Beginner keyboard music sheets as beautiful as The Water is Wide will win your piano students over with storybook lyrics and a lovely melody.
Download this free sheet music to print out, three different versions!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Students enjoy easy sight reading music, pieces with which they are almost instantly successful, especially when they are as pretty as The Water is Wide.
But I don't use beginner keyboard music sheets like this song merely for sight reading or supplemental purposes.
Charlotte Church sings the pretty rendition below:
Once students are familiar with the melody, we turn it into a duet by adding chords - or at least, chord SYMBOLS to work with:
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
I encourage students to play chords with both hands, starting simply, with perhaps one chord per measure, then two chords, and eventually (maybe even the first week) broken chords. See the examples below.
One of the things I love about this song is that it uses (in this arrangement) every one of the 6 chords that belong in the key of C.
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am...they are all here. What good practice for budding pianists!
The Gsus (G suspended) chord in these beginner keyboard music sheets is usually something new for them.
I explain that a suspension is when the middle note of the chord is "hidden" for a few beats in such a way that we wait expectantly (musically speaking) to hear what it will be.
The suspended chord creates a feeling of waiting, waiting... until finally we hear the note we have been longing for -- the resolution into the regular, usual chord. It's so pretty!
Essentially, the "b" in the middle of the G chord is replaced by a "c."
Then we lose the "c" at the beginning of the next measure with the resolution into the "b" note. It has the feeling of a sigh, released.
I have suggested a G7 chord in a couple of places in one or two of the beginner keyboard music sheets, but a plain G chord is just fine.
Here is an easy-counting version, for younger students who are flustered by the eighth notes.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
One thing to watch out for when teaching the melody: the quarter rests are almost invisible to the typical student eye, and many students will look right past them!
So I often hand students a red pen and say,
"There are 8 rests hiding in this song. Can you find them?"
They always can, when I put it that way! Then they quickly circle the rests, and we play through the song singing like this:
"One-two-three-four, REST! The wa-ter is wide, two-three-four, REST! I can-not get o'er, two-three-four, REST!" You get the idea. I have found this to be very effective in this song.
I own two great folk song books that include this song, except the name given in the books is "O Waly, Waly."
Both books, Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, and One Hundred English Folksongs, have 8 verses of lyrics, of which 3 verses are almost identical to the lyrics I have used here.
I also have lead sheets of The Water is Wide in several keys (more suitable for singing than the key of C for this song) that you can play on piano or guitar.
Enjoy this song! I'll bet your students will.
The links to the PDF downloads:
Download free kids sheet music The Water is Wide, in Middle C position, with shared-hands melody
Download The Water is Wide for beginner piano with chord symbols
The Water is Wide Doubled Timing free sheet music to print
Basic piano chords in the keys of C & G, showing root position chords and all inversions from the root chord - plus a diatonic scale - all with lettered notes!
Free Christmas sheet music "We Three Kings" - Now 6 Arrangements! From VERY EASY to intermediate, there is an arrangement suitable for your student here!
Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town, now with an EASY & FUN duet arrangement for early beginners! This is a rousing, irresistible song for the Yuletide!
Free Christmas Songs: Deck the Halls, with a new easy-to-read lead sheet! For piano, guitar, & lead instruments. Kids enjoy this energetic Christmas carol!
Thanksgiving song lyrics & sheet music for Over the River & Through the Woods, an old-fashioned song kids will love to play & sing! EASY solos & duets.
Piano Party! I decided it was time for my students to get together for some low-stress performances, some cookies, punch & company! Kids need FUN!
Thanksgiving song for school, church, or your own pleasure! Now with a new EASY version for piano, 2 NEW piano arrangements, plus voice & other instruments.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing - an easy Middle C piano arrangement, pretty elementary & intermediate versions, & a guitar tab arrangement too!
Classical piano sheet music - Fun, one-page intros! Check out the newest addition - Burgmuller's "Arabesque", with its easy scale-wise melody!
Toreador: Piano sheet music of this famous opera music! These energetic arrangements are EASIER than they sound.
All the first-year material I give my beginner students.
Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!
This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This", available as a digital download, tells the riveting story of the time when Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a brave young queen risked her life to save her people.
A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!
This book is also available from Amazon as a paperback.
This book is available as a digital download from this site. Visit this page to see some free examples from the book.
It is also available from Amazon as a paperback!
This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.
And when they start reading white-key notes on the staff, this is a fun easy resource to say each week, "Choose a new black-key song at home this week and figure it out to show me next lesson!" They will be spending more time at the piano.
A perfect read aloud storybook
for little boys or girls.
The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.
With a red cap on his head and a sack of tools slung over his shoulder, Tonsta seems to meet people in distress wherever he goes.
Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
Ashley:
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Several of the songs on this site work so well for some of my picky students and the ones who don't practice a lot.
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.