Music › C major › Mary Had a Little Lamb

🐑 Mary Had a Little Lamb: chords and words

Mary Had a Little Lamb is written in C major, with 2 chords: C and G. Tap Fits a small voice and I’ll move the whole song to where you can sing it.

Mary Had a Little Lamb in C major

The tune goes from C4 to G4: try “Fits a small voice”.

CMaryhadalittlelamb,

Glittlelamb,Clittlelamb.

CMaryhadalittlelamb,

CitsGfleecewaswhiteasCsnow.

CEverywherethatMarywent,

GMarywent,CMarywent,

CeverywherethatMarywent

CtheGlambwassuretoCgo.

Words by Sarah Josepha Hale (1830); tune by Lowell Mason. Public domain. peabody.kids/music

Where the song comes from

Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and teacher in Boston, published the poem Mary's Lamb in 1830. Lowell Mason, who brought music lessons into American public schools, set it to music a year later. It is said to be about a real girl and a real lamb that followed her to school.

Words: Sarah Josepha Hale, Poems for Our Children (Boston, 1830). Tune: Lowell Mason, Juvenile Lyre (1831); the tune sung today is a 19th-century one. Both were printed before 1931, so the song is in the public domain in the United States: anyone may sing it, print it and share it. Peabody wrote out the tune and the chords for this page. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Had_a_Little_Lamb.

For teachers

The tune runs from C4 to G4 in C major. For a class from Pre-K to 2nd grade, try D major (D, A), which keeps it inside D4 to A4.

Easiest to play

On a ukulele: F major (F, C). On a guitar: C major (C, G).

Sing it with the words lit up

The sing-along plays the tune and lights each word as it is sung.

More songs

Look up any chord in the Chord Finder, or see every song in C major.

Checked 2026-10-31.