Mike Whitla’s Blog

Favourite music for children

First thing to remember is to expose you kids to all kinds of music, just make it good music.
Listen to Jazz, Classical, Rock and Roll, music from other cultures, Country, Blues, Funk, Soul, Traditional music or anything else you can think of. This will really help them open up their ears and minds (as well as yours).
The most important thing that makes music good for kids is that it is easy for them to sing along. If they can sing the songs, they will learn the songs. Then they will use the songs. The songs need to be uncomplicated, singable and in the range of children’s voices.
That being said here is a list of my favourite music intended for children. I hope all of you will leave some of your favourites in the comments.

Pete Seeger:
For me he is the grand-daddy of all children’s music performers. Pete is *the* source. His recordings are sooo great. I saw him performing at Massey Hall when I was a child and that evening has stayed with me my whole life.
Some of his better recordings for children are:
-Children’s Concert at Town Hall
-Abiyoyo and Other Story Songs for Children
-American Folk Songs for Children
-Animal Folk Songs for Children: Selected from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Animal Folk Songs for Children
-American Folk, Game and Activity Songs

His regular recordings for adults are also great for children. Recordings of his Carnegie Hall concerts are some of his best. They are also some of the best examples of audience participation ever recorded. It is just like being at the concert.
You can find all his recordings on the Smithsonian Folkways label

Trout Fishing in America:
These guys are amazing. They make music intended for kids and ones for adults though I think all their cds are great for kids or adults.
They wrote one of my all-time favourite counting songs called “18 Wheels on a Big Rig”. It features counting the wheels in all kinds of different ways including roman numerals.
I have only heard two of their cds “Infinity” and “Family Music Party”, both were great.
They have a wonderful sense of humour and play off of each other really well. The humour also is witty enough to work on many levels keeping both adults and kids entertained and engaged.
Their website

Ella Jenkins:
If Pete Seeger is the Grand-Daddy, Ella Jenkins is the Grand-Mamma of children’s music performers. Her choice of songs are actually useful to sing with children. They are not songs that are meant to be sung to children, as many complicated children’s songs are, but rather, the songs she uses are meant to be actively used and sung by children. Many of her recordings are her singing with children in a classroom setting. She has taught me so much.
She is also on Smithsonian.

The Beatles
Forget Mozart, have your kids listen to the Beatles. I know there have been studies done that shows classical music helps brain development but I would bet that the same would go for any other well structured music. I’m going to do a study on this theory as soon as I have the time and resources. I am sure Rock and Roll is just as good for the brain. Maybe better, as it is delivered in such an easily digestible package.
The Beatles’ music is just this; perfectly formed songs that you can benifit from listening to over and over. I am partial to the material from “Revolver” but I don’t see how you can go wrong with any of their music.
I pick the Beatles also because their music is so well rounded in its quality. The playing, singing, song writing, instrumentation, and arrangements are all of the highest standard.

Dan Zanes
Ok, everybody kept telling me to check out Dan Zanes. They said that I remind them of him and he was doing some similar things to me. So I was lucky that Jake (oldest son) got his new release “Catch that Train” for a present. It’s a great CD. He has a nice mix of old favourites from folk repertoire and some new songs he has written that sound like old favourites already.
One of the great things about his music is that it is delivered with honesty and integrity. No synths or silly kid voices. He is an interesting person and it comes through in his music.
It makes such a great difference when artists don’t perform down to kids.
His website.

Woody Gutherie
Woody Gutherie is better known for writing songs such as “This Land is Your Land” than he is for his singing voice. However, Woody has written many children’s classics such as: “Put your finger in the air”, “Clean-0″ and “Don’t you push me down”.
A great document of Woody’s earlier material is “Nursery Days”. Recorded in 1951 in a very simple manner with just him and his guitar, this recording is full of classics that he wrote for his own children. The songs are so perfect for children it is hard to believe he wrote them all. He had an incredible ability to write songs that upon first hearing would already become familiar. However, before we become to reverential let’s hear what he had to say:

“Please, please, please, don’t read nor sing my songs like no lesson book, like no text for today. But, let them be a little key to sort of unlock and let down all of your old bars. I’m not trying to bait nor trick the little fellers into tearing though all of their fun to my songs. I know the kids will blow their tops. The kids have taught me all I know of ever hope to know.Watch the kids. Do like they do. Act like they act. Yell like they yell. Dance the way you see them dance. Sing like they sing. Work and rest the way the kids do.”

Woody Gutherie, 1951.There is a great tribute album to woody called: “Daddy-O-Daddy: Rare Family Songs of Woody Gutherie” This has tons of different artists doing versions of some of Woody’s kid’s songs. In particular I dig Kim Wilson (founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds) doing a zydeco inspired version of “New Baby Train”. It rocks!!!

Mr. Boom:
This crazy guy from Scotland cracks me up. It is really hard to get his recording but really worth tracking them down. He has some of the silliest songs I have ever heard.
I ordered cds from his website but they never came. However, I think I will try again as I just gotta have it.

Sweet Honey in the Rock
This acapela singing group is fabulous. Though any of their recordings is appropiate for kids in particular their recording “All for Freedom” is amazing.

This is by no means a complete list of my suggestions just what has been really outstanding to me in the past couple of years. Please let me know what you guys are listening to in the comments.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 11:32 am and is filed under Childrens' Music, Music, Music Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.