Repeating a Song: Drunken Sailor

Drunken Sailor Lesson Ideas

Overview

Students will explore the elements of music in Drunken Sailor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsHaXtPrys

Core Standards

MU:Cr1.1.4b Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms, melodies, and simple accompaniment patterns) within related tonalities (such as major and minor) and meters.

MU:Pr6.1.4a Perform music, alone or with others, with expression and technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation.

MU:Pr4.2.4a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as rhythm, pitch, and form) in music selected for performance.

Process (exploring rhythm and beat)

“Can you guess this song? Raise your hand if you know, but don’t shout it out.”

Clap the rhythm to the verse, “What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor earlye in the morning?”

Take guesses from individual students who raise their hand.

Test the guesses as a class. (Don’t tell the children “yes” or “no”.)

It might take more demonstrations before the students guess the song.

Invite the students to sing while clapping the rhythm.

Explore additional ways to show the rhythm (stamping, patting, drumming).

Invite the students to make up their own ways to show the rhythm.

Invite individual students to share how they showed the rhythm and then have the class imitate.

Use a similar process for the beat: Keep the beat. Keep the beat in a creative ways. Share and imitate.

Have part of the class keep the beat and the rest show the rhythm.

Try it without singing—just the beat and the rhythm.

Process (melodic contour and pitch matching)

As a class, demonstrate the melodic contour by raising hands up or down relative to the pitch.

Use other body parts to show the melodic contour (head, nose, chin, elbow, belly button, toes, etc.)

Close eyes while showing the melodic contour.

Sing “inside”: Start the song and then give a signal to start and stop the actual sound. For example, hand open for sing out loud and hand closed for sing inside (inner hearing). When the sound is off, in other words, the song continues in the students’ head and when the sound is back on the song picks up accordingly. It’s like listening to the radio; if the volume is turned off, the song still continues.

Process (form)

Perform the dance for Drunken Sailor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsHaXtPrys)

This dance is a natural expression of the form of the song.

Invite students to make up new ways to perform the dance.

Have students combine partnerships into groups of four and come up with a new way to perform the dance. There are essentially two movements: side to side and over/under. So, they just need to come up with a movement repeated three times and a new concluding movement.

Let the groups also come up with new verses—solutions to what we should do with a drunken sailor. Be sure to discuss the context of the song: It is a sea chanty reflecting a real-life problem of dealing with a sailor who is drunk and can’t help with the day’s work.

Let the groups share their creative dances.

Let the other groups imitate.

(A quick way to share is to have half of the class watch the other half. If there is time, however, let groups share individually.)

What Shall We Do with a Grumpy Sailor

A Music and Language Arts (and Social Studies) Lesson for Grades 1-4

Here's another activity I taught in my daughter's third grade. Her teacher had chosen a pirate theme for the year, so I thought What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor would be perfect. However, the teacher was not comfortable with the drunken part (and that's okay, I understand), so we changed it to grumpy. Then, it just so happened that they were learning about adjectives and, hey, grumpy is an adjective! So, we learned the song and dance and changed out the adjectives. Here's a recording of the game played with a group of students at Northwest Missouri State University:

Here's an outline:

Overview
Students will learn learn an authentic sea shanty and adapt it to explore adjectives.

Standards
Music (sea shanty, singing and dancing)
Language Arts (adjectives and creative writing)

Process

• Teach the song (see the 10 Ways to Repeat a Song or simply watch the video and figure it out)
• Replace "Drunken" with other adjectives
• Write new verses to answer the question "What shall we do . . .?"
• Make up new ways to do the dance during the verse. I usually keep the same actions on the chorus "Way, hey, and up she rises." The children especially love the final action going over and under ("wringing the dishrag"). 

It's pretty simple, yet VERY effective musically, etc. . . .

Head and Shoulders Baby

A Music and Language Arts Lesson for Grades 1-4

I taught my daughter's third grade class Head and Shoulder's Baby and then we played the singing game to explore verbs and nouns. Here's a copy of the singing game played by my methods class back in Missouri followed by a lesson outline:

Overview
Participants will learn Head and Shoulders Baby and sing it in new ways to explore nouns and verbs.

