Dance a Baby Diddy — Free Piano Sheet Music for Kids, With a Play Button

The chords in this piece

Your left hand plays three chords in this piece. The shaded keys are the notes of each chord, and the numbers under them are the left-hand fingers (1 is the thumb). Oom-pah in 6/8: low C on the first big beat, then a chord on the second. In bar 3 the second chord is G7, over the same low C. All the common piano chords, with diagrams →

C C

C – E – G · Left hand 5 3 1

C, E and G: the home chord. Little finger on C, middle finger on E, thumb on G.

F F (C position)

C – F – A · Left hand 5 2 1

C, F and A. The same three notes as F major, rearranged so the little finger stays on C; the thumb stretches up one key to A.

G7 G7 (C position)

B – D – F · Left hand 5 3 2

B, D and F: G7 without its bottom G. Little finger down to B, finger 3 on D, finger 2 on F.

About this arrangement

A bouncing rhyme for a baby on a knee, in 6/8, with the tune printed by Walter Crane in 1877 and Alfred Moffat in 1912. The right hand stays in C position, thumb on middle C and little finger on G, with one stretch to A at the start of bar 7. Each line ends with a long G or C tied across two notes, then a quaver (eighth note) rest, so count “one, two” through the tie and breathe in the rest. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on each big beat, mostly C, with G7 and one F.

Practice tip: Bounce the big beats, “DANCE a BA-by”, as if a baby were riding on your knee. Hold the tied notes for their full length before the rest.

The words

Dance a baby diddy, What can mammy do wid 'e? Sit in her lap, Give it some pap, And dance a baby diddy!

A short history

This is one of the oldest baby rhymes in English. It is printed, as “Danty baby diddy, what can mammy do wid ’e”, in the 1810 London edition of Gammer Gurton’s Garland, a collection first put together by the antiquarian Joseph Ritson in the 1780s. James Orchard Halliwell included it in The Nursery Rhymes of England. “Pap” was soft food for babies, bread soaked in milk, and “wid ’e” is “with you” said in a country accent.

The tune here appears in Walter Crane’s The Baby’s Opera (1877), where the music was arranged by his sister Lucy, and in Alfred Moffat’s Little Songs of Long Ago (1912). The two books agree note for note, so it was clearly the standard tune by the end of the nineteenth century.

Quick facts

Tune: Traditional (English, printed 1810; tune as printed by Walter Crane, 1877)
Key: C major, C position
Time signature: 6/8
Length: 8 bars
Tempo: Bouncing, dotted crotchet = 66
Difficulty: Level 2: Left-hand chords (piece 24 of 201)
Type: Nursery rhyme
Hands: Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
Chords: C, F and G7 (diagrams above)
Copyright: Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use

Questions and answers

What key is Dance a Baby Diddy in?

C major, in 6/8 time. There are no sharps or flats in the key signature.

How long is it?

C major, 6/8, 8 bars. The tempo marking is Bouncing, dotted crotchet = 66.

Is Dance a Baby Diddy out of copyright?

Yes. The tune is traditional (English, printed 1810; tune as printed by Walter Crane, 1877). Our piano arrangement is free for personal and classroom use.

What is the hardest part?

Bounce the big beats, “DANCE a BA-by”, as if a baby were riding on your knee. Hold the tied notes for their full length before the rest.

Can I print it?

Yes. Press Print above to put this piece on its own page, or choose Save as PDF as the printer for a file. It prints on A4 paper; if yours is US Letter, choose US Letter in the box beside Print. The notes are the same size as a printed music book.

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