Mildred J. Hill (1859-1916) 1893 C major 3/4 Easy 0:14 Both hands
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Happy Birthday to You is the song everybody will ask you to play, and it is short enough to learn in an evening. This easy version is in C major, so every note is a white key, with the melody in the right hand and one long bass note per bar in the left. The tune is in 3/4 - count three beats per bar - and each line starts with two quick pick-up notes, "Hap-py": on G for the first three lines, on F for the last. The first two lines sit under one hand position; the third line jumps up an octave for "Happy birthday dear...", and that jump is the only real move. Press Listen once, then learn it in Practice mode, where the next key lights up and the song waits for you.
Start with the thumb on the G above middle C: the first two lines, up to bar 4, never leave the five notes G, A, B, C and D. The third line, bars 5 and 6, leaps to the G an octave higher and comes back down; the last line sits in the C position, with the thumb on the C above middle C.
One note per bar, held for three beats: C, G or F below middle C, with C and G sharing bar 7. Put the little finger on C, the second finger on F and the thumb on G, and the left hand never has to move.
The pick-up "Hap-py" is a long-short pair: the first G is three times as long as the second, and the two together take one beat. Then the leap at the start of bar 5, from the G at the end of bar 4 to the G an octave higher. Loop bars 4 to 6 slowly until the jump lands without looking.
Thumb on G: G G A G C B is 1-1-2-1-4-3, then G G A G D C is 1-1-2-1-5-4. For the third line, jump so that the little finger lands on the high G: G E C is 5-3-1, then B A is 2-1 after a small slide down. Move back up so the thumb is on C again: F F E C D C is 4-4-3-1-2-1.
The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.
Melody: G G A G C B G G A G D C G G G E C B A F F E C D …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup | G G | Sol Sol |
| 1 | A G C | La Sol Do |
| 2 | B G G | Si Sol Sol |
| 3 | A G D | La Sol Ré |
| 4 | C G G | Do Sol Sol |
| 5 | G E C | Sol Mi Do |
| 6 | B A F F | Si La Fa Fa |
| 7 | E C D | Mi Do Ré |
| 8 | C | Do |
The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.
The piece is in C major: all the chords of the key
The melody was written by Mildred J. Hill, a pianist and composer from Louisville, Kentucky, for Good Morning to All, a greeting song with words by her sister Patty Smith Hill, who ran a kindergarten in the city. It was published in 1893 in the sisters' songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten. The birthday words, sung to the same tune, appear in print from the early 1910s, and in time they became far better known than the original.
For decades the song was treated as copyrighted, and licence fees were collected for its public use. In September 2015, in the case Marya v. Warner/Chappell Music, a US federal judge ruled that Warner/Chappell's copyright claim over the words was invalid; after a settlement, the court declared the song to be in the public domain in June 2016. The melody itself is by a composer who died in 1916.
This transcription: Mildred J. Hill, "Good Morning to All" (1893): the melody as sung today to "Happy Birthday to You", in C major; left hand by GOONS Studio. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
On guitar: Happy Birthday guitar chords and lyrics, with a guitar that strums along.
For kids: Happy Birthday to You by colors, on a rainbow piano that lights the next key and waits.
Easy Version · C major
Easy Version, Chorus · C major
Easy Version · C major
Easy Version · C majorThe full piano studio opens this score with your MIDI keyboard and sustain pedal, records what you play and exports it as a MIDI file. It comes with the GOONS Studio subscription - start with the 7-day free trial, no card required.
In C major: G G A G C B, G G A G D C, G G G E C B A (the third G an octave higher), F F E C D C. In Do Ré Mi: Sol Sol La Sol Do Si, Sol Sol La Sol Ré Do, Sol Sol Sol Mi Do Si La, Fa Fa Mi Do Ré Do. Every bar is in the Notes section.
Yes. The melody comes from Good Morning to All (1893) by Mildred J. Hill, who died in 1916. The words were long claimed under copyright, but in 2015 a US federal judge ruled that claim invalid, and in 2016 the court declared the song to be in the public domain. In the European Union its copyright ended on 1 January 2017.
The tune is by Mildred J. Hill, written for Good Morning to All, a song with words by her sister Patty Smith Hill, published in 1893. Who first sang "Happy birthday to you" to it is not known; the birthday words appear in print with the tune from the early 1910s.
It is short and uses only white keys in C major. This version is level 2 of 5 because of the octave leap in the third line and the quick pick-up notes; the left hand holds one note per bar.