Hymn Breakdown: I Need Thee Every Hour

Thank you for your interest in the song, I Need The Every Hour.

This breakdown lesson will focus on how the Hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour, can be harmonized and accompanied on the piano.

I want to believe that you are already familiar with the melody, so, I’ll jump right into its harmonization using the traditional approach.

The Traditional Approach To Harmonizing I Need Thee Every Hour

Harmonization is interesting because when the song is played, you still hear the melody.

Additionally, you’ll also hear full-sounding chords behind every melody note. In this segment, I’m going to show you how to harmonize the Hymn song, I Need Thee like a classically trained player.

Attention: Although this is for beginners, it is not for the very basic beginner. It’s for those who are fairly grounded in major, minor, diminished, augmented, and dominant chords.

A Breakdown Of The Verse

I:

…need:

…thee:

…e:

…-very:

…hour:

Most:

…gra:

…-a:

…a:

…cious:

…Lord:

No:

…ten:

…-der:

…voice:

…like:

…thine:

Can:

…pea:

…-e

…-eace:

…a:

…fford:

Attention: I hope you are enjoying this short lesson. How does that sound? Good? Alright, let’s harmonize the chorus!

A Breakdown Of The Chorus

I:

…need:

…thee:

…oh:

…I:

…need:

…thee:

…E:

…-very:

…hour:

…I:

…need:

…thee:

Oh:

…bless:

…me:

…now:

…my:

…sa:

…vior:

I:

…come:

…to:

…thee:

A Traditional Accompaniment To I Need Thee Every Hour

We’re going to be accompanying the song, I Need Thee just like a classically trained musician would.

So, we’ll be using very basic chords to create accompaniment that can be played behind an instrument or voice.

A Breakdown Of The Verse

I:

…need Thee every:

…hour:

Most:

…gracious:

…Lord:

…No:

…tender:

…voice like:

…thine:

…can:

…peace:

…a:

…fford:

A Breakdown Of The Chorus

I:

…need thee, O I:

…need Thee:

Every hour I:

…need thee:

O:

…bless me:

…now, my:

…savior:

…I:

…come:

…to:

…thee:

Final Thoughts

This is just one of the many ways to approach the Hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour and I wrote this blog post with you in mind and I hope you found it helpful.

On behalf of my mentor and role-model, Jermaine Griggs, I want to thank you for investing your time in going through this lesson and I want to encourage you to practice this approach in as many keys as possible — until, eventually, you can effortlessly play it in all twelve keys.

I’ll see you in the next lesson.

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Chuku Onyemachi

Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group

Onyemachi "Onye" Chuku is a Nigerian musicologist, pianist, and author. Inspired by his role model (Jermaine Griggs) who has become his mentor, what he started off as teaching musicians in his Aba-Nigeria neighborhood in April 2005 eventually morphed into an international career that has helped hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world. Onye lives in Dubai and is currently the Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group and the music consultant of the Gospel Music Training Center, all in California, USA.

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