Music library › Folk songs and rounds
traditional American spiritual, 19th century. Excerpt, written out for reading practice.
A spiritual that grew out of African American church music in the 1800s and became a jazz standard in New Orleans, where brass bands played it slowly on the way to funerals and fast on the way back. Louis Armstrong’s 1938 recording made it famous worldwide.
This is the opening phrase in C major. Each line starts after a quarter rest with the same three-note pickup, C, E, F, rising to a long G.
Read the piece through once without playing, naming the starting note and looking for patterns and repeats. Then press Play and follow the notes as they light up. When you are ready, choose Practice this piece: it opens in the practice tool, where you can slow it down, play along on the on-screen piano, a MIDI keyboard or your voice, and have every note checked.