Call and response songs are a pattern used in some songs that I love incorporating into my sessions. If you’re unfamiliar with what call and response songs are, think of a singer singing one phrase and the audience sings the exact phrase back. That format continues for however long in the song. Songs like, “Down By The Bay”, “My Aunt Came Back”, and “Charlies Over The Ocean” all utilize call and response throughout the song. Another great call and response song is called, “The Green Grass Grows All Around”, which is the focus of this month’s blog post. Call and response is a great way to practice following directions (listening to cues of when the audience/client should respond) and practice verbalizing words and even phrases. The song, “The Green Grass Grows All Around” specifically is great because we can also work on sequencing in which we sing about different things in a particular order and list that order at different points in the song. It’s a lot of fun because over the course of this song, the client(s) can see the progression of things they may see every day. For example, a bird in a nest, a nest on a branch, a branch on a tree, and a tree in a hole. It’s a great way of putting everyday things a client sees into a song. For this month’s blog post, I created PowerPoint to go along with “The Green Grass Grows All Around”, which can be sung live by the music therapist. This can be used in telehealth sessions, but could also be used in-person as well. If this is something your client is working on, I hope this comes in handy and let us know how it goes!

Sara Chigani, MA, MT-BC