Welcome to Episode 19 of the Doremi Teach podcast. Today I'm going to teach you a song that's useful for experiencing soft singing, piano, since it's a lullaby.

Good Night

Good night, sleep tight

Friends will come tomorrow night

Hello there and welcome to the Doremi Teach podcast. If you’re interested in teaching musical skills and literacy through singing then this is the place for you. My name is Helen Russell from Doremi Connect and I’m going to help you achieve your goals using the Kodály approach.

Benefits of Good Night

• This song is really useful for experiencing soft singing, piano since it’s a lullaby
• The rhythm is simple, ta and titi or crotchets and quavers, so it’s a great song for working on rhythm later
• The toneset is mi–so with a range of a Minor 3rd so ideal for little voices and for reluctant teachers
• Its so-mi motif is the easiest for beginner singers to pitch accurately because it is used naturally in playgrounds all over the world, ner-ner ner-ner
• It’s ideal for teaching the piano as we can play on any two black keys a skip apart
• It’s easy to transfer to tuned percussion – just find a minor third like D with F, E with G, A with C or B with D
• Later iterations of the game involve rocking the baby to experience the beat kinaesthetically

The Game

All the students lie on the floor for a pretend sleep while the teacher softly sings the song.

After each repetition, say “It’s morning, wake up!” and the students must stand up and have a stretch. Then “Bedtime, back to sleep” and they lie down while you sing again. They find this very amusing!

In the future, to practise beat, you can rock the baby to the beat. No baby wants to be rocked to the rhythm if they are supposed to be going to sleep!

Later, while rocking, you could clap the rhythm. For some students this is an easier microstep towards performing beat and rhythm simultaneously.

When you sing, make sure you sing softly, piano, so you don’t wake the baby. Remember that soft singing is not the same as whispering.

Make sure you let us know what you think of the episode and do share it with your colleagues if you’ve found it helpful

For more free resources and webinars on teaching music through singing make sure you visit doremiconnect.co.uk and sign up to our daily emails.

I hope you have a lovely week, filled with music and singing.

You’ve been listening to the Doremi Teach podcast with Helen Russell from Doremi Connect. Helping you achieve your music teaching goals with the Kodály approach.

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