Row, Row, Row Your Boat

• Rangeoctave
• Notes27, 6 different
• ScaleMajor, no accidentals
• Length hereabout 23 s

About Row, Row, Row Your Boat

An American round, in print by 1852; the tune sung today appeared in 1881 and is usually credited to Eliphalet Oram Lyte. It is written to be sung in up to four parts, each voice entering a line after the one before.

The melody climbs the scale to the fifth, leaps to the octave and falls back down a broken chord, which is why the parts fit together whenever they enter.

Play Row, Row, Row Your Boat on your instrument

26 of the 27 playable instruments here have every note it needs. 26 play it where the library writes it; the rest move it to another key or octave, and each page says which. Every page has the instrument itself, with the song loaded, above the notes.

• Kalimba tabsas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Piano letter notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Mbira tabsas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Handpan tabsas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Oud notesas written · C3–C4 · octave
• Violin notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Cello notesas written · C3–C4 · octave
• Erhu notesas written · D4–D5 · octave
• Dulcimer tabas written · D4–D5 · octave
• Xylophone letter notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Marimba letter notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Glockenspiel letter notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Steel Drum letter notesas written · F4–F5 · octave
• Ocarina notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Harmonica tabsas written · C5–C6 · octave
• Trumpet notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Clarinet notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Saxophone notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Flute notesas written · G4–G5 · octave
• Recorder notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Tuba notesas written · B♭1–B♭2 · octave
• Euphonium notesas written · B♭2–B♭3 · octave
• Trombone notesas written · B♭2–B♭3 · octave
• Accordion letter notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Harp letter notesas written · C4–C5 · octave
• Lyre tabsas written · C4–C5 · octave

Instruments that cannot play it

• Guzheng — it would need G4, which it does not have in any size or key here.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat letter notes

Written in C major, from C4 to C5, with each note’s number in the scale under it — the form that transfers to any instrument. A dash holds a note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and each line is one phrase.

Where these notes come from

Traditional, published 1852. Public domain.

No lyrics are printed on this page or any other here: these pages are about a melody and how to play it.

More nursery rhymes & first tunes

• Hot Cross Buns18th century
• Lightly Row19th century
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star1761
• Mary Had a Little LambLowell Mason, 1831
• London Bridge1744 (rhyme)
• Old MacDonald1917 (in this form)
• Frère Jacques18th century