Hard Times Come Again No More, by Stephen Foster
Every score here is public domain, free to read, print and keep. Open it in the browser and it plays, at whatever tempo you can read it.
Get the practice plan for Hard Times Come Again No More
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- Hear it through at Slow (31 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 4 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in E♭ major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: E♭, B♭7, E♭maj7 and Cm7. Play each one as a block in your left hand and say its name, so you know what the harmony is before the left hand has to move.
- Learn the left hand of the same bars on its own. Keep it quiet and even: it is the floor the tune stands on.
- Put hands together at Slow, 31 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (47 bpm) once Slow feels easy three times in a row. Then learn the next 8 bars the same way: right hand, left hand, together.
- Play the whole piece (about 2 minutes) from the start, at whatever speed keeps it going. A steady run with a few slips beats a fast one that stops.
About this piece
Stephen Foster published this song in 1854, a plea to remember the poor that is still one of his most performed. It is arranged for piano from the song for voice and piano, and the chorus, with its sighing refrain of the title, is the part everyone knows.
How to play it
Play the verse plainly, almost like speech, then give the chorus a fuller, warmer tone. On repeated melody notes, lean gently on the first rather than playing equal knocks.
Reading it, and printing it
The score opens in Artform's reader, which shows the music as engraved notation and plays it back so you can hear the line before you try it. You can slow the tempo down, loop a passage that is not working yet, and print the page when you would rather have paper on the stand.
The file itself is MusicXML, which MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale and Dorico all open, so the notes are yours to keep whatever you read them in.
Edition: Mutopia Project #371, in the public domain. Converted to MusicXML by Artform and checked note for note against the original.
More free Stephen Foster sheet music
All 10 Stephen Foster scores →
Who Stephen Foster was
The first American to try to make a living purely by writing songs, and a cautionary tale about how that went. He wrote about two hundred, several of which the country still sings without knowing whose they are, and he sold them for almost nothing under contracts that gave him no share of what they earned. Much of his most popular work was written for minstrel shows and carries all the ugliness of that form. He died alone in a New York hotel at thirty-seven with thirty-eight cents in his pocket.
Learn the music behind it
Reading a piece and understanding it are different skills. If you want the harmony under this one, the chord trainer teaches chords the way songs use them, and the scale pages cover the fingering for every key, including E♭ major.