Standards
Music (singing, non-locomotor movement, coordination)
Language Arts (nouns and verbs, creating lyrics)

Process

Teach the Song

• "While I sing the song, clap every time you hear 'baby'." Sing the song or watch the video.
• "Close. Let's try again." Sing the song again or watch the video again.
• Try one more time.
• Touch head and shoulders at the appropriate time.
• Try again.
• Change head and shoulders to knees and ankles and sing the song again.
• Try again.
• Learn the clapping pattern (with imaginary partners) slowly (baby, one-clap, two-clap, three) as in the video
• Add the hand clapping pattern (with imaginary partners) to entire song, head and shoulders and then knees and ankles
• Try it with real partners. Demonstrate first and then give students five or so minutes to practice it and then try it all together. 
• Teach the chorus (Ain't Been to Frisco) by singing sections of the song and having students repeat

On a subsequent day adapt the song as follows:

• Instead of head and shoulders, sing throw the ball and milk the cow (or some other action with a verb followed by a noun)
• Write the new lyrics on the board under the headings "verbs" and "nouns"
• Have the students choose new verbs and nouns to put in the song. Sing the song with the new lyrics.

By the way, Sophie's class absolutely loved this song and even chose to play it on the playground during recess. 

Play is Okay!

Play is okay! Children learn and have learned for ages and ages through play—engaging, joyful, creative action. For some reason, however, teachers sometimes get it in their heads that learning requires work and that work is not play—is not fun. I suggest two points relative to this misunderstanding:

First, play is NOT the opposite of work. Think of someone who has a passion for hiking—researching to discover the best gear (shoes, backpack, sleeping bag, food) and places to hike—a set of crystal clear mountain lakes, for example. The actually hiking trip takes considerable effort; the path is steep and full of rocks. Somehow, though, the hiker enjoys the entire trip, both the challenge of the hike and the view of the lakes. This is play, recreation, fun. It is also a lot of work. Similarly, singing games are fun AND require considerable cognitive, kinesthetic, and social engagement. In fact, they likely would not be as fun if they didn’t require significant effort.

Second, many people enjoy their work.  Sometimes people say, “I can’t believe I get paid for this!” Some vocations allow significant levels of autonomy, creativity, and social interaction. Some people even have a knack for making the most mundane tasks, such as yard work or household chores, interesting and fun (this is called autotelic personality, by the way).  Work doesn’t have to be unpleasant or boring. In fact, if the work of learning is unpleasant or boring it will likely be less effective than if it involves ample opportunity for physical, social, and creative engagement.

The reason that children’s singing games have endured over time is that they naturally engage students in meaningful musicing and musical learning. In the process students learn far more about music and develop musical skills at levels far surpassing anything that could be accomplished through a music worksheet, for instance. Of course, a music worksheet might have a place once in a while, but if learning is the aim (and, of course, we all know it is), we will allow the joyful and creative play/work or work/play of traditional singing games.

Skip to My Lou (Hello, How Are You?)

Learn the names of the children beforehand or ask three students what their names are. Then sing, "Hello, Cindy, how are you? Hello, David, how are you? Hello, Kayla, how are you? Skip to my lou my darlin'" clapping the beat of the last bit and waving at each student as they are named--all to the tune of Skip to My Lou, of course. I did this one with many groups and they love it (kindergarten or first grade--probably not so effective with sixth graders). Another variation is to then let those three skip around the circle while everyone sings "Skip with me, I'll skip with you . . . etc." I learned this variation from Susan Kenney who, I believe, picked it up from the ETM folks. Yet another variation is with all students in groups of threes singing the names of each child in their group and then holding hands and skipping in a circle on the Skip with me, I'll skip with you part. Or, better yet, make up your own variation. I remember singing this timeless folk song in third grade back in the 70s--just singing it in class with no games but with a variety of verses. (Flies in the buttermilk, shoo fly shoo; Little red wagon painted blue; Lost my partner what'll I do; I'll find another one, it might be you). My students at Eureka Elementary enjoyed making up their own verses that rhymed (I found a stink bug in my shoe; We left my sister at the zoo, etc.). You know, it can be a lot of fun to just play the guitar and sing with kids. An important thing is to avoid getting caught up in whether you are doing it right or not--whether you are following the method or the rules of the game correctly. I was worried once about remembering the tune of a song learned at a workshop and someone suggested that if I forgot I could just make up my own tune. Good advice . . .

