As you know Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is a popular nursery rhyme. The melody is from France and the lyrics from an English poem by Jane Taylor.



The English lyrics are as follows:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

In this piano lesson we will use a form of tablature instead of sheet music notation.

Tablature is a type of musical notation which will tell you where to place your fingers to play a melody on your piano. The first thing we will do is to locate the note C.

The middle C on a piano is the first white key that is to the left of two black keys. It is called middle C because on the piano keyboard it is right in the middle, near the keyhole.

In our piano tab notation the keys are numbered instead. This middle C in our type of piano tab is called 1.

This means that when you see the number 1 you are to play the middle C once. The white key to the right of C we call 2, the next 3 and so on.

Let's play some piano tab notes:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Now you have played a scale with the actual notes C D E F G A B.

Now we will start to play the melody Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

1 1 5 5 6 6 5

Now you have played the notes C C G G A A G.

How can you use your left hand? Let's make this piece a little bit more difficult and also more rewarding to play by using your left hand for bass notes.

The notes from C to the next C is called an octave. The keys are grouped this way on the whole keyboard.

You also have these notes to the left of the middle C. We can call these notes the left octave.

If you use the notes 1-7 in the left octave to play bass notes with your left hand we can notate the melody in the following way:

1/1 1 5/3 5 6/4 6 5/3

The note to the right of the slash is the bass note. 1/1 means that as you play the first 1 with your right hand you simultaneously play number 1 in the left octave with your left hand.

I guess you have noticed that you only play bass notes together with some of the melody notes.

Let's continue this piano lesson with the next line:

How I wonder what you are

4/2 4 3/1 3 2/5 2 1/1

What fingers should you use as you play? You can and maybe you use your index fingers on both hands to play but it will be easier to find your notes if you cultivate the habit to use all your fingers.

On your right hand you can use your thumb to play number 1 and your index finger to play number 2 and so on.

The next piano tab looks like this:

Up above the world so high

5/3 5 4/2 4 3/1 3 2/5

If you want to use fingerings on your left hand you place your little finger above key number 1 and your thumb on number 5 and the other fingers accordingly.

On the next piano tab the melody is identical:

Like a diamond in the sky

5/3 5 4/2 4 3/1 3 2/5

Now you only have to play the beginning of the song again:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

1/1 1 5/3 5 6/4 6 5/3

How I wonder what you are

4/2 4 3/1 3 2/5 2 1/1

Congratulations! Now you can play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star as a piano solo with two hands!

This type of piano notation is probably best used as a help to find the notes until you know the melody by heart. I suggest that you memorize one line at a time until you know the whole song as this will enable you to play the song anywhere and anytime!