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Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 4: Up to the C above
Sakura Sakura
Free beginner piano sheet music: A minor, 4/4, 14 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 Japanese cherry-blossom song, sung in Japanese (written in Roman letters). It is in A minor, so there are no sharps or flats, but it uses only five notes, A, B, C, E and F, which is what gives it its Japanese sound. The hand sits with the thumb on E and the little finger on B, and reaches down to middle C and the B below it for “ka-gi-ri” in bar 6. Most phrases end with a pair of slurred quavers (“so-ra”, “ka-gi-ri”, “ku-mo”). The left hand plays A minor, D minor and E minor chords, new shapes, two to a bar.
Practice tip: Play it slowly and let the minims ring; it should sound still, like looking at blossom. The three left-hand chords all have a note in common, so keep the hand close to the keys.
The words
sakura sakura yayoi no sora wa miwatasu kagi ri kasumi ka ku mo ka nioi zo izu ru izaya izaya mi ni yu ka n
A short history
“Sakura Sakura” is a Japanese melody from the Edo period, first played on the koto, the thirteen-stringed zither, as a piece for children learning the instrument. The words we sing were set to it in 1888, when the Tokyo Academy of Music published it in a collection of koto music for schools; a second set of words was written in 1941 and both are still sung.
The song describes the spring sky in “yayoi”, the third month of the old Japanese calendar, hazy with cherry blossom as far as the eye can see, and ends “iza ya, iza ya, mi ni yukan”, come, come, let us go and look. Blossom-viewing parties are still a national custom every April.
The tune uses the Japanese “in” scale, five notes with two semitones, which is why it sounds so different from a Western nursery tune using the same notes.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (Japanese, Edo period; words 1888)
- Key
- A minor
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 14 bars
- Tempo
- Calmly, crotchet = 84
- Difficulty
- Level 4: Up to the C above (piece 110 of 201)
- Type
- Folk 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
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