I love using different songs with similar themes to compare and contrast specific musical elements- I find using songs with lyrics that are about the same topic makes it easier to draw young students' attention to the musical aspects of the songs. Over the last few weeks I've been sharing rain songs from around the world and lesson activities I use with them, and today I'm excited to share this song from South Africa!
This is a short little nursery rhyme in Xhosa- if you aren't familiar, you can hear it at the beginning of this video:
The only thing about the video above is the first line is spoken instead of sung. You can hear another great recording with the whole thing sung (and in harmony!) in this video. It's much slower than I do with kids- I think it works really well as an upbeat song- but they do some hand motions that would work well too:
I love that, like many of the other rain songs, it has the sound of the rain in the lyrics, and this one even has the sound of booming thunder as well! The lyrics are:
Imvula, imvula,
Chapha, chapha, chapha
Imanz' ilokwe yam.
Chapha, chapha, chapha
Imanz' ilokwe yam.
Gqum, gqum, kuyaduduma
Gqum, gqum, kuyaduduma
Imanz' ilokwe yam.
Imanz' ilokwe yam.
As with any time you're learning a song in a language you are unfamiliar, I strongly urge you to learn the words by listening to the recordings in the videos above, not by trying to read them! Here is the English translation of the words ("chapha" is the sound of rain, and "gqum" in the sound of thunder):
It's raining, it's raining,
Chapha, chapha, chapha
My dress is soaking wet
Chapha, chapha, chapha
My dress is soaking wet
Gqum, gqum, there is thunder
Gqum, gqum, there is thunder
My dress is soaking wet
My dress is soaking wet
I use this song for 2 main concepts with Kindergarten and 1st grade: steady beat and timbre. Steady beat is an easy one to practice with this song just by adding motions to do with the beat while singing the song. When I introduce the song, I tell students to copy my motions without singing along, and see if they can figure out what the song is about. Once they have heard the song a few times to practice the motions and they've figured out the meaning, it's much easier for them to learn the lyrics! Then we stomp around the room like we're splashing in puddles while we sing and do the hand motions with the song. So much fun!
This is also a great song to practice adding instrument sounds with specific words. I have students think about the timbre of different classroom instruments we have and pick out one instrument to play with "imvula, imvula", another to play with "chapha chapha chapha", another to play with "imanz' ilokwe yam", and another to play with "gqum, gqum, kuyaduduma". Then I have a few students play with each of those lines on the instruments they chose while the rest of the class sings.
The process of adding sounds to go with different lyrics in a song is helpful for a number of concepts. First and foremost it's a concrete way to introduce young students to the concept of timbre, and how to use it to communicate meaning in music. But it's also an excellent way to introduce young students to ensemble playing as they listen for their cue to play their part and try to match their playing with the singing, and practice playing different rhythms as well (I always have them play "with the rhythm of the words").
Once they can play their part at the correct time while others are singing, we take out the singing entirely and play the song with just the instruments. That adds another layer of internalizing the pulse and ensemble playing! If classes are struggling, I will silently mouth the words to help them keep track of where they are (which is, by the way, a great introduction to following a conductor).
My younger students love this song and they get so excited when they hear it come together with the instruments! It's surprisingly easy for them to learn the lyrics as well- I often hear families telling me their child came home singing it. If you've ever used this song in your music lessons I'd love to hear what else you did with the song, and if you have other rain songs from other cultures to share, I'd love to hear those as well! Please leave a comment to share your ideas so we can all learn from each other. I've also been sharing my favorite lesson ideas using rain songs from around the world in my previous posts: you can see my lessons for a song from Japan here, Ukraine here, Germany here, and Morocco here- they are all super fun and I use different ones with different grades so you can get the whole school involved!
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