Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) #1: Easy Songs to Play on Piano for Young Beginners
Are you looking for easy songs to play on piano? This post has videos of 12 easy piano songs for young beginners, including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This will be a good first introduction to playing keyboard instruments, so you can find out if your child likes playing music. Keep reading to learn these 12 basic piano songs.
Drawing on my 35 years’ experience teaching music, I’ve selected the 12 best piano songs for young beginners. Your kids will love these melodies and will have fun playing along with the videos. They’ll learn:
- Muffin Man
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Pop Goes the Weasel
- Alouette
- Shoo Fly
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Happy Birthday
- Ode to Joy
- Itsy Bitsy Spider
- London Bridge
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Hush Little Baby
This post uses music terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the article.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission from purchases made through the links. I’ll only recommend products I use, use in lessons, or ones my students or colleagues have recommended.
Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) #2: How Do I Learn the Melody?
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
If you want to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, you’ll find it in the next section.
- However, first mastering these easy piano songs in middle C position will help with learning the melodies in middle F position.
- Why?
- Because the middle C position melodies set up the fingerings for the later songs.
The melodies in this section all use middle C position.
- You start with both thumbs on middle C.
- However, you don’t use both thumbs to play the middle C key. Instead, you’ll use either one thumb or the other.
- The fingering rule: each finger gets a key. (See the diagram above.)
Right Hand Fingering:
- Thumb (#1) on C
- Pointer (#2) on D
- Middle (#3) on E
- Ring (#4) on F
- Pinky (#5) on G
Left Hand Fingering:
- Thumb (#1) on C
- Pointer (#2) on B
- Middle (#3) on A
- Ring (#4) on G
- Pinky (#5) on F
How to play the tunes:
- Get your hands into position. If you have a sharp or flat, use the same finger you’d use for the white key with the same letter name.
- Click on the video you want to learn. Then, play along with it.
- If you click on the settings icon, you can speed up or slow down the playback speed.
To play a virtual keyboard: click here.
Video: Muffin Man
Video: Mary Had a Little Lamb
Pop Goes the Weasel
Video: Alouette
Video: Shoo Fly
Once you’ve worked with the melodies in middle C position, you can try the easy songs to play on piano centered around F.
Most of this post's songs can be found in this easy piano book.
Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) #3: Where Do I Place My Hands to Play These Melodies?
Hand Icon (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.
Because of its popularity, we’ll start with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for our first middle F position easy piano song.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star fun facts:
- The French tune used for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was first published in 1761.
- Later, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a famous set of variations using the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star melody.
- The poem The Star appeared in the early 1800s, which became Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when it was set to the French melody.
Middle F position isn’t an official hand position. However, if you place both thumbs on F it creates a middle F-like fingering, which follows the same basic fingering pattern as middle C position.
Right Hand Fingering:
- Thumb (#1) on F
- Pointer (#2) on G
- Middle (#3) on A
- Ring (#4) on B
- Pinky (#5) on C
Left Hand Fingering:
- Thumb (#1) on F
- Pointer (#2) on E
- Middle (#3) on D
- Ring (#4) on C
- Pinky (#5) on B
Once you have your hands in position, you’ll follow along with the video’s melody.
Video: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Video: Happy Birthday
Video: Ode to Joy
Now that you’ve worked with the tunes in middle C and middle F positions, you can try the easy songs to play on piano centered around G.
You’ll find Happy Birthday in this easy piano book.
Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) #4: What’s Middle G Position?
We’ll finish our easy songs to play on piano for young beginners with the middle G position easy piano songs. Like middle F position, middle G position isn’t a hand position they teach in the lesson books.
However, if you place both your thumbs on G, your fingers will fall into a position much like middle C position.
Right Hand Fingering:
- Thumb (#1) on G
- Pointer (#2) on A
- Middle (#3) on B
- Ring (#4) on C
- Pinky (#5) on D
Left Hand Fingering:
- Thumb (#1) on G
- Pointer (#2) on F
- Middle (#3) on E
- Ring (#4) on D
- Pinky (#5) on C
Video: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Video: London Bridge
Video: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Video: Hush Little Baby
You’ve got Disney tunes in this easy piano book.
Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) #5: Final Thoughts
Here’s a summary of 12 Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star):
- The videos in this post have easy songs to play on piano for young kids.
- They’re a good first introduction to playing keyboard instruments, which will help you get an idea of whether your child is ready to start lessons.
- Also, this post gives a good introduction to hand positions. It’s important to build good fingering habits from the very start.
Have fun playing!
Glossary
- Fingering
- Flat
- Key (instrument)
- Keyboard instrument
- LH = left hand
- Melody
- Middle C
- RH = right hand
- Sharp
- Variations
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Read MoreHand Icon (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.