Home › Tools › Piano Sheet Music for Kids › Aura Lee
Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Aura Lee
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 16 bars. 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
A gentle American song from 1861, sung around soldiers’ campfires in the Civil War, and the tune Elvis Presley later used for Love Me Tender. It moves in crotchets (quarter notes) and long semibreves (whole notes), with one dotted rhythm in the chorus: “Au-ra Lee” is a dotted crotchet, a quaver and a minim. The hand sits with the thumb on the A below middle C; it reaches down to G for the first note of each verse line and up to F once in the chorus. The left hand plays C, D minor and G7, and A minor in the chorus.
Practice tip: The second line of the verse is the same as the first, so learn four bars and you have eight. Let each long note ring for all four beats, and play the chorus a little louder than the verse.
The words
When the blackbird in the spring, on the willow tree, sat and rocked, I heard him sing, singing Aura Lee. Aura Lee, Aura Lee, maid of golden hair; sunshine came along with thee, and swallows in the air.
A short history
“Aura Lea”, often spelled Aura Lee, was published in 1861 with music by George R. Poulton, an Englishman whose family had moved to the United States when he was a boy, and words by W. W. Fosdick. It is a love song in which a blackbird on a willow tree sings the name of a girl with golden hair.
The American Civil War began just after it came out, and soldiers on both sides sang it around their campfires. The cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point took the tune for their graduation song, “Army Blue”.
In 1956 the melody was given new words as “Love Me Tender”, the title song of Elvis Presley’s first film and a number one hit, which is why so many people know the tune without knowing its older name.
Quick facts
- Tune
- George R. Poulton, 1861
- Words
- W. W. Fosdick
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars
- Tempo
- Tenderly, crotchet = 84
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 50 of 201)
- Type
- Folk 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
What key is Aura Lee in?
How long is it?
Is Aura Lee out of copyright?
What is the hardest part?
Can I print it?
← More folk songs · All 201 pieces: piano sheet music for kids
🔒 Runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. Once loaded, the page and the piano keep working offline.