Song of the Month (June 2026)

Posted by Lily Topolski on May 28th 2026

Song of the Month (June 2026)

With the Fourth of July coming up very quickly, I thought I would feature a patriotic piece for the month of June: The Star-Spangled Banner. The story behind this song (lyrics written by Francis Scott Key and music attributed to John Stafford Smith) is widely known, but you might not be familiar with its additional lyrics. Here is the second verse commonly found in hymnals:

O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes, and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

About the Arrangement

We released an advanced version of the National Anthem last year, but this year I wanted to make an intermediate version available for those who would like an easier one to learn. This intermediate one has much less changing of hand positions, making it a good piece for piano students also! The arrangement has both an intro and an outro, but it could be adjusted to remove these if you are playing the song for an opener to a service/event and don't want it to be quite as long.

Sheet Music

The intermediate sheet music for The Star-Spangled Banner can be found on our website here: The Star-Spangled Banner (National Anthem) - Digital Sheet MusicThough this song can be played without a background track, I decided to create a track to add extra life and emotion to the piece. The track adds a snare drum to help create that distinct early-American battlefield sound that is so common in patriotic pieces (giving it a bit of a marching feel), plus the horns near the end add a sound of triumph.

For the month of June, if you purchase the individual digital sheet music for The Star-Spangled Banner, the background track will be added to your cart for FREE!  All you have to do is add the sheet music to your cart and the background track will be automatically added. This special expires at midnight on June 30th, 2026.

Harder Arrangement of this Song

  1. The Star-Spangled Banner (National Anthem) (Advanced)

Find even more patriotic hymns available here: Patriotic Piano Solos

Conclusion

Thank you for reading about this month's featured song! To keep up-to-date with all of our song of the month features, make sure to subscribe to our email list to be the first to know, or follow us on Facebook.

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