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Piano sheet music for kids · Nursery rhyme · Level 4: Up to the C above
Humpty Dumpty
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 6/8, 10 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 usual tune for Humpty Dumpty, written by James William Elliott in 1870, in a lilting 6/8. The right hand starts on G with the little finger, and the first bar goes up to C, down to E and back up to G, so the hand has to stretch and move from the start. In bar 4 “had a great fall” drops to the B below middle C: reach down with the thumb. “All the king’s horses” in bar 5 is six quavers in a row, and bar 7 has three repeated Cs for “Could-n’t put”. The left hand plays a bass note then a chord on each big beat, with G7 under the falls in bars 4 and 9.
Practice tip: Play bar 1 and bar 3 first: they are the same shape a step apart, G C E G then F A D F. Say “All the king’s hors-es and” to get the six quavers of bar 5 even.
The words
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
A short history
Humpty Dumpty first appeared in print in 1797, in Samuel Arnold’s Juvenile Amusements, where the last lines ran “Four-score men and four-score more, could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.” The rhyme is thought to be older: in the 17th century “humpty dumpty” was the name of a drink of brandy boiled with ale, and later slang for a short, clumsy person.
The rhyme never says Humpty is an egg. It was a riddle, and the egg was the answer. The picture everyone now has of him comes from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass of 1871 and John Tenniel’s drawing of an egg in a cravat sitting on a wall.
The tune is by James William Elliott, from his National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs (1870), which gave many English rhymes the melodies they are sung to today.
Quick facts
- Tune
- James William Elliott, 1870
- Words
- Traditional (English, 18th century)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 6/8
- Length
- 10 bars
- Tempo
- Jauntily, dotted crotchet = 60
- Difficulty
- Level 4: Up to the C above (piece 130 of 201)
- Type
- Nursery rhyme
- 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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