Mary Had a Little Lamb (arranged for beginners)

Learn this piece

Composer

Traditional (American, 19th century)

Arrangement

Musicanyya practice material

Level

Beginner

Key

F major

Metre

4/4

Tempo

96 BPM

Length

8 bars, about 1 minute

Hands

both

Trains

A very well-known three/four-note melody that never leaves a five-finger hand position, over a single sustained bass note per bar - an easy first piece for a fixed hand position.

How to practise it

• Your right hand never leaves its five-note place from F up to C, so keep your eyes on the Score, not on your hands. Hear the tune once in Listen, then play along.
• Bars 6 and 7 hold the most repeated notes: four A's, then G, G, A, G. Loop them at 60 BPM and keep the repeated notes even.
• The left hand holds F, and moves down to C only in bars 3 and 7. Get ready for that C at the end of bars 2 and 6.

Where this score came from

Arrangement for this app (CC0)

8-bar beginner form in F major (the key of the 1918 printing), so the melody sits in a single five-finger hand position (F-G-A-Bb-C), quarter=96. The left-hand single bass note per bar (I-V) is our own simple setting.

Changes from the source: Values doubled: each bar is one 2/4 bar of the familiar tune written in 4/4 (eighths become quarters). Rhythm made plain: the dotted "Ma-ry" in bars 1 and 5 is two even notes, and the last F in bar 8 is held for the whole bar. Left hand: our own single bass note per bar; the printing has its own piano part.

More at this level

• Amazing Grace (arranged for beginners) Traditional (American hymn tune "New Britain")
• Lullaby (arranged for beginners) Johannes Brahms (Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4)
• Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15 (theme, arranged for beginners) Johannes Brahms (Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 39 No. 15)
• Greensleeves (arranged for beginners) Traditional (English, 16th century)
• In the Hall of the Mountain King (theme, arranged for beginners) Edvard Grieg (Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 No. 4)