Beginner Keyboard Music Sheets
The Water is Wide

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!

Students enjoy easy sightreading 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 sightreading 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:

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. 

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 

---

The Adventures of Tonsta

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.

Available at Amazon!

---

Recent Articles

• 
• 
• 

1. Star-Spangled Banner Free Sheet Music & Lyrics for All Instruments

   

   Star-Spangled Banner free sheet music. Now with a singer's "find-your-pitch" exercise! America's national anthem in 7 keys, & lyrics for 1 or all 4 verses.

   Read More

2. Tarantelle, the Spider Dance, for Beginning Piano

   

   Tarantelle, now with a shortened melody, and in Dm position! The Spider Dance is a vigorous and fun melody for beginning piano students.

   Read More

3. Easy Piano Sheet Music Swan Lake, Free!

   

   Easy piano sheet music Swan Lake, now with a pretty intermediate arrangement and duet secondo! For students who love the mysterious sound of the minor scale.

   Read More

4. Mozart Alla Turca PDF First Movement, for Beginners

   

   Mozart all turca pdf - the slow first movement of this sonata for beginners. An easy and lovely introduction to this famous piano music!

   Read More

5. Beginner Guitar Song Boil'em Cabbage Down

   

   Beginner guitar song Boil'em Cabbage Down - now with eighth notes for flat-picking readers. This is a great beginning technique song for strings!

   Read More

6. There Were Three Ravens Sat On a Tree PDF Score

   

   There Were Three Ravens Sat On a Tree in five different keys! With all the lyrics, short and long versions.

   Read More

7. Free Guitar Tabs: Devil's Dream in Tablature and Standard Notation

   

   FREE guitar tabs, now with an EASY-to-read 2-page version. These arrangements include standard treble clef notation as well.

   Read More

8. Free Fur Elise Sheet Music - Beautifully Readable Copies

   

   Fur Elise sheet music in its entirety, with quarter notes for easy deciphering! These beautiful transcriptions are perfect for students who've just mastered coordination of right hand melody against l…

   Read More

---

Sign up for "Take Note!" to see what's new every month.

Your Email

I am at least 16 years of age.

I have read & I accept the privacy policy.

I understand you will use my info to send Music-for-Music-Teachers updates. I understand that I can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email.

Subscribe to "Take Note!"

Search Music-for-Music-Teachers:

🔍