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Children's songs and nursery rhymes for piano

The songs everyone learns before they can read, to read at the keyboard: Happy Birthday to You, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Frère Jacques, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, Bingo, Yankee Doodle and Lavender's Blue. Because you already know how each one goes, you can check your reading against your ear: if a note sounds wrong, look at the page again. They make good first pages for an adult reader, and good ones to play for a child or at a party. Each piece has easier versions made from the score itself, starting with the melody alone, and a page with the letter name printed under every note.

Pieces

9

Levels

2 to 3

Key signatures

none to 3 sharps

Length

8 to 28 bars

Chosen by name: the songs most people can sing before they can read a note. New to reading music? First page teaches the keyboard, the staff, both clefs and the beat in seven short lessons, and ends on a page like these.

Playing Happy Birthday for people to sing

Play the last line once on its own as an introduction, so everyone hears the key and the pace, then nod to start. Keep the beat going through the name: singers stretch dear Sam or dear Alexandra, and a piano that waits for them helps less than one that carries on.

In the third line the tune leaps up an octave, on birth in happy birthday, the hardest leap in the song: look at where it lands before you start. If both hands together are too much yet, play the melody alone, the easiest version on the piece's page, and play it steadily.

Level 2

A tune over a simple left hand, mostly in one hand position.

• Frère Jacques
  Traditional 2 sharps, 4/4, 8 bars Community source
• Mary Had a Little Lamb
  Traditional no sharps or flats, 4/4, 8 bars Community source
• Row, Row, Row Your Boat
  Traditional no sharps or flats, 6/8, 8 bars Community source
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
  Traditional no sharps or flats, 4/4, 12 bars Community source
• Bingo
  Traditional no sharps or flats, 4/4, 13 bars Community source
• Old MacDonald Had a Farm
  Traditional no sharps or flats, 4/4, 16 bars Community source
• Happy Birthday to You
  Mildred J. Hill no sharps or flats, 3/4, 17 bars Community source

Level 3

Both hands busy, the hand moves around, a sharp or flat or two.

• Yankee Doodle
  Traditional 3 sharps, 2/4, 17 bars Community source
• Lavender's Blue
  Traditional no sharps or flats, 3/4, 28 bars Community source

See also: Folk songs and spirituals for piano · Easy piano pieces for adult beginners.

Each piece here is also printed with every note's letter under it: piano songs with letters.

Open a piece to print any of its versions free, or to play it at your MIDI keyboard with every note marked. New to reading? The level 2 sight-reading exercises are a good warm-up.