Go Tell Aunt Rhody (I'm Thinking of Someone)

Here's a great singing game for focusing a group of students sitting on the floor in a circle: "I'm thinking of someone. I'm thinking of someone. I'm thinking of someone, who is wearing red" (or any other descriptor about clothing, etc.) to the tune of Go Tell Aunt Rhody. If the other children want to guess who you are thinking of they can raise their hands and be called on at which point they ask, "Is it (child's name)?" The kids love the potential of being the one who you are thinking of. For a refresher on the tune:

Another game is plain old Go Tell Aunt Rhody. The one who is it runs or walks around the outside of the circle where the rest of the players are sitting. On the word "dead", they touch (don't hit) someone who is the closest on the head and that person falls over as if dead. Then everyone says, "Oh, no! The goose is dead!" at which point the one who is it asks the person on either side of the goose, "(child's name), will you go tell Aunt Rhody the old grey goose is dead?" It's a lot to say, yes, but it's good for the kids to put the entire sentence together just like that. Then that person goes to tell Aunt Rhody and the one who was it sits in their place in the circle. Whether the dead geese stay dead throughout the remainder of the game is up to you. Too harsh for children? Death is real. Why avoid the topic?

Partner Songs: Bluebird & Skip to My Lou

Bluebird is a great game for young children. I have found it effective to have the kids press hands together rather than hold hands in order to make the windows. The person who is "it" flys around through the windows and lands in front of someone at the end of the song and asks, "(name), would you like to be the bird?" If the answer is "yes" then the new one is "it" and the previous one takes their place. This game can be played with multiple birds or students can choose what kind of bird to be in which case there might be two questions, "Would you like to be a bird?" and "What kind of bird would you like to be?" As the teacher, I like to eventually drop out of the singing and let the students sustain the singing game. Whoever begins the song, of course, chooses the starting pitch. I don't think the starter needs to give the pitch beforehand either. We start and everyone settles in on a pitch. The idea is to keep it complex and interesting.

Once the children know the song and game, it can be partnered with Skip to My Lou. In fact, there are quite a few songs that will partner with these. 

The Big Ships are Sailing Down the Ally Ally Oh

I love this game and so do the kids! It presents a unique challenge--to "thread the needle". Interestingly, it was also a game in which my students never complained about having to hold hands. The musical portion, of course, is simply that the students get to sing a delightful tune over and over again until is firmly planted in their brains to be shared and explored further. The tune we used in the video is different from some of the others (do a youtube search); you can use whichever one you want, of course. Or, change it to suit youself or your students. Most versions, though, work well as partner songs for Skip to My Lou and Bluebird (I, I, V, V, I, I, V, I if you follow this kind of chord notation). Anyway, here's a clip of my elementary methods class playing the game:

