Songs to play for infants

andrew

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Okay, so my kid is 12 weeks old, and for some strange reason loves it when I play and sing to him simple songs. Sadly, there are only three in my current repertoire, so I'm soliciting suggestions from the masses.

The requirements are: song has to be simple, so the kid will enjoy listening to it, but not inane, so the father will enjoy playing it. Song must have lyrics because the kid isn't interested in instrumentals. Chord progression and strum patterns must be simple so I can actually play and sing at the same time, and also learn it quickly.

Right now, I play him The Cowboy Song from Joe Versus the Volcano, Tiny Bubbles, and Furry Old Lobster by Jonathan Coulton.

What else do you think I should be attempting?
 
learn Iz's version of Somewhere over the rainbow/what a wonderful world.

get low g strings for your uke.

and sing very softly

your child will be asleep in minutes lol


try like a full song too.

like banana pancakes or something

lol

he will have your attention but yet the music is soft so you could get him to calm down if you wanted too.
 
Okay, so my kid is 12 weeks old, and for some strange reason loves it when I play and sing to him simple songs. Sadly, there are only three in my current repertoire, so I'm soliciting suggestions from the masses.

The requirements are: song has to be simple, so the kid will enjoy listening to it, but not inane, so the father will enjoy playing it. Song must have lyrics because the kid isn't interested in instrumentals. Chord progression and strum patterns must be simple so I can actually play and sing at the same time, and also learn it quickly.

Right now, I play him The Cowboy Song from Joe Versus the Volcano, Tiny Bubbles, and Furry Old Lobster by Jonathan Coulton.

What else do you think I should be attempting?

that is soooo awesome. i cant even sit my daughter down long enough to get to the lyrics of a song that i want to sing to her. hahahha. the last time she actually listened to daddy play a song was over a year ago. i hope your kid grows up enjoying your songs for him... and maybe even start making some of his own.

anyway, here are some suggestions:

goodnight sweetheart (song in three men and a baby)
theme to winnie the poo (if youre man enough to do it haha)
 
My son loves to hear me play too! He is 6 months old now. I play him Baby Balooga. And The Wheels on the Bus. Raffi is great for songs to play them... He has a nice big and easy group of songs...
 
oh man! awesome thread! my son is 2 weeks old now, and I'm just starting to see if he likes music or not. He seems to not mind slack key so much, but I dunno too much baby songs eiddah!
 
i also think you should learn some jack johnson songs, they aren't hard and have an amazingly calm melody. if you have a daughter, even "brown eyed girl" is a good song to learn.
 
wow.. my son is 9 weeks old. Last year must have been a good year.:D

So far he likes (at least I think he likes...):

Brahm's Lullaby - from the Goodnight Hawaiian Moon
John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk - Live @ Carnegie Hall
The Best of Raymond Scott (cartoon music)
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Bach - Anything
Beatles - Revolver/Greatest Hits


So far he doesn't seem to appreciate:
Debussy
Frank Zappa - (I am sure he will come around one day)
Elliot Yamin


He is kind of ambivalent about everything else I tried to play for him.

Of course my experiments weren't exactly scientific, so I am probably completely wrong and he does love Elliot Yamin after all.

--------

as far as stuff i play for him myself, it varies from day to day. It does seem as though like he likes the sound of ukulele more than acoustic guitar though.
 
So far he doesn't seem to appreciate:
Debussy
Frank Zappa - (I am sure he will come around one day)
Elliot Yamin


He is kind of ambivalent about everything else I tried to play for him.

Of course my experiments weren't exactly scientific, so I am probably completely wrong and he does love Elliot Yamin after all.

well you know how finicky those american idol judges are. your son might be the next simon cowell.:D
 
well you know how finicky those american idol judges are. your son might be the next simon cowell.:D

I don't know whether to laugh or be mad. (if he starts talking with a british accent, i will hold you personally accountable :p)
 
haha. don't be too mad when he gets paid millions of dollars for being grumpy on tv. not a bad gig at all. imagine all the ukes he can buy for dear old dad!
 
Not sure if this fits here since I guess you want to play live... But in case you have more Uke players (or other musicians), try this (I recorded it yesterday with 6 ukuleles):
http://www.box.net/shared/8nfpa19ck8
 
I have a two week old and a two and a half year old.

The two week old seems to like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (the Fingerstyle version from Mark Nelson's book, 'Learn to Play Fingerstyle Solos for the Ukulele'). She also likes White Sandy Beach (do a search on You Tube for White Sandy Ukulele).

My two year old is currently a fan of Laurie Berkner, so I bought the Laurie Berkner songbook.

http://www.amazon.com/Laurie-Berkner-Songbook-Bk-CD/dp/0825635446

The songs are pretty easy and fun. My son likes 'I'm Gonna Catch You' and 'We are the Dinosaurs' among others. The book is for Guitar, but it's easy to switch the chords over to uke.

Have fun
 
My dad sang Bye Bye Love by The Everly Brothers, my parents say it put me to sleep every time.
 
I played whatever I knew how to play for my 2 daughters, a two and a half year old and a one year old. I'm not sure if they like it or not, but at least they don't go away or anything when I do play. I started playing Crazy G for the younger one when she was like 4-5 months old and she seem to get a kick out of it when I kept going "faster and faster". I think babies tend to react to anything that sound different. But of course I could be wrong.
 
Reviving a dead thread here...

So, the kid doesn't like 'Winnie the Pooh' (at least my rendition of it). That's okay, I found I don't much care playing it, either.

He is entranced with 'Code Monkey' (Jonathan Coulton), though, and it's really fun to play on the uke (the Kristen Shirts remix version. Uke tab available here.)

He also seems more interested in the instrumental stuff I play (a small variety of Dominator and Woodshed tabs. Thanks guys!). Perhaps his brain is starting to grasp more complex melodies, or maybe my playing is getting better? :p
 
You've been Baby Bjorn-ed too eh?
:eek:

Ayep.

This sentence, which I've decided should be a long, rambling, run-on sentence to provide ironic counterpoint to its sole reason for existing, is here to get past the 10 character minimum for posts, so feel free to not read it.
 
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