Frère Jacques: letter notes and how to sing it as a round

“Frère Jacques” is a French song that is also a round. It has four short ideas, and each one is played twice. This page gives letter notes for the piano and the recorder and shows how to sing it as a round.

Quick facts

• From: France. The English version is called “Brother John” or “Are You Sleeping?”
• Notes: seven, from the G below middle C up to A
• Time signature: 4/4
• Pattern: four ideas, each one played twice
• Works as a round: yes, in two, three, or four parts

On this page, a dash after a letter means “hold this note longer.”

On the piano

Line 1: C D E C, C D E C,

Line 2: E F G-, E F G-,

Line 3: G A G F E C, G A G F E C,

Line 4: C G C-, C G C-

In line 4, the G is the low G, below middle C. Every other note sits from middle C up to A.

Line	What happens
1	Three steps up, and back to the start
2	Three steps up from E, with a long note
3	Six quick notes that rise one step and run down
4	Home, a drop to the low note, and home again

In line 3, the first four notes of each group are twice as fast as the rest.

On the recorder

Line 1: G A B G, G A B G,

Line 2: B C’ D’-, B C’ D’-,

Line 3: D’ E’ D’ C’ B G, D’ E’ D’ C’ B G,

Line 4: G D G-, G D G-

The D in line 4 is the low D. E’ is the high E. C’, D’, and E’ are high notes.

A child who cannot play high E yet can leave line 3 to the singers and play lines 1, 2, and 4. For the fingerings, read easy recorder songs with letter notes.

How to sing it as a round

In a round, everyone sings the same tune, and each group starts a little later.

1. Learn the song well as one group.
2. Split into two groups.
3. Group 1 starts.
4. Group 2 starts line 1 when group 1 begins line 2.
5. Each group sings the whole song twice and then stops. Group 2 finishes last.

For three or four groups, each new group starts when the group before it begins line 2.

Groups	Good for
2	A parent and a child, or a first try in a class
3	A family at the dinner table
4	A class or a choir

The lines fit together because each one is built on the same chord. Read what is a canon and a round?

Play it as a round

Two instruments can do what two voices do. One player starts. The second player starts line 1 when the first player reaches line 2. A recorder and a piano cannot share this page, since the recorder notes here are in another key. Two pianos, or two recorders, will match.

What the words mean

The song is about a monk named Brother Jacques, who has slept late. The morning bells have not rung, and the song tells him to ring them. The last line copies the sound of the bells.

Where Mahler used it

The composer Gustav Mahler put this tune into his Symphony No. 1. In the third movement, a single double bass plays it slow and in a minor key, so that it sounds sad. Other instruments join in, one after another, as a round. Read Mahler for kids.

To hear what Mahler did, play the piano version with every E changed to E flat and every A changed to A flat. Each one is the black key just below the white key.

How to learn it

1. Sing it. Use the French words, the English words, or the letter names.
2. Play line 1. Each half is the same four notes.
3. Play line 2 and line 4. They are slow.
4. Play line 3 last. It has the quick notes.
5. Join the lines, and then try the round.

Things to do together

Two-part round. One adult and one child sing it in the car.

Bells. Play line 4 on the lowest C and G of the piano, with the pedal down.

Major and minor. Play the happy version and the sad version. Ask which one fits a rainy day.

Print and play

Print the piano keyboard chart and the solfège hand signs chart. For more songs with games built in, read singing games for kids. For more first tunes, read first piano songs for kids.