Nursery Rhyme Chords
The first songs most of us ever hear, offered as the easiest possible playing material. Open any rhyme for its chords over lyrics, fretboard diagrams, key, and tempo. All traditional and public-domain — ideal for parents, teachers, and brand-new players.
Two chords cover most of these tunes — perfect first songs to play for (and with) kids.
Nursery rhymes with chords
Rounds, street cries and counting songs
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children, and the name dates only from about 1800, though many of the rhymes are older. Hot Cross Buns began as an English street cry, recorded in Poor Robin's Almanack in 1733. Frère Jacques, of French origin, and Row Row Row Your Boat are rounds, in which every singer sings the same tune and each enters a little after the one before. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star sets Jane Taylor's poem of 1806 to a French melody first published in 1761. Mary Had a Little Lamb, published by Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830, was the first recording Thomas Edison made on his phonograph, in 1877.
Frère Jacques, Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Row Row Row Your Boat all need just C and G7. London Bridge Is Falling Down and Skip to My Lou need just G and D7. Old MacDonald Had a Farm, The Muffin Man and This Old Man use G, C and D7, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star adds an F to C and G7.
Keep the strumming quiet and the tempo slow, because these are songs to sing with a child. A round only works if each singer can hear the entry before their own, so hold one chord for a whole bar and let the voices carry the rhythm.
Why these songs are free to play
Every entry is strictly public-domain or traditional, source-attributed, and charted as chords — so you can learn, play, and share without any copyright worry.