We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents.
Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable.
This songbook includes 65 familiar and easy-to-play songs and melodies.
Most songs have been simplified and transposed for one octave.
So the songbook is suitable even for a diatonic 8-note kalimba in C-scale, and 10- or 17-note as well.
Since this book is aimed at the absolute beginner without any knowledge of
reading music, we do not use here the classical music staff and do not
show the note duration. You can experiment with the duration on your own.
We recommend finding each of these songs on YouTube and listening
to the rhythm before beginning to play. Our sheet music is only a guide.
The most important thing is to listen and repeat the recordings.
If you are a beginner, playing by note can be difficult.
It is easier to follow number-coded circles in this songbook. By simply following
the numbers, you will sound like an experienced musician.
Contents:
Alphabet Song
A Hunting We Will Go
A Sailor Went to Sea
Acka Backa
Are You Sleeping
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Baby Bumble Bee
Bell Horses
Bim Bum Biddy
Bobby Shafto
Brahms Lullaby
Chumbara
Cobbler, Mend My Shoe
Cock-a-Doodle Doo
Cotton Eyed Joe
Ding Dong DiggiDiggiDong
Do You Know the Muffin Man?
Doggie Doggie
Doctor Foster
Fiddle-De-Dee
Five Little Ducks
Five Little Monkeys
Frog in the Meadow
Good Night, Ladies
Happy Birthday
Hot Cross Buns
Humpty Dumpty
I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas
I Love Little Kitty
It's Raining
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Jack and Jill
Jingle Bells
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
Kookaburra
La Cucaracha
Little Jack Horner
London Bridge
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Miss Mary Mack
My Hat
Ninety-Nine Bottles
Ode to Joy
Oh Susannah
Oh We Can Play on the Big Bass Drum
Old Bald Eagle
Old Blue
Old McDonald
Old Mother Hubbard
One, Two, Three, Four
Rain, Rain, Go Away
Ring Around the Rosie
Row Row Your Boat
Rub-a-Dub-Dub
See-Saw Margery Daw
Ten in the Bed
The Beep and the Pup
The Big Sheep
The Mulberry Bush
The Wheels on the Bus
This Old Man
Tinga Layo
To Market, to Market
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
We Wish You a Merry Christmas