Dance to Your Daddy

About this arrangement

A rocking rhyme from the north-east of England, in 3/4, with the tune Alfred Moffat printed in 1912. The hand has to travel. The first line starts on the C above middle C and steps down C, A, G, E; then “My” in bars 2 and 4 leaps a whole octave, from D to D and from C to C, joined by a slur, so the hand jumps and lands. The last four bars move higher still, up to the G at the top. The left hand plays a waltz bass, a bass note and two chords, C, F and G7.

Practice tip: Practise the octave leaps in bars 2 and 4 slowly: play the low note with the thumb, then let the whole hand jump so the little finger lands on the high note. Keep it rocking, one big swing to each bar.

The words

Dance to your daddy, My little laddie! Dance to your daddy, My little lamb! You shall have a fishy On a little dishy, You shall have a fishy When the boat comes in! Dance to your daddy, My little babby! Dance to your daddy, My little lamb!

A short history

The rhyme comes from the fishing towns of Northumberland and Tyneside, where a mother promises her child a fish “when the boat comes in”. James Orchard Halliwell included it in The Nursery Rhymes of England, and the same words are the chorus of the Tyneside song When the Boat Comes In, which became widely known in the 1970s as the theme of a BBC television drama.

The tune is the one Alfred Moffat harmonised for Little Songs of Long Ago (London, 1912). The BBC schools programme Singing Together printed the same tune in 1970 with a different middle verse, about a shippy, a dishy and a fishy from the miller’s dam.

Quick facts

Tune

Traditional (Northumbrian; tune as printed by Alfred Moffat, 1912)

Key

C major

Time signature

3/4

Length

12 bars

Tempo

Rocking, crotchet = 126

Difficulty

Level 5: A wider range (piece 147 of 201)

Type

Nursery rhyme

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