Sing Row Row Row Your Boat: the opening phrase, its key and note range
The opening phrase of “Row Row Row Your Boat” runs from C4 to G4, 7 semitones, with its tonic on C4 at 76 bpm, and rates easy to sing. Origin: Traditional (American round; words printed from 1852, this tune first printed with them in 1881).
Sing Row Row Row Your Boat with pitch feedback
The opening phrase of “Row Row Row Your Boat” is transcribed here with its tonic on C4 at 76 bpm in 3 beats to the bar. The 10 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 0:35.
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
- 0:09 at 76 bpm
- A full session
- 0:35 — 4 passes
- Leaps of a major third or more
- 0
Row Row Row Your Boat lyrics, as transcribed here
- Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream
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 American round. The words have been printed since 1852 and the tune transcribed here since 1881; both are long out of copyright.
- Attribution
- Traditional (American round; words printed from 1852, this tune first printed with them in 1881)
- 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.