You are viewing a copy of Readers Digest Children’s Songbook with the sheet music and lyrics for 131 of your all time favorite songs that I have posted in my Ebay Store.

A NOTE ON THE ARRANGEMENTS

All songs in the book have complete piano arrangements, except for the nursery rhymes in Sections 11 and 12 and the rounds in Section 13.

These have been arranged in single-line format but with an optional harmony part in smaller notes.

In the 11 other sections, the melody of each song is repeated on a separate staff, making it more easily available to singers and young instrumentalists.

Our arranger, Dan Fox, has also made the melodies easy for youngsters to sing, since he has usually kept them within the compass of a child’s voice (middle C to E above).

The melody can also be played on virtually any “C” instrument that reads in the treble clef, including the recorder, (If played alone, B-flat or E-flat instruments can play the melody line, but not in combination with each other or with any “C” instrument.)

The chord symbols (i.e., C, G7, etc.) can be used for guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin or any other instrument that can play chords, including even very limited chord organs and autoharps.

Chords can be simplified by omitting bass notes (C/E means a C chord with E in the bass — you would simply press the button for a C chord), or by omitting material in parentheses, as in 6(7), or by using indicated alternate chords in parentheses, i.e., D#dim (B7).

If your instrument doesn’t have the diminished chord, it probably does have a B7, which will be acceptable.

For guitarists who may not read music or who do not have a secure knowledge of chords, we have provided fretboard diagrams for all the basic chords used in the book.

You will find these on pages 2 and 3 of the Lyric Booklet that accompanies this book.

The numbers below the melody notes are for people who play the “C” chord organ and/or melodica or any of the electronic keyboards that are so popular today.

Eventually, of course, we hope that you or your favorite child musicians will want to learn to read the musical notes.

– The Editors