Be Present at Our Table Lord Solfa: Learn It in 20 Minutes

The table is laid, everyone is hungry, and someone turns to you: "You're the musician. Lead us in grace." Half the room mumbles the first word, the other half waits to hear what note you pick, and the moment fizzles before the food goes round.

Here is the short answer on Be Present at Our Table Lord solfa: the grace is written in G major, so doh is G. It opens on a held doh, steps down one note at a time to low soh (s,), then climbs back, and it uses the same melody as the Doxology, "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow". Four short lines, ten bars, one sitting.

In this post I'll show you the opening in solfa, the whole grace, how to find doh without a piano, and a 20-minute plan you can run with a family on Thanksgiving Day or with a church group before a harvest supper.

Be Present at Our Table Lord solfa: the first line

This is how the grace begins. Read it slowly before you sing it.

Doh is G4/4

dBe---dpres--t,ent-

l,at-s,our-dta--rble,-

Three things to notice, because they are where people go wrong:

• "Be" is long. The first doh lasts two beats. Most people rush it and arrive at "present" too early. Hold it as if you were saying "Beee".
• The tune steps down before it climbs. After the opening doh the melody walks downstairs, one step at a time, until it reaches low soh on "our". No jumps, just steady steps.
• Then it jumps back. From low soh it leaps up to doh on "ta-" and steps up again on "-ble". That leap from low soh to doh is the only jump in the line, and it is one of the most familiar leaps in hymn singing.

The words most books print are: "Be present at our table, Lord; be here and everywhere adored; these mercies bless, and grant that we may feast in paradise with Thee." Some books have "Thy creatures bless" in the third line. Pick one before you start, or you will hear both at once.

Got a recording? Get it in solfa →

Why does this grace sound so familiar?

It sounds familiar because it is the Doxology tune. Compare the opening bars on the Be Present at Our Table, Lord solfa page with Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow: the notes are identical. It is also the melody of All People That on Earth Do Dwell, the Old Hundredth.

That is good news for a sung grace before meals. If your church sings the Doxology at the offering, most adults at the table already carry this tune in their heads. Your job is not to teach a new melody; it is to fit new words to an old one. Say that out loud before you start: "It's the Doxology tune." You will watch shoulders relax.

Here is the whole grace, all ten bars:

Doh is G4/4

dBe---dpres--t,ent-

l,at-s,our-dta--rble,-

mLord;---mBe---

mhere-mand-rev--d’ry--

fwhere-ma--rdored;---

dThese---rmer--mcies-

rbless,-dand-l,grant-t,that-

dwe---sMay---

mfeast-din-rfel--flow--

mship-rwith-dthee.---

Look at how it is built. The tune has four lines, one for each line of words, and each line ends on a long note that gives you a natural place to breathe. Lines 2 and 4 are the ones to give a little extra attention: line 2 reaches a little higher than line 1, and line 4 carries the tune home to doh.

How do you find doh for this grace without an instrument?

You find doh by humming a comfortable low note and treating it as low soh, then singing up to doh. You do not need a piano at a dinner table; you need a starting note everyone can reach.

1. Hum the lowest note of the grace first. That is low soh (s,) on "our". Pick a pitch that feels easy for the lowest voice at the table, not the highest.
2. From that note, sing up the scale by step until you have climbed four notes. Where you land is doh.
3. Sing doh on "Be" and hold it for two beats. Everyone joins on the same note.

Working from the bottom up is safer than guessing doh straight away. If you start too high, the grace climbs out of reach later; if you set the low note first, the rest of the tune sits above it in a range most untrained voices can manage. The whole melody fits inside about an octave, which is why it works as a thanksgiving table grace song for grandparents and children alike.

If you want a fuller method, my post on how to give a choir the starting note goes into it in detail.

A 20-minute plan to learn the grace in one sitting

This is the plan I would use with a family the afternoon before the meal, or with a church group at the end of a rehearsal. It is echo singing: you sing, they copy.

1. Speak the words in rhythm (2 minutes). Say the whole grace together, holding "Be" for two counts and the last word of each line for a long note. Rhythm first means the tune has somewhere to sit.
2. Line 1 by echo (3 minutes). Sing "Be present at our table, Lord" on solfa, then on words. They copy each time. If anyone sings the downward steps too fast, slow the whole line down rather than correcting one person.
3. Line 2 by echo (3 minutes). "Be here and everywhere adored." This line sits a little higher than line 1. Ask people to breathe before it, not in the middle of "everywhere".
4. Lines 1 and 2 together (2 minutes). Sing them as one sentence with a breath between. Stop here if young children are flagging; half the grace sung well is better than the whole grace mumbled.
5. Line 3 by echo (2 minutes). "These mercies bless, and grant that we." Keep it flowing straight into line 4, because the sentence carries on.
6. Line 4 by echo (3 minutes). "May feast in paradise with Thee." This is the line that brings the tune home to doh. Make the last note long and gentle; it is a prayer, not a fanfare.
7. Two complete run-throughs (5 minutes). Once on solfa, once on words. Then stop. Do not drill it again; save the freshness for the table.

If you have Curwen hand signs in your toolkit, showing them while you echo helps children see the steps going down and up. You do not need them, but they make the leap from low soh to doh easy to see.

What key should a family sing it in?

G major suits most adults, but a table with small children or older voices may want it lower. You can sing it in F major, a whole step down, so the low soh sits lower and the higher notes in line 2 feel easier. Here is the opening in F:

Doh is F4/4

dBe---dpres--t,ent-

l,at-s,our-dta--rble,-

The solfa does not change at all; only the starting pitch does. That is the beauty of movable doh: whatever key you choose, everyone sings exactly the same syllables. My advice: if the men at the table sound like they are straining on line 2, drop the key. If the children sound growly on low soh, raise it.

Making it a choir item: Be Present at Our Table Lord for choir

For a church harvest supper or a Thanksgiving fellowship meal, a choir can sing the grace in parts while everyone stands. Because the tune is the Doxology, a choir that already sings the Doxology in four parts can lift the alto, tenor and bass lines straight across. You are teaching new words, not new notes.

A simple way to present Be Present at Our Table Lord as a choir piece:

• Once in unison, so the room hears the melody and the words clearly.
• Once in harmony, with the sopranos on the tune.
• Invite everyone to join on a third time, back in unison.

That gives you a sung grace before meals that takes well under two minutes and lets non-singers join in. If your group is new or small, keep all three times in unison; a confident unison sounds better than shaky harmony. For more tunes with short ranges and simple steps, see easy hymns for a new choir.

Common mistakes and quick fixes

Where this grace fits in a Thanksgiving or harvest season

A sung table grace works well at more than one point in the season. Use it before a harvest supper in the church hall, at the end of a harvest service before people go to eat, or at home on Thanksgiving Day itself. If you are planning a whole service, my list of Thanksgiving hymns for church choir in solfa gives you hymns to sing in church, and this grace becomes the bridge from the sanctuary to the meal. Singing the Doxology at the offering and this grace at the table, on the same tune, ties the day together neatly.

If some of your family or choir are still new to reading the syllables, point them to how to read Tonic Solfa a few days before. Four lines is a gentle first piece to read on their own.

If you want to hear the grace before you lead it, open it in NoteFusion: it plays the tune back on a piano, slower or looped, so you can practise line 4 until it settles, and "Transpose for my choir" moves doh to a key that suits your table. You can then share the sheet with a link so everyone has the words and solfa on their phone before they sit down to eat.