The Vacant Chair, by Root
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 The Vacant Chair
Here it is. Check your inbox for day 1.
- Hear it through at Slow (30 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 3 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in A major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: E7, A, Dmaj7 and E. 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, 30 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (45 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 1 minute) 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
One of the best-loved songs of the American Civil War, by George F. Root, mourning a young soldier whose place at the family table stands empty. The sung melody sits in the right hand over a simple accompaniment in a slow 3/4.
How to play it
Play it as a hymn: smooth, unhurried and with the tune on top. Let the left hand's chords fall quietly on the first beat and keep the pulse gentle.
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 #426, in the public domain. Converted to MusicXML by Artform and checked note for note against the original.
More free Root sheet music
Who Root was
American songwriter and teacher whose songs of the Civil War, like The Battle Cry of Freedom and The Vacant Chair, were sung on both sides. He worked with Lowell Mason on music education. He also wrote parlour songs and cantatas for singing schools.
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 A major.