Introduction

Here is the Crescendo Music Education Podcast – Episode 101.

This podcast is being recorded on the lands of the Turrbal people. I acknowledge them as the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to elder’s past, present and emerging. They were the first music makers on this land.

About ‘Read the Episode’: Sometimes, we would rather skim visually than listen to a podcast! That’s a great way to learn too!
The transcript of episode 101 of The Crescendo Music Education Podcast is below.

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Debbie O’Shea 

Welcome to the Crescendo Music Education Podcast Deb Brydon. Hello, Deb.

Deb Brydon 

Hi, thanks for the welcome.

Debbie O’Shea 

Well it’s almost a superfluous welcome. Because you know, you’re almost part of the furniture here. Now, if you do not know Deb, I’m not going to read out her bio again, I want you to go back and listen to episodes 21 and 22. And we talk then a lot about intentional collaboration, we get so much done together, when we’re on holidays look out. Because one plus one does equal a lot more than two. So go back, have a listen to episodes 21 and 22. If you haven’t also, Episode 72, where we talk about one of our major projects Together Sing with hundreds of thousands of singers, you know world domination of music education.

Deb Brydon 

Yes.

Debbie O’Shea 

So, listen to those episodes if you don’t know Deb, but you’re about to get to know her a lot better. Because this is the beginning of a series where we’re going to look at each of the year levels we teach, and just pick out a few important things within that year of instruction. Well, important to us anyway. We both work in I guess similar schools at the moment, before then although Deb’s school was in a lower socio economic area, we still had so much in common, philosophically and pedagogically. And our aims were so similar, that having someone to work with like that, in such a similar situation, the work that we do together can be just so time saving and empowering all at once. So we’re going to have a general look at each year level. And this is the Prep episode.

Deb Brydon 

I’m really excited about this, because we talk about a lot of things that this is the core of what we do, is what we’re doing each year level what we do in the classroom.

Debbie O’Shea 

My analogy that I use a lot is a tree. I mean, if we don’t have this stuff, nourishing the tree, you’re not gonna get the pretty flowers of the choir and band are you? Or you’re gonna get the pretty flowers for the kids that have the private lessons. And those kids that don’t have the parents that can afford to send them off to private lessons, or whose parents don’t see the power of music education? Well, they’re just literally going to miss out. So what we do is really, the foundation. And speaking of foundation, Prep.

Deb Brydon 

Perfect place to start.

Debbie O’Shea 

It is and I think seriously most music educators would agree that if your administrator said to you, you had to stop teaching one year level, and they chipped away at your work. The last year to go has to be the lowest, Prep. Zoltán Kodály said himself, that the most important years are the early ones. That’s where you’re laying the foundation, not only musically but relationally. Is that a word Deb?

Deb Brydon 

Thats good enough?

Debbie O’Shea 

Okay, relationally, behaviourally, and routinely. They’re all good “ly” words. But you guys know what I mean out there. This is where you set everything up. If you have a good Prep year and you’re at that school for some time, you’re going to reap the rewards. I mean I know I do, I’ve been at my school now for oh, this is my eighth year. So the students, apart from the new ones that come in, I have taught those students ever since Prep and I really believe most of my classroom success, if I’m allowed to say that, is because of what I did with them in Prep. Let’s talk about what we generally think about this level, even though I’ve already basically showed my hand haven’t I.

Deb Brydon 

Yeah you start.

Debbie O’Shea 

I’ll start. I’ll go then Deb over to you and I’ll stop talking. Because that’s a bit of a feat, stop Debbie O’Shea talking. Okay. Manners. All right, one of my main aims in Prep is to teach them manners. Now I’m not saying they all come ill mannered I do not mean that.

Manners

Deb Brydon 

No.

Debbie O’Shea 

Any parents out there do not be offended. Although some are, I might say. Even those who have the good parenting that reinforces manners, we all know that it needs constant reinforcing. You don’t teach it once, done and dusted. For example, if we are using egg maracas, one of my favourite instruments in Prep, because they’re not really noisy, they’re nice.  Hand out the egg maraca and they have to do three things, they have to say thank you, they have to use my name. So they actually have to say Thank you Mrs. O’Shea. And they have to look me in the eye. So they have to go Thank you Mrs. O’Shea looking at me, and then I release the egg to their hand. And it seems almost like it’s overkill. But do you know it really pays off.

