Shortnin' Bread Sheet Music

Shortnin' Bread sheet music for beginners - with or without lettered notes to help reading.

Shortnin' Bread sheet music

Please scroll down the page for the download links.

Piano students add their own style

Watch this sister and brother team who have worked up their very own interpretation of this music.  Shortnin' Bread is a jazzy-sounding bit of music, but the written notes on the page are just basic quarter notes and half notes!  Somehow they KNOW to add "swing" to the melody.

Easy notes - right around Middle C

Here are the same notes your beginners are working on, if you are using a Middle C approach such as Perfect Start for Notereading.

Here is the same sheet music, with no letters in the notes:

Easy piano sheet music

Please scroll down the page for the download links.

The first note in this song is a G.  So what?  Well, part of our lessons in the last few months is writing on writing on staff paper.  Each 3 to 5 minute writing portion of the lesson starts with drawing a treble clef... treble clefs are FUN to draw, and have information to impart!

Make use of those "landmark" notes

That second-line-from-the-bottom-of-the-staff that the treble clef wraps around has a very special note that sits on that line... G above Middle C.  

Can students identify that landmark note?

When starting a new song, I'll frequently take this approach:

"I see three Gs in the first line.  Can you see where they are hiding?"  Students can easily spot each G, when they only have to search for the same note over and over again.

Then, "There are three Gs hiding in line 2!  Can you find them?" and so on throughout the piece.

A game, instead of tedium!

This identify-just-one-note approach is so much faster and fun than identifying each note one after the other.  You know, "G, E, D, E, G, E, D..."  

If there is time, we might go after the other notes in that same way, or perhaps take a different tack, such as using a different color ink to name each note, or looping around each bass clef B, for example.

Where is the secondo part?

The chord accompaniment is coming from the big sister's understanding of chords.  Following the "G...... D...G" chord symbols above the melody line, she has made up her own backup for the melody!  If you want more "how to work with chords" ideas, take a look at the pages free lead sheets and Mary Had a Little Lamb.


The links for the piano music:



Download Shortnin' Bread sheet music with lettered notes



Download the music with plain notes, no letters


Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church?  Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!

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About the Author

Dana Thynes

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.