Teaching a Singing Game

The best way to learn a singing game, in my opinion, is the most authentic: simply watch others playing it and then join in. However, when teaching in an elementary classroom, you will need to teach all of the students the singing game "from scratch" (although you could have the students watch a video of the game). So, there are a few approaches that seem to work, depending on the singing game. One approach is to first get the students into the proper formation (lines or circle) and then act as the one-who-is-it. For snowball-type games such as Rig a Jig Jig this can be accomplished with little or no instruction. The students will catch on quickly. After a few turns, someone else can start taking on the role of the one-who-is-it. Another approach is to teach the entire song by rote before playing the game. To teach a song by rote, sing the song for the students at least 10-12 times giving them something to do (see 100 Ways to Repeat a Song) or listen for each time they hear the song. The things to do should be connected to each other from one song to the next. For example, if they are adding actions, they should probably continue adding more actions throughout or something related, rather than all of a sudden switching to identifying specific rhythms. I outlined such a sequence in the post for Four White Horses. Then, after they know the song, on a different day usually, teach them how to play the game with as little talking as possible. You will discover many things that work. The important thing is to let the students make their own sense out of complexity as much as possible, give verbal instructions as little as possible, and keep it interesting by giving the students something meaningful and engagingly challenging to do throughout the process. Then, on subsequent days, play the game again. Eventually you may want to change the game or have the students change the game (see Four White Horses and Drunken Sailor, for example). You can also explore the song in more detail in order to address specific curriculum standards. For exploration ideas, see 100 Ways to Repeat a Song.

This is such a fun way to teach. Remember, though, that what works for me might not work for you and your students. Be creative and try new things. Enjoy!

Puncinella

Here's a delightful singing game about that classical jester-character, Puncinella (Pulcinella). In this game the-one-who-is-it stands in the middle of the circle and the rest of the students stand or walk around the outside singing the song. Then the one in the middle performs some sort of action or movement that the rest imitate. Then the one in the middle chooses someone to be it by "taking a turn" (covering eyes, hand outstretched, turn in a circle).

Some extensions might include exploration of the Pulcinella character online, puppet shows or mini-plays with costumes, or class-created choreography to an excerpt from Stravinsky's neo-classical ballet, Pulcinella, accessed for free on YouTube or Grooveshark. What a fun way to develop an elementary and music curriculum. Fun is good. Play is okay.

Ring Around the Rosie

We stayed in Mesquite, Nevada last night on our way to Oceanside, California. In the motel pool Audrey and Sophie (ages 3 and 6) started playing Ring Around the Rosie. Their older brothers and I joined in. What fun! I have yet to come across children in North American who do not know this game. I used to play it with my elementary students. At an ETM conference I was introduced to the idea of singing the song in a round in concentric circles, each circle going a different direction from the one before and after. I used to do this with my students as well especially on days when there were multiple classes in music at one time. Older kids can, in this way, re-discover Ring Around the Rosie, in a way that is challenging and engaging. Of course, Landon and William (ages 11 and 9) were just fine singing the song in the pool because they were singing it with their little sisters. In other words, it doesn't always have to be challenging to be engaging (despite what the optimal experience or zone of proximal development folks say).

Work Up Games

Here are three rhythm games where the strategy is to try to work your way to the top. Basically, someone is the leader and during a repeated rhythmic pattern they say their name followed by someone else's. Then that person says their name and someone else's at the appropriate time within the rhythmic pattern. If someone messes up they go to the end and everyone who was below them moves up one spot.

The first is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. The top four people have the names "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John" and the rest have consecutive numbers. I remember playing this one as a teenager. Here's a youtube clip kindly posted recently of a multi-age group of people enjoying this game:

The next game is Big Booty. This clip is of some teenagers playing the game:



And, finally, this is Zoomie Zoomie. I think it came from or at least was popularized by the TV show, Zoom. Now, it's a drinking game (like Big Booty once was mainly). Here's a clip. I wouldn't show this in school, of course, but the game could definitely be adapted for school. One variation is to replace names with actions.

Learning by Playing Singing Games

Today in elementary classroom methods (a course for pre-service elementary teachers) we played a bunch of singing games and then brain-stormed concepts or skills that students might develop simply by participating in the singing games (Che,Che,Cha; Down, Down, Baby; Little Sally Walker; Draw a Bucket of Water; I Let Her Go-Go). This is what we came up with:

Social Skills (leadership, communication, teamwork, people interaction, come out of their shells, self-confidence, being a good follower, cooperation, following instructions)

Math Concepts (counting, patterns, memorization, right and left, spatial direction--over under through, sequences, classification)

History Concepts (drawing a bucket of water--when did they do this, where do the songs originate, connections with heritage)

Spatial Reasoning (over, under, through, up, down, circle, moving in a circle, 180 degrees)

Large and fine motor skills (jumping, hopping, skipping, dancing, clapping, etc.)

