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Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Alouette
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 13 bars. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
The French-Canadian song about plucking a lark, sung in the original French. The refrain (bars 1 to 4) is a dotted crotchet and three quavers, “A-lou-et-te”, and the verse is runs of quavers, two to a beat, climbing from C to G and back. The tune dips to the G below middle C at the end of “a-lou-et-te” in bar 2 and in bars 7 and 8 (“et la tête”, “A-lou-ette”); let the thumb reach down for it. Bar 9 is one long “Ah!” over a G7 chord, then the refrain comes back. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord, C and G, with G7 under “Ah!”.
Practice tip: Count “1 and 2 and” through bars 5 and 6 so the quavers stay even. Learn the four-bar refrain first; it comes twice.
The words
Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai. Je te plumerai la tête, je te plumerai la tête, et la tête, et la tête, Alouette, Alouette, Ah! Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai.
A short history
Alouette is a French-Canadian song and one of the best-known French songs in the world. It was first printed in 1879 in “A Pocket Song Book for the Use of Students and Graduates of McGill College” in Montreal, though it was being sung long before that, and it is said to have been a favourite of the voyageurs who paddled the fur-trade canoes.
“Alouette” is a skylark, and the song is about plucking its feathers: the head in the first verse, then the beak, the eyes, the neck, the wings and so on. It is a cumulative song: each new verse adds its body part to the list before going back to the start, so it can go on as long as the singers like.
The tune uses only the first five notes of the scale plus the G below, which is why it is often one of the first French songs children learn.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (French-Canadian, 19th century)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 13 bars
- Tempo
- Briskly, crotchet = 120
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 73 of 201)
- Type
- Folk song
- Hands
- Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
Questions and answers
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