Easy piano song, sheet music with note names
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star piano notes: letters and sheet music
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star piano notes: the whole tune with letter names and octaves, in C major, 4/4, C4 to A4. Play it and print it (A4 and Letter PDF).
Two kinds of page: the tune with a letter name under every note, and a worksheet with the names left blank.
Download the PDF kit
Free to print and share. No sign-up, no e-mail, no watermark. A4 for most of the world, Letter for the US and Canada; both are black and white, with the fonts embedded.
Quick answer
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on this page is the whole tune (first stanza): 42 notes in 12 bars of 4/4, in C major, with a range of C4 to A4 (9 semitones). It begins on C4 and ends on C4. Below: the letter names with octave numbers, the notes on the staff, a version you can play, a note-name worksheet and the checks that were run.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star at a glance
- Key
- C major (no sharps or flats)
- Time signature
- 4/4: four beats to the bar, each a quarter note
- Range
- C4 to A4, 9 semitones
- Notes and bars
- 42 notes, 12 bars
- First note
- C4 (scale degree 1)
- Last note
- C4 (scale degree 1)
- Tune
- the French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, first published in 1761
- Words
- Jane Taylor, “The Star”, first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection by Jane and her sister Ann
- Mozart
- Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman”, K. 265, written around 1781 or 1782
- Same tune
- the ABC song and “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”
- Tempo on this page
- quarter note = 100; a gentle practice speed chosen for this page; the sources give no tempo for the nursery song
- Hands
- Right hand: the melody shown on the staff. The left hand is not shown on this page; play the tune with the right hand alone, or add any simple bass notes.
- Level
- Easy. How the level is worked out
Press a note on the staff to hear it. The sound is made in your browser from the notes of this page (a plain synthesiser, not a recording). Normal speed is quarter note = 100: a gentle practice speed chosen for this page; the sources give no tempo for the nursery song.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
C major · 4/4 · melody with note names
Key C major (no sharps or flats) Range C4 to A4 Words Jane Taylor, “The Star” (poem first published 1806) Music French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” (first published 1761)
Scale of C major C D E F G A B Middle C is C4, the C nearest the middle of the keyboard
Melody: Wikipedia, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (score 1 in the article) (CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1359002533 of 2026-06-12), checked note by note against 3 other sources. Free to print and share under the same licence, CC BY-SA 4.0. musictheoryprint.com/charts/twinkle-twinkle-little-star-piano-notes
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: name the notes
C major · 4/4 · worksheet
Name Date Class
Write the letter name of every note on the line under it. The key signature tells you which notes are sharp: . The home note of the key is C.
Check your answers against the sheet with the note names. Extra: circle every note that is a C, the home note of the key.
Melody: Wikipedia, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (score 1 in the article) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Free to print and share under the same licence, CC BY-SA 4.0. musictheoryprint.com/charts/twinkle-twinkle-little-star-piano-notes
The notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, bar by bar
42 notes in 12 bars, in C major. Each note is a letter and an octave number: C4 is middle C, the C nearest the middle of the keyboard, and the numbers go up by one at every C. The ♯ and ♭ mean the black key above or below the letter. “held” means a tied note that is not played again; “rest” is silence.
| Bar | Right hand (melody) | do re mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C4 C4 G4 G4 | do do sol sol |
| 2 | A4 A4 G4 | la la sol |
| 3 | F4 F4 E4 E4 | fa fa mi mi |
| 4 | D4 D4 C4 | re re do |
| 5 | G4 G4 F4 F4 | sol sol fa fa |
| 6 | E4 E4 D4 | mi mi re |
| 7 | G4 G4 F4 F4 | sol sol fa fa |
| 8 | E4 E4 D4 | mi mi re |
| 9 | C4 C4 G4 G4 | do do sol sol |
| 10 | A4 A4 G4 | la la sol |
| 11 | F4 F4 E4 E4 | fa fa mi mi |
| 12 | D4 D4 C4 | re re do |
do re mi uses movable do: do is C.
Which keys to press
The tune spans 6 letter names, from C4 to A4. A hand in one five-finger position covers five, so the hand has to shift position (or stretch) at least once; an octave is eight letter names. Try the notes on the virtual piano or press a note on the staff above to hear it.
What the tune is made of
How the melody moves
Each of the 41 moves from one note to the next, counted.
Which note lengths it uses
Every note counted by its length, as a fraction of a whole note.
Most-used note: G4 (10 times). Longest run of one repeated note: 2. Different pitches: 6. Biggest leap: 7 semitones.
How the notes were checked
Not one note on this page was typed in or remembered. The melody is read by a program from Wikipedia, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (score 1 in the article) (CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1359002533 of 2026-06-12). A second program then looked for the same notes, in the same order, in each of the sources below, which were typeset or encoded by other people. The number is the share of this page’s notes that are found there, whatever key the other source is in; where a source covers only the start of the tune, only that part is compared (it is named in the table).
| Source | Licence | Notes there | Same pitches | Same pitches and lengths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia, "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" (score 1 in the article, "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman")revision 1357718415 of 2026-06-04; compared on bars 1 to 8 of this page | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 30 | 100% | 93% |
| Mutopia Project, "Ah Vous Dirai-Je Maman", theme (Mozart, K. 265, arranged for guitars) (Jeffrey Olson)Mutopia-2018/12/07-2236; an octave higher than this page | Public Domain | 49 | 100% | 62% |
| Wikimedia Commons, "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman.mid"uploaded 2020-01-10, SHA-1 13bed03434; in another key, compared after moving it by 2 semitones; compared on bars 1 to 8 of this page | CC0 | 132 | 100% | 93% |
The second column is lower than the first because editions write the same long notes in different ways (a half note and a tied pair, a held last note) and because performance MIDI files shorten or lengthen notes. Pitch is the part that matters for the letter names. A MIDI file of a whole piano piece does not say which notes are the melody, so the program takes the highest note at each moment; a melody note that sits under a higher accompaniment note can be missed, and that is the usual reason for a “no matching note” above.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: questions people ask
What are the letter notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
The first notes, with their octave numbers, are C4 C4 G4 G4 A4 A4 G4 F4 F4 E4 E4 D4. Every note of the whole tune is in the table above, one bar per row (middle C is C4, the C nearest the middle of the keyboard; the next C up is C5).
