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Discover how to transform traditional songs by adapting them to your style, theme, and local stories while keeping their essence. Learn where to find traditional songs and get creative with lyrics and melody. Be brave and make it your own!
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Taking a Traditional Song, and Making it Your Own
What are Traditional Songs? • Traditional songs are often stories, usually old, about people’s lives – love, work, death, loss, and war • The often have a chorus or at least something to join in with • They sometimes celebrate annual customs – Christmas, May Day, the Summer time • They are easy and accessible and are usually learnt by ear – the oral tradition • They can be flexible and easily adapted to suit your play / work / theme at school • The have plenty of repetition with simple structure and usually have a rhyming pattern • They tell of where you come from – your personal story, your history, your national culture
How to find a Traditional Song • Oral tradition – learn it from someone else! • Local Studies Library – Ballads Box • Song books • The Full English Digital Archive at EFDSS http://www.vwml.org/vwml-projects/vwml-the-full-english • Mudcat Café http://mudcat.org/ • You Tube • CD / Record / Tape recordings • Try to find a version with the melody – or make your own up!!
One example of a Traditional Song This is a song to start a Mummers’ Play off and introduces the characters: We are brave actors bold Never been on stage before And we will do our best And our best can do no more In comes the Derby Ram With horns up to the sky The Eagles built their nest You can hear the young ’uns cry https://youtu.be/LPHI8AXi-cE
You can change the song and make it your own…. You can: • Change the pitch to suit the your voice • Choose which characters should be in your version of the song • Include your local stories and personalities • Play with the feel of the song, so you feel comfortable singing it • Think of new lines with rhymes at the end of the second and fourth lines • Change the tune to suit your singing
Here are a few examples of new verses In comes Florence Nightingale She made the Hospital clean She always carried her lamp ‘Twas the brightest to be seen In comes old Rolls and Royce They are a clever pair They make our Derby proud On the land and in the air In comes our Mrs Marks She helps the students learn. She’ll teach the dragon a lesson And the mill he just won’t burn In comes St George the knight Our hero bold and brave He’ll give the dragon a fight But the Princess he will save What will your verse be about?.......