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Songs Anyone Can Sing!

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This combines my "textbooks" prepared over 25 years of teaching "Songs for Non-singers"

It's published: see Songs Anyone Can Sing at Createspace!

I learned how to teach non-singers to sing from Anabel Graetz in the 1970s. She made up the name of the course and at the time was teaching it to packed houses in adult education centers surrounding Boston and Cambridge. She was spread too thin - the course was too popular! - so she made me a deal: she would teach me how to teach it if I would take over some of her satellite locations.

I shadowed Anabel for a while and then I was on my own. I believe I actually taught MYSELF how to sing well by teaching this class. But that's a story for another lens.

I've found you many youtube videos of the songs in the book. Ready to sing along?

Songs in the book

I chose these songs, with much trial and error, as being songs with easy tunes to learn. The ones at the beginning of the book have the fewest notes in them (ie not too high not too low.) They are mainly folk songs and sea chanteys. Here, in alphabetical order:

A Housewife's Lament 30
Away with Rum!
Be Gone, Dull Care!
Black Jack Davy
Blow Ye Winds
Calm before the storm
Chickalaleeo
Cluck Old Hen
Clyde Water
Down in the Valley to Pray
Fillimiooreeooreeay
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Give Me the Roses
Haul Away, Joe!
I am a Poor and a Rambling Boy
I Never Will Marry
It Takes a Worried Man
Jamaica Farewell
John Kanaka
Keeper of the Eddystone Light
Little Brown Jug
My Hound-Dog
Pack Up Your Sorrows
Paddle Your Own Canoe
Put it on the Ground
Rattlesnake
Rye Whiskey
Santy Anna
Shallow Brown
Shut de Door
Single Girl
The Beaver Dam Road
The Furry Day Carol
The Knickerbocker Line
The Man Who Has Plenty
The State of Arkansas
The Streets of Laredo
The Telegraph Wire
The Water is Wide
Tobacco Union
When the Saints Go Marching In
Why Do you Bob Your Hair, Girls?

A link to all my songbooks

Click on a book to see it at Amazon's Createspace - they ship VERY quickly!


The TJC Hanukah Songbook More information


The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook More information


The Three Log Night Songbook: uncommon music for the holiday season (Christmas and Hanukkah) More information


Let Memory Keep Us All (the Solstice Assembly songbook) More information


The Laduvane Songbook (women's slavic a cappella (Balkan) music More information


Songs Anyone Can Sing (You're here.)

Below, some of the songs in the book

You can hunt for them yourself too, but be careful: if the singer doesn't sing in a good key for you, it's not a good practicing video.

Hear a very young Johnny Cash and June Carter sing "It Takes A Worried Man to Sing a Worried Song"

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"Shut de door"

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"Away with Rum"

"It's the song of the Salvation Army"

Actually it's the song of the Temperance Union and it gives me the giggles.
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Blow Ye Winds in the Morning

There are lots of nicer versions of this song on YouTube, but they are pitched too high for most people to sing along with. This version is sung in a good range but it's kind of quiet.
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One of the most beautiful versions of "Clyde Water" I've ever heard.

This is a good key for a woman with a low voice. It will be too low for most men.
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Shallow Brown

A sad sea shantey. This is a good key for many people.
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The Water is Wide (Waly, Waly)

Another one in a good key for a woman with a lowish voice.
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John Kanaka

This is a good range for most men's voices and for higher women's voices. This version makes me nostalgic for my non-singing classes - this is sort of how my students sounded when they got warmed up!
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Follow the drinking gourd - Jefferson Airplane

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What on earth is the picture on this song collection?

I had a feeling you were going to ask. Long before the days of the internet I came across a poster which was the basis for this illustration. I wrote at the time:

The illustration is from a 1896 French poster for the opera Le papa de Francine. In this opera "the heroine searches for her father and finds him, at the same time winning Bob, her English teacher, who has taught her only the most important phrases, like I love you and Kiss me."

Le papa de francine by Alfred Choubrac, 1896 

Some of my other music lenses

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Do you consider yourself tone-deaf? Do you sing anyway?

  • Nibbled Feb 27, 2011 @ 9:44 am | delete
    I can't sing, but sometimes will in the shower or car when no one else can hear! Your top video is no longer available. Fun lens. thanks!
  • OhMe Jul 15, 2010 @ 6:38 am | delete
    I have zero musical talent and consider myself to be tone-deaf but I love to sing and know the words to more songs than most. The only problem is that most people don't like to hear me sing. lol I have a very talented friend who worked with me one time and she told me that I actually could sing but I could not follow. As long as I was the one leading, I was ok. At least, that is what she told me but I am not so sure.
  • Janiece Nov 26, 2009 @ 6:31 am | delete
    I sing all the time at home and in the car... :-)
  • Ramkitten Nov 24, 2009 @ 11:55 pm | delete
    If the key is just right for me, I'm not half bad (if I do say so myself). I really like that "Water is Wide" song (never had heard it before now), which is the perfect song for me to sing along to. American Idol, here I come! :)
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ChapelHillFiddler

Musician in Chapel Hill with two bands: Mappamundi, a world music - klezmer - swing band, and the Pratie Heads, a Celtic - British Isles - early music... more »

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