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Piano sheet music for kids · Children's song · Level 3: Notes below middle C
There’s a Hole in My Bucket
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 3/4, 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
The leaky-bucket argument between Henry and Liza, in 3/4 with a two-quaver pickup. Both sing the same tune: Henry’s complaint is bars 1 to 8 and Liza’s answer is bars 9 to 16. The right hand sits with the thumb on the A below middle C, so the fingers cover A, B, C, D and E, with finger 3 on C to begin, and the thumb reaches down to G for “in the” and “dear”. Bars 2, 6, 10 and 14 are short-long, a quaver (eighth note) then a dotted crotchet. Liza’s “Then” is sung over two notes joined by a slur. The left hand plays a bass note and two chords in each bar, C, F and G.
Practice tip: Say the words in rhythm first: “buck-et” and “Hen-ry” are short-long. Then practise the thumb’s reach from A down to G and back until the hand stays put.
The words
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole. Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, mend it.
A short history
The song is a long argument. Henry’s bucket has a hole; Liza tells him to mend it with straw, but the straw is too long, the knife to cut it is blunt, the stone to sharpen it is dry, and to wet the stone he needs water, which he must fetch in the bucket, which has a hole in it.
The joke is German and old. A dialogue between Liese and a man is in the Bergliederbüchlein, a songbook of about 1700, and in 1858 the Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch printed it as “Heinrich und Liese”. An English version was known by 1937, and the folklorist George Korson printed a Pennsylvania Dutch version, collected in 1940, in his Pennsylvania Songs and Legends (1949).
Harry Belafonte and Odetta recorded it as a duet in 1960, and their record reached number 32 in the British charts in 1961.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (German, about 1700; English words known by 1937)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 3/4
- Length
- 16 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Cheerfully, crotchet = 126
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 48 of 201)
- Type
- Children's 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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