Hot Cross Buns Origin

I love origin stories - where did something start, how did it start, how has it changed over time. Etymology is the study of the origins of words, and in music, this can be the history and development of words related to music. So, where does the classic song, Hot Cross Buns, really come from? Dr. Robin Giebelhausen is an assistant professor of music education at the University of Maryland specializing in general music. Robin recently posted about the origins of Hot Cross Buns. Take a moment to read - SO much cool information!

Go give her a follow on instagram - @robingiebes. And, just in case you are interested, here is a recipe for Hot Cross Buns. Enjoy!

See the Dragon Come

 See the Dragon Come has long been a favorite song and I finally got around to making two different sets of simple 2-beat building bricks for young students- one cartoon version, one traditional Chinese papercut version.  

Click here for the link and note this will force a copy. 

Enjoy!

One Dragon

 Most of you know my family is Chinese American- my daughter was born in China and adopted into our family when she was 18 months.  We celebrate Lunar New Year and love this special and festive time of year.  

This year is the year of the dragon!  My amazing friend, Melanie Kang, recently published her book, Lions, Lanterns, and Ribbons with Beatin' Path Publications.  It is a delightful book and makes Chinese and Mandarin-language songs accessible, playful, and purposeful.  I was honored to be her editor on the project.  Click on the picture to check out the book - available in print or as a download-able e-book!  

Melanie and I created this song based on the traditional Three Frogs children song.  

Click here to get the google slides and note this will force a copy! 

Enjoy!  

Lead Through That Sugar and Tea

 This is a favorite dance and I love using it to introduce syncopation!  There are (at least) 2 versions although I think Version 2 is probably more historically accurate.  The song and dance is a play party.  Here is more information about this song and more here from the University of Arkansas with a field recording from 1953.  The speech at the beginning of Version 1 is something I created with my students. 

Click here for the Google Slides. 

Chinese New Year Rabbit Song Story

 My sweet friend Melanie K. shared this with me and my students loved it. It is shared here with her permission.

Great Big House in New Orleans

 I love this song at this time of year as there is SO much that can be done with it- add an ostinato with pie flavors, perform the dance, talk about dance styles, create a new dance, student created B Section, and a game from the wonderful Mrsmainsmusicians on insta! 

Grab the full google slides here. Please note this will force a copy. 

For the game, I glued my pies to paper plates.  This helps them to slide easier as most inexpensive paper plates have a wax coating on them.  This also makes them round and pie shaped! 

Here are a few slides from the set.

Enjoy!

Agua de limón

 From September 15-October 15 Hispanic and Latinx/Latine Heritage Month is celebrated in the US.  The dates coincide with  national independence days in Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico.

I have a very sweet friend in Quito, Ecuador that I met through the pandemic. I say, "through" because I do not know if our paths would have crossed had it not been for the pandemic. During quarantine, my dear friend Thom Borden and I began the American version of International Sunday Sharing, already begun by our dear friends across the ocean in Finland, JaSeSoi, the Finnish Orff Association. We met on Sunday mornings via zoom and had hundreds of music teachers from around the world show up to sing, dance, and share. It was a beautiful thing, and I met and befriended such beautiful people, including MaCarmen from Quito.  Ecuador has always held a special place in my heart as our family had an exchange student during my freshman year of college. Anita became very special to us and she is my Ecuadorian sister, now living in Cincinnati. When I got married, she came from Ecuador with her sons to be at our wedding and she is a beloved member of our family. 

For more songs, books, and dances to celebrate Hispanic and Latinx/Latine Heritage Month check out this post.

Here is beautiful MaCarmen's song she shared, the song is from Colombia and is SO FUN! 

For the full slide deck, check out my Patreon.

Enjoy!

Chinese Rowing Song

The Chinese Folk Song Project is a collection of popular Chinese children's songs, nursery rhymes, games, and folk songs formatted for English speakers. It is intended to be a resource for English-speaking music teachers to teach their students Chinese songs in a culturally responsive way. This project is made possible with the support of the Confucius Institute in Edmonton, Canada.

The songs often have a video, have audio files with pronunciation guide and a recording of song being sung, as well as and is presented with Pinyin, English, and Chinese text as well as Western music notation. 

I follow the wonderful Moriah of holmessweetmusichome on instagram and she recently shared the song 

Yī Yā Yāo (Rowing Song).  This is a traditional Chinese nursery rhyme, the melody added by Xu Hong Shuai. Click here to see additional information on the Rowing Song from the Chinese Folk Song Project. 

Moriah paired the song with the book, How to Catch a Dragon by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Andy Elkerton. 

The rowing rhyme and song would be used to help rowers stay in rhythm to row a dragon boat across water. At the end of the song, we countdown and sing the numbers 9-1. In the book, the children are working together as a team to catch the dragon. Moriah sang the song and added a clapping game every few pages in the book to help encourage the children to work together to catch the dragon.

Use this song to work on home tone or low do, or decode this on barred instruments. Students could also create ostinati or their own clapping patterns to accompany the song.

Enjoy!