We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents.
Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable.
This book includes 58 familiar and easy-to-play folk songs and melodies.
Each song here is written with color circles and letter notes inside. All songs have been simplified and transposed for one octave.
Since this book is aimed at the absolute beginner without any knowledge of reading music, we do not use here the classical music staff and do not show the note duration. You can experiment with the duration on your own.
If you have very little music experience, playing by note can be difficult. It is easier to follow color-coded circles with note letters. By simply following the color circles, you will sound like an experienced musician.
We use here the Boomwhackers® color system commonly used by American music teachers.
We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents. Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable.
Our simple method using circles as an aid allows the flexibility that existed in traditional ways of teaching.
We recommend finding each of these songs on YouTube and listening to the rhythm before beginning to play. Our sheet music is only a guide. The most important thing is to listen and repeat what is heard in the recordings.
Contents
Alphabet Song
A Hunting We Will Go
A Sailor Went to Sea
Acka Backa
Are You Sleeping
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Baby Bumble Bee
Bell Horses
Bim Bum Biddy
Bobby Shafto
Brahms Lullaby
Chumbara
Cobbler, Mend My Shoe
Cock-a-Doodle Doo
Ding Dong DiggiDiggiDong
Do You Know the Muffin Man?
Doggie Doggie
Fiddle-De-Dee
Five Little Ducks
Five Little Monkeys
Frog in the Meadow
Happy Birthday
Hot Cross Buns
It's Raining
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Jack and Jill
Jingle Bells
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
Kookaburra
La Cucaracha
Little Jack Horner
London Bridge
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Miss Mary Mack
My Hat
Ninety-Nine Bottles
Ode to Joy
Oh Susannah
Oh We Can Play on the Big Bass Drum
Old Bald Eagle
Old Blue
Old McDonald
Old Mother Hubbard
Rain, Rain, Go Away
Ring Around the Rosie
Row Row Your Boat
Rub-a-Dub-Dub
See-Saw Margery Daw
Ten in the Bed
The Beep and the Pup
The Big Sheep
The Mulberry Bush
The Wheels on the Bus
This Old Man
Tinga Layo
To Market, to Market
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
