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Piano sheet music for kids · National song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
The British Grenadiers
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 marching song of the British Army, here with its well-known first verse. It is in 4/4 with a pickup, “Some”, and a bouncing march rhythm of crotchets and pairs of quavers (eighth notes), with a dotted crotchet and quaver in the middle section. The first four bars come three times, for “Some talk of Al-ex-an-der”, “Of Hec-tor and Ly-san-der” and the “tow, row, row” ending, with the middle section before the last. The hand moves between the G below middle C and the A above it. The left hand plays a bass note and chords.
Practice tip: March on the spot while you count “one, two, three, four”, and keep the pickup short and crisp. The opening four bars come back three times, so learn them first.
The words
Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules, of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these. But of all the world's brave heroes, there's none that can compare, with a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.
A short history
The tune is old, and where it came from is disputed. It appears as “The New Bath” in a collection of dance tunes of 1728, and some writers have traced it back to the early 1600s. It became a British Army march around 1700 and has been the quick march of the Royal Artillery since 1716. It is also an authorised march of the Royal Australian Artillery.
The song is about grenadiers in general, the soldiers who threw grenades, and boasts that they outshine the great heroes of the ancient world: Alexander the Great, the Greek hero Hercules, Hector of Troy and the Spartan commander Lysander. Other verses vary from one songbook to the next.
The words and tune here follow the version printed by James S. Kerr in Merry Melodies in the 1880s.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (English march, 17th to 18th century)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Marching, crotchet = 116
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 75 of 201)
- Type
- National 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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