Songs · Beginner
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Traditional (words by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1830) · American nursery song, sung to the tune of “Merrily We Roll Along”
C major4/4 time8 barsright hand only
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: right hand only, in C position. The notes here are not exactly the ones the composer wrote.
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About this piece
Your right hand stays in C position: thumb on middle C and one finger on each white key up to G. Listen for the notes that repeat. The last bar is a whole note, so hold it for all four beats.
What it practices
- right hand only
- C position
- steps and skips
- quarter, half and whole notes
Where the notes come from
Words: Sarah Josepha Hale, Poems for Our Children (1830). Tune: the one it is usually sung to today, also used for “Merrily We Roll Along” (both from Wikipedia). Melody checked against a note-name sheet from the University of California, Riverside (gluckprogram.ucr.edu): four of its five lines match; for bar 4 that sheet uses E E E, a simpler version, and we use the usual E G G.
How to practice with it
- Listen first. Press Play and follow the moving line with your eyes. The lit notes and keys show what sounds right now: blue is the right hand, orange the left.
- Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start.
- One hand at a time. Choose Right or Left, learn that hand, then put them together.
- Wait for me. Turn it on and press Start. The lit keys show what to play, and the music waits until you play them, on the screen, on your computer keyboard or on a MIDI keyboard.
- Loop the hard part. Turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row.
Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. The computer keys A S D F G H J K play C D E F G A B C (press ⌨ Computer keys under the music to see them on the piano).