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