Songs for a Child’s Heart

Simple Songs for a Child’s Heart

I sit with a small circle of five and six-year-old singers, about to begin the next song.

“Did you know there is a scientific word for two of our songs?” asked five-year-old singer Avery.

 “Oh? And what is that?” I asked.

“Cycles. We’re singing songs about cycles. I like those kinds of songs.”

“Why do you like them?”  

“Because they are easy to learn. And I can sing them all day if I want to,” said Avery. “They just go around and around”

“I like cycle songs too, but for a different reason,” said six-year-old Jamie.

“Why do you like them?” I asked

“And around and around,” said Avery

Ignoring Avery, Jamie continued “I like them because they remind me that things change, but good things just keep coming back”

And around and around said, Avery.

Beven looked at Avery sideways “Like spinning”

“Yes!” said Avery.

We sing and dance a Lorraine Hammond song.

This is my trunk I’m a tall, tall, tree; in the springtime, the blossoms grow on me, they open.
This is my trunk…In the summer. the breezes blow through me, I bend.
This is my trunk …in the fall, the apples grow on me, they drop.
This is my trunk --- in the winter, the snowflakes fall on me, brrr!

We sing a song about the life cycle of a flower, also with motions

“I think they are circle songs,” said Kai.

“Tell me more,” I asked.

“The plants dance in a circle like we do, and like days do.” Explained Kai. “There’s always going to be another day tomorrow. Things that are hard at night are sometimes easy in the morning.”

I smiled. “I find that too.”

Choosing Songs for Singers

Choosing music for any community of singers is a big responsibility. Being a collaborative director, when I choose or write specific songs, I listen carefully to requests, especially genre or subject ones. I’m mindful that the songs we sing become a mental soundtrack for a season. I choose pieces that inspire musical growth, but equally consider singers’ hearts. With the youngest singers, there is even more to consider. Songs learned early in life come back for the rest of people’s lives. For better or worse, I still remember most of the commercial jingles of my childhood. Who could forget “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!” If you are too young for that be grateful. And don’t get me started on the terrible theology imprinted on my brain in song. Even people who have major memory issues in old age, almost always respond to the songs of their youth and young childhood.

The Most Satisfying Composition

I composed the song I’m most satisfied with for young children. Though I love playing with interesting harmonies, complex rhythms, and poetic lyrics, this piece has arguably had the most influence. Of course, it has motions.
Using the pointer and tallest fingers of both hands tap three times:

Calm my mind (On the forehead)
Rest my eyes (On the cheekbones beneath the eyes)
Loosen my jaw (On the jaw joint (TMJ) in front of the ears)
Still my mouth(Above the top lip below the nose)
Still my mouth
Feel my heart, (Over the heart on the chest, continuing to tap there)
Beating inside. I can rest. I can be still. I am at peace in my body.

It’s a simple song with complex results. Years ago, an out-of-control teen burst into the Dorchester kindergarten room I had just left and began to shout and make threats. The fast-thinking teacher bodily pushed them out and locked the door behind her. As she talked the youth down, I observed a couple of children on the rug begin silently doing the tapping sequence together. Others saw them and joined until all the children in the room sat in the circle doing this on their own. Of course, I went back in and sang the song with them again as soon as it was safe to do so.

The song works because of practice; because singers want it to work. They associate it with warm, peaceful feelings. Each time they sing the song, they program their brains to calm down with it and prepare themselves for stressful situations. Even when they run the music silently in their heads and do the tapping it works. Teen singers who learned the song as young children have told me they merely think the song, tapping only their wrists to focus before exams. It’s a simple song, satisfying and effective.

Is there a song, or a memory from your childhood that brings you peace? A lullaby perhaps? An old spiritual song? Maybe even the theme song from a cartoon or television show watched repeatedly in the arms of a loving adult?

Avery has begun filling any long pause or awkward place in class with “and around and around” and everyone laughs along.
I ought to write a song about it.