Au Clair de la Lune
Possibly the simplest real tune there is — three notes for most of it, all steps, no leaps. It's an 18th-century French song, and it was the very first sound ever recorded, in 1860.
The tune
How to play it
'Au clair de la lune.' Three open D's — no left hand — then a step up to the 1st finger, up to high 2, back down. All on the D string. Repeated notes need a dead-even bow: same speed, same weight, no bump at each new stroke. Middle of the bow.
How to play it
'Mon ami Pierrot.' A small skip up to high 2, then settle back to the open D — a whole note, four counts, one long steady bow. Let it ring. Then the whole thing repeats.
Those two lines are the A section, and it repeats once ("Prête-moi ta plume…"). Then comes the contrasting middle.
The middle — "Ma chandelle est morte"
How to play it
'Ma chan-delle est' — four repeated E's, 1st finger on the D string. 'mor-te' — a leap up to B on the A string, two half notes: that's your first string crossing inside a tune, the whole arm lifting to the A string. 'je n'ai plus de feu' — E and D back on the D string, then C♯ and B on the A string, then home to the open A, held four counts. Take every crossing slowly; the arm leads.
Then the A section once more
"Ouvre-moi ta porte, pour l'amour de Dieu" — the opening line again, exactly as at the start, to finish. The whole tune is A – A – B – A.
The one thing this tune is for
A completely even bow on repeated notes, and a clean skip (D up to F♯, missing E). The middle section adds your first string crossing inside a tune — the leap up to B.
The usual mistake
On the repeated notes, letting the bow bump each time it changes direction — the left hand isn't doing anything, so any unevenness is pure bow. And in the middle section, rushing the string crossing to B: lift the whole arm deliberately, land clean, no scrape.