Songs for English Girl Guides

Graham Greenbag

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A friend of mine helps out at her local Girl Guide group and group singing can be part of some of their events. I played her a couple of tunes on my Uke and sang along to them. I’m not much of a player and my singing is poor but the joy of ‘Uke’ seemed to mask all that and soon we were opening up an alternative way of making music. Her plan is that whilst learning (the Uke) she would play for pleasure and then, once she’s mastered the basics, also offer to play to the girls/young ladies at Guides - the plan will probably take a couple of years to work through but that’s fine.

Girl Guides are at that in between age (ten to thirteen inclusive) when they stop being ‘children’ and become ‘adolescents’, some act much older than their age. I think that Girl Guides are called Girl Scouts in some other countries. The singing wouldn’t typically be around ‘camp fires’ but rather during a weekly evening meeting or at a whole day (indoor) event.

Please would someone suggest some suitable songs, complete with Uke Chords, for English Girl Guides.

Edit. I specified ‘English’ because not everything from other countries translates well to what happens here in the U.K., and yes I should have said British rather than English.
 
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Hi Graham...

Sorry...I had forgotten to respond to your DM. Are “Girl Guides” sort of like “Scouts”? (We recently removed “Boy” from “Boy Scouts” here in the USA...not looking for commentary on that, but as an Eagle Scout myself, I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about all of it).

Are you looking for songs that teach values? Songs that have a specific purpose? Songs that they just want to sing? Is there an existing repertoire of “Girl Guide” songs?

Once I know the general category of songs that you are looking for, I can make some suggestions. And then we can look for existing song sheets.
 
Hi Graham...

Sorry...I had forgotten to respond to your DM. Are “Girl Guides” sort of like “Scouts”? (We recently removed “Boy” from “Boy Scouts” here in the USA...not looking for commentary on that, but as an Eagle Scout myself, I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about all of it).

Are you looking for songs that teach values? Songs that have a specific purpose? Songs that they just want to sing? Is there an existing repertoire of “Girl Guide” songs?

Once I know the general category of songs that you are looking for, I can make some suggestions. And then we can look for existing song sheets.

Hi Choirguy, thank you for responding and supporting my thread.

Girl Guides are almost like Boy Scouts only they are for Girls only. When (Boy) Scouts was started it was very quickly realised that the Girls were missing out so something similar (Girl Guides) was created for them (https://www.wagggs.org/en/about-us/our-history/). In some countries (like the USA) what we known here (UK) as Girl Guides are instead called Girl Scouts.

As a further clarification let’s get the non PC stuff out of the way. As a parent who has had children in both organisations I think that they are wonderful groups. I’m not keen on girls being in (boy) Scouts myself as I think that they (Guides and Scouts) provide breathing and growing space from the other gender, but in mid and late teens (so the follow-on groups like Venture Scouts) it seems helpful to take a more relaxed view on that. Rather than our (UK) Scouts now accepting some girls I’d prefer that Guides ensured that they catered so well for ‘Tom Boys’ that they had no wish to join (boy) Scouts - but if a girl is in an area where there is no Guide/Brownie/Rainbow pack and can cope with the boys then pragmatism is a wonderful thing. I guess each person holds their own view on that topic and any anyway it’s not central to this thread.

I don’t know what the agenda is for the Guides in terms of the songs that they sing but found a website giving some titles and words here: https://www.ggsw.org.uk/girlguiding/guides/guide-song-book/ . As far as I know the content is typical of what goes on through the rest of the Country and I hope it allows you to judge things - to me it looks like things that they (traditionally) enjoy and things intended to inspire.

Asking for help here was perhaps a bit of a long shot in that only a small percentage of the of the active members will have any overlap with Girl Guides (Girl Scouts in some other countries) or even girls in that age range.
 
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It looks like most of those songs are campfire songs...many places to find them, but this seems to be a good resource...

http://www.songdrops.com/childrens-songs-chords-and-lyrics

Many thanks for that, it’s a great start and I now have a direction to point my friend in (once she can play well enough to accompany the girls). Additional ideas from any and everyone will be appreciated.

Some of the song’s reader comments in the above website mention Guitar chords and others Ukulele chords, at the moment I’m assuming that it just doesn’t matter whether a Uke or Guitar is used (that the chords will be as effective, at making music, on either instrument). Virtually all of the chords that I spotted looked familiar enough though a small percentage will need to be looked up, I’ll get my chord book out and and supply my friend with one or a chord chart.

Thanks again, much appreciated, and as above any and all additional suggestions will be appreciated.
 
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Graham,
I've only just seen this thread, sorry.
My wife's been a UK Guide Leader all her life.
Next time I see her I'll ask her for you.
 
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