You may have presented songs last week that so delighted the children that today’s class left you disappointed. Success with children breeds confidence. Discontent breeds insecurity and doubt. You may be thinking, “Maybe these songs just don’t work.  The kids didn’t like them. Maybe the songs are too mature musically for such little children. These kids love songs like _____. I should be doing more like that and forget these others.”

The songs of the SONG LIBRARY recommended for early childhood have been successfully used with hundreds of children of all ages through many years. The problem is not the songs. Techniques in presenting songs are just as important to success in the classroom as they are with any other aspect of the class. Play Songs, Art Songs, Gem Songs—there are so many to choose from.  We can jump into Play Songs about anywhere in the class, whereas Art Songs and Gem Songs are more successful when first securing the tonality and meter, perhaps with a preceding Tonality Song in the same tonality and meter.

Songs can serve as program openings and closings, transitions, anchors in the class, and for manipulating energy. Play Songs are always fun, some with words that elicit high energy from children, others with words that are very calming. Art Songs stimulate a different kind of response—a different kind of energy—musical energy—the energy of the line, with its twists and turns, tension and release, rhythmic momentum, and expression of text. Gem Songs, with their greater whimsy, become a more musically sophisticated level of Play Songs, with their intrinsic nature sometimes eliciting high energy, sometimes calm.  

If you find a song that you feel “doesn’t work” with your children, consider the following:

Might the placement of the song within the program be too early or too late to elicit the kind of response you had hoped? Might the activities that precede and follow the song be so similar that there is not enough change of energy? Songs are “instrumental” in establishing the flow of the class, and have to be chosen and placed purposefully to propel energy.

Might you be seeking a “happy clappy” response with an Art Song, when a “deer-in-the-headlights” stare is most appropriate? Or might you think that children have to look happy or be active to be engaged in a song? Or that they have to be moving or singing? Little children’s artistry can respond far more pensively than actively, with flowing movement becoming its segue to overt expression. Very young children soak it all in before they begin to deliver anything in movement, let alone singing. The “deer-in-the-headlights” stare is enough to tell you that you have captured the musical imagination.

Might you have imposed props or activities with the song that actually take away from the song? Might you have focused on the words, acting out the words, or choreographing the song? The musicality of Art Songs and Gem Songs are the “play.” Very young children “play music” just as the professional musician, getting wrapped up in the musicality of the song.  Props are not needed to “get the children’s attention,” and they take away from children being able to intimately “become the song.” Similarly, acting out the words, or doing particular steps with particular phrases take away from the musicality of the song itself and discourage children from discovering through fluid movement the intertwining of rhythm, melody, and text.

Plan techniques for presenting songs as you do for any activity. If a Play Song, use the words and energy of the song to propel children’s energy and to balance songs and activities designed for music learning. If an Art Song or Gem Song, immerse children in the tonality prior to presenting the song. Set up the meter on the resting tone and then sing the song with words and movement so that the song becomes an extension of the tonality experience with its own kind of musical energy, and look for those pensive responses. As children become more developed, they will engage more in movement with Art Songs, and eventually in song. More musically developed children can move into a Gem Song almost as immediately as a Play Song, if you set up the tonality and meter before jumping in.

Play Songs are appropriate for young children. Art Songs and Gem Songs are appropriate for music learning, as well as for young children. All of these are appropriate for propelling and engaging children’s energy. They need only techniques of presentation that are effective.