What key and time signature is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in?
On this page it is in C major (no sharps or flats), in 4/4: four beats to the bar, each a quarter note. The nursery song is usually printed in C major because it then uses only white keys; the CC0 MIDI file used in the check is in D major, with the same tune.
Which hand plays what, and how high and low does it go?
The range is C4 to A4, 9 semitones; 0.82% of the first vocal lines in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus have a smaller range and 98.8% a larger one. The tune spans 6 letter names, from C4 to A4. A hand in one five-finger position covers five, so the hand has to shift position (or stretch) at least once; an octave is eight letter names.
Is this the whole of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
Yes, for the tune. The 12 bars are the whole melody of the first stanza, and the later stanzas use the same tune again. The words are not printed on this page.
Is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star free to print and share?
The tune is the French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, first published in 1761 according to Wikipedia, and Jane Taylor’s poem “The Star” was first published in 1806, so both are far out of copyright. The sheets are made by this site and may be printed and shared. Modern arrangements and recordings have their own rights.
How do I know the notes are right?
The melody is read by a program from Wikipedia, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (score 1 in the article), never typed in. A second program then compares it, note by note and in order, with 3 other sources: Wikipedia's score (100% of its notes, bars 1 to 8); another Mutopia edition (100% of its notes); MIDI file “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman” (100% of its notes, bars 1 to 8). 3 of the 3 agree with this page on every pitch. Where they differ, the page lists every note and bar, so you can see the difference.
Who wrote the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
Nobody knows. The tune is the French song “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”. Wikipedia says it was first published in 1761, and that, according to Henri-Irénée Marrou, its origin is an anonymous pastoral song of about 1740. Mozart wrote twelve variations on it (K. 265).
Is it the same tune as the ABC song?
Yes. Wikipedia lists the ABC song and “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” among the other nursery songs sung to the same melody, so once you can play this page you can play those too.
musictheoryprint.com · free to print and share
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in real music: the numbers
In C major the tune uses 6 of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, all of them inside the key. It moves by step 19 times out of 41, and ends on the home note, as 75% of major-key art songs do.
This tune against real art songs
| What | This tune | OpenScore Lieder (880 major-key songs) |
|---|---|---|
| First note | C4 (degree 1) | 18.2% start on degree 1 |
| Last note | C4 (degree 1) | 75.1% end on degree 1 |
| Range of the tune | 9 semitones (C4 to A4) | 1% of 1,458 first vocal lines span fewer semitones, 99% more |
The art-song numbers are for the first vocal line of every major-key song whose key signature does not change; the numbers for this tune are counted on the melody printed above.
How common C major is
| Collection | Items with a key | Share in C major | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | 1,462 | 6.5% | 5 of 24 |
| Mutopia | 1,974 | 18.6% | 1 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 13,669 | 10.6% | 2 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 5,340 | 8.7% | 3 of 24 |
| Open Opus work titles | 3,587 | 11.6% | 1 of 24 |
| AcousticBrainz recordings | 63,124 | 8.2% | 1 of 24 |
Counts of key signatures (and estimated major or minor) in the collections the site has measured; see the key page for C major.
Where the tune sits among singers' ranges
| Voice type (as labelled in the scores) | Typical range of a real song line | This tune (C4 to A4) |
|---|---|---|
| Soprano | E♭4 to F5 | fits if moved up 3 semitones |
| Alto / Contralto | C4 to C5 | fits as written |
| Tenor | F3 to F♯4 | fits if moved down 3 semitones |
| Baritone | C3 to E4 | fits if moved down 5 semitones |
| Bass | A2 to C4 | fits if moved down 9 semitones |
Typical range = the median across song lines of the lowest and highest notes (ignoring one stray note each side), from 285 vocal lines in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus. "Fits" means both ends of the tune are inside it.
Method
- This tune's own numbers are counted by a script on the decoded melody (tied notes counted once, rests ignored).
- Art-song numbers are read from the files behind the site's statistics pages (OpenScore Lieder Corpus: key and scale-degree counts for the first vocal line of every piece, vocal ranges of 1,458 lines).
- Key counts for Mutopia and MusicBrainz come from the same published statistics; a key is counted from its key signature.
Data: computed from the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0), 1,462 scores. Snapshot: commit 6b2dc542ce (2026-04-07).
Background
Excerpts from open reference works, reproduced as published (references, images and tables removed). Every excerpt names its source, licence and original article.
About “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”
Overview
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is an English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem written by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is now sung to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", which was first published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman". The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known.
Melody
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is sung to the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman". The melody is used in other nursery rhymes, including the ABC Song and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".
Source: Wikipedia, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-12.
Sources and licences for the text, scores and recordings on this page are on the credits page.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (score 1 in the article), Wikipedia, "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" (score 1 in the article, "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman"), Mutopia Project, "Ah Vous Dirai-Je Maman", theme (Mozart, K. 265, arranged for guitars) (Jeffrey Olson), Wikimedia Commons, "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman.mid".