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Send email to oran@oranetkin.com
Washington Market School Music Classes 2007-2008 (This Year - Just Updated!)
WMS Duane St. Music Class 2007-2008:
Every song or game that we learn in music class has a purpose beyond entertainment. Some are designed to help internalize a musical concept, such as high vs. low or chord vs. melody. Others are designed to introduce the children to rhythmic and melodic structures that are not common in most western children's songs. In order to expose the children to as wide a musical vocabulary as possible, we will sing songs from all over the world and from various genres, including jazz, African, Brazilian, Cuban, bluegrass, blues and classical music. Many of the songs that we sing have been recorded by the great masters of the genre to which they belong. This will allow the child to listen to the great artists that have defined their genres. Being able to actively listen to these masters at such a young age is perhaps the best way to internalize that ever illusive element that makes great music great.
Please check back regularly, as I will continue to add new songs to this site as we learn new music in class. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your child, please feel free to send me an email at oran@oranetkin.com Some Songs We Are Singing In Music Class: Lyrics:
So Danco Samba Sakura Papiyon Vole (Creole Spelling) Mom and Dad Waltz High Low Yekeke Watermelon Man Up The Stairs Scale Song Check Back Soon... More Songs Will Be Added Shortly
This page is dedicated to my students and their families.
I currently teach at the Washington Market School, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and conduct weekly group classes for 2-7 year olds organized by parents at private homes throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Please click on one of the links below and then scroll down to find out more about what your child is learning, or browse the other pages of this website to find out more about my performance and recording activities.
Washington Market School Music Classes 2006-2007 (Last Year)
Private Group Classes 2006-2007
Click here to find out more information about private group classes for ages 2-7 offered during the school year or over the summer.
Classes now forming for the 2008 winter/spring semester. Email Oran to register or for more information.
Click on the name of the song to hear a recording. Scroll down to see lyrics.
Getz/Gilberto
This is a song by the great Brazilian composer and pioneer of the Bossa Nova style of music, Antonio Carlos Jobim (also known as Ton Jobim). This classic 1963 recording called "Getz/Gilberto" features Stan Getz, one of the greatest American jazz saxophonists, in collaboration with Brazilian singers Joao and Astrud Gilberto and Jobim on piano. This recording, which also popularized Jobim's "Girl from Impanema", propelled the new Bossa Nova style to immense international popularity.
This song offers the children an opportunity to internalize the subtleties of these great master musicians. It also uses Samba rhythms, which we have been learning about in class.
Sakura
- (3:11)
Sakura: A Musical Celebration of the Cherry Blossoms (Smithsonian Folkways)
This is a traditional song from Japan celebrating Sakura (the Cherry Blossoms). I put new words to this ancient melody, and we have body motions that follow the contour of the melody. We start up high with the sakura blooming on the trees. As the melody falls, the petals fall to the ground, then when the melody rises, the wind blows the petals around and when the melody goes down again, the petals fall back down to the ground. This helps the children internalize the shape of the melody they are singing. This song also uses a very beautiful and rare scale that is not used much in western music. Being able to sing in such scales and not being stuck in the major scale that almost all western children songs are written in is very important in the development of an open and flexible musical vocabulary for the children.
Papiyon Vole (Creole)
- (2:49)
Chantal Frosleziat and Paul Mindy: A L'Ombre Du Flamboyant
This is a song from Haiti about a butterfly (Papiyon in Creole, or Papillon in French). Over the past year, I had the honor of touring and recording with some excellent Haitian musicians including Wyclef Jean, Djakout Mizik and Tabou Kombo. When we performed in Haiti, I learned this song from the Haitian musicians. It is also found in Martinique and Guadaloupe.
Mom and Dad Waltz
- (3:03)
Willie Nelson- To Lefty From Willile
This is a song by the great Nashville songwriter Lefty Frizzell. We have been learning about the waltz, a musical form which has three beats, and the children have learned to play the waltz pattern on the drums. Willie Nelson's subtle phrasing adds great beauty to this sweet and simple melody.
High Low
- (2:49)
Oran Etkin - vocals, clarinet, saxophone; Paul Olenick - Trombone; Ron Caswell - Tuba; Jason Marsalis - drums
This is a song I wrote to help teach the concept of high and low. It uses two notes, C (do) and E (mi). We have learned to play it using these two notes on the xylophone. I have added a new verse in which we singing the names of the notes in solfege (mi-do, that's how you play high low; mi-do anywhere you go; mi-do, that's how you play high low; mi-do mi-do, mi-do-do-do).
