| Mary had a Little Lamb is an English Nursery Rhyme | | | | 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 |
| with American Origins. It dates back to 1830. The | | | | 2 2 2, 3 5 5 |
| melody (tune) has a range of only 5 notes so it is easy | | | | 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 1 |
| to play on the piano with just one hand. | | | | 2 2 3 2 1 |
| Place your right hand thumb on Middle C. Middle C is | | | | To play the tune in the left hand, place your little finger |
| the white key to the left of 2 black keys, in the middle | | | | on C. Here is the finger pattern for the left hand: |
| of the piano. The notes used in the song are C, D, E | | | | 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 |
| and G. These are played by your thumb (1), index | | | | 4 4 4, 3 1 1 |
| finger (2), middle finger (3) and your little finger (5). Your | | | | 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 5 |
| thumb remains on Middle C throughout. | | | | 4 4 3 4 5 |
| Here are the notes for the song: | | | | Here are the lyrics to this nursery rhyme |
| E D C D E E E | | | | "Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, |
| D D D, E G G | | | | Lit-tle lamb, lit-tle lamb. |
| E D C D E E E C | | | | Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb whose |
| D D E D C | | | | Fleece was white as snow." |
| Look at the 4 lines of notes. Notice that the first and | | | | A hyphen is used in words with 2 syllables. When you |
| the 3rd lines are almost identical. The 3rd line uses an | | | | sing the first word "Ma-ry" you play 2 separate notes |
| extra C. This is played on the word "whose". | | | | E D. |
| The finger pattern for the right hand is as follows: | | | | |