Sing Mary Had a Little Lamb: the opening phrase, its key and note range
The opening phrase of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” runs from C4 to G4, 7 semitones, with its tonic on C4 at 104 bpm, and rates easy to sing. Origin: Traditional (words published by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1830; this tune printed by 1867, as the chorus of “Goodnight, Ladies”).
Sing Mary Had a Little Lamb with pitch feedback
The opening phrase of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is transcribed here with its tonic on C4 at 104 bpm in 4 beats to the bar. The 13 notes span C4 to G4 — 7 semitones, with no leaps of a major third or more — and the span and leaps together rate it easy to sing; a full 4-pass session runs about 0:32.
7 semitones as transcribed. Once you have taken the range test, the practice room opens it fitted to your range, and you can shift it by semitones from there. Without a saved range it opens at this written pitch and is scored in either octave, so a lower voice can sing it an octave down and a higher voice an octave up.
- One time through
- 0:08 at 104 bpm
- A full session
- 0:32 — 4 passes
- Leaps of a major third or more
- 0
Mary Had a Little Lamb lyrics, as transcribed here
- Mary had a little lamb,
- little lamb, little lamb
The songbook transcribes the opening phrase rather than the whole song, because 4 tight repetitions of a phrase you can hear yourself improve on beats one distracted run at the full thing.
Origin and copyright status
Sarah Josepha Hale published the words in 1830; the tune they are sung to today was printed by 1867, as the chorus of “Goodnight, Ladies”. Both are long out of copyright.
- Attribution
- Traditional (words published by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1830; this tune printed by 1867, as the chorus of “Goodnight, Ladies”)
- Language
- English
Every melody in the songbook is public domain, which is why the whole thing can be sung in a browser without a licence. A specific recording or arrangement of the same tune can still be under copyright — this is our own transcription of the melody.
Genre, era and what it drills
Genre and era say where the melody comes from; “stepwise” is what it asks of a voice.