SRS310

Songs and Chants Without Words

This set of songs and chants includes a variety of tonalities and meters and serves music learning for all ages. It is a basic set of songs and chants without words for the development of a sense of meter and a sense of tonality, which provide the foundation for all music learning, including in-tune and in-rhythm singing.

Beginning chants include only macro and micro beats, the easiest rhythmic content, yet with meters of increasing difficulty. Songs are in the appropriate vocal range for music learning; they are structured to maximize tonal learning; and they employ simple rhythm. Numeric titles indicate tonality, meter, and difficulty, as explained in the SONG LIBRARY, where you will find many more songs and chants of increasing difficulty, plus interactive Tonal and Rhythm Activities.

All songs and chants without words are to be sung on a neutral syllable. “Bah” is suggested for chants, and “Too” for songs. Alternate songs and chants with children and engage them in successive repetitions of each (at least 6-8 times through). Movement enhances rhythm and tonal activities with all ages. Ongoing immersion in the various tonalities and meters, through songs and chants without words, primes the musical mind for all music learning. These songs and chants have been used with students from birth through graduate students. Accompanying movement is effective with all ages. Songs and chants can also be used as choral warm-ups with older students, and with puppets, scarves, and other “musical instruments with young children.

Recommended OTEC Postings: (Ages 0-6)

The Young Child's Developing Sense of Meter

The Young Child's Developing Sense of Tonality

Recommended OTEC Postings: (Ages 7-13)

Developing a Sense of Meter

Developing a Sense of Tonality

More Postings Like These:

Music Educators

Early Childhood Music Educators

More Songs And Chants Like These:

SONG LIBRARY, Bookshelf 5

Annotated List of Songs

1	100—Duple meter—Successive repetitions of this basic chant immerse all ages in the most accessible meter.
2	1100—Dorian tonality—Multiple repetitions of this song capture the musical mind, while immersing children in Dorian tonality.
3	200—Triple meter—The challenge of Triple meter often shows up through rushing of tempo, as children have to be secure in both macro and micro beats in order to maintain both meter and tempo.
4	2100—Mixolydian tonality—Ongoing immersion in the various tonalities focuses the musical mind on tonality, developing a “sense of tonality.”
5	300—Unusual Paired meter—Extended experience with this unusual meter forces greater attention to meter, better securing Duple and Triple meter, whether or not the children are yet secure in this meter.
6	3100—Phrygian tonality—This song immerses children in the uniqueness of Phrygian tonality, stimulating greater awareness of tonality and better securing the uniqueness of every tonality in the musical mind.
7	400—Unusual Unpaired meter—This unusual meter forces greater attention to meter, better defining all meters in the musical mind and fostering in-rhythm performance in every meter.
8	4100—Lydian tonality—The uniqueness of this tonality is in contrast to all others, and experience with Lydian tonality leads children to greater focus and awareness of tonality.
9	110—Duple meter—This chant offers an example of a bit more difficult content in Duple meter, as it offers divisions as well as macro and micro beats, and demonstrates ease in increasing the difficulty of rhythm content with all of these chants.
10	5200—Aeolian tonality—This song presents the tonality in Triple meter, which children would be better able to handle because of the chants above in the various meters.
11	210—Triple meter—This chant offers divisions in this meter, making it more difficult than the earlier chant in this meter, and leading to further development of “a sense of meter.” [A variety of skill levels in any group can be accommodated by creating more difficult contrasting sections to the simplest chants through Rondo form, always securing the meter with macro and micro beats.]
12	7200—Minor tonality—Ongoing experience with each of seven tonalities forces the musical mind to pay greater attention to tonality, better defining each tonality in sound and fostering in-tune singing. [Ongoing experience with each of the six tonalities included here will lead children to hear Major as a tonality, rather than as something they tune out because they hear it so frequently.]