Are you looking for a great piano beginner song? Row, Row, Row, your Boat is an easy and short song to learn to play on the piano. Many children already know the lyrics and the melody, which makes it easier if they should learn this song during a piano lesson. In this free piano tutorial we will learn a little more about the origin of Row, Row, Row your Boat and show you how to play it on the piano with letter notes and the sheet music. You can also download the lyrics with the letter and sheet music for free as PDF printables at the end of the lesson.
Origin of Row Row Row you Boat
Row, Row, Row Your Boat is a classic English nursery rhyme and children’s song with origins dating back to the mid-19th century. The earliest known publication of the song was in the United States in 1852 but with a very different melody. The tune that we now nowadays was first recorded with lyrics in 1881, with Eliphalet Oram Lyte mentioned in “The Franklin Square Song Collection”. However, it’s not clear if he was the composer or the adaptor of the song.
The melody and lyrics encourage a gentle rowing motion, embodying the song’s theme of life’s journey as a dreamlike, leisurely journey down a stream. Traditionally sung as a round, with different groups of singers beginning the verse at different times, the song helps teach musical concepts such as harmony and timing.
Piano Letter Notes for Row Row Row your Boat
Row, Row, Row your Boat is a beautiful song for young piano beginners. Especially, the part “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily” is a fun part for kids because you need to play it a bit faster but the parts is pretty easy. Usually piano songs are played with notes written in sheet music. But this can be overwhelming for young students and they need an easier introduction to some simple songs. That’s why, at the beginning, it’s quite enough to have the piano notes written over the lyrics. Sure, they need to know where to find each note on the piano, but you can label the piano keys for beginners so they know how to identify the right keys.
However, 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 Row Row Row your Boat
You may have noticed that we need to use two different C notes on the piano, a lower C note and a higher C note. In order to distinguish between these two notes, we will refer to the higher note as C’ in the following section, where you will find the lyrics with the piano notes.
The following chart with the lyrics and the letter notes enables you to learn and play Row, Row, Row your Boat in an easy way:
Listen to the recording below to play along or to check if you got it right on the piano!
Every song can be played with either one or two hands. While using only one hand is simpler than playing with both hands simultaneously, playing single notes with one hand is also easier than playing chords. For this reason, beginners should start by playing the melody one note at a time with one hand. Intermediate players can progress to combining both the right and left hands in their playing.
Piano Sheet Music for Row Row Row your Boat
When we play a song on the piano, we usually use sheet music. As already mentioned, reading music can be quite challenging for young beginners. However, short and simple nursery rhymes are the perfect introduction to sheet music. And if you already know how to read music, try playing the nursery rhyme with the sheet music.
Here are the music notes for Row, Row, Row your Boat
Free PDF Printables for Row Row Row your Boat
Download the free PDF files for the piano letter notes and sheet music and print them out, so that you can learn and teach Row, Row, Row your Boat anywhere you want!
Interested in instruments other than the piano? You can also find a free lesson on how to play Row, Row, Row your Boat on the guitar, ukulele and recorder.