And I actually insist that if they’re sharing instruments that they also thank the person that they’re sharing with, it’s my turn, and they say, Oh, thank you, Deb and they have to look them in the eye. And I just think if I do that continually, every week, then it’s going to help teach them manners. Okay, something else. Now this is one I got from Deb, as in the lady I’m talking to right now.  One of the little sayings that Deb used in her room, and I saw her do this was to go, Oh well, next time, with a big shrug very dramatically if they didn’t get a turn, because everybody out there listening knows, you are not going to do every rhyme or every song 25 times so every child can have a turn, there are some activities, you make sure everyone gets a turn. But mostly, there are kids that are going to miss out. Now, that’s part of what we have to teach them. Do you know what? It’s actually not always about you? Actually, I know some grown ups who haven’t learnt that.

Deb Brydon 

I think that’s a really good point, Debbie, that we have to be explicit about things like that. They don’t just get caught. You have to teach all those sorts of things and you have to be intentional about how you do that.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, exactly. Actually, thats so many of the things that we do in music, even pedagogically, like when you’re suddenly putting things on the staff, when you’re teaching staff notation. Do they understand the concept that lower down the staff is a lower note. Do they know notes can live on lines and spaces. So I love that what you just said that it’s not caught, it has to be taught. So I adapted Debs to Oh well, maybe next time. I put in the maybe because I have a couple of steel trap mind kids that will go Hey but you said next time and it’s next time and it’s my turn. So I’ve added that little maybe and they really love that. I teach them rest position. So rest position for instruments for Prep means legs crossed, hands in laps, because they are on the floor and the instrument is on the carpet in front of them not being touched. That is rest position and we learn rest position straightaway.

And I have fairly recently added have a noodle when they get their instrument. So thank you to Tanya LeJeune, who talked about having a noodle when the kids first get their instrument and they’re just dying to play it. I used to go, until fairly recently, get your instrument don’t play it, rest position. That’s part of what I’m teaching them. But they are so enthusiastic if I give them a little noodle, a little muck around. So we’re not playing them properly. We’re just respecting them. But we’re just having a shake. We’re seeing what it sounds like we’re having a tap if they have claves, whatever, have a little noodle and then I go rest position. They’ve got their wiggles out, rest position, looking at me ready to go. And just adding that tiny little bit. It’s more respectful for them and where they’re coming from. As much as I want to teach them all the things. I’ve got to let them be kids. So there’s some important general things about this level for me. Over to you Deb.

Deb Brydon 

Right, names are just super important at this age? Well, at any age, but there’s a lot of research, especially in trauma informed practice, about the importance of hearing your own name. We teach so many children, I teach 900 children a week, that is so many names. And so once again, I have to be intentional about learning them. So I’m intentional about putting in activities that use their names. And also, I guess, scaffolding for myself in ways to use their names. So one thing that I do is to sit them in roll order, it sounds very controlling. But this is what I do, in roll order in a circle.

Now, I’m lucky to have one of those beautiful circle mats at my school. So that makes it a bit easier. But I have done this for years way before I had a circle mat. And the circles are not always beautiful, but they get the general idea. So they sit in roll order around the circle, it’s hard for the first two weeks, or even three weeks or four weeks for some children to remember where their spot is, much easier now that I have the mat. But I can certainly remember, you have to call through that list and put them in their spots and it takes a bit of time. But gee, that pays off for the rest of the year.

They walk in and they sit in their spot, there’s no nonsense about who am I going to sit with or anything like that. But then it also helps me with their names. I almost pretend that I know their names, because I speak to them with my roll in front of me. And I look around and you know, if there’s one child that you’re trying to remember their name, you don’t remember them, but you remember the kid next to them, you can look it up on the roll and work that out. So yeah, so using a lot of names, right from the start. And having them set up like that right from the start I find is really useful.

Debbie talked about manners. And I guess part of that, she talked about eye contact. And I talk about that as well, especially when we’re doing things with partners, are you looking at your partner, are you giving them a smile, things like that. And positive touch. You know, once again the trauma informed practice research informs us how important it is to have positive touch. And so a lot of the little games that we play, drawing on their back or even just holding hands or a clapping game or something like that encourages all of that sort of stuff as well. I guess as well, when you’re planning starting with the familiar, both in the year and each lesson. So having something at the beginning of each lesson that they’re really familiar with, helps some of those kids that transition is difficult for. Also at the very beginning of the year when they know nothing. I tend to choose a couple of songs that I think are most likely that they will know.

