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Piano sheet music for kids · Hymn · Level 4: Up to the C above
Jesus Loves Me
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
The children’s hymn, with Anna Warner’s words and William Bradbury’s tune of 1862, in steady crotchets (quarter notes) and minims (half notes), one note to each word. The right hand starts on G with the little finger, and the verse stays in C position with a stretch up to A and one reach to the C above for “Bi-ble”. In the chorus, “Yes, Je-sus loves me”, the hand moves up so the little finger can play that high C again, held for three beats and then two. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord, on C, F and G7.
Practice tip: Sing it as you play: the words fall one to a note. Practise the chorus jump from G up to the high C slowly, and the rest of the piece will feel easy.
The words
Jesus loves me! this I know, for the Bible tells me so; little ones to him belong, they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.
A short history
The words began as a poem in Say and Seal, an 1860 novel by the American sisters Susan and Anna Bartlett Warner, in which a teacher sings it to comfort a sick child. Anna Warner (1827–1915) wrote the verses.
The composer William Batchelder Bradbury (1816–1868) set them to music in 1861 and added the chorus, “Yes, Jesus loves me”. He published the hymn in 1862 in The Golden Shower, a collection of songs for Sunday schools, and it soon became one of the best-known children’s hymns in English.
Missionaries carried it around the world and it has been translated into a great many languages. Some hymn books call the tune “China”.
Quick facts
- Tune
- William B. Bradbury, 1862
- Words
- Anna B. Warner, 1860
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars
- Tempo
- Gently, crotchet = 96
- Difficulty
- Level 4: Up to the C above (piece 109 of 201)
- Type
- Hymn
- 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
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