I don’t think I quite realised how much singing and the Kodaly philosophy had infiltrated my life and home - until last night.
Inadvertently my husband created a song about squirrels consisting of two pitches (In Solfa, what we call Soh and Mi - a minor third interval). This was completely spontaneous and he hadn’t even realised what he had sung! I laughed because I noticed straight away but complemented him on his good pitch and tuneful singing as well as his creativity – hurray!
A few moments later he did it again without realising and commented that it was completely understandable as singing is everywhere in our house and has taken over our lives! Well that is probably true as my daughter and I are always singing songs and I have some classes at home as well.
I love simple songs they are easy to ‘catch’ and are pretty much imprinted in your brain – funny how songs have such power to do that (even if you have Alzheimer’s it is likely you will remember songs!) and they also encourage creativity and spontaneous singing.
So why oh why are we still try to sing more complicated songs to our children and expect them to sing them back? I have been to quite a few playgroups with my son and here the same songs over and over which have very complicated melodies and rhythms to sing.
This morning I listened to version of Incy, Wincy Spider – I say version because I’m not sure any of the adults knew what the tune went like so it was pretty mixed up. It’s hardly surprising it’s a difficult tune to sing with lots of notes ascending, descending and jumping all over the place! Equally complicated is Baa Baa Black sheep for the same reasons.
Did you know nursery rhymes were originally sung by adults and not intended to be sung by children?
Even Twinkle, Twinkle can be difficult for young children as it has big jump in pitch between the Twinkle, Twinkle – adults may find it easy but children do not - children’s voices have a limited range (distance between lowest note and highest note they can sing). I’m not saying that you shouldn’t sing these songs to children but that they may not be the best ones for children to sing.
Something like Row, Row, Row your boat is a better song as pitches (notes) are closer together and therefore easier for a child to sing even though the range is still quite large.
Twinkle, Twinkle and Row, Row, Row your boat can be sung as a round? Both sound amazing.
What is great is that there are still plenty of adults willing to sing with their children – this is incredibly important! If you are thinking of choosing songs for your child to sing make it a two or three note song like Hot Cross Buns or Peter Taps with one hammer.
Using the Kodaly approach many songs start with simple two note songs and it is amazing to see children able to sing these songs immediately and in tune. Songs pitched on the Soh and the Mi are by far the easiest as we are born with these two pitches already in our heads – think of how your child calls you “mummy” or “daddy” do you hear the two pitches in voices – one high one lower?
Here are some examples:
The third pitch you will often hear is the playground call “nah, nah, nah, nah, nah” or “I’m the king of the castle” these are natural pitches for us to sing from a very young age and therefore any songs containing these pitches are fantastic for children to sing.
Here are some examples:
A parent who joined one session said she did not enjoy it because her child did not know any of the songs and another commented she felt the thought of singing without music terrifying. The fact is, simple songs are easy to learn and remember so that children pick them up quickly (and adults) and singing becomes less frightening.
The main reasons behind choosing songs in my classes are that they are easy to sing and have great content for teaching musical concepts. Simple songs become ingrained in your head and spark spontaneous singing about anything! They are better for children to memorise, therefore helping build language skills as well as confidence.
Singing does not need to be difficult or frightening
A mum just spoke to me the other day about her son constantly singing a song he has heard in only one session at his nursery – she said he can’t stop singing it! Learning new songs inspires children to be creative and spontaneous in their singing, hearing new songs helps children shape different melodies and hear different intervals (the difference between two pitches), which is particularly useful for sight reading later on.
I’m not saying “never sing complicated songs” but that choosing simple songs has a better outcome for children. I also know that simple songs can sound amazing if they are sung in rounds and canons and added ostinato parts – we had a great ensemble piece with Peter Taps in a recent session.
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