Mary Had a Little Lamb on Piano — Letter Notes & Play Online

Notes26, 4 pitches
RangeC4–G4
Key hereC major
Tempo104 bpm · about 17 s
LevelEasy

Can a piano play Mary Had a Little Lamb?

Yes — every size on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

49 keys✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–G4 · load it
61 keys✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–G4 · loaded above
88 keys✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–G4 · load it

Mary Had a Little Lamb: piano letter notes

The large line is the key’s letter; a dot over it is the octave above middle C’s, a dot under it the octave below; the small line under it is the same note in do-re-mi. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Mary Had a Little Lamb — piano letter notes (61 keys) · tonalics.com

EMiDReCDoDReEMiEMiEMi–

DReDReDRe–EMiGSolGSol–

EMiDReCDoDReEMiEMiEMiEMiDReDReEMiDReCDo–

Mary Had a Little Lamb letter notes as text

The same notes as plain text, one phrase to a line, to copy into a message or a document. A letter on its own is in the octave that starts on middle C (C4). Every note of this tune is in it. A comma marks a long note.

E D C D E E E
D D D, E G G
E D C D E E E E D D E D C

Is there a both-hands version?

Not of Mary Had a Little Lamb, on this page. The left hand here is made by rule — three chords, one hand position — and it is only offered where that rule can be checked against a published harmonisation and agrees with it on most bars. This melody has no barred score in its sources to hang the chords on. The right hand above is the whole tune.

The 4 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 4 and you can play the whole tune.

CDo×3
DRe×10
EMi×11
GSol×2

What to expect on a piano

It runs from C4 to G4, a fifth, using 4 different notes. That leaves 24 semitones unused below and 29 above.
92% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a minor third, E4 to G4, at note 12.
It is played on the white keys only.
It covers 5 neighbouring white keys, so the right hand never moves: thumb on C4, one finger to a key.

About the tune

The poem is by Sarah Josepha Hale, published in Boston in 1830; the hymn composer Lowell Mason set it to this tune the following year. In 1877 Thomas Edison recited its opening lines to test his phonograph, which makes it the first verse ever recorded and played back.

Traditional; Lowell Mason setting, 1831. Public domain. More about Mary Had a Little Lamb →

Mary Had a Little Lamb on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation.

More songs for the piano

All 36 piano songs · Christmas songs for piano · The online piano on its own