Deb & Debbie’s Favourite Songs

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, what’s a couple of examples of those? Like I have them too.

Deb Brydon 

I always do Humpty Dumpty in the first lesson and I use my egg maracas and we actually act it out with a little egg maraca. Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, a lot of them tend to know. And I also always do Here is the Beehive in the first lesson, not necessarily they all know it, but they are all able to join in the actions straightaway. So it’s an immediate join in.

Debbie O’Shea 

I like that I usually stick in Twinkle Twinkle.

Deb Brydon 

Oh, yes, I do Twinkle as well. They’re my four main ones at the beginning of the year, the first lesson. And then I also have a parent sheet that I send home, I do one every term, but I do want after the very first lesson. And it’s just got pictures of those four songs on them. And the words, oh, I don’t know if I put the words on because this is a smaller sheet.

But just then some information for the parents about what we’re doing in music and this is the beginning of their exciting musical adventure with me and a little bit of information about early childhood music research and things like that. It’s only a half page on that first day. But I want to make that contact with the parents straightaway. And we all know that Prep parents are the most engaged with the school. And so I want to get involved in that right from the start.

Debbie O’Shea 

Deb, that is such a powerful advocacy tool. You’re getting in there right away and you’re saying Hello, welcome to the music room. Do you know that not only are we singing and playing and having fun we’re doing da, da, da, da, da and I know I’m right because here’s the research. Yes. I think that’s something. In fact, I’m going to do that next year. I do not do that and I think that is powerful. There you go. It’s been worth having this discussion just to do that.

Deb Brydon 

There’s always something to learn.

Debbie O’Shea 

I have a little mantra. Okay. I’m going to get on my soapbox for a minute. So anyone out there listening? This is a message to you. Are you ready? Because I know it doesn’t apply to Deb and me. Okay. If you think you know everything. Now be honest. If you’re listening and you think you know everything, I think you should seriously consider leaving the profession. So there we go. Tough love from Debbie, because you will never know everything. And honestly, I think that the worst teachers, and there’s not many, in fact the teachers I know they’re all wonderful of course, but they are the teachers that are not willing to constantly learn, hey just my opinion. But okay.

Now the next thing that I want to do in these episodes with Deb, is we’ll just generally talk about what we think of the level, then we’re gonna talk about the content that we cover. Now, I do have a download. In fact, let me type that in. I will put in the show notes, the link to my overview document, there we go. I will add that in, and it can show you conceptually what we do. But basically, in the whole of Prep this is all we really cover.

We work on singing, we work on the comparatives, high and low, fast/slow, soft/loud or higher/lower, faster/slower, softer/louder comparatives. We work a lot on beats. And then right towards the end of Prep we work on rhythmic pattern specifically, that is it for a whole year. Now. I’m not saying that Preps are not capable of learning the first rhythmic elements, but I just don’t see why you would push it down to Prep when 1) we don’t have to and 2) why would you not build those really firm foundations, as much repertoire as you can, as much experience of those four things.

Like learning anything you would not start teaching maths with the symbol, the addition symbol for example, you do lots of experience with joining things together, and counting how many all together, the richer that early experience, the better their understanding, building your castle on the rock instead of in the sand.

Deb Brydon 

And it’s like we’re saying, it takes more time, but the payoff is great later.

Debbie O’Shea 

I so agree. Now let’s look at repertoire. Now what we’re going to do in this series is we’re going to mention a lot of repertoire. Now I’m not, I’m sorry, putting all of this repertoire in the shownotes. Now, there’s a couple of reasons. Of course, part of me would love to do that for you guys who are listening to go, Oh, I’d like to learn that song that Deb mentioned and pop into the show notes. Well, I don’t think that’s the place for this.

For a start, we should really always go to a source, a reputable source. And I don’t wish to do all of the research to make sure I’m giving you the most accurate version. But I also believe as professionals, we should have a repository of our own repertoire. So it’s not really a cop out. But we will mention a whole lot of repertoire. And we will tell you some sources, but we’re really putting it over to you to chase down anything that you think is fabulous. Is that fair to say Deb?

