Beautiful Walk: hymn tune in Tonic Solfa

Beautiful Walk, the hymn tune, in Tonic Solfa (doh is Db): the solfa, staff notation and a piano to sing along with.

Download the solfa (PDF)A4, free to print and share with your choir

Key: Db major
Doh: Db
Time: 4/4
Starts on: s (A♭)
Range: d to r' (D♭ to E♭, a ninth)
Metre: 11.10.11.10 + i
Music: William James Kirkpatrick
Also called: Stepping in the Light

Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune BEAUTIFUL WALK by William James Kirkpatrick (1838–1921). Sources and licences.

The solfa

Doh is Db4/4

s-s-,ls-m-,f

s-d'-,r'd'-l-

s-s-,ls-fm

m-rdr---

m-m-,fs-ss

l-d'-,r'd'-l-

ss-slr'-d'

t-ltd'-d'-,t

lll-,ll-d'-,l

s-s-,ss-m-

fff-,mr---

mmm-,fs-s-

lll-,ld'-d'-,l

s-s-,ls-m-

t-t-l-t-

d'-----

The solfa line by line

The same solfa as plain text, easy to copy into your own notes or a WhatsApp message to the choir. To print it, download the solfa as a PDF.

Doh is Db · 4/4

| s - s -,l s - m -,f | s - d' -,r' d' - l - |

| s - s -,l s - f m | m - r d r - - - |

| m - m -,f s - s s | l - d' -,r' d' - l - |

| s s - s l r' - d' | t - l t d' - d' -,t |

| l l l -,l l - d' -,l | s - s -,s s - m - |

| f f f -,m r - - - | m m m -,f s - s - |

| l l l -,l d' - d' -,l | s - s -,l s - m - |

| t - t - l - t - | d' - - - - - |

Staff notation

The melody on the treble staff in Db major.

The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.

About the tune

Music (1917): William James Kirkpatrick (1838–1921)

Metre: 11.10.11.10 + i.

Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune BEAUTIFUL WALK by William James Kirkpatrick (1838–1921). The CCEH gives its tunes as four-part scores; this page has the melody only, read from its MIDI file and checked against its incipit, and NoteFusion's engine wrote the solfa from the notes. It has not yet been checked against a printed hymn book.

New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.

Questions about Beautiful Walk

What is the doh of Beautiful Walk?

In this version, in Db major, doh is Db. If your choir sings it in another key, doh moves to the new key note and every solfa syllable stays the same — that is what movable doh means.

What note does Beautiful Walk start on?

It starts on s (A♭ in Db major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to s.

What words can be sung to Beautiful Walk?

Beautiful Walk is in the metre 11.10.11.10 + i: lines of 11, 10, 11, 10,, then, i syllables. Words written in the same metre fit it; check where the stresses fall before you sing them together.

Is Beautiful Walk in the public domain?

Yes. William James Kirkpatrick died in 1921; the tune was first published in 1917. Everyone named died before 1955 and it was published before 1929, so the tune is out of copyright in Nigeria, the UK, the EU and the United States. Modern arrangements of it can still be under copyright.