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This is our last song for the year! Frère Jacques (Jacques means “John” in French, and “Frère” means “brother”) is a traditional children’s song. You can learn to sing it in either French or English.

Here’s the song sung in French: 

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines
Din, dan, don! Din, dan, don!

And in English:
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John? Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing, Morning bells are ringing,
Ding, ding, dong! Ding, ding, dong!

Here is the Solfa:

drmd drmd mfs mfs slsfmd slsfmd ds,d ds,d

Here is the rhythm notation:

You can print out the sheet music for the key of C major (do=C) here.

You can print out the sheet music for the key of D major (do-D) here.

You can learn to play it on the piano from this website.

Here is the sheet music for the resonator bells (with Solfa and without).

Once you have learned the notes to the song on your instrument, you can play along with a violin or cello recording at 40 bpm, 50 bpm, and 60 bpm. (I will hopefully get these made soon!!)

Once you have learned the notes of the song and can play along with the recording, then try playing along with it, beginning after the first two measures. This means you will start playing the beginning of your song when the recording is at mi-fa-sol (the first “Brother John”).

Here are the songs that you should listen to, write down first in Solfa and then in rhythm notation. The answers are here.

The EXAMPLE looks and sounds like this:

d            m          f           m

d     m     f    m   dm  fm d

Here are the rest to notate in Solfa and rhythm:

1.

2. 

3.

4.

We have started planting interval seeds. Last week we learned about seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths. We practiced fifths (d-s) all week.

This week we’re focusing on thirds (d-m and s-m). There are two kinds of thirds we’re going to plant in our brains: major thirds (d-m or m-d) and minor thirds (m-s or s-m).

And last of all we’re going to plant a triad seed in our brain. A triad is a major third (d-m) plus a minor third (m-s), which makes the fifth (d-s) that we learned last week. When the notes are stacked up on top of each other like a snowman (d-m-s), it’s a chord called a triad. We call the do of any triad the ROOT. (Great word for planting a triad in our brains, right? From seeds sprout roots! I love it!)

Here are some songs you know that will help you remember the sound of thirds in music:

Major third: “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or “Do a Deer” (the lines that say “a female deer”)

Minor third: “Rain, Rain” or “So Long, Farewell” (from “The Sound of Music”)

And here’s a song my daughter brought home to learn for her choir recently. In googling a video of it, I realized that this song has been sung by gospel choirs around the globe! . But the song originally was “a 1967 gospel music arrangement of an 18th-century hymn” (Wikipedia) that Edwin Hawkins wrote for his group, the Edwin Hawkins singers.

The first 4 notes are thirds–la to do is a minor third and do to mi is a major third. (“Oh, Happy Day”) (la-do-do-mi).

Here’s the same song sung by a boy in Brazil. At about 0:49, you’ll here some more familiar intervals you might recognize! What do you hear?

Here’s a song written just about major and minor thirds! It gets a little confusing until you understand that he’s singing about the middle note (mi) of the triad, and whether it’s minor or major. We’ll learn more about that another day!