Repertoire

Deb Brydon 

I think so? And then if you’ve done that and you get stuck, then contact us.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh, of course, of course. Thank you. All right. So there’s a couple of sources that you might like to know about. So as we’ve already mentioned Prep is all about repertoire, lots and lots and lots of it. So for Deb and for me I’m saying it’s my second best source, but probably soon will be my best source. Musical Beginnings, which has been published by Kodály Queensland. Deb was one of the drivers, she calls it one of her babies, along with her real babies. Musical Beginnings. I’m going to throw to you, Deb, since you were an original writer. And tell us what’s happening now and all about?

Deb Brydon 

Well, yeah, look, it is exciting. Musical beginnings has 50 songs and rhymes for early childhood. And it has videos of each song or rhyme being, not performed, but being used in a classroom.  We are doing a rewrite, we’re not re-recording the videos, but we’re adding so much, so much extra stuff to it, we’re adding worksheets, and we’re adding assessment ideas. We’re adding research and lots of information, lots of extra resources to go along with it. Hopefully, that’ll be released, oh look I want to say next year, or maybe late this year. But if you want to go and buy Musical Beginnings now, it will not be wasted, because there will be a discount price for buying the upgraded version. So you know, go buy it now. It’s fabulous.

Debbie O’Shea 

It is really good.

Deb Brydon 

I’m going to talk about the second one Debbie, because it’s Debbie’s resource called Music is for Everyone. And the second editions only available electronically. And I’m sure Debbie will put a link in the show notes. It’s $30 and it’s very similar. It’s got a lot of songs and rhymes. It’s got some beautiful recordings that go along with them. And of course, the sheet music and some activity ideas.

Debbie O’Shea 

And there is something a little bit exciting. And I’m going to say it out loud, because it’ll hold me to it. Oh, I have and it’s up here on my whiteboard. A course planned based around my book. And there are videos, sing along videos that are almost finished, that go with each one, done by an artist. The book is actually illustrated by an artist and the whole course. It’s not only based on the repertoire and the activities, but it talks about things like moving with your students, group management, links to literacy and numeracy, just a lot of stuff.

So I really, it’s going to be actually quite huge and it’s a little bit daunting, but I’m chipping away. So that’s coming in the future. So if you do get the Crescendo newsletter, my Saturday Gday, you will know when the new Musical Beginnings is out. And you will certainly know if, no not if, when, the course comes out. And the link to buy the book and the audio files will be in the show notes.

Deb Brydon 

Can I just mentione one more source which I think is fabulous is Music in Preschool by Katalin Forrai. So that’s another really amazing resource.

Debbie O’Shea 

It is, it is. And I used to use a lot. I mean, I guess I just don’t now because I have so many things in my repertoire. I used Merrily Merrily quite a bit from the Nursing Mothers Association, that’s Australian isn’t it? I’m pretty sure.

Deb Brydon 

Yeah.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yeah. So I’m sure there’s some other fabulous repertoire sources and even things like Holy Names Song Collection, which is online. There’ll be some things in there. Anyway, let’s talk some specific repertoire. I’m going to let Deb start.

Deb Brydon 

Okay, so first of all for singing, of course we sing a lot of songs, but it’s I think important to have a few that are the limited range that ever really going to help to hone children’s voices. So Star Light, Star Bright I use the ‘so mi’ version, and that’s gold that’s just beautiful and getting them to sing their own little wish at the end, you know is nice too. And it’s a beautiful song. Another one that I use quite regularly from very early on in Prep is Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around and it’s got that little ‘so mi’ motif at the beginning, but then it’s got a few other notes in there as well. But I also like it because it has actions as well and so gets them up and gets them moving.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, I like that of this so many for singing isn’t there? I just thought I’d add one that I’ve added relatively recently. Like for me that’s like I don’t know six years ago. I added No More Pie, which I believe is John Feierabend, I believe was my source.

Deb Brydon 

I think it’s traditional but he’s the one who’s made it very popular. Yeah.

Debbie O’Shea 

Okay. I like it. I don’t do it early Prep because it’s the (sings) “Oh, my, no more pie” and the whole silly story is the echo. So you start with the teacher sings it and the kids echo. Oh my then kids Oh my. And then once we know it quite well and we sort of know the silly story, I use a plastic microphone and when I hold the microphone up in the air, I like doing it in a circle. So once we’ve done it as a class, we go round, and I hold the plastic microphone not too close, especially not since COVID. Not too close.

