Frog Round

Frog Round

What a queer bird the frog are:
When he sit he stand (almost);
When he walk he fly (almost);
When he talk he cry (almost);
He ain't got no sense (hardly);
He ain't got no tail, either (hardly);
He sit on what he ain't got (hardly).

Watch it here

Get it for your video iPod (Go to vimeo to download the movie)

MIDI (right-click here to download MIDI file)

Score (left-click here to see score with piano playback in Scorch; right-click here to download PDF version)

Listening exercises

Download the score, right-click here to download a continuously-loopable audio-only version, play the audio version continuously (by enabling "loop" or "repeat" or "continuous" in your player), listen to it (on headphones is the best) at a high enough level to hear all the voices easily, and direct your attention in ways like this:

for each part, get so that you can hear it continuously (hearing it as separate from the rest)

for each phrase in the piece (a phrase can be any unit you choose, two measures long or less), learn to hear it in whichever part has it at the time (so that your attention is bouncing around)

learn to direct your attention to any of the four parts at will, so that you can change your attention whenever you choose

get so that you can focus your attention on any two parts at the same time (so that you hear those parts as separate from the rest)

if you know how to recognize intervals, hear the progression of intervals between any two parts

For each of these, doing it without the score and with this score are separate skills. When you're doing it with the score:

when you're following two parts, learn to shift your visual focus back and forth

tap with a finger (or, if you're following two parts, two fingers) on the notes as they happen

Other variations include

sing along with parts that are in your range

sing along with any part (moving it into your range as necessary)

play along on the piano, guitar, whatever (as many voices as you can handle)

tap the rhythm of one part while singing another part

Another exercise is to sing the same two-measure phrase over and over (e.g. "what a queer bird the frog are, what a queer bird, the frog are ...) with your eyes closed, and on each repetition, listen for which part you're singing along with, and focus on it.

                  Credits  (in order of appearance)

                     Poem  Unknown (I thought it was by Ogden Nash, but it looks like I was wrong)
                    Music  Unknown (if you know who wrote the round or the poem, please let me know)
      Taught me the round  Deena Grossman
           Score Software  Sibelius 
           Voice Software  VocalWriter (by Kathleen Elersich @ Kaelabs)
Told me about VocalWriter  Carl Lumma 
Provided Sorenson Squeeze  Alan La Pointe
                      PDF  Adobe