Red River Valley – Traditional

About this piece

Red River Valley is a traditional North American folk song, a slow ballad of farewell that became a favourite among cowboys and campfire singers. Its simple, singable melody has been recorded and adapted many times, and it remains a common choice in folk songbooks for guitar, harmonica and piano.

This arrangement runs about 2 minutes 45 seconds in 4/4 at 80 bpm. It stays in the right-hand register, from G4 all the way up to G6, and adds harmony notes to the melody, so you will sometimes press two keys together. The tune is built from a few phrases that keep returning, which gives you plenty of chances to settle in, but the high notes near G6 ask for a confident reach toward the top of the keyboard.

Work in Wait mode with the speed around 50 %, so each two-note chord waits until you have found both keys. Turn on note names to keep track of the higher keys, which can look alike once your hand moves far up the keyboard. When the opening section feels steady, set an A–B loop around any passage with harmony notes and repeat it a few times before playing the whole song in Play along. The sheet music below gives you a view of the complete piece.