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Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Polly Wolly Doodle
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 16 bars and a pickup. 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 nonsense song from the minstrel stage, and a good piece for quavers: “Pol-ly wol-ly doo-dle all the” is eight quavers in a row, first on E and F, then (bars 7 and 15) on G, F and D. The hand stays in C position with the thumb on middle C, but in bars 4 to 6 and 12 to 14 the thumb reaches down one key to B for “Oh my”, “she is a”, “for I’m” and the “Lou-i-si-an-a” line, and the top note is G. The “Fare thee well” section (bars 9 and 10) is long dotted minims on E with a two-quaver pickup each time. The left hand swaps between C and G7, with crotchet oom-pah under the quaver runs.
Practice tip: Clap the eight quavers of “Polly wolly doodle all the” with “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” before you play them; they must stay even. Keep the thumb close to B so the reach down is small.
The words
Oh, I went down South for to see my Sal, sing Polly wolly doodle all the day. Oh, my Sal she is a spunky gal, sing Polly wolly doodle all the day. Fare thee well, fare thee well, fare thee well, my fairy fay, for I'm goin' to Louisiana for to see my Susyanna, sing Polly wolly doodle all the day.
A short history
“Polly Wolly Doodle” is an American minstrel song. Dan Emmett’s Virginia Minstrels are said to have sung it in New York in 1843, and it is often credited to Emmett, who also wrote “Dixie”, although no one has found his name on an early copy. The first printed version appeared in Harvard’s Student Songs in 1880, by which time it had been passed around by ear for decades.
The words are deliberately silly, a string of “fare thee well”s and nonsense rhymes with “Louisiana” and “Susyanna”, and endless verses were added by soldiers, students and children.
Shirley Temple sang it in the 1935 film The Littlest Rebel, which fixed it in the minds of a new generation, and it remains a favourite in school singing books because the tune is so easy to pick up.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (American minstrel song, 1840s)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Briskly, crotchet = 112
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 92 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
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