Coordination (self, with others, timing)

Creativity (making a dance, making a motion, group work, creating your own short individual dance, matching movements to rhythm)

Musical Skills (beat, rhythm, patterns, vocalizing, singing, dynamics, articulation)

Seriously, that's a pretty great list and demonstrates how much is going on in the brain/body when children participate in singing games. Super valuable stuff! Think, also, of intrinsic motivation. But, that's another topic . . .

Little Sally Walker

In Comparative Methods of Elementary Music last night we came across some videos of children playing Little Sally Walker. Here they are:

Here's the older version that we did in class.

And the same (or similar version) with Bessie Jones

Regarding the first version which seems to be a sort of cheerleader version: We made up some hand signals to go with the melodic pattern in order to explore pitch. Clap hands above head on "so", hit the back of your hand with the other hand on "mi", and bump fists together on "do". The sequence of the first part is (with actions in bold).

Lit  tle  Sal  ly Walker, walkin' down the street. Didn't know what to do, so she   stopped in front of me.

so  so  mi  la  so  mi    so  so   mi    la    so      so      so       mi   la  so  mi  mi   so         fa  mi   re  do

Name Rondo

About five summers ago I attended Orff level 2 training at the University of Las Vegas where Kay Lehto taught us her delightful Name Rondo. I have been teaching that Name Rondo to prospective music specialists and elementary classroom teachers since (over 500 students in all!). Today when I taught it again, one of the students said, "I learned that in summer camp!" Cool! It is possible that one of my former students taught this at summer camp.

Singing Games

One approach to teaching elementary music is to focus on traditional singing games and dances at least in the earlier grades. In my experience, this approach is extremely effective in engaging children in joyful musicing. Singing games in elementary school have intrinsic motivation, meaning that the motivation to participate is contained within the game; students want to play the games over and over because of the game's inherent strategies and challenges. In fact, the teacher usually tires of the games before the students do. And, really, to help children develop the ability to sing songs with others it is essential that they sing the same songs over and over. If you try to have the students simply sit and sing the same song over and over, chances are they will become bored. Also, in the singing games are plenty of opportunities to develop interpersonal and communication skills. My recommendation for Kindergarten through at least third grade music is to have 80 to 90 percent of the time devoted to these singing games. Of course, this doesn't mean that the students simply play the games over and over, but includes activities in which the games are explored rhythmically and melodically and changed or extended. In this blog I discuss how specific singing games can be applied in this way in the elementary music classroom as well as integrated within the regular elementary classroom.

Drunken Sailor

This is an engaging dance to a tune with which most students will be familiar. Sometimes students ask me if this is appropriate for elementary school and I think it is. Drunkenness was a real problem amongst sailors in years past because a drunk sailor couldn't fulfill his work duties. So, drunk sailors were punished. For some students, a drunk parent or relative might pose equal or greater problems. I teach the students the basic dance and then have them make up new verses and new dance patterns.

A piano accompaniment is easy to add: D minor four counts, C major four counts, D minor four counts, C major two counts, D minor two counts. Left hand alternates D and A on D minor and C and G on C major--boom, boom, boom, boom. Right hand does the open fifths/fourth--d, a, d in D minor and c, g, c in C major--chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck. On the last "up she rises" take everything up stepwise (parallel motion) four eighth notes, then three quarter notes coming back to D "earlye in the morning."

