Mary Had a Little Lamb sheet music (easy)
Traditional American (19th century), Level 1 · Beginner, 0:19
Key facts
- Level
- Level 1 · Beginner. Estimated from the notes (0 of 8 on our difficulty score)
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Key signature
- No sharps or flats
- Length
- 8 bars, 1 page
- Playing time
- 0:19
- Notes
- 34
- Range
- G2 to G4
Source and licence
Licence of the source: Public domain melody.
Source: Site-owned easy edition. Melody: Mary Had a Little Lamb (sung to "Merrily We Roll Along", the chorus of "Goodnight, Ladies"), Traditional American (1830 (words, Sarah Josepha Hale); tune traditional), public domain, checked against Wikipedia: Mary Had a Little Lamb. Left hand written for this site.
Source: Wikipedia.
Playback sounds: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0); Upright Piano KW by Gonzalo and Roberto of FreePats (CC0 1.0); Fluid R3 GM by Frank Wen and contributors (CC BY 3.0). Full sound credits.
How to play Mary Had a Little Lamb (Easy)
Four notes, eight bars, and one of the easiest wins on the keyboard. A brilliant very first piece.
Where your hands go
Right hand: thumb on middle C (C4), with fingers 2 and 3 on D4 and E4. Your little finger rests on G4 for bar 4.
Left hand: C3, held for four beats, with a move down to G2 in bars 3 and 7.
The tricky bars
Your practice plan
- Right hand alone, bars 1 to 4, saying the note names.
- Right hand alone, bars 5 to 8, noticing what changes.
- Left hand alone: C3, C3, G2, C3, counting four beats each.
- Hands together, slowly.
- Play it with Listen on and clear every note.
Watch out for
- Playing three Es in bar 6. There are four.
- Playing bar 7 like bar 3. Bar 7 is D4, D4, E4, D4.
- Forgetting to move the left hand down to G2 in bars 3 and 7.
Power-up: press Loop, tap the first and last of the tricky bars, and they repeat until they feel easy. Hands in Options lets you practise one hand at a time. New to the notation? Start with how to read keyboard staff, then how to practise piano.
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