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Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Long, Long Ago
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 song about remembering, written in 1833 by the English songwriter Thomas Haynes Bayly. The right hand sits in C position, with a stretch up to A, and bar 1 sets the rhythm for the whole piece: a crotchet (quarter note), two quavers (eighth notes), a crotchet and two more quavers, so “Tell me the tales that to” moves along at a gentle walk. In the middle section (“Now you are come”) the thumb reaches down twice to the G below middle C. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on C and G7.
Practice tip: Learn bars 1 and 2 first: they come back three times. In bars 9 and 11, have the thumb ready for the two low Gs before you get there.
The words
Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, long, long ago, long, long ago; sing me the songs I delighted to hear, long, long ago, long ago. Now you are come, all my grief is removed, let me forget that so long you have roved, let me believe that you love as you loved, long, long ago, long ago.
A short history
Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797–1839) was one of the most popular English songwriters of his day, writing both the words and the music of his drawing-room ballads. He wrote this one in 1833 as “The Long Ago”. It is said to have been first published after his death, in a Philadelphia magazine whose editor, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, seems to have given it its better-known title, and by 1844 it was one of the most popular songs in the United States.
It soon found its way into piano and violin tutors, and violin pupils still meet it early, in the first Suzuki violin book.
Geraldine Farrar made the first popular recording in 1913. In 1939 the tune was given new words and a bouncier beat, and became the wartime hit “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Thomas Haynes Bayly, 1833
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars
- Tempo
- Gently, crotchet = 92
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 77 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
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