Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing in Tonic Solfa
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing in Tonic Solfa: the solfa with the words, staff notation, all three verses and a piano.
- Key
- Eb major
- Doh
- Eb
- Time
- 3/4
- Starts on
- m (G)
- Range
- d to d' (E♭ to E♭, an octave)
- Tune
- NETTLETON
- Words
- Robert Robinson
- Music
- American folk hymn
Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune NETTLETON (American folk hymn); words by Robert Robinson (1735–1790). Sources and licences.
The solfa with the words
| mCome,rThou | dFount-dof-mev-sery | rbless--ring,-mTunesmy | lheart-sto-msingrThy | dgrace;---mStreamsrof |
| dmer--dcy,-mne-sver | rceas--ring,-mCallsfor | lsongs-sof-mloud-rest | dpraise.---sTeachlme,t_ |
| d'some-tme--llo-sdious | lson-s_mnet,-sSunglby,t_ | d'fla--tming-ltonguessa- | d'bove;---mPraiserthe |
| dmount!-dI’m-mfixedsu- | rpon-rit,-mMountsof | lThy-sre--mdeem-ring | dlove.--- |
The solfa line by line
The same solfa as plain text, a line of the hymn at a time, with the words of the first verse under it — easy to copy into your own notes or a WhatsApp message to the choir.
Doh is Eb · 3/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in Eb major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum Eb and sing d r m f s up from it, so the whole choir has the key in their ears before you start.
- Pitch the first note. The tune starts on m (G), on the word “Come”, as a pickup before the first full bar.
- Count the time. 3/4 means three crotchet beats in each bar. In the grid every cell is half a crotchet: a dash (–) holds the note before it, and _ is a rest. A cell split by a comma holds two quarter beats: d -,r is a dotted quaver and a semiquaver, d,r two semiquavers. That comma sits between two syllables; an octave mark sits small and low against its own letter (s,).
- Know the notes. The tune uses d r m s l t. A comma after a note (s,) is the octave below; an apostrophe (d') is the octave above.
New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.
About the hymn
Robert Robinson, an English Baptist minister, wrote this hymn in 1758. 'Here I raise mine Ebenezer' refers to the stone Samuel set up in 1 Samuel 7:12.
- Words (1758): Robert Robinson (1735–1790)
- Melody, from John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (1813): American folk hymn
Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune NETTLETON (American folk hymn); words by Robert Robinson (1735–1790). The Open Hymnal Project publishes this tune as public domain; NoteFusion's engine wrote the solfa from its notes. The melody has not yet been checked against a printed hymn book.
Questions about Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
What is the doh of Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing?
In this version, in Eb major, doh is Eb. If your choir sings it in another key, doh moves to the new key note and every solfa syllable stays the same — that is what movable doh means.
What note does Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing start on?
It starts on m (G in Eb major), a pickup on the word “Come” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
Is Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing in the public domain?
Yes. Robert Robinson died in 1790; the words were first published in 1759 and the music in 1813. Everyone named died before 1955 and both were published before 1929, so the hymn is out of copyright in Nigeria, the UK, the EU and the United States. Modern arrangements and translations can still be under copyright.