanent compromise. They are a way to keep playing the whole song while your hand builds the speed and independence the fuller voicings ask for.

Playing With a Capo (and Other Keys)

Because the song's own key is G major and the standard chart already uses open G-shape chords, you do not need a capo to sound like the recording. A capo becomes useful for one main reason here: fitting the song to a singer's vocal range.

Moving the capo up raises the key while every chord shape in this post, C, G, D, Em, D/F#, and Dsus4, stays exactly the same. Only the fret the capo sits on changes.

The relationship between the chords never changes. G is still the I chord, C is still the IV chord, D is still the V chord, and Em is still the vi chord, all moving up together by however many semitones the capo does. Once the song is comfortable in one key, it is comfortable in any of these keys just by sliding the capo, which matters more than usual for a song this widely sung across churches with very different vocal ranges.

Changing Between Chords Without Losing the Beat

The shapes in this song are not the hard part. The speed and consistency of the changes are, particularly across three full verses and three full choruses without a single easier section to rest in.

C to G is the first change worth isolating. Your ring finger moves from the 5th string in C to the 6th string in G, and your index finger moves from the 2nd string in C to the 5th string in G. Neither finger stays put, but both moves are short.

G to D asks your whole hand to reset, none of your fingers land on the same string in both shapes, so treat it as a full hand change rather than a shortcut move, and practice it slowly before expecting it at tempo.

D to Em is the friendliest change in the song. Your index finger on D's 3rd string simply lifts off, your middle and ring fingers slide down to the 5th and 4th strings, and the whole shape opens up rather than resets. Anchor on this ease, D to Em is where you can afford to relax your hand slightly before G asks for another full reset.

Em back to C, closing the loop, is a short move for your middle finger, from the 5th string to the 4th, while your ring and index fingers land fresh on the 5th and 2nd strings. Practiced enough times in isolation, this four-chord loop starts to feel like one continuous shape drifting across the neck rather than four separate decisions.

An Easier G Shape for Smoother Transitions

The standard G chord above uses your index finger on the 5th string and your middle finger on the 6th string, which is the most common way to learn G first. But that same index finger is also the one C and D both rely on, on the 2nd string for C and the 3rd string for D, so every change into or out of G asks your index finger to let go of one string and immediately find another.

An alternate G fingering frees the index finger entirely, using your middle, ring, and pinky fingers instead.

The notes and sound are identical to the standard G shape, only the fingering changes. With your index finger free, C to G and G to D both become one-finger-fewer moves, since your index finger can go straight to its new position instead of releasing one string and traveling to another under time pressure. It takes a little getting used to if you already have the standard G shape memorized, but for a song built entirely around fast, repeated changes through this exact chord pool, it is worth the short adjustment period.

A Basic Strumming Pattern for Verse and Chorus

There is no single official strumming pattern for this song, and most guitarists who play it settle into something close to the following without ever writing it down. Use it as a starting point rather than a rule, and adjust it to whatever recording or worship team you are playing along with.

The verse pattern leaves deliberate gaps rather than filling every beat, which matches the patient, observational feel of the lyric at that point in the song. The chorus pattern is busier and more continuous, giving the declaration "bless the Lord" forward motion without becoming aggressive. The tag pattern strips back down even further than the verse, since this song tends to close by settling rather than by building to a bigger finish.

Practice each pattern against a metronome on a single chord before applying it to the full progression. A strumming pattern that falls apart the moment a chord change is added is worth isolating on its own before you try to combine both skills at once.

Fingerpicking the Verses Instead of Strumming

A quieter, more restrained sound suits the verses of this song particularly well, since the lyric is working through specific, grounded images rather than the chorus's direct declaration. A simple thumb-and-fingers pattern gets you there without a complicated fingerstyle arrangement.

Play the thumb note first, then roll the remaining three fingers upward in order, letting each note ring into the next rather than plucking them all at once. For C, the thumb lands on the fretted 5th string. For G, the thumb lands on the fretted 6th string. For D, the thumb lands on the open 4th string. For Em, the thumb lands on the open 6th string.

