Hot Cross Buns

Background

Hot cross buns are the spiced, sweet buns marked with a cross that are traditionally eaten in England on Good Friday. Long before the rhyme was a children's song, "hot cross buns" was a street cry: sellers walked the streets calling out their wares, and a cheap price ("one a penny, two a penny") was part of the pitch. The words were being printed as a nursery rhyme by the end of the eighteenth century.

Nobody is credited with the tune. It is simply the shape the cry took when people sang it: three falling notes, said twice, a busy middle line, then the same three notes again. That plainness is why it has become one of the most common first pieces for beginners on the recorder, the violin and the piano. You can learn it in a single sitting and still have something real to play to someone.

How to practise it

This version is four bars long and uses only your right hand and three white keys: C, D and E. Rest your thumb on middle C, finger 2 on D and finger 3 on E, and leave the hand there for the whole piece. Nothing needs to move except the fingers.

Bars 1, 2 and 4 are identical: E, D, then a C that lasts two beats. Learn that bar first and the piece is three-quarters done. Count "1, 2, 3-4" out loud and keep the thumb pressed down through "3-4". A common slip is lifting it early because nothing seems to be happening; the long note is the music there.

Bar 3 is the only new idea. It has eight eighth notes: four quick Cs, then four quick Ds. Clap it first while you say "one a pen-ny, two a pen-ny", then play it counting "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &". Play each repeated note from the key's surface with a small, light movement rather than lifting your whole hand.

A simple plan for the week:

1. Day one: play bar 1 until it sounds the same five times in a row.
2. Day two: practise bar 3 on its own, slowly, keeping the eight notes even.
3. Day three: join all four bars at a slow walking pace, about 60 beats a minute.
4. Then raise the speed in small steps: 72, then 80, then 88.

Listen for two things. The eighth notes in bar 3 should be exactly twice as fast as the quarter notes, not a scramble. And the last C should feel like coming home, so let it ring for its full two beats before you lift.

Eighth notes like these are introduced in Unit 3 of the Academy.