Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Nursery · Traditional · Traditional (American/British nursery song; documented variants predate 1917)
Sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm with pitch feedback
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm” is transcribed here with its tonic on C4 at 108 bpm in 4 beats to the bar. The 7 notes span G3 to C4 — 5 semitones — which rates Easy to sing, and a full 4-pass session runs about 0:18.
5 semitones as transcribed. The practice room transposes it to sit in your own range.
- One time through
- 0:04 at 108 bpm
- A full session
- 0:18 — 4 passes
- Leaps of a third or more
- 1
Old MacDonald Had a Farm lyrics, as transcribed here
- Old MacDonald had a farm,
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
Traditional nursery song of unknown authorship, documented under earlier titles (“Ohio”, “The Farmyard Song”) since before 1917.
- Attribution
- Traditional (American/British nursery song; documented variants predate 1917)
- 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
Tags describe what the melody asks of a voice, not what it sounds like — “first song” is the reason to pick it on a given day.