Simple melodies

In C: Simple melodies · Major scale · How chords are built · Diatonic chords · Chord changes · Melody and chords · Independence

Five fingers are enough. This page is the tunes themselves, right hand only, written in C. Each one is a folk song, or a tune published long enough ago to be free to play. The finger number sits under the note. Thumb is 1, pinky is 5. The next page names this shape as a major scale. Both hands wait until the chords are in the left hand, on Melody and chords.

Play a tune

Hot Cross Buns

BPM · written in C

The tunes

Five fingers first. Then the pinky steps up to A. Row, Row, Row Your Boat is the one where the hand leaves home.

How to practice

  1. Hear it, then play the finger numbers. Keep the thumb on middle C unless the tune says the hand moves.
  2. Slow the tempo until every note lands with the one you hear. Then bring it back up.
  3. Five-finger tunes first: Hot Cross Buns, Ode to Joy, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells.
  4. Then the pinky step: Twinkle, London Bridge, Frère Jacques. The pinky plays G, steps up to A, and comes back.
  5. If the hand is stiff, the five-finger patterns on Drills are the warm-up. They live with the technique pages.
  6. Name the shape next. The major scale is these five notes, kept going until C comes back.
  7. Both hands later. Melody and chords keeps a left-hand root going while the right hand plays one note at a time.