Syncopation in 6/8 time, feeling duple meter in 6/8 time,
introducing the raised tonic (Di), and a right hand keyboard exercise.

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: England – Nursery Rhyme
• Key: F Major
• Time: 6/8
• Form: ABCB
• Rhythm: intermediate: | ti ti ti ta ti | syncopation,
  | ti ti ti ti ti ti | ta/_a ti | syncopation
• Pitches: advanced: Ti Do Di Re Mi Fa So – raised tonic Di
• Intervals: advanced: Fa\Re, Mi\Do, Do/Fa, Re\Di/Re, Re/So (P4), So\Mi, Re/Fa
• Musical Elements: notes: dotted quarter, quarter, eighth; rest: eighth; tied notes, eighth rest, counting eighth notes, running eighth notes, raised/sharped tonic Di, C#; 6/8 time: eighth note receives one beat, divisions of a dotted quarter note: three eights (3 ti’s), feeling duple meter (2) in 6/8: where three eights would be a triplet if the beat is represented by a dotted quarter
• Key Words: world geography: England; tuffet, curds, whey, spider, frightened
• Keyboard: intermediate: five finger exercise for right hand – index or middle finger crosses over thumb to play the seventh (Ti), playing C#

tuffet – piece of furniture used as a footstool or low seat.
curds – soft, white substance formed when milk sours for making cheese.
whey – the watery part of milk that remains after the formation of curds.

“Little Miss Muffet” 

Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; There came down a spider, Who sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away.

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Advanced syncopated rhythms, pitches, descending tonic and dominant minor seventh arpeggios will challenge your best readers.

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten 
• Origin: England, 19th-century Nursery Rhyme
• Key: F Major 
• Time: 6/8
• Form: ABCD
• Rhythm: advanced: | ti ti ti ti (ti) ti | ta ti ti (ti) ti |
  | ti/ ri ti ti/ ri ti | syncopation, | ti/ ri ti ti ti ri | syncopation, | ta ti ta/ | syncopation
• Pitches: advanced: So La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So
• Intervals: advanced: So/Do, Do\La, Do/So, So\Mi\Do descending tonic arpeggio, La/Fa, Fa\Re\Ti\So descending dominant minor seventh arpeggio
• Musical Elements: notes: dotted quarter, quarter, dotted eighth, eighth, sixteenth; rest: eighth; counting eighth notes, dotted eighth syncopation in 6/8 time, tonic and dominant arpeggios 
• Key Words: world geography: England; farming, village, boy, blue, horn, sheep, meadow, cow, corn, haystack

Little Boy Blue was a hayward in the Middle Ages. One of the responsibilities of the village hayward was to blow his horn to give warning that cattle were invading the crops.

“Little Boy Blue” 

Little Boy Blue, Come blow your horn, The sheep’s in the meadow, The cow’s in the corn; Where is that boy Who looks after the sheep? Under the haystack Fast asleep.

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Introducing the dotted quarter note, syncopation in 6/8, using all the pitches of the major scale, counting eighth notes, and uncommon intervals, a challenge for intermediate readers.

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: England – Old Nursery Rhyme
• Key: C Major
• Time: 6/8
• Form: ABCD
• Rhythm: intermediate: | ti ti ti ta ti | syncopation,
  | ta/ ta/ | ta ti ta/ | syncopation, | ta/ ta (ti) |
  | ta ti ta ti | syncopation
• Pitches: intermediate: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do, all the pitches of the major scale
  
• Intervals: intermediate: So/Do, Do8\Mi, Mi/Ti, So\Re, So\Mi, Mi/La
• Musical Elements: notes: dotted quarter, quarter, eighth; rest: eighth; uncommon intervals, vocal slur, 6/8 time: eighth note receives one beat, divisions of a dotted quarter note: three eights (3 ti’s), feeling duple meter (2) in 6/8: where three eights would be a triplet if the beat is represented by a dotted quarter
• Key Words: world geography: England; sheep. nursery rhymes, wagging, dreamt, bleating, fleeting, crook, determined, they’d, stray, meadow, espied, hillocks, shepherdess, sheep farming, bleeding heart, joke; contraction: they’ll (they will); abbreviation: ’em (them)

“Little Bo Peep”

		1.	Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep, And doesn’t know where to find them; Leave them alone, And they’ll come home, Wagging their tails behind them.
		2.	Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep, And dreamt she heard them bleating; But when she awoke, she found it a joke, For still they all were fleeting.
		3.	Then up she took her little crook, Determined for to find them; She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed, For they’d left all their tails behind ’em!
		4.	It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray Into a meadow hard by, There she espied their tails, side by side, All hung on a tree to dry.
		5.	She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye, And over the hillocks she raced; And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, That each tail should be properly placed.

