Get the sheet music here.
Is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star one of the easiest piano songs for beginners?
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" ranks as one of the easiest piano songs for beginners.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star delights beginner pianists with its simple and charming tune. This famous melody also appears in The ABC Song and is a variant melody for the “Baa Baa Black Sheep” nursery rhyme. As a part of young musicians’ training since the 1800s, this piece has a lot to teach!
Learning this familiar tune can help beginner pianists develop their confidence in playing a melody that passes between two hands, as our fingering guide at the top of the sheet music shows. This song also offers great practice for beginner pianists learning to recognize and play leaps of a fifth accurately. For adult beginners with larger hands, this song includes an opportunity to practice your wrist motion after the leap of the fifth.
What scale does Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star use?
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star uses 6 notes of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, and A. In solfege, which is another way to describe music notes, this is Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, and La. You can learn more about solfege
here. Learning to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in solfege teaches musicians the leaps and motion of the melody relationally, which can help with later skills like
transposing music to a different key and playing by ear.
Who wrote Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
The tune for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star comes from the French folk song, “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman.” First written down in the mid-1700s in France, this pastoral song first introduces the rising fifth followed by a whole step motif followed by a descending scale.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star isn’t just for kindergartners and beginners! W.A. Mozart wrote a theme and variations called “12 Variations on Ah! Vous dirai-je, maman (K. 265)” when he was 25 years old. For another Mozart arrangement, check out this
Mozart Minuet (KV. 2) in the Hoffman Academy Store.
When was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star written?
The lyrics we sing for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star was written by Jane Taylor in the early 1800’s. First published as “The Star” in 1806, the Taylor sisters self-published a collection of Rhymes for the Nursery. By 1838, five stanzas of her poem were set to the tune of "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book, one of the song books for singing schools common in that time period. So, the tune of the song comes from 1700’s France, and the words come from 1800’s England, where they were combined.
Are there chords for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
You can harmonize Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with the I, IV, V chord progression. In the C major version on our website, these chords would be C major (C - E - G), F major (F - A - C), and G major (G - B - D). You can add chords to make your own realization by looking at the notes and cadence points and picking a chord that fits. For example, try playing a I chord for the first measure, followed by a IV chord for the first two beats of the second measure changing to V chord.
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