Email the Author
You can use this page to email Helen Winter about The Easiest Songbook. 58 Simple Songs without Musical Notes for Boomwhackers®, Bells, Chimes, Pipes.
About the Book
We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents.
Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable.
This book includes 58 familiar and easy-to-play folk songs and melodies.
Each song here is written with color circles and letter notes inside. All songs have been simplified and transposed for one octave. This learning sheet music will be most useful for the instrument with the color scheme below:
C = red, D = orange, E = yellow, F = green, G = light blue, A = blue, B = violet, C8 = red.
Since this book is aimed at the absolute beginner without any knowledge of reading music, we do not use here the classical music staff and do not show the note duration. You can experiment with the duration on your own.
If you have very little music experience, playing by note can be difficult. It is easier to follow color-coded circles with note letters. By simply following the color circles, you will sound like an experienced musician.
We use here the Boomwhackers® color system commonly used by American music teachers.
We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents. Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable.
Our simple method using circles as an aid allows the flexibility that existed in traditional ways of teaching.
We recommend finding each of these songs on YouTube and listening to the rhythm before beginning to play. Our sheet music is only a guide. The most important thing is to listen and repeat what is heard in the recordings.
About the Author
I'm an early child development therapist and an early development kids center owner. Additionally, I have authored a comprehensive program that utilizes music, activities, and games to promote early childhood development. I develop teaching materials for early solfeggio designed for various musical instruments, with a specific focus on children or beginner adults. Furthermore, I am keenly interested in exploring folk and ethnic music.