Mike Moxcey ©2005

Ideas for Shows

Songs about specific subject areas

American History: Yankee Doodle, Battle of New Orleans, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Tramp Tramp Tramp or even Passing Through. You can do protest songs such as Where Have All the Flowers Gone? or Blowing in the Wind or songs about the military life such as Gee Ma, I Want to Go Home

American Western Songs: Home on the Range, If I Had a Wagon, Buffalo Gals, Red River Valley, The Old Chisholm Trail, Clementine, Shenandoah (actually a sailing song but it's often done as Western tune), or Sweet Betsy from Pike. In this set, I'll often do She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain because it's one I do most times because it's such a fun song with all those movements.

You could also do Pioneer songs or Train songs or Sailing songs or lots of other groupings if you just wanted to do theme shows.

American Musical History: You could do with different instruments if you're so inclined or just use one instrument for all the songs. You can discuss the kinds of instruments used during particular eras, the influences of Irish tunes or English ballads or African drumming (which were banished by slave owners). You can start with Revolutionary war tunes (or start later) and follow the history of folk music or other styles or all styles together. For a gig at a family festival at an old folks home, I used just the banjo and started with Oh Susannah, then went on to Buffalo Gals, Ain't She Sweet (to emulate the Gay 90s), Cakewalk into Town (blues), Minor Swing (jazz), Ole Slewfoot (bluegrass), Johnny B. Goode (rock and roll) and ended with Me and Bobby McGee (modern folk music) talking just a little about each of the traditions as I introduced the songs.

Composers: Do songs by just one composer such as Stephen Foster, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan or one band such as the Beatles.

Work Songs (Row Your Boat) or Lullabies or Play Songs (Ring Around the Rosie) or Counting Songs (This Old Man)

Songs about theme days

Halloween and Christmas have quite a few songs you can do.

For Thanksgiving, you can do Bringing in the Sheaves and Over the River and Through the Woods. I also do She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain because people will come and visit and Go Tell Aunt Rhody because of the old gray goose.

President's Day: Do a bunch of Patriotic songs such as the instrumentals: Star Spangled Banner (), the Victory Rag (a Mother Maybelle Carter instrumental), Under the Double Eagle or Stars and Stripes Forever. For singing songs, do America the Beautiful or This Land is Your Land and maybe some of the historical songs. Passing Through has a bunch of verses about presidents.

Valentine's Day: There are lots of songs about love. You can also do the Beatle's Can't Buy Me Love as it's a good antidote to the spending spree. It's a good tune for Christmas, too.

Springtime: With the leaves coming out and grass coming up, you can do Crawdad Song (fishing), Joy to the World (by Three Dog Night), Here Comes the Sun and Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Musical Ideas

If you want to do a teaching about specific musical concepts, here are some ideas:

Rhythm (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, everyone can use rhythm sticks over their head, behind their backs...) You can do a parade where the instruments set the pace. Talk about the need for a conductor.

Speed (fast/slow play songs at different speeds and see which works best, speed up and slow down while doing the song, let the kids dance)

Volume (quiet/loud play songs soft or loud, do a loud lullaby and a quiet work song, get louder or quieter with each verse)

Musical Styles (country, blues, jazz)

Music in Daily Life (you can talk about Muzak in stores and commercials, is it happy or sad, record sitcom intros and ask if these are scary or funny). You can also do Work Songs or Lullabies or Play Songs or Counting Songs. You can discuss and demonstrate how music is used in worship and at sporting events (is there a difference?).

Writing Songs (change one word as in Happy Birthday or change a rhythm Happy Birthday cha cha cha or write new words to an existing song).

If you bring a friend or two, you can do stuff on:

Harmony or Backup vs. Lead or Rounds or Call and Response or
How a Band Sounds (Do Old MacDonald Had a Band)

Instruments

You can demonstrate different instruments and how they are played. Don't forget all those "toy" instruments laying around in drawers and closets such as ukulele, tambourine, harmonica, kazoo, jaw harp, slide whistle or nose flute. don't forget the spoons, sandblocks and musical saw. Often pre-school teachers will have triangles, bells, and maracas available.

You can discuss instruments from different musical families (Percussion, Wind, String) and how they sound different. You can also talk about how those families are broad classifications and musicologists are making new ones. The piano and hammered dulcimer have strings (String) but are hammered (Percussion). You can also try to have the children guess the instrument by its sound. They can guess the family or even the instrument itself.

You can just play one instrument different ways: Guitar strummed, fingerpicked and flatpicked or banjo strummed, frailed and fingerpicked or a guitar played country, blues, rock, flamenco.

The physics of sound. You can talk about how sound is caused by vibration and increased with amplification, how instruments are tuned, how big spaces make louder sounds than small ones, do harmonics on a string.

I'm sure you can think of many others, but these ideas should get you started. And several ideas can be combined (and probably should be) to make the presentation more informationally dense and interesting to the audience. I'll often combine a theme day with a musical concept so you get some knowledge imparted while hearing relevant songs. back to top

Sample Shows:: Physics of Sound; Musical Improvisation of Songs; Christmas Show with Musical Concepts; Intro to Stringed Instruments; Instruments and Music in Colorado: Then and Now

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