Lyrics
(American folk song)
How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?”
She answered me with a tee hee hee,
“I’ll be sixteen this Sunday.”
Refrain
The yaddle laddle laddle um daisy,
The yaddle laddle laddle um yaddle laddle laddle um,
Yaddle laddle laddle um daisy.
Hand-Clapping / Circle Dance
See below.
See also
- Activities: circle games / clapping
- Form: AB
- Harmony: Orff arrangements / chords I IV V
- Melody: high & low / solo singing
- Meter: 2
- Rhythm:
/ 
- Scale: pentatonic
- Tones: drmsl
- Source: American Folk Songs for Children,Ruth Crawford Seeger, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1948
YouTube
- Printable & Digital rhythm visuals
- PDF of song with chords + Lesson ideas + Orff arrangement
- MIDI file
- Listen to the song
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2 thoughts on “How Old Are You?”
Hello Beth
I just wanted to share a live perfomance of this song that I have found in an old movie (recorded in 1940) https://archive.org/details/AndSoTheyLive
I had being doing some research to discover which song the father is singing (just around 21:00) and by listening carefully to the text I have found out that some of it is “How old are you, pretty little miss”.
The situation with the family is very heartbreaking and the poverty is severe, however, when playing music some hope is seen. Thank you for having the text and the song available.
Kind regards
Per (Denmark)
Excellent! Thank you!