Home › Tools › Piano Sheet Music for Kids › Yankee Doodle
Piano sheet music for kids · Folk song · Level 5: A wider range
Yankee Doodle
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
The marching tune, verse and chorus, in crotchets and quavers. The verse sits in C position, but twice the tune dips below the thumb: to G at the end of bar 2 (“a-”) and to G and A in bar 7 (“called it mac-a-”), so the thumb reaches down or the hand slips. The chorus (“Yankee Doodle, keep it up”) moves the hand up: it runs between F and D above middle C with dotted crotchet-quaver pairs on A and B, and the last line ends with a leap from B up to D before the final C. The left hand uses C, F, Dm and G7, with oom-pah bass under the verse.
Practice tip: Learn the verse and the chorus as two separate pieces with two hand positions, then join them. Say “YAN-kee” for the dotted notes in the chorus: long on A, quick on B.
The words
Yankee Doodle went to town, ariding on a pony; stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Yankee Doodle, keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy, mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy.
A short history
“Yankee Doodle” is older than the United States. The tune was known in England and the American colonies by the 1750s, and by one account the earliest words were written by the British to mock the colonial militia during the French and Indian War: a “doodle” was a fool, and “macaroni” was slang for an over-dressed dandy, so sticking a feather in a cap and calling it macaroni was a joke at the Yankees’ expense.
The Americans took the song for themselves during the Revolution. British troops played it as they marched to Lexington in 1775; by the British surrender at Saratoga in 1777 it was the Americans who were playing it.
It was one of the first American tunes in print: it appears in Andrew Barton’s ballad opera The Disappointment (Philadelphia, 1767) and in James Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs (Glasgow, 1782). Connecticut made it the state song in 1978, and the first line is still the way most children learn the rhythm “long-short, long-short”.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (American, 18th century)
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 16 bars
- Tempo
- Marching, crotchet = 112
- Difficulty
- Level 5: A wider range (piece 155 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
What key is Yankee Doodle in?
How long is it?
Is Yankee Doodle out of copyright?
What is the hardest part?
Can I print it?
← More folk songs · All 201 pieces: piano sheet music for kids
🔒 Runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. Once loaded, the page and the piano keep working offline.