This sheet music for Daisy Bell, by Henry Dacre, is arranged for a beginner violin player and thus in a very sensible G major. (I should probably have a horizontal version for the 4-year-olds, because they benefit from larger notes in their sheet music.) As usual for beginner music I write out, I included the lyrics so that they can match the words to the melody when learning.
I use this one for the idea of 6/8 time signature and triplets. Complete beginners get confused by the high-2-on-D and low-2-on-A, but all the better to practice! This can be taught slurred or all separate bows, depending on where the student it. For slightly older students, there is also the idea of having to reset or otherwise manage the bow even though it ended in the correct direction for the next phrase’s start.
For a long, long time, meaning up until I wrote this out, I thought this was its own song and that it was a traditional children’s song. I now know that this portion I grew up with is the chorus of a longer song known as “Daisy Bell”. You can hear an old recording of the song on the wiki. I think it is funny how a popular song’s chorus became a children’s song.
To download free sheet music as a .pdf for Daisy Bell arranged for the violin in G major, click here:
