Home › Tools › Piano Sheet Music for Kids › Ring a Ring o' Roses
Piano sheet music for kids · Nursery rhyme · Level 4: Up to the C above
Ring a Ring o' Roses
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 6/8, 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 singing game, in 6/8 and in C position throughout. The right hand starts on G with the little finger and the first four bars rock between G, E, F and A. Bars 5 and 6 reach up to the C above for “A-tish-oo!”, and the last two bars fall step by step, E D C, as everyone falls down. Bars 1 and 3 go long-short, crotchet then quaver, twice; the other bars start with a long dotted crotchet, so the words tell you exactly how it goes. The left hand plays a bass note then a chord on each big beat, C all the way until G7 slips in under the second “A-tish-oo!” and “all fall down”.
Practice tip: Feel two beats in each bar: “RING-a-ring o’ RO-ses”. Make the last bar a real landing: hold the C for the whole bar and count to six.
The words
Ring a ring o' roses, a pocket full of posies, Atishoo! Atishoo! We all fall down.
A short history
Ring a Ring o’ Roses was first printed in 1881, in Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose, or the Old Nursery Rhymes, though versions of the game were being played in Britain and America earlier in the 19th century. It is number 7925 in the Roud Folk Song Index. American children sing “Ring around the rosie” and finish with “ashes, ashes”.
The story that the rhyme is about the Great Plague of 1665, with the roses as a rash and the sneezing as a symptom, appeared only in the middle of the 20th century. Folklorists, including Iona and Peter Opie, reject it: the early versions do not mention sneezing or falling down at all, and the words differ wildly from place to place.
It is really a ring game. Children hold hands, circle as they sing, and drop to the ground on the last word, which is the whole point of the fun.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (English, 19th century)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 6/8
- Length
- 8 bars
- Tempo
- Gently rocking, dotted crotchet = 60
- Difficulty
- Level 4: Up to the C above (piece 125 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
What key is Ring a Ring o' Roses in?
How long is it?
Is Ring a Ring o' Roses out of copyright?
What is the hardest part?
Can I print it?
← More nursery rhymes · All 201 pieces: piano sheet music for kids
🔒 Runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. Once loaded, the page and the piano keep working offline.