Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Background

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is an American song and one of the best-known rounds in English. The words were in print by 1852. The tune sung today appeared in 1881 in the Franklin Square Song Collection, where the music is credited to Eliphalet Oram Lyte; whether he composed it or arranged a melody that already existed is not certain.

Its four short lines could hardly be simpler, and the last one, "life is but a dream", gives it a gentle twist. It works as a round because the lines fit together when they are sung on top of one another. Each new group of singers starts when the group before reaches the second line, so up to four groups can sing at once and it still sounds like music.

How to practise it

The time signature is 6/8: six eighth notes in a bar, grouped in two sets of three. Count it as two big beats, "ONE-two-three, TWO-two-three", with one big beat for each "row".

This arrangement is eight bars. The tune is in the right hand; underneath, the left hand holds an open fifth in each bar: C with G above it for most bars, and G with D above it in bars 4 and 7.

Bars 2, 3 and 7 use a long-short pattern inside a big beat: a quarter note, worth two eighths, then an eighth note. Say "row your" and "gent-ly" with the first syllable twice as long as the second. If the two notes come out the same length, the gentle rocking is lost.

The "merrily" bars are the one place the right hand moves. As the long G in bar 4 ends, slide the hand up so the thumb sits on G; finger 4 then plays the three high Cs and the thumb plays the three Gs. For bar 6, come straight back to C position.

For the left hand, put finger 5 on the C below middle C and the thumb on the G above it. For the G–D fifth, slide that same frozen shape down the keyboard. Hold each fifth for its full bar.

Step by step:

1. Clap bars 1 to 4 while counting the big beats aloud.
2. Each hand alone, then hands together at about half speed.
3. Move up to three-quarter speed, then full speed. The app shows full speed as 120 quarter notes a minute, which is 80 big beats.
4. Keep the six quick notes of "merrily" light and even, three to each big beat.

The real test is the round itself. Have a friend or family member sing "Row, row, row your boat" as you begin bar 3, and keep going steadily while their line weaves around yours. Frère Jacques makes a good second round to try.