Beth M. Bolton is the Assistant Professor of Music Education. B.M.E., Ft. Hays State University, M.M., Eurporia State University, Ph.D., Temple University; author, researcher, lecturer, early childhood music specialist; author Music Play, Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum, The Childsong Collection, The Early Childhood Song and Chant Book.

Email:boltonbeth@hotmail.com

Using the songs in to help older students and adults develop audiation.
About the Author
Table of Contents

The Childsong Collection

The collection features 103 original songs without words in a variety of tonalities and meters. Suggestions are included for tonic accompaniments, simple harmonic accompaniments, and lyrics. The songs are appropriate for use with students of any age: infants, school children, and adults can benefit from the full musical vocabulary featured in The Childsong Collection. Dr. Bolton is a co-author of The Early Childhood Experimental Song and Chant Book I, Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum, and MUSIC PLAY - Jump Right In: The Early Childhood Music Curriculum. She is an assistant professor of music education at the Esther Boyer College of Music, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

How a Child Responds to Music

A very young child responds to music in a variety of ways. Some responses are social, indicating pleasure at hearing songs, chants, and nursery rhymes. Some responses are musical. A young child may become very quiet and attentive when music is heard or may become active, responding with movement and sound. No matter what a child's response to music, it is natural and normal.

Developing Music Vocabulary

The songs in The Childsong Collection were composed especially to help develop a sense of tonality and meter, the two most important dimensions of musicality. By hearing songs without words in a variety of tonalities and meters, a child will develop a broad listening vocabulary that will serve as a foundation for later music learning and enjoyment.

Songs Without Words

A child learns music and language in much the same way, through listening. When a child hears only songs with words, a child may listen more to the words than to the music. To fully develop a child's musical ear, sing beautifully and expressively without words.

The Importance of Flowing Movement

Observing flowing movement, rather than beat movement, helps a child to develop a sense of how the body moves through space. Move with graceful flowing movement when you sing, using your entire body.

Vocal Harmony

Hearing sustained tonic accompaniments and simple vocal will develop a solid musical foundation that will help a child learn to sing in tune and to understand melody and harmony. There are 14 examples of sustained tonic accompaniment and 30 songs with simple accompaniment in The Childsong Collection. One adult singer should sing the melody while another sings the sustained tonic accompaniment or simple accompaniment. In a music class, parents and caregivers can learn to sing the accompaniments as teachers sing melodies.

How to Help a Child Develop a Sense of Music

Teachers, parents, and caregivers can help to guide a child's development by modeling musical behaviors. To help a child develop a readiness for music learning, adults should:

Musical Interaction

Music can be learned more quickly and precisely by listening to and interacting with a musical adult than by listening to recorded music. Sing the songs without words from The Childsong Collection with as much expression and animation as you would use when speaking to a child.

Singing in Appropriate Keys

The songs in The Childsong Collection are notated in child-friendly keys. They should not be transposed to other keys, but should be sung as notated. It is important to sing in keys that are easily processed by a child's audiation and singing voice. There are indications from research that a very young child is able to process and respond to the tonal structure of music efficiency if the music is sung in a key that places the song, and especially its resting tone, within the initial audiation and singing range. For that reason, most of the resting tones of songs in The Childsong Collection are placed above middle C.

Songs With Tonic Accompaniment

Fourteen songs in The Childsong Collection should be sung with a sustained tonic accompaniment. The tonic pitch is notated above each of the songs. An assistant or parent(s) should sing the tonic pitch using a neutral syllable while the song is sung by the teacher. It is important that a child hears and learns to audiate the tonic pitch so that all other pitches in a song can be audiated relative to that pitch.

A Variety of Tonalities and Meters

A child should experience the whole language of music, listening to and interacting in a variety of tonalities and meters. The Childsong Collection includes songs in Major, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, harmonic minor, melodic minor, and Locrian tonalities as well as whole-tone, multitonal, and multikeyal songs. Usual duple, usual triple, unusual paired, and unusual unpaired meters are represented and several multimetric songs have been included.

Planning a Music Class

Music interaction in a variety of tonalities and meters should be included in a child's daily experience at home. In addition, both parent and child should attend an informal music class at least once each week. The class should include variety in tonality, meter, timbre, tempo, and style. Repetition and contrast are important elements in a music class. A song should be repeated several times with appropriate pauses between repetitions to encourage audiation. Some new and some familiar songs should be included in each music class.

