Twinkle Twinkle Little Star & The Alphabet Song

What do "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "the Alphabet Song" have in common? Of course, the same tune! I was a kid when I first discovered this and I got super excited that I made my friends sing one while I sang the other. I've always thought that Mozart composed the tune, but after a little research, it seems like that's not true.  The tune is originally from a French song called "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman".


Whenever I touch a new instrument, the first song that I try to play is "Mary had a Little Lamb". However, when I picked up the liuqin 柳琴 and strummed the strings, I found that the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star tune was much easier to play! Liuqin is a traditional Chinese plucked instrument with 4 strings and is very similar to the better-known pipa. Liuqin is smaller compared to the pipa and hence has a range of much higher pitches. I'm not used to holding an instrument like this and to my surprise, it actually made my left arm tired after a short while. I figured out the fingering for the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star tune so here it is. Near the end, I show you some of my earlier attempts of playing this song and you can laugh at me :P