And so when I hold it to that child, they sing the echo by themselves. And I go round, they know their turns coming up, because I’m going in a circle. And they really like that. I think it’s just so powerful for individuals singing. And then sometimes I stand in the middle. And when I hold the microphone up in the air, everyone echoes. So if they’re getting a little antsy, and they all need to sing, I can do that in the middle, and it takes no time to whiz around the circle, and every child has sung because I think as you’re going through Prep, we’re wanting them to be confident to sing themselves. That’s one of the things I really want them to be able to do. Okay, they’re not all going to match pitch perfectly. They’re just not, it’s not developmentally appropriate for every child to be able to match pitch by then, many will, especially if you’ve worked with them a lot. And I’m so lucky, I have them twice a week for half an hour and that makes a big difference.

Mostly here in Queensland music teachers will have a 30 minute a week lesson. So having them double the time is really powerful. The other thing I’ll add for individuals singing is puppets, that I do have a box of puppets that the kids can use, I have puppets that I don’t let the kids use too. So some of my beautiful characters in the music room. I don’t let kids play with them because their characters you know, they bail the Labrador and whatever. But these puppets all live in what I call puppet land. So when puppet land is there, they each get a puppet and they range from like oven mitts to puppets. I ended up with a whole lot of puppets that have big stuffed heads. I don’t find puppets that don’t have mouths, they’re not terribly useful for me. I prefer puppets with mouths as teaching tools. So a lot of the cheap puppets with stuffed heads, you know what I mean? Yeah, they’re in  puppet land. But when a child has a puppet, we can do call and response rhymes or songs and it’s the child and the puppet singing. And the puppet will often sing willingly if the child won’t, even though it’s obviously still the child. So I just think puppets can be quite powerful for singing. Alright, beat Deb. Again, almost everything what’s your favourite beat?

Deb Brydon 

I have two, one is My Father was a Butcher, which is a lovely rhyme. And it’s just got a strong beat, a lot of the rhymes are set a bit more dramatically and we have to be careful not to be encouraging the beat if we’re pausing and things like that. So My Father was a Butcher is one that I do with a strong beat and we play it on djembe drums or whatever and play the game. Another one is Tommy was a Soldier which is lovely song, where they stand in a circle, and they have to create an action on the beat that everyone copies so that once again, it’s got a nice strong beat, it’s clear and it’s about body movement on the beat rather than an instrument.

Debbie O’Shea 

I love those two as well. Absolutely. There are so many for me, I’m only going to just add one more, and it’s the rhyme 1,2,3,4 and I often use that as a little assessment tool. You can use it for like a quick check in formative type assessment, but it’s also really good as a summative assessment task. That is so clear the 1,2,3,4 Debbie at the kitchen door and the fact it starts with 1,2,3,4 which is one syllable words, which means they’re crotchet and ta’s, which means it’s so easy to find the beat because the beat and the rhythm are the same.

They’re actually counting in that they’re actually saying one, two, they’re counting the hits. So it does all of those things, it sets them up for their best chance of success for keeping the beat. So I think that’s, to me, the most powerful one if you’re looking to see for some for an assessment task, but it’s also fun. But again, it’s coming back to what you said about names. Yeah. Prep love having their name in the rhyme. Oh, that’s one from Musical Beginnings too.

Deb Brydon 

Yes, actually, all three of those are in Musical Beginnings. Moving on to rhythm, which as you said, we don’t really do until the end of the year. But beginning by talking about the rhythm or the syllables of things like their names. In Queensland schools anyway, children in Prep use the word syllable.

So I think that’s useful to us to use the word syllable. Sometimes if we talk about sounds, how many sounds in your name, which is certainly what I used to do, that can be confusing for them, because they talk about sounds and they sound out each letter in the word. So it might D E B for Deb rather than Deb which is the syllable. So I think it’s good to use that word the syllable. And we clap how many syllables in our name, and we do things like put one paddle pop stick down if we’ve got one syllable, or go and stand in the one syllable hoop if you’re a one syllable person, find someone else has got the same number of syllables as you, but then also have other objects as well doing syllables of other objects.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, I like doing toys, we can go to the galaxy of toys, or whatever you’ve got, maybe even like the little shop toys, that we’ve collected little toys, or soft toys. And you can set up hoops with 1,2,3,4. And then they put the toy in the hoop that belongs. And also I’ve just got some little laminated frogs. And they can jump, because I think adding that physical so they do froggy jumps on their name, like “DEB-BIE”.

