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Piano sheet music for kids · National song · Level 5: A wider range
Advance Australia Fair
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 20 bars and a pickup. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
The national anthem, with the first verse as Peter Dodds McCormick wrote it in 1878. It asks for a moving hand: the tune runs from the E above middle C up to the F above the next C, with dotted rhythms on “Na-ture’s” and “his-tory’s” and rests after “free”, “sea” and “rare” where the singers breathe. Many phrases start on the G before the bar line. The left hand changes chord every two beats through C, F, G and G7.
Practice tip: Learn it four bars at a time, and count the rests: “free” is two beats, then a rest, then the pickup “We’ve”. The dotted notes should sound like a march, not a skip.
The words
Australia's sons let us rejoice, for we are young and free; We've golden soil and wealth for toil; our home is girt by sea; our land abounds in Nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare; in history's page let every stage advance Australia fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, advance Australia fair.
A short history
Peter Dodds McCormick, a Scottish-born schoolteacher and church musician in Sydney, wrote both the words and the music. The song was first performed on St Andrew’s Day, 30 November 1878, at a Highland Society concert in Sydney, where McCormick published it under the pen-name “Amicus”.
It was sung by a choir of ten thousand at the inauguration of the Commonwealth on 1 January 1901, but Australia kept “God Save the Queen” as its anthem for most of the 20th century. In a national poll in 1977 Advance Australia Fair beat Waltzing Matilda, and it was proclaimed the national anthem on 19 April 1984 with revised words. The line “young and free” was changed to “one and free” on 1 January 2021.
The words under this tune are McCormick’s original first verse, which begins “Australia’s sons let us rejoice”; the official version today sings “Australians all”.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Peter Dodds McCormick, 1878
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 20 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Majestically, crotchet = 100
- Difficulty
- Level 5: A wider range (piece 156 of 201)
- Type
- National song
- Hands
- Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
Questions and answers
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