Sing Home on the Range: the chorus hook, its key and note range
The chorus hook of “Home on the Range” runs from D4 to G4, 5 semitones, with its tonic on C4 at 96 bpm, and rates easy to sing. Origin: Poem “My Western Home” by Dr. Brewster Higley, 1873; melody by Daniel E. Kelley, 1873.
Sing Home on the Range with pitch feedback
The chorus hook of “Home on the Range” is transcribed here with its tonic on C4 at 96 bpm in 3 beats to the bar. The 5 notes span D4 to G4 — 5 semitones, with no leaps of a major third or more — and the span and leaps together rate it easy to sing; a full 4-pass session runs about 0:23.
5 semitones as transcribed. Once you have taken the range test, the practice room opens it fitted to your range, and you can shift it by semitones from there. Without a saved range it opens at this written pitch and is scored in either octave, so a lower voice can sing it an octave down and a higher voice an octave up.
- One time through
- 0:06 at 96 bpm
- A full session
- 0:23 — 4 passes
- Leaps of a major third or more
- 0
Home on the Range lyrics, as transcribed here
- Home, home on the range,
The songbook transcribes the chorus hook rather than the whole song, because 4 tight repetitions of a phrase you can hear yourself improve on beats one distracted run at the full thing.
Origin and copyright status
Higley’s poem and Kelley’s melody were both published in 1873; Higley died in 1911 and Kelley in 1905 — long out of copyright.
- Attribution
- Poem “My Western Home” by Dr. Brewster Higley, 1873; melody by Daniel E. Kelley, 1873
- Language
- English
Every melody in the songbook is public domain, which is why the whole thing can be sung in a browser without a licence. A specific recording or arrangement of the same tune can still be under copyright — this is our own transcription of the melody.
Genre, era and what it drills
Genre and era say where the melody comes from; “stepwise” is what it asks of a voice.