The Wheels on the Bus is a very popular nursery rhyme in the english speaking world but also all over the world since it has been translated in many different languages. It has a very catchy melody that all young kids adore. During the song children can imitate different sounds and movements. In this lesson we will show how to play this great nursery rhyme on the piano. For young beginners we provide you the lyrics with the piano letter notes and for the more advanced players the sheet music.
Origin of Wheels on the Bus
The Wheels on the Bus is a traditional American children’s song dating back to the early 20th century. It is believed to have originated in the United States in the 1930s, created by Verna Hills as a song to entertain children during long bus rides. Its repetitive and easy-to-remember lyrics, set to the tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush made it a popular choice for preschool and kindergarten classrooms. The song describes various actions and sounds associated with a bus ride and encourages children to sing along and imitate the movements, promoting engagement and learning through music.
Piano Letter Notes for Wheels on the Bus
Not everyone, especially young children, can read sheet music. But there is a nice alternative for beginners. You can also play the song with the lyrics and the letter notes. This is much easier for beginners to understand than sheet music.
However, before you start, you should familiarize yourself with where each note that you need for the song is located on the piano keyboard. Labeling the piano keys with the notes can be very helpful for young beginners. This will help them to find the right notes right away. But, in order to reduce the student’s dependence on the piano key labels, you should remove them after the child can confidently play a few songs.
And be sure to check out our article on how to read piano notes, where we explain how to easily remember and find the piano keys on the keyboard, and how they correspond to the notes on the sheet music.
Here are the keys on the keyboard that you have to use for the song the Wheels on the Bus:
You probably notice that we need 2 different G notes, one low and one high G. This is difficult to indicate with simple letter notes on the lyrics and that’s we put a ‘ symbol in order to make this distinction. So keep in mind, that G is the low G note and G’ is the high G note.
The following chart with the lyrics and the letters enables you to learn and play the song in a pretty easy way:
Listen to the recording below in order to play along or to see if you got it right:
Intermediate players can also combine right and left hand playing. You can for example integrate some piano chords while playing the Wheels on the Bus. This is a bit more challenging but a good exercise.
Piano Sheet Music for The Wheels on the Bus
If you and your students know how to read music, you should use that for the Wheels on the Bus. Do you remember talking about the two G notes in the song? In the sheet music, it’s pretty obvious that one G is the low G and the other is the high G. Sheet music has all the information about a song. However, it can be challenging for beginners to start playing from notes.
Here are the music notes for the Wheels on the Bus:
Free PDF Printables for Wheels on the Bus
Feel free to download and to share the lyrics with letter notes and the sheet music for your practicing or piano lesson!
Interested in instruments other than the piano? You can also find a free lesson on how to play The Wheels on the Bus on the guitar and ukulele.
