Old Joe Clark for Beginning PianistsOld Joe Clark piano music for beginners, now with an easier G-to-F chord progression, has fun lyrics and great rhythm. With silly words about his 18-story house filled with chicken pie, Old Joe Clark is fun to sing too. It's also pretty easy! Here it is in several different versions...
Download Old Joe Clark piano sheet music for beginners Like a number of my favorite teaching songs, I've made several versions of Old Joe Clark, each one a little harder than the one before. This first version is for beginners just getting comfortable around Middle C, but ready to take a leap into playing skips (or thirds) in unfamiliar songs. (Skips in a FAMILIAR song such as Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Yankee Doodle seem to be much easier for kids, because their ear is helping them.) Work with them on these skips -- you may want them to "help you" spot all the skips and put loops around them, perhaps with a colored pen or pencil. I have not put any fingering in the LH -- you'll have to help your student decide whether they prefer their "2" finger or their "1" on bass clef B. Some kids really dislike cramming their thumbs together on Middle C, and will fight against any fingering that tries to force them that way, all the while reading the actual note itself just fine. Frequently in method books, the specified fingering is arbitrary, and could just as well
have been something else. By encouraging kids to (sometimes!) make their own choices about
fingering, I hope that they will come to realize musical decisions are rarely cast in stone.
I want to give them a sense of control, and the desire to think for themselves.
I used to use a D7 chord as the contrasting chord, but substituting the F chord has made it possible for real beginners to play this part... they don't have to move far at all. The D7 chord was a big jump away from G. (Also, according to some commenters on my guitar version of Old Joe Clark, the F chord is more authentic.)
(On www.sheetmusicplus.com, "Old Joe Clark's Boogie" is left off of the Table of Contents, but on other sites that piece is shown included. Try Googling it.)
Now the following arrangement is easier than Gerald Martin's, but it is still fun! It uses a D7 chord instead of F:
Download Old Joe Clark piano sheet music with chords in left hand
CommentsDo you have a funny story about this music, or does it remind you of something you'd like to share with other readers? Do you have a question? We'd love to hear it!
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Dana:That is so neat that your son has experienced the magic and mystery of music through this little song. That is so exciting to me. Thanks for writing, Kim!
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