Singing Musical Round Songs with Children

Do you have images of the Von Trapp children running through your head singing "Doe a Deer," when you think of singing musical rounds with young children? If the thought doesn't scare you, and you'd actually like to teach your children more musical rounds, then here are some tips on how to incorporate them into your daily life.

Understanding Round Songs

Simply put, a round is a musical piece where two or more people sing exactly the same melody, but each person begins at a different time. This allows different parts of the melody to be sung but still harmonize together beautifully. This makes it is easy to teach young children round songs as they only need to learn one line of melody. For example, one child in a group would sing, "Row, row row your boat," and the next child would begin as the first one continued onto "gently down the stream."

Common Round Songs

Children experience singing round songs not only growing up singing with family, but singing at school or around a campfire at summer camp. Some of the more common musical round songs include silly songs like Row Row Row Your Boat, 3 Blind Mice, Frere Jacques, and Farmer in the Dell. Other more serious but still popular round songs to teach to children include Make New Friends, White Coral Bells, and I Love the Flowers. While at camp, children learn other types of round songs, such as Bottle of Pop or The More We Get Together.

Benefits of Using Round Songs

Singing rounds gives young children the skills they need to learn how to sing harmony, which simply means singing their own part, when someone else is singing a different part. As children learn to sing an actual rhyme or song, it becomes simpler for them to remember the melody and even learn longer round songs in the future.