Humpty Dumpy is a very nice nursery rhyme. Its melody is very catchy melody and all young kids love that song. Among other children’s song this one is also a very good piece to learn and play on the piano for young beginners. So, let’s learn in this free lesson how to play this song on the piano and get to know a bit more about the origin of Humpty Dumpty. We also provide you the lyrics with the piano letter notes and for the more advanced players the sheet music as free PDF downloads at the end of the article that you can use for your piano lessons or for practicing at home.
Origin of Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty is a traditional English nursery rhyme with a history dating back to the late 18th century. The earliest known version of the rhyme was published in Samuel Arnold’s “Juvenile Amusements” in 1797. The character of Humpty Dumpty was first depicted as a puzzle, probably referring to a clumsy person, but over time he became associated with an egg, largely due to the illustrations in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass” in 1871. The rhyme describes Humpty Dumpty’s great fall and the inability of “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” to put him back together again, symbolizing a catastrophic failure or irreversible situation. Despite its simple lyrics, “Humpty Dumpty” has remained a popular and enduring piece of children’s literature, capturing the imagination of generations.
Piano Letter Notes for Humpty Dumpty
Not everyone, especially young children, can read sheet music. But there is an easy alternative to sheet music for beginners. You can play a song by using the lyrics and the letter notes. This is much easier for children to understand than sheet music. However, before you start, you should familiarize yourself with where each note that you need for the song is located on the piano keyboard. And especially for Humpty Dumpty, you should study the required notes at first. Because we use the C, D, E and F note in two different pitches. That’s why you find C’, D’, E’ and F’ where the symbol stands for the higher pitch, so that you can make the difference.
Labeling the piano keys with the notes can be very helpful for young beginners. This will help them to find the right notes right away.However, in order to reduce the student’s dependence on the piano key labels, you should remove them after the child can confidently play a few songs.
Here are the keys on the keyboard that you have to use for the song the Humpty Dumpty:
And be sure to check out our article on how to read piano notes, where we explain how to easily remember and find the piano keys on the keyboard, and how they correspond to the notes on the sheet music.
The following chart with the lyrics and the letters enables you to learn and play the nursery rhyme in a pretty easy way:
Listen to the recording below in order to play along or to see if you got it right on the piano:
Intermediate players can also combine right and left hand playing. You can for example integrate some piano chords while playing the song. This is a bit more challenging but a good exercise. However, beginners should first start playing the melody with one hand note by note before using the second hand.
Piano Sheet Music for Humpty Dumpty
If you and your students know how to read sheet music, you should use that for your piano lessons and playing! Do you remember talking about the few notes that we are using in different pitches in the song? Sheet music has all the information about a song and if you know how to read sheet music you see immediately the different pitches of the same note. However, it can be challenging for beginners to start playing from music notes written in sheet music.
Here are the music notes for the Humpty Dumpty:
Free PDF Printables for Humpty Dumpty
Feel free to download and to share the lyrics with letter piano notes and the sheet music for your practicing or lesson!
Interested in instruments other than the piano? You can also find a free lesson on how to play The Humpty Dumpty on the guitar and ukulele.
