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Piano sheet music for kids · Hymn · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Simple Gifts
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 16 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 Shaker dancing song “’Tis the gift to be simple”, with a two-quaver (eighth-note) pickup on the G below middle C. Most of the tune sits in C position with the thumb on middle C, and the runs of quavers move step by step, so it lies well under the fingers; the hand stretches down to B and G below middle C at the end of the first line and in bar 12. In the second half, “When true sim-pli-ci-ty is gained”, the long notes on “When” and “turn, turn” need their full count. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on each beat pair, C and G7, changing in the middle of the bar.
Practice tip: Keep the quavers light and even, it is a dance. Count “1 and 2 and” through bars 9 and 13 so the minims are held long enough.
The words
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, to turn, turn will be our delight, till by turning, turning we come round right.
A short history
“Simple Gifts” was written in 1848 by Joseph Brackett (1797 to 1882), an elder of the Shakers in Maine. The Shakers were a religious community known for plain living, fine furniture and worship that included dancing, and several Shaker manuscripts call this a dancing song. The “turning” in the last lines may be dance steps: done properly, each dancer ends up back where they started, “come round right”.
The song was hardly known outside the Shakers until 1944, when Aaron Copland used the melody in his music for Martha Graham’s ballet Appalachian Spring. It has been famous ever since.
In 1963 the English songwriter Sydney Carter wrote new words to the tune as “Lord of the Dance”, which is the version many Australian children know from school.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Joseph Brackett, 1848
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Lightly, crotchet = 100
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 78 of 201)
- Type
- Hymn
- 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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