Shepherds all, and maidens fair
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 Shepherds all, and maidens fair
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- Hear it through at Slow (38 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 2 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in D major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: D, Bm7, A7 and D6. 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, 38 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (57 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
Shepherds all, and maidens fair is a Christmas partsong by Walter Cecil Macfarren, who lived from 1826 to 1905, and it was printed in 1876 in Novello's Part-Song. Lyrics from The Faithful Shepherdess, Act II. Here the choir's four parts are set on two staves for piano, soprano and alto in the right hand and tenor and bass in the left.
How to play it
Play it as four singers rather than as chords: let the top line sing, keep the bass steady, and move the inner voices smoothly. Keep the two beats in each bar light and steady.
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.
More free W. C. Macfarren sheet music
All 4 W. C. Macfarren scores →
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 D major.