The sheet music offered here is the traditional nursery rhyme or song “Polly Put the Kettle On” arranged for easy piano. This children’s song is under Roud Folk Song Index #7899.
This arrangement requires moving the right hand around at times and stretching for notes, so I do not consider it as “Very Easy Piano” music. It still falls under “Easy”, though. The left hand does not have to move at all. I like that this could be used to remind students of tied notes, repeats, moving one’s hand, and stretching fingers.
The lyrics I learned as a child were:
Polly, put the kettle on,
Polly, put the kettle on,
Polly, put the kettle on,
We’ll all have tea.
Sukey, take it off again,
Sukey, take it off again,
Sukey, take it off again,
They’ve all gone away.
There is a third verse I have sometimes heard used:
Blow the fire and make the toast,
Put the muffins down to roast,
Blow the fire and make the toast,
We’ll all have tea.
I do not like this third verse because it lacks the repetitiveness of the first two verses.
“They’ve all gone home” is sometimes used for the last line of the second verse instead of the “They’ve all gone away” that I learned. In the sheet music here, I used the former to allow the use of a repeat. It is a good idea to have young ones see repeats and have to do them. I point at many repeats every week.
I used to wonder if it was meant to be “Sukey” or “Suzy”. I had never met anyone named “Sukey” by the time I learned this children’s song— and I still have not that I know of— but I have seen people with the name “Suzy”. I later learned that “Sukey” means “Susan” and “Polly” means “Mary”. That was a very curious idea to me.
What it reminds me of if this: I remember reading Maggie-Now, authored by Betty Smith who also wrote A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and being quite fascinated by the idea of how someone named “Katherine” could find her name gradually shortened more and more into “Katie” into “Kitty” and finally into “Puss”, or something like that. I sat on the floor of the library, leaning against the bookshelf, and stared into the books opposite as I contemplated it. Then, I read the paragraph again because it sounded so funny. I imagine “Mary” into “Polly” has some sort of similar evolution.
To download free sheet music for “Polly Put the Kettle On” for easy piano as a .pdf, please click here: Polly Put the Kettle On – Easy Piano – Full Score