This recording comes from an informal recording session I had last year with my jazz quartet featuring Jason Marsalis. We have since gone into the studio to record a full CD for children including this song, Watermelon Man, Eh La Bas and many others. The CD should be released in the coming year. Email me for more information.
Yekeke (partial clip)
- (0:47)
Oran Etkin - clarinet; Abdoulaye Diabate - vocals; Balla Kouyate - balafon; Meckane Kouyate - clabash; Joe Sanders - bass
This is a traditional song from Guinea, West Africa. It was popularized by Guinean kora player and singer, Mory Kante, whose recording of Yekeke was the first African recording to sell over a million copies in Europe. We play this song on the djembe (a West African drum). The kids pretend to be the djembe-fola (master djembe player) and when I sing "Ah Djembe Fola" (the part played on this recording by the clarinet), they answer "Yekeke, fola, yekeke", hitting the drum 3 times to say "ye-ke-ke" and pointing to themselves when saying "fola". On this recording, Abdoulaye sings a traditional lyric: "yekeke, nimo, yekeke" instead of "yekeke, fola, yekeke". The children are familiar with this lyric as well.
This recording comes from my upcoming album, Kelenia, on which I am joined by traditional West African Griot musicians as well as members of herbie hancock's, chick corea's and john scofiel's bands and a string quartet. This CD is now completed, and I am currently looking into a few different options for record labels before releasing it. Send me an email if you would like to be updated about that. More information is also available on the Group Kelenia page of this website.
Watermelon Man (partial clip)
- (2:10)
Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off (Blue Note Records 1962)
Herbie Hancock is great jazz pianist known, among other things, for his longtime association with Miles Davis. I have put words and hand motions to this classic Herbie Hancock composition (see lyrics below). In addition to being a fun song and activity, this also allows the children to gain familiarity with the blues form (this song is composed in an extended blues form), sing in a different scale and rhythm than is used in most children's music, and also allows them to listen to Herbie Hancock and the other great musicians on this album and internalize the subtleties of their playing in a fun way.
This recording comes from my Herbie Hancock's debut album, Takin' Off. He recorded it again in 1973 on an album called Head Hunters. One of his most popular compositions, Watermelon Man was covered by many great musicians ranging from Miles Davis to the J.B.s (James Brown's band) and Sly And The Family Stone. An Afro-Cuban version of this song by Mongo Santamaria recorded in 1962 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Send me an email if you would like more information on this and other recordings of this song that would be good for children.
Up The Stairs
- (1:18)
Oran Etkin - clarinet; Bob Sabin - bass
This is an instrumental version of the song we sing as we go up the stairs to music class. The melody goes up the scale as we sing "come on up the stairs". The melody is also in a minor key which is common in western music, but strangely uncommon in children's music.
Scale Song (Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands)
- (0:51)
Oran Etkin - saxophone; Bob Sabin - bass
This is another song I use to help internalize the concept of high and low. It starts with high notes and goes down the scale and then back up. It has body motions that start up high, go down to the ground and then back up, following the contour of the melody (see lyrics below). This recording is an instrumental version, but you can sing along to it.
So danco samba, so danco samba
Vai vai vai vai vai
So danco samba, so danco samba
Vai
Sakura, sakura
Cherry blossoms all over town
Falling, falling peacefully down
In the wind they blow all around
When it stops, they fall to the ground
Sakura, sakura
Spring is here, winter is done
Papiyon Vole
Se vole nou ka vole
Papiyon Vole
Se vole nou ka vole
I walk for miles, cry or smile
For my Mama and Daddy
I love them, I want them to know
(repeat)
In my heart, joy tears start because I'm happy
And I sing every day for Ma and Pappy, and I say...
(go back to first section)
High low, that's the way we go
High low, walking through the snow
High low, that's the way we go
High low high low high low low low
Mi Do, that's how you play high low
Mi Do, anywhere you go
Mi Do, that's how you play high low
Mi Do, Mi Do, Mi Do Do Do
Ah djembe fola
Yekeke, fola, yekeke
or:
Ah nimo li la
Yekeke, nimmo, yekeke
Hey... tell me who's that man? (I don't know)
Hey... tell me who's that man? (I don't know)
Is he selling apples and bananas?... NO!
Is he selling slippers and pajamas?... NO!
Tell me what's his name?
Watermelon man!
Come on up the stairs to music, stairs to music, stairs to music
Come on up the stairs to music, come on up the stairs
Clap clap clap your hands, wave them in the air, stomp your feet and turn around, sit down if you care
Stand up on your knees, Stand up on your feet, reach your hands up to the sky where the birds sing tweet tweet