In preparation:Book/CD 5Rhymes $25 portrait formated
These songs are about growing up, dealing with siblings, teachers, learning to tie shoes, relating gently to pets, etc.
They are written with the Da-di teaching method built-in. For example, the melody of the song, "I've Got a Puppy"-
"5I've 3got a 5Pup-3py,
5He's a 3wiggle wag,
5I've 3got a 5Pup-3py,
3Wig-gle wig-gle 1wag."
can later be sung by rote with Da-di, with the teacher showing the Da's and the dee's with hand signs. Still later they can be written on the board, with the children reading the notes, "Da" for the white (half) notes, and "di" for the black (quarter) notes:
"5Da 3di-di 5Da 3di,
5Da 5Da 3di-di di,
5Da 3di-di 5Da 3di,
3di-di di-di 1Da."
Prepare the children further for reading music by doing some rote preparation from the first book they will read out of in first grade, "Stand, Middle, Sit".
Teacher's book 1, "Stand, Middle, Sit" 112 pages
The pitches of 5-3-1, usually C-A-F in F major, are sung and read as "5Stand, 3middle, 1sit". The 6th scale degree is added later, making phrases like "5Stand 6upper 5stand 3middle 1sit". The songs are to be sung with Da-di as well for preparing the children for reading the notes visually later. With Da-di, white and black notes are both rhythmically and tonally organized. White half and whole notes are always used on scale degrees 5 and 1; black quarter notes are always used on scale degrees 3 and 6. White notes are "Da" and black notes are "di". Thus '5Stand 6upper 5stand 3middle 1sit' is also sung '5Da 6di-di 5Da 3di-di 1Da'. The 'Da-dee' syllables and pitch organization can also be represented with two hand signs moved up and down. 'Da' notes are represented with the hand straight-horizontal, while 'dee' notes are represented with the hand bent down from the arm. This shows that every 'Da' note can have a minor third below it as 'dee' with only the hand moving while the arm stays at the same height relative to the higher 'Da' note of the minor third grouping. It is of course a great deal easier to demonstrate this than it is to explain it with words.
First grade
Ground Floor Investment
Composer's Resume
Catalog in Progress
Why Da-di songs will work
