Dark and thorny is the desert (THORNY DESERT)
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 Dark and thorny is the desert (THORNY DESERT)
Here it is. Check your inbox for day 1.
- Hear it through at Slow (35 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 2 big beats to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in G major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- 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, 35 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (53 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 (under a 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
Dark and thorny is the desert (THORNY DESERT) is a hymn tune by William Walker, who lived from 1809 to 1875, and it was printed in 1835 in Southern Harmony. Most of the tune is in E minor, though the two staffs end in G Major. 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. As in the old American tunebooks, the tune itself is sung by the tenors, so listen for it in the upper line of the left hand.
How to play it
Where two voices share a hand, keep the lower one a shade quieter so the upper line carries. Count it in two dotted beats so it lilts rather than plods.
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. Walker sheet music
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 G major.