Tag Archives: ostinato

91/100 The Christmas Nativity – The Big Day

And it all went splendidly! It felt like a proper, informal, on-the-edge of chaos performance, and all the more enchanting for that. It had its “moments”, but whispered instructions from strategically placed staff at crucial moments prevented any major crises. … Continue reading

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September 22nd – Animal fair for Ukulele

This one uses chord C (sounds a bit odd once or twice, but just ignore it!) You can sing/pluck the last Mon-key, mon-key as an ostinato part.

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Issue 144: Once a man fell in a well

This is one of the first songs I learned to teach when I started teaching the Wider Opportunities Programme. Many of my colleagues will now scroll straight onto the next post as they have been teaching this to a dozen … Continue reading

Posted in Clarinets, Class Teaching, Keyboards, Piano, Recorders, Songs, Theory, Ukulele | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

New Year Issue 117: Monkey Business

Lying in bed before the alarm went off this morning, I came up with this little body/vocal percussion number Monkey Business 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + Big Ba- boon (stamp) (click) Chimp-  -an zee (click)  (click) tan … Continue reading

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Issue 90: Kodaly and Orff Music Teacher’s blog

I keep an eye on the Kodaly and Orff  Music Teacher’s blog, written by Suzanne Gonsalves, at http://herdingcatsgeorge.blogspot.co.uk/ because it has proved to be s source of good ideas and interesting posts. The last two posts caught my eye; one is on … Continue reading

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Issue 81: Rainy Day Song

I found a great little song on this blog: http://www.meyersmusicactivities.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/this-elementary-choral-arrangements-for.html   Don’t just stop here – go to the blog and discover the dance/game, sung ostinato, and composition activities in the original post. Brilliant! Guess what I’m going to be doing all … Continue reading

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Issue 56: Drones, Rounds, and Ostinati

I used the welcome song Funmje Alafia, Ashe, Ashe, to teach the difference between the three types of accompaniment in double quick time this week. (The words mean something along the lines of “Give me happiness, Amen, amen) Having taught … Continue reading

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Issue 29: Funmje Alafia

This is traditional Yoruba song. You can find many versions of it on YouTube, and it is also in the OUP song book “Young Voiceworks” by Jo McNally. It is a welcome song, about offering happiness. (The Voiceworks series of songbooks from OUP … Continue reading

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