Sarah Josepha Hale · Key of C · Public domain
This chart was made with the free Chord Sheet Maker: write your own charts, transpose in one click, print clean copies.
Opens in the Chord Sheet Maker in this key: change chords, add strumming patterns, and make it yours, with no account needed to start. A free account adds PDF downloads for printing.
Have your own songs? Start a blank chart from scratch, free →
This chart is written in C. Tap any key above the chart to see the whole song in that key, with every chord already worked out. To stay in C with different chord shapes, play it capo 3 with the A shapes, or capo 5 with the G shapes. Singing with a group? Pick the key where the highest note is comfortable for everyone, then print that page.
Mary Had a Little Lamb was written by Sarah Josepha Hale, later the editor of Godey's Lady's Book and the woman who campaigned for a national Thanksgiving, and published in Boston on May 24, 1830 in her Poems for Our Children. Lowell Mason set it to music the next year, but his tune did not last: the one everybody sings is the chorus of Goodnight, Ladies, the "merrily we roll along" melody of 1867. In 1877 Thomas Edison recited the first verse into his new phonograph, which made it the first recorded English verse.
A Massachusetts woman named Mary Sawyer claimed late in life that a real lamb had followed her to school and that a visiting student wrote the first lines, but the 1830 book credits Hale alone and nothing beyond Sawyer's memory supports the story. Hale wrote "he" for the lamb; the sung version has said "it" for at least a century, and that is how the chart reads. Words and tune are public domain.
Two chords and nothing else: C for the first line, G on the first echo and C on the second, C again for the third line, then G on the start of the last line and C on its final word. Every verse is identical, so a beginner who can change between C and G can play all eight. The melody uses only five notes and sits low in C, which suits a child singing along; D or G above the chart give it more sparkle. A light down-up strum on each beat is plenty. Most people sing the first four verses; the last four finish the story, with the teacher explaining why the lamb loves Mary.
Mary Had a Little Lamb in other easy guitar keys: key of D, key of E, key of F, key of G, key of A. Every other key is at the top of the chart.
Tap any chord for its diagram, other voicings, and the notes inside it.
In the key of C, Mary Had a Little Lamb uses 2 chords: C and G. The chords sit over the words in the chart above, and tapping a chord name under Chords in This Song opens its diagram.
This chart is in the key of C. The other easy guitar keys for it are the key of D, key of E, key of F, key of G, key of A, each with the whole song rewritten. Pick the key whose chords you know, or the one that sits best for the singers: all twelve are one tap away at the top of the chart, with capo options for keeping the open shapes.
Yes. The words and the melody of Mary Had a Little Lamb are in the public domain, which is why the full lyrics and chords are published here. You can print this sheet, hand it out, and perform or record the song anywhere without a license.
Another two-chord favorite: London Bridge Is Falling Down chords and lyrics
All the kids' song chord sheets, each one in every key.
Further reading: Mary Had a Little Lamb (Wikipedia)