This pattern works especially well under the verse, where the lyric is doing the work and a busier strum would compete with it rather than support it. Switching to a fuller strum for the chorus creates the same dynamic contrast a full band gets from adding instruments, built entirely from your right hand's technique.

The Tag: Playing the Song's Quiet Ending

Most arrangements of this song close with a short tag section built from the same four chords in a slightly different order, Em, C, D, Em, then C, D, G. On paper it looks like another repeat of the verse loop with the chords rearranged. What the chart alone does not show is that this section is meant to feel like the song settling rather than building, which is a real departure from how a lot of worship songs choose to end.

Where many songs save their loudest, fullest chorus for last, this one tends to pull back at the tag, sometimes to a single sustained chord, sometimes to just a vocal with minimal accompaniment, before the final full chorus returns. Practically, that means your job on guitar during the tag is restraint. A soft single strum per chord, or a fingerpicked pattern like the one above played even more sparsely than usual, serves the section better than carrying the same volume you used in the chorus straight through it.

Because arrangements vary in exactly how the tag is played live, from a worship leader's own record to how your own team plays it, listen for the moment the song is scaling back rather than assuming it will always happen at a fixed bar count. That is the actual skill this section is testing, not a new chord shape.

Full Chord Shape Reference

Every chord this song needs, gathered in one place. Strings are numbered 1 to 6, thinnest to thickest.

C Major

G Major

D Major

E Minor

D/F#

Dsus4

A Practice Routine for This Song

Start with each of the four chords alone, C, G, D, and Em, until every one rings clean with a single strum before you try to move between any of them. Since none of these shapes takes long to build strength for, most players are ready to move on within a few days rather than weeks.

A realistic first week looks like this.

Do not treat day 7 as a finish line. It is the first time you are allowed to play the whole song slowly and imperfectly, not the point where it needs to already sound finished. If you are building this into a short daily habit rather than one long session, the homepage has more on structuring focused fifteen-minute practice blocks that actually stick over time.

Playing It Solo, With a Band, or Leading a Group

Alone, with just a guitar and a voice, the plain four-chord version carries the whole song without ever needing D/F# or Dsus4. That is a complete way to play it, not a placeholder waiting for the "real" version.

With a full band, your role shifts toward locking in with whoever is keeping time rather than driving the tempo yourself, since this song's slow, spacious feel falls apart quickly if the guitar rushes ahead during the sparser verse sections. Leave the fuller, busier strumming for the chorus and let the verse breathe, matching what the rest of the band is doing rather than filling every gap on your own.

Leading a group of singers on your own, the plain chord version is often the better choice over the fuller chart, since it is one less thing to track while you are also responsible for tempo, dynamics, and cueing the tag section that a room unfamiliar with the song might not expect. The Heart of Worship chord guide covers a similarly simple, small chord pool built for exactly this kind of solo or group leading situation, and is a useful next comparison once this song feels comfortable.

Playing It on Acoustic Versus Electric Guitar

Both the studio recording and most live worship arrangements of this song lean on acoustic guitar as the core instrument, often layered with a fuller band underneath. That makes acoustic the more natural first choice for learning it, but it is not the only correct one.

On acoustic, focus on letting each chord ring its full length rather than muting it early, since the space between chord changes is doing real work in this arrangement, particularly in the verse. A light touch and a slightly slower strumming hand than you might use on a faster song both help recreate the recording's patient, unhurried feel.

On electric, a clean tone with a touch of reverb gets you close to the atmosphere most worship arrangements build around this song, without needing anything more elaborate than a basic amp setting. Because the chords themselves are simple open shapes, the sound of an electric guitar changes the color of the song far more than it changes anything about how you actually play it.

The Chord Pool This Song Shares With Other Worship Music

C, G, D, and Em are not just this song's chords, they are one of the most common chord pools in modern worship music generally, along with its close relative built from the same four chords starting on a different one. Once this specific I-IV-V-vi rotation is comfortable in your hands, you will start recognizing it constantly, in slower ballads and faster congregational songs alike, because a huge number of songs in this style are written from the same small set of chord relationships rather than from unusual or exotic harmony.

