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Piano sheet music for kids · Nursery rhyme · Level 3: Notes below middle C
Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 6/8, 8 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
Question and answer in 6/8, to James William Elliott’s tune. “Pussy cat, pussy cat” is a C chord falling twice, G, E, C, played with the little finger, middle finger and thumb, then four Gs for “where have you been?”. The answer drops below middle C: “I’ve been to London” is D, B, G, with the thumb on the G below, and sits on four Ds. The second half is new: a stepwise run that climbs from C to A for “what did you there?”, stretching the little finger up to A, then walks all the way down A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G and lands on C. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on each big beat: C, G7 and F.
Practice tip: Learn the first four bars as two hand shapes: G, E, C with fingers 5, 3, 1, then slide the hand down so the thumb is on the low G for “I’ve been to London”. For bars 5 to 8 think of a staircase up to A and back down.
The words
Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the queen. Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair.
A short history
The rhyme was first printed in Songs for the Nursery in London in 1805. The queen the cat went to see is often said to be Elizabeth I, and there is a story of a cat that wandered under the royal throne, but no one has found any evidence older than the rhyme itself; the Opies simply record it as a nursery favourite of the early nineteenth century. It has been a staple of picture books ever since, with the cat usually drawn in a bonnet.
The tune is James William Elliott’s, from National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs (1870), the collection that fixed the standard melodies for dozens of English rhymes. This arrangement follows it as printed in The Everyday Song Book (Chicago, 1927); Alfred Moffat’s Our Old Nursery Rhymes (1911) gives a different tune.
Quick facts
- Tune
- James William Elliott, 1870
- Words
- Traditional (English, printed 1805)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 6/8
- Length
- 8 bars
- Tempo
- Lightly, dotted crotchet = 66
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 90 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
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