Parent Involvement

Parents should be actively involved in music interaction with their child. The more a parent sings, chants, and moves to and for a child, the more deeply engaged the child will become in music learning. Parents should copy movement performed by the teacher, sing during class and at home, interact with their child using tonal and rhythm patterns, and show that they enjoy music.

Musical Conversation

The songs in The Childsong Collection were created especially to develop a child's listening and interaction vocabulary in music. Present them informally, as in musical conversation, with no expectation that a child will learn to sing the songs. Listen for a tonal or rhythmic musical response and encourage that response.

Songs With Words

There are 25 songs with words in The Childsong Collection. The same songs are presented in the collection first without words. Some songs are also presented with tonic accompaniment or simple accompaniment. The song texts have been created to appeal to children and parents and to encourage a positive and enjoyable musical and social interaction. It is appropriate to sing songs with words to a young child 1) when the song has become familiar through listening and interaction without words and 2) when a child is old enough to understand the meaning of the words.

Using the songs in
The Childsong Collection
to help older students and adults develop audiation.

TONAL AUDIATION
  • Sing a song. At the end of the song have students sing the resting tone using a neutral syllable or the appropriate tonal sol-feg syllable.
  • Sing the tonic function of the song using a neutral syllable or the appropriate tonal sol-feg syllable. Have students echo the pattern. Sing the song, stopping randomly to have students sing the tonic function.
  • Ask students to sing a sustained tonic pitch as you sing the entire song.

RHYTHM AUDIATION
  • Move to macrobeats and microbeats as you sing the song. Have students move to macrobeats and microbeats as you sing.
  • Ask students to move to macrobeats and microbeats and chant microbeats using rhythm syllables as you sing the song.
  • Ask students to chant a rhythm ostinato using rhythm syllables as you sing the song.

About the Author

Beth Bolton, Assistant Professor of Music Education; Director of the Sophomore Field Experience Program; Curriculum Director of the Early Childhood Music Foundations Program at TUCC. B.S. (music education) Fort Hays State University; M.M. (bassoon), Emporia State University; Ph.D. (music education) Temple University; former teacher in public schools in Kansas and Missouri; selected as "Teacher of the Year" and "Outstanding Young Educator" in Lawrence, KS; author of "Was That A Musical Response? Eliciting and Evaluating the Earliest Musical Behaviors in Very Young Children" Early Childhood Connections Journal for Music in Early Childhood. Fall 1996, "Singing Melody and Harmony: A Middle School Vocal Experience" The GIML Audea Volume 1, Number 4, Fall 1995, "Effective Teaching Through Audiation and the National Standards in Music" The GIML Audea Audiation Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 1995; co-author of The Experimental Song and Cant Book, Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum, Revised, Jump Right In: The Early Childhood Music Curriculum, Jump Right In: The Church Music Curriculum, and Answerkey ; curriculum director of Early Childhood Music Foundations pre-school music program for children from birth to five years old at Temple University Center City campus and a teacher of children birth to 18 months old in that program; co-executive secretary of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning and a member of that organization's working board of directors, editorial board, and higher education committee; member of the PMEA Research Board; member of the Children's Concert committee of the Philadelphia Classical Symphony; frequent presenter at the national, regional and state level in music learning theory, Orff Schulwerk, recorder pedagogy, and creativity and improvisation; B.M., M.M., and Ph.D. advisor.

