Songs to Play to Children
 

Looking for suggestions for songs to play to young children, please. So far I have "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Nellie the Elephant", but could use a few more. Thanks.

Songs for Children
 

Children always seem to love "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens

Check out the duo "Trout Fishing in America". They have some great original kids music.

Here are a few:

Lullaby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctvhTtjjPz0

The Window:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNoXs...eature=related

An Alien in my Nose:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ21a...eature=related


Also "Tennesee Stud", (my neices and nephews still request this one now that they are in their 20's):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5c1k949Zn4

The ants go marching

She'll be coming round the mountain


Ol Macdonald

La Bamba

Yellow submarine

Jimmy crack corn

Let me drive your car(Woody Guthrie).


Octopus's garden

Life goes on(Beatles)

Ghost riders in the sky(yes-they like it!)



Make up your own simple songs with some contemporary words, simple D-A-G progressions.

Have fun!

"Oh, Susanna!" is a great one, particularly if you learn a few more of the verses (most people only ever learn the first verse.)

There's a zillion more, but naturally none are coming to mind this instant, and I have to leave. I'll think on it some more and come back later with more.


whm

Kids like cowboy songs. At least that's been my experience. I think it's because a lot of them are about animals and they relate to that well. They don't understand love songs, but they like to hear about horses and nature. Just a thought

A personal favorite, and my wife and nieces like it too, is Kitty Starr, written by Dennis Linde...

"A Texas rodeo, can turn a boy to smilin'..."

Phil

My son, when a young 'un, used to love "Daddy, What's A Train". It's a Utah Philips song I learned from my friend Jim Ringer ages ago.

My kids love to sing along to You are my Sunshine. I was suprised to find several verses to the song and to learn how popular the song was a few decades ago.

Also Grandma's feather bed by John Denver is very fun

Don't overlook current top 40 songs. My 2 year olds favorite song at the moment is Somebody that i used to know by Gotye

As a kid I remember singing "Happy Trails" at the end of Roy Rodgers show (dating myself now). Kids today love to sing it with me even though they have no idea where the song came from.

"The Baby Tree" song on a Jefferson Starship album is a great one:

there's an island way out in the sea
where the babies they all grow on trees
and it's jolly good fun to swing in the sun
but ya gotta watch out if you sneeze sneeze
ya gotta watch out if you sneeze

yeah you gotta watch out if you sneeze
while swinging up there in the breeze
you're liable to cough
you might very well fall off
and tumble down flop on your knees knees
tumble down flop on your knees

when the stormy winds wail
and the breezes blow high in a gale
there's a curious dropping and flopping and plopping
and fat little babies just hail hail
the fat little babies just hail

and the babies lie there in a pile
and the grownups they come after while
and they always pass by all the babies that cry
and take only babies that smile smile
take only babies that smile

even triplets and twins if they'll smile.....

I work with kids every day and their musical tastes can vary as much as adults. It's important not to generalize and assume that certain kinds of music are a better fit for kids. If you find that familiar songs elicit a powerful effect, then go with familiar songs. If you find that rhythmic uptempo songs elicit more spontaneous movement, whether they are familiar or not, then try to incorporate some of those as well.

In general, familiar music with ingrained associations will elicit more of a response than unfamiliar music, no matter how fun or engaging the latter might be performed. So if a 4 year-old loves Back in Black and Enter Sandman because he associates them with his Dad playing guitar, then he might not be too excited by Twinkle Twinkle (unless maybe you perform it in a metal style).

The window for the traditional kid repertoire (Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, This Old Man, Mary Had a Little Lamb, If You're Happy and You Know it, Down by the Bay, etc.) used to be about 6 and under, easily. That window is shrinking a bit, so many more 5 and 6-year olds are perceiving those songs as babyish. In the past year I've worked with 6 year-olds who memorized songs like Who Says by Selena Gomez or Firework by Katy Perry.

If you're going to do this long term, then your repertoire will probably need to be updated regularly. I got a lot of mileage out of I Believe I Can Fly when Space Jam came out, but those days are long over. You've Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story continues to be popular, and Here Comes the Sun had a brief surge when Sheryl Crow covered it for Bee Movie. I used to use I'm a Believer from Shrek a lot, but it is now starting to wane.

If you don't have the right repertoire, you can always try to make up some songs on the spot - usually, the sillier the better.

He's Got The Whole World In His Hands, Kum-ba-ya, Michael Row the Boat Ashore

If it is a general audience, I would suggest sticking with secular music.

:D

I agree... My wife taught 2nd grade for a lot of years and I used to take a guitar in and play for them a couple of times each school year. My wife's feedback on what they were interested in before going in to play for them was really helpful. Then whatever I did was familiar. One year they were into John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High."

I have also done sessions where we all made up a song together, and yes, the sillier, the better. Making up something, with of course a lot of help from the player to get it started, can be really fun and is really well accepted because they think of it as their song.

My grand children have asked for songs like, "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain," and "When The Saints Come Marchin' In". One of my grandsons was into "Trot Ol' Joe" and "Lukey's Boat." I have always enjoyed singing Kenny Loggins' "House at Pooh Corner" and "Puff The Magic Dragon" (because I could ham it up), but familiarity, I think, really helps.:)

- Glenn

I really like Sesame Street's African alphabet song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2spD2F6ZCM

Itsy bitsy spider

Definitely nothing by Bo Carter....

-C

My son is 4 and my daughter is 2. They like Avett Brothers, Woody Gutherie, Justin Townes Earl, Langhorne Slim, REM, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Head and the Heart and sadly, Coldplay.

We have a Decemberists sing along every night

Not exactly secular but we like to do "Man Gave Names to All The Animals" by Bob Dylan. We usually do it on ukuleles.

Jack

Anything by Raffi, and almost anything by Jack Johnson.


Bel isi,
-kyle

The Unicorn Song

Steve

lol...it took 21 posts for anyone to mention Raffi.

Froggy went-a-courting

Surprised me as well. I grew up on him, and was relived to find a stack of his albums when I started teaching preschool. Timeless.


Bel isi,
-kyle

Songs by Malvina Reynolds
 

Morningtown Ride (classic version by the Australian folkies The Seekers)
Magic Penny

Both these songs by the wonderful songwriter Malvina Reynolds who I believe didn't start writing songs till she was in her late forties. She had such a heart and feel for children's songs.

Lots of Beatles songs go down well too... and not always the ones you'd expect.

Nah-kids these days aren't into Raffi

The city kids I sing for in schools never like old stuff. Make them laugh or play contemporary songs.

Not in my experience. But if they aren't it's really too bad.


Bel isi,
-kyle

Kids love The Ponyman by Gordon Lightfoot. I tabbed this for Ultimate Guitar (shameless plug for myself!!)