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A singing game fostering the independent voice.
Beginning Orff interval So\Mi for voice and keyboard.

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: USA, Singing Game
• Key: E Major
• Time: 2/4
• Form: ABCD
• Rhythm: beginners: | ti ti ta | ti ti ti ti | ta ta |
• Intervals: beginners: So\Mi, Mi/So
• Pitches: beginners: Mi So
• Musical Elements: notes: quarter, eighth; singing alone and with others, beginning vocal interval So\Mi (Orff), excellent beginning song
• Key Words: trade, job, geography, voice identification game using beginning Orff interval So\Mi, first song
• Keyboard: beginners: two finger exercise for right, left, and two hands together

“Lemonade”

	Call/Solo		Response/All
	Here I Come!		Where from?
	New York.		What’s your trade
	Lemonade.		Give us some!
	Like fun.		Get to work and show us some.

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Distinguishing between the ascending perfect fifth, Do/So,
and the ascending major sixth, Do/La.

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: England – Singing Game
• Key: C Major
• Time: 3/4
• Form: ABAC
• Rhythm: beginners: | ta ti ti ti ti | ta/a/a | ta ta ta |
• Pitches: intermediate: Do Re Mi Fa So La
• Intervals: intermediate: Do/So, Do/La, La\DoDo/Fa
• Musical Elements: notes: dotted half, quarter, eighth; singing an ascending perfect fifth (P5), singing an ascending major sixth (M6)
• Key Words: world geography: England; farming, harvesting, blue, green, king, queen, work, plough, cart, thresh, corn, whilst, lavender, ourselves
• Keyboard: intermediate: five finger exercise for right, left, and two hands together

“Lavender’s Blue”

	1.	Lavender’s Blue, dilly, dilly, Lavender’s green; When I am king/queen, dilly, dilly, You shall be queen/king.
	2.	Call up your men dilly, dilly, Set them to work, Some to the plough, dilly, dilly, Some to the cart.
	3.	Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, Some to thresh corn, Whilst you and I, dilly, dilly, Keep ourselves warm.

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Popular children’s hymn introduces dotted rhythms
easily, using the pentatonic scale.

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: USA – Christian Children’s Hymn – Hymn by Susan Warner 1860, Music and Chorus by William Batcheldor Bradbury 1862
• Key: C Major
• Time: 2/4
• Form: ABAC, chorus: ABAC
• Rhythm: intermediate: | ti ti ti/ ri | syncopation,
  | ti ti ti ti | ti ti ta | ta ti ti | ti ta/ | syncopation
• Pitches: intermediate: Do Re Mi So La Do – pentatonic scale
• Intervals: intermediate: So\Mi, Mi\Do, Mi/So, La/Do\La, Do/Mi, So\Do, So\Mi\Do descending tonic arpeggio
• Musical Elements: notes: half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, dotted quarter, dotted eighth, four measure phrases, syncopation, pentatonic scale, tonic arpeggio
• Key Words: sacred, children’s hymn, character education, Jesus’s story, bible, weak, strong, children, bad, good, light, love, friend, give, live, heaven, sin, sad, ill, sin, died, bled, henceforth, thee (you), nights, clear, fear, near, heart, knee, wide, gate,close, tho’ (although), wanting, hast (has)

“Jesus Loves Me”

