London’s Burning

London Fire Engine iLondon’s Burning, London’s Burning

Here’s a familiar tune from France, which is very easy to play on the harmonica. Each line has a repeated pattern and it doesn’t take long to learn. We can then enjoy playing the tune in rounds, which is a great way to start learning about timing, harmony and performance.


Don't Play With Matches iFetch the engine, fetch the engine
Once we’ve learned to play the song right through, it’s time to make things more interesting by playing in rounds. Group one start the song. As they reach the second line, Fetch the engine, group two begin with London’s burning. This can be repeated as many times as you like!

The song has three beats to the bar; try conducting the tune and make sure you understand the timekeeping. Line 3, Fire! Fire!, has two long notes. The song sounds more complete at the start if we use a 10h harmonica. This is because we can play 3B, which is G. On a 4h harmonica, G is also in 3B, which means you’ll have to jump up and down. If this is too difficult, just blow 1B at the beginning.

Lights, cameras, action!
When we learn new songs at Harp Academy, we like to follow a simple routine. First we listen to the song. Then we sing it. Next we add actions to the words or move to the rhythm. And finally we play along on our harmonica. Listen to the track above a few more times and see if you can hum or sing along. Can you think of some actions to go with the words? Can you move to the rhythm? Great! Let’s learn to play it on our harmonica.

Fire! Fire!
You can click the pink icon to view and download the music score, or the orange icon for the Arrow Tab. In the tab below, Purple is for your 4 hole harmonica and Orange tab is for your 10 hole harmonica. Each number tells you which hole to play. D is draw (breathe in) and B is blow (breathe out). A practise track is at the foot of this page.


 London Telephone Box1B  1B      1B  1B      1B  1B     1B  1B
London’s  burning,   London’s  burning
3B  3B     4B 4B     3B  3B     4B 4B

 1D     1D    2B   2B       1D   1D   2B   2BTaxi i
Fetch   the    en – gine,   fetch  the   en – gine
4D    4D    5B   5B       4D  4D   5B   5B


 3B    3B    3B    3B
Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
6B   6B    6B    6B


 3B    2D   2B   2B     2B    1D   1B     1BBus i
Pour   on    wa – ter,   pour   on    wa  –  ter
6B   5D   5B   5B     5B    4D   4B    4B


Here’s how it all sounds when played in a round.


hPour on water, pour on water
Ask your Harp Academy teacher to explain why playing in rounds works so well. They will tell you about notes that sound good together. We call this harmony. We call three or more notes played at the same time a chord.

Rasta Hat 2Reggae rhythm
When you played the first clip at the top of this page, and if you listen to the practice track, you’ll notice it has quite a fancy rhythm. This rhythm is called reggae. Why not ask your Harp Academy teacher to talk explain what’s special about the reggae rhythm, where it comes from, and maybe play you some other reggae songs. We investigate reggae further in KS2 as well.

Key skills

  • Repeat notes
  • Jump notes
  • Slide notes (10h harp)
  • Rounds
  • Timekeeping
  • Harmony
  • Chords
  • Triad

Practice Track (Melody)


Practice Track (Rounds)

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