The Songbooks, Sing We and Chant It and O-Solo-Me-O offer a storehouse of materials for all levels of rhythm and tonal development. They can never be complete, as there are always more songs and chants for immersion and more experiences with Rhythm Dialogue, Resting Tone, Macro/Micro Beats, and Tonal Dialogue to be had. The numbering system by meter, tonality, and difficulty, [Rhythm and Tonal Materials] leaves plenty of room for you to create additional materials. For example, Sing We and Chant It includes some rhythm chants with fairly difficult rhythm patterns, chants in unusual meters, and multimetric chants. O-Solo-Me-O presents more basic interactions. As your children develop beyond the materials provided, you may want to add more difficult rhythm chants, and more interactions with difficult rhythm patterns. Similarly, you may want to add more difficult tonality songs to those of Sing We and Chant It, and more difficult tonal interactions to O-Solo-Me-O. The numbering system provides for you to create numeric titles for rhythm and tonal activities that coordinate with those provided.
Use the numbering system as a guide to labeling your own creations. For example, any rhythm chant or interaction from 100-109 includes only macro and micro beats. Those from 110-119 include divisions and some elongations, with higher numbers signifying more difficult patterns, or more combinations of patterns. Anything you might create or improvise can be fit into the numbering system in a way that can guide your lesson planning. 110 in your lesson plans might simply represent duple meter patterns with divisions to be improvised as needed.
Children need the basic materials to develop a sense of meter and a sense of tonality. Once that is in place, the same materials can be used with rhythm and tonal syllables, and then with music reading. Throughout all, more difficult rhythm and tonal vocabulary can be introduced. Use the basic materials as a guide for design and simplicity. You may choose to improvise in the various meters and tonalities when your children get beyond the basic materials, or you may choose to develop specific meter chants, tonality songs, and interactions to meet the needs of different groups at various ages and stages.
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