	1.	Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so; Little ones to him belong, They are week, but he is strong.
		Chorus
		Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, The Bible tells me so.
	2.	When the nights are dark and long, In my heart He puts a song. Telling me in words so clear, “Have no fear, for I am near.”
		Chorus
	3.	Jesus loves me! This I know, As He loved so long ago, Taking children on His knee, Saying, “Let come to Me.”
		Chorus
	4.	Jesus loves me when I’m good, When I do the things I should, Jesus loves me when I’m bad, Though it makes Him very sad.
		Chorus
	5.	Jesus loves me still today, Walking with me on my way, Wanting as a friend to give Light and love to all who live.
		Chorus
	6.	Jesus loves me! He who died Heaven’s gate to open wide; He will wash away my sin, Let His little child come in.
		Chorus
	7.	Jesus loves me! Loves me still Tho’ I’m very weak and ill; That I might from sin be free Bled and died upon the tree.
		Chorus
	8.	Jesus loves me! He will stay Close beside me all the way; Thou hast bled and died for me, I will henceforth live for Thee.
		Chorus

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Perfect after reading Pitch Warm-up Finding Do-Mi-So!

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: USA, Alabama – Folk Song
• Key: G Major
• Time: 6/8
• Form: ABaC (repeated)
• Rhythm: advanced: | ta ti ta ti | syncopation,
  | ta ti ti ti ti | ta ti ta/ | syncopation
• Pitches: intermediate: So La Ti Do Re Mi So
• Intervals: advanced: So/Do, Do/Mi/So ascending tonic arpeggio, So\Mi\Do descending tonic arpeggio, Re\Ti, Ti\So, Re\So, So/Mi
• Musical Elements: notes: dotted quarter, quarter, eighth; rest: eighth; pickup beat, tied note, vocal slur, singing alone and with others, repeat sign, walking/dancing with steady beat, 6/8 time: eighth note receives one beat, divisions of a dotted quarter note: three eights (3 ti’s), feeling duple meter (2) in 6/8: where three eights would be a triplet if the beat is represented by a dotted quarter
• Key Words: USA geography: Alabama; greeting song, game song, washing, starching, ironing, sweeping, dead

“Jenny Jones”

		1.	We’ve come to see Miss Jenny Jones, Miss Jenny Jones, Miss Jenny Jones. We’ve come to see Miss Jenny Jones, And how is she today?Miss Jenny Jones is a-washing, A-washing, a-washing. Miss Jenny is a-washing, You can’t see her today.
			Chorus
			We’re right glad/sorry to hear it, To hear it, to hear it. We’re right glad/sorry to hear it, And how are you today?
		2.	We’ve come to see, etc. Miss Jenny is a-starching, etc.
			Chorus
		3.	We’ve come to see, etc. Miss Jenny is a-ironing, etc.
			Chorus
		4.	We’ve come to see, etc. Miss Jenny is a-sweeping, etc.
			Chorus
		5.	We’ve come to see, etc. Miss Jenny is a-sick in bed, etc.
			Chorus
		6.	We’ve come to see, etc. Miss Jenny is a-dying, etc.
			Chorus
		7.	We’ve come to see, etc. Miss Jenny is a-dead, etc.
			Chorus

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Advanced syncopation, pitches, and intervals;
introducing the raised fourth, Fi (F#).

 

Description

• Grade: Kindergarten
• Origin: England – Nursery Rhyme
• Key: C Major
• Time: 2/4
• Form: ABCD
• Rhythm: advanced: | ta ti/ ri | syncopation,
  | ti ti ti/ ri | syncopation, | ti/ ri ti ti | syncopation,
  | ta/ ti | ta/ ti ta/ ti | syncopation, | ta/a | the rhyme helps master the complex rhythms
• Pitches: advanced: Do Re Mi Fa Fi So La Ti Do – introduces the raised fourth (Fi)
  
• Intervals: advanced: Do\So, Do/Mi, So\Do, Do/La, Ti\Mi, Do\La, La\Mi, Mi/Fi, Mi/Do
• Musical Elements: notes: half, dotted quarter, quarter, dotted eighth, eighth, sixteenth; syncopation, dotted rhythms, divisions of sixteenths, raised fourth – Fi
• Key Words: world geography: England; fat, lean, between, betwixt (between), platter, licked, wife

The name Jack Sprat dates from the sixteenth century and was often used by people of small stature. The text originates from an English Proverb known in the mid-seventeenth century.

May we suggest “Three Jacks,” as part of your next program?
(Jack and Jill, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Sprat)

“Jack Sprat” 

Jack Sprat could have no fat. His wife could eat no lean. And so between them both, you see,* They licked the platter clean *Old English 3rd line: And so, betwixt them both between,

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