Notalo › Piano songs with letters › Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday — piano notes with letters
The melody every beginner is asked to play, in F major (one flat: every B is B♭). It starts with two quick pick-up notes on C, and the whole tune fits in eight bars.
Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill (“Good Morning to All”), 1893 · F major · 3/4 · public domain · arranged and labeled by Notalo
Hear it. A MIDI file of exactly these notes at 100 BPM — open it in any music app, or slow it down to practice.
Download MIDIAbout the song
The melody is 'Good Morning to All', written by the Kentucky sisters Patty and Mildred Hill in 1893 for kindergarten classes. Nobody knows who first sang 'Happy birthday to you' to it, but by the 1910s it was everywhere. A publisher claimed copyright on the birthday words for decades, until a 2016 US court settlement put the song firmly in the public domain — it is, by many estimates, the most-sung song in English.
How to play it, phrase by phrase
The two pick-up C's in bar 1 are 'Hap-py'. 'Birth-day to you' is D C F E. The second line starts the same but goes higher: D C G F. The third line, 'happy birthday dear …', jumps to the high C (bar 6) and then falls A F E D — that jump is the one difficult moment. The last line, 'happy birthday to you', is B♭ B♭ A F G F. B♭ is in the key signature (F major), so every B in the piece is a black key. Sing it while you play: the words carry the rhythm.
Letter notes, bar by bar (right hand)
Read left to right; a | is a bar line. Chord symbols are for the left hand or a guitar.
| Bar | Chord | Right-hand letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C C | |
| 2 | Dm7 | D C F |
| 3 | C | E C C |
| 4 | C | D C G |
| 5 | F | F C C |
| 6 | F | C A F |
| 7 | Bb | E D B♭ B♭ |
| 8 | Fmaj7 | A F G |
| 9 | F | F |
Three things to watch
- The two C’s before the first bar line are the “Hap-py” pick-up — short and light.
- Bar 5 jumps up to the high C; that is the one stretch in the piece.
- Bar 6 has the B♭ — the key signature applies it automatically.
Have a different version, or a different song? Upload your own sheet music — a photo or PDF — and Notalo writes the letters under every note the same way, plus chords and a MIDI file.
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Frequently asked questions
Is this sheet music free to print and use?
Yes. Happy Birthday is in the public domain and this arrangement was written and rendered by Notalo. Print it, share it, use it in lessons.
What do the colors mean?
Red letters are the right hand (treble clef), blue letters are the left hand (bass clef), green is the chord for the bar. This is the same output Notalo gives for any sheet music you upload.
Can I get it with Do Re Mi or numbers instead of letters?
Yes — download the image above, upload it to Notalo, and pick solfège (Do Re Mi), German letters, or numbers (1 2 3) as the label style.