\So how many frogs do you need, and they’ll get two frogs and they put the frogs and they jump beside the frogs on the floor. So they’re physically jumping. So they’re jumping on the lily pad, just a little hint, don’t get them to jump on a laminated something because it will slip on the carpet, we jump beside it. So the little frogs are pretty cool. And actually, I wonder if that’s a download, ooh.

Deb Brydon 

You’ve lost track.

Debbie O’Shea 

Seriously, I have.

Deb Brydon 

There’s so many.

Debbie O’Shea 

There are and for those of you who don’t know, it’s actually since 2003, I have had an online membership site. So that is 21 years of stuff since I’ve been putting it up. So I have lost track. But I’m going to write myself a note to get the froggies up there. So you can download them.

Deb Brydon 

Well while you do that, I’ll move on and talk about comparatives.

Debbie O’Shea 

Thank you.

Deb Brydon 

So look, you can do this with any song or rhyme really, but a few I think lead them lend themselves to it particularly. Two Old Tortoises is one that I love to do with a high voice and a low voice. And it’s a rhyme not a song. And so I think that rhymes can maybe be a bit more versatile in that because we can change the high, the pitch of our voice without changing the melody of the song. So Two Old Tortoises and I have two tortoise puppets and one’s got a high voice and one’s got a low voice and the children imitate that as well and they find it very funny.

And I think high and low is something that’s really important to talk about because they equate that often with loud and soft and so we need to give lots of examples of high and low pitch rather than high and low volume and then make sure we don’t use those words high and low when we’re talking about volume. Turn the volume up higher, we need to use the words make it louder. The other one that I love this is Tommy Thumbs Up, once again I vary my voice, Tommy Thumbs Uuuuup. Tommy Thumbs Doooown and using the high and low for that. And faster and slower as well.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh do you? For Tommy Thumbs?

Deb Brydon 

Yeah, Tommy Thumbs dancing all around the town (fast).

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh, I’ll have to reconsider. It’s funny how you can, we’ve only just discovered this like within the last week. I do Tommy Thumbs, it’s one of my favourites. I actually use it for steady beat. And I do very rhythmically not as a dramatic one, “Tommy Tumbs up, Tommy Thumbs down, Tommy Thumbs dancing all around the town.” And in fact we even have turns to have Tommy Thumbs dancing on drums to keep the beat. So I’ve never done it dramatically. I do exactly the same rhyme exactly the same words, for beat. So there you go.

Deb Brydon 

I think that it’s not important that we have differences in that way. As long as within your classroom you keep it consistent.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, exactly.

Deb Brydon 

I wouldn’t use it in both ways in the classroom.

Debbie O’Shea 

Exactly and I think the other thing that we need to be careful of as music educators is, now in this case, we’re talking about exactly the same rhyme. It’s just the way we’re interpreting it. But I think we also have to be careful about versions that we use. And don’t think “Oh look I vaguely remember that I’ll do it like this, it’s good enough.” I do think we have to do our due diligence, and get our repertoire from reputable sources, and not just something you made up or it’s been so passed down. Like it’s a tricky area because folk music by its nature does change. But all I’m saying is just do the best you can to do the most authentic version. That’s all I’m saying.

I think that’s part of your job as a music educator. For comparatives I’ll just add the rhyme Slowly, Slowly for fast and slow with the snail going up the garden rail.  And the quickly, quickly, very quickly. It’s such a clear, slow and fast. So that’s my favourite for fast and slow. Now other favourites.

Deb Brydon 

Oh, gee, this is hard. I just love Prep. The few that I love, I love Hop and Stop (sings) “All the little rabbits sleeping”. It’s just beautiful. Now quiet a wide range. And the children don’t always sing it. In fact, I’d say more often they don’t. Because they’re so busy being little rabbits lying down and sleeping, and then jumping up and doing their hopping. But it’s such a beautiful little song. It’s in Musical Beginnings if you’re looking for that. I do ask them to sing sometimes. But really they’re internalising that even if they’re not singing out loud. So that’s one of my favourites.

I’ve already talked about Here is the Beehive. Another one of my favourites is a recording called Pata Pata, and it’s by Christoph Maubach and it’s on his Stepback Sally CD. But it’s also available as a digital download. You can just download that one song, I think it’s on Bandcamp, but if you google it Christoph Maubach you will find it. It’s great, because it’s just a very simple recording. It’s in very clear AB sections. And I use it for playing instruments. And we play in one section and we rest in the other section and pass the instrument on to the next person. Look, I just love it, or we move to one section and we freeze in the other section. It’s just a great recording. And the final thing I’m going to share is another song that I found This is my Singing Voice. And it’s just a little echo one and it just talks about explicitly what different voices sound like, this is my whisper voice, this is my shouting voice and this is my singing voice. And I find that really useful to be explicit about that and for them to get the feeling of what does it feel like to be using those different voices?

