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Piano sheet music for kids · Children's song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Happy Birthday to You
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 3/4, 8 bars and a pickup. 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 tune was written by the sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in Kentucky in 1893 as “Good Morning to All”; the birthday words came later. It is in 3/4, waltz time, and starts on a pickup, the two quick notes of “Hap-py”. For the first four bars the thumb sits on the G below middle C. In bar 5 the tune leaps up an octave, from G to G, and the hand moves up into C position, thumb on middle C, for “birth-day dear”, then reaches down to B and A for the name and back up to F for the last “Hap-py”. The left hand plays a waltz bass: one bass note, then two chords.
Practice tip: Practise the jump into bar 5 on its own: from the low G of “Hap-py”, take the little finger up to the G above middle C, then land the thumb on middle C for “dear”. The two quick “Hap-py” notes are always the same finger twice.
The words
Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear (name) Happy birthday to you.
A short history
Two sisters from Louisville, Kentucky wrote the tune in 1893: Mildred Hill, a music teacher, composed it, and Patty Hill, a kindergarten teacher, wrote the words “Good Morning to All” for her class to sing each day. The birthday words were being sung to it by the early 1900s and were in print by 1912.
For most of the twentieth century a music publisher claimed to own the song and charged for every film, restaurant and television show that used it. In 2015 a United States court found the copyright claim invalid, and the song is now free everywhere.
It is often called the most recognised song in the English language, and it makes a good first leap: up an octave, from the G below middle C to the G above, for “birth-day dear”.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill, 1893
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 3/4
- Length
- 8 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Warmly, crotchet = 100
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 81 of 201)
- Type
- Children's 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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