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Piano sheet music for kids · Nursery rhyme · Level 5: A wider range
There Was a Little Man
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 2/4, 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
A courting rhyme in a brisk 2/4, two beats to a bar, with the tune Lucy Crane printed in 1878. The hand moves in this one. The first four bars sit low, with the thumb on E: G, A, G, F for “was a little”. At “said, Little maid” in bar 5 the hand climbs so the thumb is on A and the little finger reaches the E at the top, and it stays up there for the rest of the song, apart from the G in bars 12 and 13. “Wed, wed, wed” and “ded, ded, ded” are repeated Cs to keep steady. The left hand plays a bass note or chord on each beat: C, F and G7.
Practice tip: Practise the move between bar 4 and bar 5 on its own: finish “maid, and he” with the hand low, then lift it so the thumb lands on A. Keep the repeated Cs light and even, like knocks on a door.
The words
There was a little man, and he wooed a little maid, And he said, Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed? I have little more to say than will you, yea or nay? For least said is soonest mended, ded, ded, ded.
A short history
James Orchard Halliwell printed this rhyme in The Nursery Rhymes of England, with a second verse in which the little maid answers with a practical question: what will they have to eat? “Will the love that you’re so rich in make a fire in the kitchen?” Halliwell noted that a different version had been printed on a small broadside, which shows the rhyme was being sung in more than one form.
The tune is the one in The Baby’s Bouquet (London, 1878), Walter Crane’s second book of nursery songs, where the music was arranged by his sister Lucy Crane. Alfred Moffat printed the same tune in Our Old Nursery Rhymes (1911). The last line, “least said is soonest mended”, is an old English proverb meaning that the fewer words you use, the less trouble you make.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (English; tune as printed in The Baby’s Bouquet, 1878)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 2/4
- Length
- 16 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Briskly, crotchet = 100
- Difficulty
- Level 5: A wider range (piece 150 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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