Suggestions of songs to play for kids

[Rod S]

I don't have kids yet (plan to at some point ).. but I'm at a point where a lot of my friends and family members my age are starting to have (or just had) kids.

 

I saw a book at a local store of Disney tunes, I was interesting in picking that one up. I figured most of those would be easily recognized.

 

Probably some of your suggestions won`t work here in Brazil, since they might be based on folk songs, but the `commercial stuff` (hate to use that word), is probably present here too.

 

Suggestions? Nothing to hard - just want to practice some stuff to please the little ones - and possibly get them interested in music. Most of my friends are non-musicians, so it would be a nice change of pace for them.

 

Probably one of my earliest memories of playing an instrument is sitting down at my dad in front of a piano while he showed me some tunes - and then letting me play some simple stuff - I know how important that was for me, and I`d love for other children to share that experience.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Byrdman]

Originally posted by Rod S:

I don't have kids yet (plan to at some point )..

So isn't what you need right now songs to attract the opp sex?

 

Are you going to sing these songs or just play them?

 

If sing then "Teddy Bear's Picnic" was a favorite of mine when I was knee-high.

 

Remember children love songs that drive their parents crazy. So I would have to sing them selections from John Denver. Perhaps that only works when adolescence sets in.

 

I blame Disney for the trivialization of children's literature so I would avoid, but that's just personal political stance-making.

[Mark Zeger]

When my kids were little, I could play all the Raffi songs for them, but his 15 minutes are over.

 

The new hit kids musical performers are The Wiggles, a group of five British men. I've seen the show once, and the sight of these men prancing around is a little frightening.

 

Hard to go wrong with music from Disney animation features, but the last big Disney musical hit movie was many years ago and some young kids might not be familiar with the songs. In last summer's Disney animated feature "Lilo & Stitch", Elvis' music is a big element in the movie.

 

The most popular kids' song these days is probably the theme from "SpongeBob SquarePants". I don't know if Nickelodeon has exported the show to Brazil yet.