Piano chords · Blues & boogie
Mary’s Little Boy Child: easy piano accompaniment in letter notes
Written by Jester Hairston
- Bb major
- 4/4
- 100 BPM
- V7–I–I7–IV loop
- 1956
- Medium
Play the full song with sheet music
The accompaniment with every note named, bar by bar: the bar sheet shows each note as a bar on the staff with its letter inside, so you can accompany Mary’s Little Boy Child without reading music. The left hand plays boogie walker (boogie-woogie line) and the right hand pausing chords.
Mary’s Little Boy Child accompaniment in letter notes
The F7 – Bb – Bb7 – Eb loop with boogie walker in the left hand and pausing chords in the right. Notes struck together are joined with a plus; C4 is middle C.
How to read the bar sheet
The player above shows the treble staff (right hand) over the bass staff (left hand). Every note is a bar as long as it sounds, at its place on the staff, with its name inside, and the music scrolls past a line that marks now. The chord names run along the top.
Start with the left hand alone at a slow speed, then the right, then both. When the letters feel easy, try the sheet music.
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Questions about Mary’s Little Boy Child
What are the letter notes for the Mary’s Little Boy Child piano accompaniment?
Bar by bar, both hands: the bar sheet on this page names every note of the accompaniment (C4 is middle C) and plays along. The loop is F7 – Bb – Bb7 – Eb, so the letters repeat with the chords.
What chords are in Mary’s Little Boy Child?
The loop is F7 – Bb – Bb7 – Eb (V7 – I – I7 – IV) in Bb major, and the song ends on Bb – F7 – Bb.
What key is Mary’s Little Boy Child in?
Bb major, at about 100 beats a minute in 4/4.
What does the left hand play in Mary’s Little Boy Child?
Boogie walker: boogie-woogie line, a medium pattern. It follows the chords, so the same shape works for every bar.
Is Mary’s Little Boy Child easy to play on piano?
It is a medium one: learn the 4 chords as blocks first, then add the left hand, then the right, slowly.
Made from 2 arrangements of this song: the left and right hands are the patterns these scores repeat most.