Debbie O’Shea 

I do. I love it. I love them so much. Hop and stop again is a relatively new one for me and I love it. And if you ever want to feel omnipotent, omnipotent, what’s the word all powerful God-like? Yeah, okay, this is it. I’ve got a Prep class doesn’t matter what they’re doing. All I have to do is go (sings) “All the little” like I only get to there and the entire class is onto the floor, like as if it’s a bomb scare, like, they curl up really quickly, like fast, they’re just suddenly curled up in a ball on the floor waiting.

Deb Brydon 

And they are still and quiet

Debbie O’Shea 

I’ve had visitors in my room when I’ve done that, and I just start singing that, like sometimes it’s two notes, the clever ones get it one note, because it’s the way I’m singing it too. They just look at you and go. What magic is this?

Deb Brydon 

Yes.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh, can I share a story that happened the other day, I did Good Night Sleep Tight with my Year One’s and I hadn’t done it before. Sometimes I do it in Prep. I hadn’t done it in Prep. I did it in Year One. And I was sitting there and we’d just finished an activity. And I was sitting on my little stool at the front, and they were sitting on the floor. So they had no idea what was happening. All I did literally was go (sings) “good night, sleep tight” now no preamble, no talking. They had no idea. It was a new song. After two notes, they started looking at each other. And then the whole class fall on the floor.

Deb Brydon 

Oh, funny.

Debbie O’Shea 

Like and it was just a new song.

Deb Brydon 

They got the emotion of it.

Debbie O’Shea 

From “Hop and Stop” they got the emotion, they got the vibe and thought, “Oh, Mrs. O’Shea wants us to go to sleep.” How magic was that.

Deb Brydon 

Oh, that’s funny.

Debbie O’Shea 

See music teachers we’re superheroes Deb. We are, we are. Okay. I’m going to just add two favourites, My Lovely Lycra. It’s quite crazy. You need your big piece of stretchy fabric. And that one’s a tricky one to find. I learnt it from Paula Melville-Clark I believe. So it’s… (sings) “My lovely lycra can stretch and relax” and they sit around and they stretch it and they shake it. And the lizard plays trampoline, oh, my goodness, they just love it. But the whole class sitting around a stretchy bit of fabric is pretty amazing.

And I quite like the rhyme, “Here is a Box, Put on the Lid, I wonder whatever inside is hid, why it’s a cat, without any doubt, open the lid and let it come out”. And every time you open the lid. So if you’re just listening, you make like a cup with one hand and put your flat hand on the top is the lid. Now I love this for lots of reasons. But one of them is for leading up to conducting because they have to watch your hand. They copy, they’ve got their own box, but they can only open the lid and make the noise when your lid is open. When your lid goes down. They have to put their lid down and be quiet. And I think following that, like that, to me is a logical progression to conducting. That’s an illustration of the preparation that we do in Prep for above levels. I love all of that stuff we’ve talked about. It’s my favourite level, Deb.

Deb Brydon 

Yeah. I think we’re going to say that about a few levels to be honest but I do love Prep. And I hope that everyone’s found something, either something new or something that they’ve been reminded of, to pack in their Prep weeks.

Debbie O’Shea 

I hope so too Deb and I look forward to chatting to you about Grade One too.

Deb Brydon 

Thanks see you.

Debbie O’Shea 

Bye Deb.

Sign-Off

Thank you for joining me for this podcast. Don’t forget, you’ll find the show notes and transcript and all sorts of information on crescendo.com.au. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast or found it valuable, you might like to rate it on your podcast player and leave a review. I’d really appreciate it if you did. All I can be as the best version of me. All you can do is be the best you. Until next time, bye.

Just for Laughs

As we know, laughter relieves stress, don’t lose sight of the funny side of life.
In Australia I think we should say that our websites use biscuits, not cookies. Just a Debbie opinion.

Links Mentioned in the Episode:

️ Episode 101: Year Level Snapshots: A Birds-Eye View of Prep with Deb and Debbie

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