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Piano sheet music for kids · Nursery rhyme · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Old King Cole
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 8 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 merry old soul in a hearty 4/4. The thumb starts on middle C, but the tune dips below it straight away: “Cole was a” in bar 1 is A then two quick Gs under middle C, so the thumb and the hand shift down and back again. From bar 3 it climbs C D E F to a long G, and bars 5 and 6 sit at the top, A A A F and G G G E, with pairs of quavers for “for his” and “and he”. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on beats 1 and 3: C, then F for the pipe, C for the bowl and G7 for the fiddlers.
Practice tip: Say “mer-ry old soul and a” and clap it: the quick notes are always pairs. Practise the first two bars until the dip below middle C feels easy, then the rest of the tune stays in the hand.
The words
Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he; he called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl, and he called for his fiddlers three.
A short history
Old King Cole was first written down in 1708 or 1709, in William King’s Useful Transactions in Philosophy, where it is already described as an old song. It is number 1164 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
Who the king was has been argued over ever since. Colchester claims him as Coel, a legendary British king said to have given the town its name; others point to a Reading clothier called Cole-brook, or to a Welsh king, Coel Hen. None of these can be proved, and the Opies thought the rhyme was simply a cheerful drinking song that happened to name a king.
Several tunes have carried the words. The one arranged here, with its three calls for pipe, bowl and fiddlers, is the version printed in 19th- and 20th-century collections and preserved in the Digital Tradition folk song database.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (English, 18th century)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 8 bars
- Tempo
- Jolly, crotchet = 108
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 57 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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