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Songs to click and play one note at a time

Songs for Birthdays – Click here for Copyright notes on the "the birthday song"

Words to the songs on this page:

Brother John

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping,
Brother John, Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing,
Ding, ding, dong! Ding, ding, dong!

Bruder Jakob (German)

Bruder Jakob, Bruder Jakob,
Schläfst du noch? Schläfst du noch?
Höhrst do nicht die Glocke? Höhrst do nicht die Glocke?
Bim, bam, bim! Bim, bam, bim!

Frère Jacques (French)

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines. Sonnez les matines.
Din, din, don. Din, din, don.

Martinillo (Spanish)

Martinillo, martinillo
¿Donde esta, donde esta?
Toca la campana, toca la campana.
Din, don , dan, din, don, dan.

Bro J. in solfege

Do re mi do, do re mi do
Mi fa sol, mi fa sol
Sol la sol fa mi do, sol la sol fa mi do
Do sol do, do sol do.

The Birthday Song

This song is copyrighted, or at least someone would like to think it is, but here's a trick: it's almost an exact copy of a turn-of-the-century song called "Good Morning to You." The only difference in the notes is that you need two notes to play "happy" and only one to play "good."

The Good Morning song is NOT copywrited, and the words are below, and all you have to do is substitute happy birthday for good morning:

Good morning to you, good morning to you.
Good morning dear children, good morning to you.

Good Morning in solfege:

sol la sol do ti, sol la sol re do
sol sol mi do ti la, fa mi do re do.

Traditional
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The duke of York
(AKA The Grand Old Duke of York)

Oh the noble duke of York, he had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
and he marched them down again.

And when you're up, your'e up,
and when you're down, you're down,
And when you're only halfway up, you're neither up nor down.

The Duke in solfege

Mi re do sol mi sol do, do re re re re re,
Re mi mi mi mi mi fa fa fa fa,
Fa fa mi mi re re do.

Traditional.

The Noble duke of York exists with so many variations of the tune, it's hard to guess which is the original. One way that kids love to do it is to stand and sit on the words "up" and "down," and squat at "halfway up." Then the game is to sing it faster and faster to increase the challenge of keeping up with both the words and the actions.

Notes on the historical background of this song are at http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Grand-old-Duke-of-York

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Five in the Bed
The original song is really Ten in the Bed.

There were five in the bed, and the little one said,
Roll over! Roll over!
So they all rolled over, and one fell out.

There were four in the bed.... [etc.]

•Five in the Bed in solfege•

Sol sol do do do do, sol sol do do do do,
Sol mi do! Sol mi do!
Sol sol do do do do, sol do do do.

Email Karen Zethmayr grandma@grandmaskite.com • Teaching Resume • Design Resume