Link to Beth's Home Page

Table of Contents

Songs Without Words

#

SONG

TONALITY

METER

1

MY PONY, JOHN

Dorian

Usual Duple

2

HELLO/GOOD-BYE

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

3

FLUFFY CAT

Phrygian

Multimetric

4

TEP

Major

Unusual Unpaired

5

PRECI-CAT

Dorian

Usual Triple

6

DAFFODIL

Mixolydian

Usual Duple

7

ALEX

Multitonal

Unusual Paired

8

SUSAN

Dorian

Usual Triple

9

GINO

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

10

MISSOURI

Mixolydian

Multimetric

11

ELK RIVER

Lydian

Multimetric

12

WHISPER A SECRET

Phrygian

Usual Triple

13

SNAKE SONG

Locrian

Usual Triple

14

VANESSA

Lydian

Unusual Paired

15

LUKE

Melodic Minor

Usual Triple

16

MY PUPPY DOG

Major

Usual Triple

17

LANGSTON

Aeolian

Multimetric

18

JIMMY'S TUNE

Dorian

Usual Triple

19

SARA

Multitonal

Multimetric

20

JOOHEE

Dorian

Usual Duple

21

WISHING STAR

Mixolydian

Usual Triple

22

AMY

Harmonic Minor

Usual Triple

23

HANDS

Dorian

Usual Triple

24

MONKEY, MONKEY

Phrygian

Usual Duple

25

MCOLE

Lydian

Multimetric

26

LULLABY, BABY

Locrian

Usual Duple

27

JOY

Dorian

Multimetric

28

HELENAR

Harmonic Minor

Usual Triple

29

WIGGLE SONG

Dorian

Usual Duple

30

JOAN MARIE

Phrygian

Usual Triple

31

SIOBHAN

Mixolydian

Usual Duple

32

JAMIE

Whole Tone

Usual Triple

33

CHEWBACCA

Lydian

Usual Duple

34

SUSIE

Dorian

Unusual Paired

35

BWIA

Multimetric

Usual Triple

36

BEAR SONG

Locrian

Usual Triple

37

BRIAN

Melodic Minor

Usual Triple

38

VICTOR

Multitonal

Usual Duple

39

SKITTERY MOUSE

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

40

EMILIA

Major

Multimetric

41

CHOOSY

Mixolydian

Multimetric

42

DONNA'S TUNE

Phrygian

Usual Triple

43

LEE

Aeolian

Usual Duple

44

CAROL

Dorian

Usual Duple

45

EGRI

Multitonal

Unusual Unpaired

46

PEORIA

Phrygian

Usual Duple

47

HELENAC

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

48

MOUSE IN THE PANTRY

Dorian

Multimetric

49

IDELISA

Mixolydian

Unusual Paired

50

CHRISTINE

Multitonal

Multimetric

51

BOUNCY

Dorian

Usual Duple

52

BRUCE

Lydian

Usua Duple

53

TRISHA

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

54

JULIA

Multitonal

Usual Triple

55

ISABELLA

Multitonal

Usual Triple

56

NAP SONG

Major

Usual Duple

57

CAT

Harmonic Minor

Usual Triple

58

BREAD BAKING SONG

Melodic Minor

Usual Triple

59

HEY GOOD-BYE

Mixolydian

Usual Duple

60

SUSANA

Dorian

Multimetric

61

STOP DANCE

Mixolydian

Usual Triple

62

TO THE ZOO

Dorian

Multimetric

63

JP

Harmonic Minor

Usual Triple

64

OMA

Mixolydian

Usual Duple

65

TERRY

Multitonal

Usual Triple

66

PICKLES AND PIE

Mixolydian

Usual Duple

67

CROWN

Aeolian

Usual Duple

68

SPRING

Multitonal

Usual Duple

69

DAWN

Multitonal

Multimetric

70

HELLO

Aeolian

Usual Duple

71

CHICKEN POT PIE

Mixolydian

Usual Triple

72

ERIE

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

73

DAISIES

Mixolydian

Multimetric

74

LIEESONG

Mixolydian

Multimetric

75

BOUNCE A BYE BABY

Mixolydian

Unusual Paired

76

TICKLE SOUP

Dorian

Usual Duple

77

THANKSGIVING

Melodic Minor

Usual Duple

78

MY LIT'ILE ANGEL

Dorian

Usual Duple

79

LAKE AFTON

Major

Usual Duple

80

HIPPOPOTAMUS

Multitonal

Usual Triple

81

CHING CHING

Dorian

Usual Duple

82

BABY DUNDEE

Major

Usual Triple

83

A SHAKE

Mixolydian

Usual Duple

84

HELENA y SERGIO

Multitonal

Usual Duple

85

SONG FOR ANDREA

Multitonal

Usual Duple

86

MOUNT VERNON MELODY

Mixolydian

Multimetric

87

PEEK-A-BOO

Multitonal

Usual Duple

88

LADY FAIR

Multitonal

Usual Duple

89

JOTO

Melodic Minor

Usual Triple

90

MARISA

Mixolydian

Usual Combined

91

AARON

Multitonal

Usual Duple

92

VINCENT

Mixolydian

Multimetric

93

I'M GOIN' HOME

Harmonic Minor

Usual Duple

94

BAH BOP

Major

Usual Triple

95

LA COLONIAL

Aeolian

Usual Duple

96

MARQUIS

Aeolian

Unusual Paired

97

BART

Aeolian

Usual Duple

98

PACHIO

Mixolydian

Multimetric

99

INFANTS

Major

Usual Duple

100

LT''S

Multitonal

Usual Duple

101

BABBY

Dorian

Multimetric

102

BENJERLAIN

Multitonal

Usual Duple

103

RICKETT'S GLEN

Aeolian

Unusual Paired

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