Folk Tune List
How to use this list
I developed this list when I was learning to play by ear. I was almost done with my Bachelors degree in Piano Performance and I couldn’t play Happy Birthday by ear comfortably. I realized there was something seriously wrong with my training.
I already could sing a lot of these songs from my childhood. Other songs I could easily find on YouTube. If you can sing the song you can play it on the piano.
Beginning
- Hot Cross Buns
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
Rounds
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Three Blind Mice
- I Love the Mountains
- Kookaburra
- Are you Sleeping
Pentatonic
- Camptown Races
- Peter Peter
- Riddle Song
- Amazing Grace
- Old MacDonald
- Swing Low
- This Little Light of Mine
Two Part
- Dona Nobis Pachem
- Horsey Horsey
I V
- He’s Got the Whole World
- Rock-a-My Soul
- Polly Wolly Doodle
- Eensy Weensy Spider
- Clementine
- Down in the Valley
- Horsey Horsey
- Here We Go Looby Loo
- Here We Are Together
- Hush Little Baby
- London Bridge
- Here We Go Looby Loo
- Humpty Dumpty
I IV V
The stars(*) mean that the song can be played with secondary dominants as well.
- Amazing Grace
- Five Little Ducks
- America
- Auld Lang Syne
- Band Played On
- Battle Hymn of the Republic
- Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)*
- Danny Boy*
- Dixie
- Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree
- Down by the Riverside
- Edelweis*
- God Bless America*
- Goodnight Ladies
- Happy Birthday*
- Home on the Range
- How Great Thou Art
- I Think You’re Wonderful
- English Gardens
- Jesus Loves Me
- Kum Bah Yah
- Lean on me
- Lullaby (Brahms)
- Michael Row the Boat Ashore
- Moon River
- Sur Le Pont d’Avignon
- Oh Susannah
- Oh What a Beautiful Morning
- Que Sera Sera
- She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain*
- Side by Side
- Singin’ in the Rain
- Swing Low Sweet Chariot*
- This Land is Your Land*
- When the Saints go Marching In
- Yankee Doodle Dandy
- You Are My Sunshine*
- Down by the Bay
- Do As I’m Doing*
- Five Little Speckled Frogs
- How Much is that Doggy in the Window?
- If You’re Happy and You Know It*
- Pop Goes the Weasel
- Rock-a-bye Baby
- Wheels on the Bus
- This Old Man
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Pearly Shells*
- Rubber Ducky
- Billy Boy*
- Aiken Drum
- My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean*
- Zippadee Doo Dah*
- Playmate, Come out and Play
- On Top of Spaghetti
- Mister Sun
- B-I-N-G-O*
- If I had a Hammer
- I’m a Little Teapot
- Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends
- It’s a Small World
- Animal Fair
I IV V V/V
- America the Beautiful
- Muffin Man
- In the Good Old Summertime
- I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
- Red River Valley
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
- Bushel and a Peck
- Never Smile at a Crocodile
More chords
- (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow
Many Secondary Dominants
- Climb Every Mountain
- Do Re Mi
- Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Miscelaneous
- Bill Bailey Won’t You Come Home
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Country Roads
- Five Foot Two
- Getting to Know You
- How Could Anyone Ever Tell You (Libby Roderick)
- I Can See Clearly Now
- In the Garden
- Let Me Call You Sweetheart
- My Favorite Things
- My Wild Irish Rose
- Sentimental Journey
- The River (Garth Brooks)
- What a Wonderful World
- When You Wish Upon a Star
- You’ll Never Walk Alone
- You’ve Got a Friend (James Taylor)
Minor
- When Johnny Comes Marching Home
- All the Pretty Little Horses
Christmas
- Silent Night
- Angels We Have Heard on High*
- Silver Bells
- Joy to the World
- Frosty, the Snowman*
- Jingle Bells
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Hymns/Primary Songs
- Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam
- Do As I’m Doing
- I am a Child of God
- Love One Another