That is genuinely useful information, not just trivia. If you already have the open C chord solid on its own, learning this song is mostly a matter of adding G, D, and Em around it and practicing the specific order this song asks for, not learning an unfamiliar set of shapes from scratch. The skill you build getting these four changes fast and clean here carries directly into the next worship song built from the same pool, which is most of them.

Common Mistakes Beyond the Chords

A few issues show up repeatedly with this song that have nothing to do with fingering a wrong shape.

Playing It Too Fast

Because the recording's underlying pulse is close to 146 beats per minute, it is easy to strum along at that speed and end up rushing the song. Counting in half time, two big beats per bar at roughly 73 BPM, is what actually matches how the song feels and how most congregations sing it.

Filling Every Verse With the Same Volume as the Chorus

The verse's patient, image-by-image lyric is undercut when it is strummed at the same volume and density as the chorus. Save the fuller strum for the "bless the Lord" declaration itself, and let the verse stay comparatively spare.

Treating the Tag Like Another Verse

The tag's slightly rearranged chord order, opening on Em rather than C, is a small but real signal that this section is different. Coming into it expecting a fourth verse rather than the song's quieter closing section is the most common place players lose their place.

Skipping D/F# and Dsus4 Without Realizing It Changes the Feel, Not Just the Difficulty

Plain D is always a correct substitute for both, but it is worth knowing that is a trade, not a downgrade with no cost. The smoother bass line and brief moment of tension these two chords add are a real, audible part of what makes the recorded chorus sound as polished as it does.

Frequently Asked Questions

What key is "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)" in?

The original recording is in G major. The standard chord chart, built around C, G, D, and Em, already matches that key with no capo required.

How many chords does this song use?

Four core chords, C, G, D, and Em, cover the entire song correctly. Fuller charts add D/F# and Dsus4 as optional passing chords that smooth the bass line without changing the underlying harmony.

What tempo should I play it at?

Around 73 BPM if you count two big beats per bar, or 146 BPM if you count four straight quarter notes per bar. Both describe the same recording, and counting it too fast is a common way beginners rush the song without realizing it.

Do I need a capo for this song?

No. The song's own key already matches the standard C-G-D-Em chart. A capo becomes useful only if you are shifting the key to fit a singer's vocal range.

What is the difference between D and D/F# in this song?

D/F# moves D's own third, F#, into the bass instead of the root note, creating a smoother, stepwise bass line into the Em chord that usually follows. Plain D is a complete substitute anywhere D/F# appears.

Who wrote "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)"?

Matt Redman wrote it with Swedish songwriter Jonas Myrin, drawing on Psalm 103 and the hymn "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven" by Henry Francis Lyte. It won the 2013 Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance.

Is this a good song for a beginner guitarist?

Yes. All four core chords, C, G, D, and Em, are among the first shapes most beginner method books teach, and none of them requires a barre. The real challenge is keeping the changes clean and consistent across three verses and three choruses, not learning any individual shape.

What is the tag or bridge section, and do all versions include it?

The tag is a short section near the end that reworks the same four chords, opening on Em instead of C, before the song's final chorus. Most full arrangements include it, though simpler congregational lead sheets sometimes leave it out and move straight from the third chorus to the ending.

Why do some chord charts show extra chords I don't recognize, like Csus2 or C/G?

Those are optional passing chords some fuller charts mark briefly at the end of a verse or inside the tag. They are functionally interchangeable with plain C wherever they appear, and skipping them does not change which chords the song is actually built from.

Does this song have a bridge?

Most chord charts label the short closing section a tag rather than a bridge, since it reuses the song's existing four chords in a slightly rearranged order rather than introducing new harmonic material. Functionally it plays the same role a bridge would, a distinct section before the final chorus, so treating it as one is not wrong, just a difference in labeling between charts.