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Piano sheet music for kids · Children's song · Level 1: Right hand, C to G
Kuckuck, Kuckuck (The Cuckoo)
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 3/4, 12 bars. The right hand alone in C position, thumb on middle C, with the finger number above every note and its letter name underneath. Press Play to hear it on a real piano or slow it down; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
The notes in this piece
Your right hand plays five notes in this piece: C, D, E, F, G. The thumb sits on middle C and each finger has its own key, so the hand never moves. The left hand rests in your lap. The shaded keys are the notes, and the numbers under them are the fingers (1 is the thumb). The same finger numbers are printed above every note in the music, with the note’s letter name underneath. What is C position? →
C – D – E – F – G
About this arrangement
A German children’s song about the cuckoo, whose call means spring is coming. The words say “Cuckoo, cuckoo, calls from the wood. Let us sing, dance and leap! Spring, spring will soon be here.” It is for the right hand alone, in C position: thumb on middle C and fingers 1 to 5 on C, D, E, F and G, so the hand never has to move. “Kuck-uck” is the cuckoo’s call, G down to E, fingers 5 and 3, and in bars 1 and 2 it is followed by a crotchet rest, so lift the hand and count. Bar 4 and the last bar hold a dotted minim, three full beats.
Practice tip: Sing or say “KUCK-uck” like a real cuckoo before you play, then let the rest be the quiet answer. Count three steady beats in every bar, and hold the dotted minims right to the end of beat 3.
The words
Kuckuck, Kuckuck, ruft's aus dem Wald. Lasset uns singen, tanzen und springen! Frühling, Frühling wird es nun bald!
A short history
The words are by the German poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798–1874), who also wrote the words of Germany’s national anthem. He wrote this poem in 1835 and published it in 1837 without a tune. In 1842 it was printed for the first time with the melody it still has, an Austrian and Bavarian folk tune known from 1817 with the words “Stieglitz, Stieglitz, ’s Zeiserl is krank”.
It became one of the first songs German-speaking children learn, along with Hänschen klein. H. W. Stork’s Großer Schulliederschatz, a school songbook printed in Gütersloh in 1868, gives it under the title Frühlingsbote, the messenger of spring, marked “Austrian folk tune”, and this arrangement follows that printing. The falling “Kuck-uck” at the start of every verse copies the bird’s two-note call.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Austrian folk tune, printed 1842
- Words
- August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1835
- Key
- C major, C position
- Time signature
- 3/4
- Length
- 12 bars
- Tempo
- Cheerfully, crotchet = 126
- Difficulty
- Level 1: Right hand, C to G (piece 6 of 201)
- Type
- Children's song
- Hands
- Right hand only, thumb on middle C
- Notes
- C, D, E, F and G (diagram above)
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
Questions and answers
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