The Easiest Songbook. 58 Simple Songs without Musical Notes for Boomwhackers®, Bells, Chimes, Pipes

Book excerpt: We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents. Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable. This book includes 58 familiar and easy-to-play folk songs and melodies. Each song here is written with color circles and letter notes inside. All songs have been simplified and transposed for one octave. Since this book is aimed at the absolute beginner without any knowledge of reading music, we do not use here the classical music staff and do not show the note duration. You can experiment with the duration on your own. If you have very little music experience, playing by note can be difficult. It is easier to follow color-coded circles with note letters. By simply following the color circles, you will sound like an experienced musician. We use here the Boomwhackers® color system commonly used by American music teachers. We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents. Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable. Our simple method using circles as an aid allows the flexibility that existed in traditional ways of teaching. We recommend finding each of these songs on YouTube and listening to the rhythm before beginning to play. Our sheet music is only a guide. The most important thing is to listen and repeat what is heard in the recordings. Contents Alphabet Song A Hunting We Will Go A Sailor Went to Sea Acka Backa Are You Sleeping Baa Baa Black Sheep Baby Bumble Bee Bell Horses Bim Bum Biddy Bobby Shafto Brahms Lullaby Chumbara Cobbler, Mend My Shoe Cock-a-Doodle Doo Ding Dong DiggiDiggiDong Do You Know the Muffin Man? Doggie Doggie Fiddle-De-Dee Five Little Ducks Five Little Monkeys Frog in the Meadow Happy Birthday Hot Cross Buns It's Raining Itsy Bitsy Spider Jack and Jill Jingle Bells Jolly Old Saint Nicholas Kookaburra La Cucaracha Little Jack Horner London Bridge Mary Had a Little Lamb Miss Mary Mack My Hat Ninety-Nine Bottles Ode to Joy Oh Susannah Oh We Can Play on the Big Bass Drum Old Bald Eagle Old Blue Old McDonald Old Mother Hubbard Rain, Rain, Go Away Ring Around the Rosie Row Row Your Boat Rub-a-Dub-Dub See-Saw Margery Daw Ten in the Bed The Beep and the Pup The Big Sheep The Mulberry Bush The Wheels on the Bus This Old Man Tinga Layo To Market, to Market Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star We Wish You a Merry Christmas