Planning to do a lot of playing by ear with my group of 19 violin/cello kids at school, they are all Grade 1 and 2 level.

They know Kodaly note-names and signs and we always sing loads...

Ideas for songs anyone?

(I especially like doh/re/mi/soh/la ones for this term, like Swing Low Sweet Chariot, but any welcome!)

"Amazing Grace" ?

"Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen" (at least MY version of it is pentatonic)

I'd lilke to teach the world to sing
Mull of Kintyre

Auld Lang Syne

Old McDonald had a farm
Mary had a little lamb
There's a hole in my bucket

I teach these on the piano by ear on the black notes, I'm sure there are loads more.

Have you got Lucinda Geoghegan's 'Singing Games and Rhymes for the Early Years' and for 'Middle Years'? Also her 'Going for Bronze' book? There is quite a lot of material in there.

There's a good little canon you may not know - d rr mm s / ls mr m- /d rr mm s / ls mr d- // Words are Come, follow, follow me /Listen to my song /Come, follow, follow me /Echoing along// It is in 4/4 and works beautifully in canon 2 beats apart - both for singing and playing.

There is also some good pentatonic material in '150 American Folk Songs to sing, read and play', 'Sail Away' and 'How Can I Keep from Singing?' (all these available through the BKA website), also the two volumes of the Pentatonic Song Book by Brian Brocklehurst.

Hope this helps.

If you type "pentatonic tunes" into Google, there are several web sites all suggesting different tunes.

THANKS SO MUCH for all the ideas folks.





Oh yes, I wasn't being lazy. I just wanted recommendations of of-the-top-of-my-head tunes, those are likely to be ones that the kids vaguely know already! But I will explore the sites too