The Button and the Key

I love this game! Make sure the participants are bowing their heads and closing their eyes; the-one-who-is-it shouldn't allow the peekers to guess. I also encourage the participants to call each other by name and ask a question (Cindy, do you have the button?) when guessing. It's polite and it gives those who are shy a script to follow. Anyway, there was one boy in my second grade elementary music class years ago who never would speak or sing in class. I often tried to get a sound out of him, but in vain. One day we were playing this game and he had the button. I wondered how he would respond when we all sang, "Who has the button?" We sang it, our heads bowed and eyes closed . . . and in that darkness the sweetest voice sang out clearly and on-pitch, "I have the button!" Yes, I love this game.

If you don't have a button or a key, any objects will do. Also, my classes usually sang this with a triplet/swing feel. I encouraged the university students to maintain a dotted eighth feel and they did pretty well even though a true Scotch Snap (sixteenth followed by dotted eighth) seems to be lost.

Four White Horses

This is a singing game that I learned from a wonderful book by the New England Dancing Masters (Down in the Valley: More Great Singing Games for Children, Schools, & Communities edited by Andy Davis, Peter Amidon, Mary Alice Amidon)--possibly my favorite collection of childrens' singing games. The clip is of my Elementary Music Methods course at Northwest Missouri State University playing the game. The third group is trying to figure out a way to play the game with more than four people. I also have the class make up new hand clapping (or other movement) patterns to go with the song. We tried this with the fourth graders at Horace Mann Elementary School (our on-campus lab school) and they went the entire 30 minutes making up new, creative ways to play the game and they played the game outside of class. That's the kind of successful activity I was referring to in my previous post!

The first thing that really catches my attention in this song is the repeated and syncopated pattern, "ay ay ay". So, when I teach this song to a group I usually have them first clap on the ay's while I sing the lyrics (Four white horses on a river, ay ay ay up tomorrow. Up tomorrow is a rainy day. Come on, join in our shadow play. Shadow play is a ripe banana, ay ay ay, up tomorrow. Up tomorrow is a rainy day.) This usually takes two times through to get them all. Then, we start adding actions for the various parts of the song starting with raising hands high above the head on up and then dropping the hands again . . . the rainy fingers for rainy day . . . make up shadow puppets for shadow play . . . etc. All in all, this gives about 10 to 12 repetitions of the song at which point the students may have internalized it well enough to move on. On a subsequent day, I re-introduce the song this time keeping the beat in various ways and eventually keeping the beat with everyone in a large circle keeping the beat as if they were playing the game starting with hands out in front as if they were clapping hands with the person across from them, then clapping, then clapping the hands of the people to each side, and then clapping hands again, etc. I find that it helps to do this as a large group first so that everyone builds off the success of each other. Then we divide into groups and try the game. Then, on other days, we make up new ways to play the game. It is important to let the students demonstrate in their groups either the original game or their new way. This gives them opportunities to sing in smaller groups without being self-conscious. It gives me a chance to assess how well they are matching pitch, etc. 

This game will kind of take on a life of it's own, but could be re-visited for skill development and creativity multiple times (10 or so) throughout a school year. Yes, fun and games!!! But, think about all of the musical, kinesthetic, creative, and interpersonal skills being developed in the process. 

Musicing

Whether you follow Christopher Small or David Elliott--musicking or musicing--the idea (in my mind) is the same. Music is an action . . . not an object. In this blog I'm interested specifically in musicing by and with children. I believe that children become musical by musicing (vs. learning musical concepts). Anyway, that's how my four children have developed their musicality--by singing, playing instruments, and dancing at home informally and for enjoyment. Yes, fun and games!!! Too often in school, children are subjected to a music curriculum devoid of meaningful and joyful musicing and, so, they really don't learn much or develop musically. Plus, they don't sing individual songs enough times to really know them. If you're a music teacher, how many of the songs that you sing in class could individual students sing at home (the entire song)? How many of the songs that you sing in class would students WANT to sing at home . . . over and over. The other day, our oldest daughter, Sophie, who is in first grade came home singing, "Wake up you sleepy head and go and find the cattle", etc . . . over and over. And, she played a game along with it . . . by herself. Her teacher had given her a special gift, a memorable song. Thank you, Sophie's music teacher!