Secular Pattern Songs


This page lists songs in the lyrics follow a simple pattern.
In each stanza, only a few words are changed.
Pete Seeger calls such songs zipper songs.
Jean Warren calls them open-ended songs.
You can call them whatever you like.

Songs such as these are ideal for a social situation in which it would be costly or cumbersome to furnish a songbook for each person attending.

so la
  • A my name is Abbie (good for teaching the alphabet)
    (Choksy 1981: 238)
  • A my name is Ann (variant of A my name is Abbie)
    (Botkin Collection: 61)
  • Once an apple (good for teaching the alphabet)
    (Botkin collection: 59)
mi so la
  • When Bonnie was one (good for teaching numbers)
    (Botkin Collection: 60)
do re mi
  • Bread in the oven (Edet 1978a)
  • Go round the mountain (Choksy 1981: 241)
  • Long legged sailor (Choksy 1981: 241)
do re mi so
  • The farmyard (cumulative song) (Marais & Marais 1964: 176-177)
  • Bought me a cat (variant of The farmyard) (Erdei & Komlos 1974: 8)
  • Run, tell Aunt Nancy (a variant of Go Tell Aunt Rhody)
    (Trent-Johns: 30-31)
  • Solomon Grundy (good for teaching days of week)
    (Bradford 1978: 12, Brown & Boyd 1915: 45)
do re mi so la
  • Dear and gone (Courlander NSSA: #18)
  • Do, do, pity my case (Scarborough 1925: 140-141)
  • When I was a baby (Greenberg 1967)
do re mi so do
  • I bought me a hen (Schinhan: 102)
do re mi so la do
  • Forty-nine bottles (good for a lesson on numbers)
    (Chamberlain & Harrington 1900: 129, Bradford 1978: 60)
  • Hop light, ladies (Browne: 429-430)
  • I had a dog (Archer: 110-111)
  • I wonder where Maria's gone (Sharp vol. 2)
  • Roll, Jordan, roll (humorous version) (Cohen, M. 1966: 45)
  • There was an old man come over the lea
    (Randolph 1982 vol. 1: 294)
  • Whoa, mule! Can't get the saddle on (Seeger, R. C. 1950: 64)
do mi so la do mi
  • Little bitty man (Arnold 1950: 153)
so do mi so
  • Reveille (Beall & Nipp 1988: 60)
    (consists of "no" repeated on each syllable for 8 measures,
    then "yes" for 8 measures," then "no" for 8 measures)
  • Roll over (same as Ten in the bed)(Fowke 1969: 132)
  • Ten in the bed (Beall & Nipp 1988: 35)
    (can be used for a lesson on subtraction)
so do re mi
  • B A Bay (good for learning consonants)
    (Randolph 1982 vol. 4: 401)
  • Ten in the bed (Odetta at Town Hall)
so do re mi so
  • I'm goin' down the rivuh befo' long (Wheeler: 29-51)
  • Ninety-nine blue bottles (good for teaching subtraction)
    (Randolph 1982 vol. 3: 210)
  • Today is Monday (good for teaching days of the week)
    (Shekter 1988)
Chase That Squirrel


Piper 1915.

so do re mi so la
  • Green grass grew all around, The (cumulative song)
    (Winn 1974: 19-21)
  • Maid freed from the gallows, The (Bronson, vol. 2: 450)
  • Mister Rabbit (Scarborough: 174)
Pinto
variant of Bingo
Gomme [1894] 1964, vol. 1: 29
Warren 1983: 29

so la do mi
  • O when you wake up in the morning (Raffi [1984] 1993)
so la do mi so
  • Maid freed from the gallows, The (Bronson, vol. 2: 458)
  • Chickalileelo (Erdei & Komlos 1974: 29)
so la do re mi
  • Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round (Silber 1968: 16-17)
  • Cat played fiddle on my fee (Roberts: 197-198)
  • Goin' knock John Booker (hand claps on off-beats)
    (Bradford 1978: 47)
  • Help me drive her (Scarborough: 218)
  • Here sits a young lady (Isham 1921)
  • John Cherokee was an Indian man (Colcord 1924)
  • Pretty pear tree (cumulative song) (Jones & Hawes: 197)
  • Shallow Brown (Sharp 1920: 19)
  • Take your feet out de sand
    (good for teaching accelerando and ritardando)
    (Arnold 1950: 145)
  • Ten in the bed (Larrick 1972: 19)
  • Old brass wagon (Brocklehurst 1968: 7)
  • I'm goin' down the rivuh befo' long (Wheeler 1944: 29)
  • Old MacDonald had a farm (cumulative song)
    Erdei & Komlos 1974: 25
Here Sits a Young Lady


Isham 1921

so la do re mi so
  • Alabama girl (McDowell 1937: 52, Bradford 1978: 69)
  • Dance Josey (Owens 1936: 81, Bradford 1978: 89)
  • Green leaves grew all around (cumulative song)
    (Choksy 1981: 268)
  • Hi-ho, the rattlin' bog (Langstaff 1969: 11)
  • Irish trot (Owens 1936: 51, Bradford 1978: 66)
  • Keemo kyemo (Winn 1974: 108-109)
  • Tree in the wood, The (cumulative song)
    (Sharp 1932, vol. 2: #206B, Bradford 1978: 66)
  • Sailing at high tide (Brocklehurst 1968: 12)
  • I'm goin' down the rivuh (Wheeler 1944: 50-51)
I Have a Friend That You All Know
traditional preschool greeting song

la do re mi

In My Backroom
learned at DeLena Day School, Chicago, IL in the late Seventies

la do re mi so
  • B A Bay (McColl et al. 1965)
  • I heard the angels singing (Boatner 1927: #26, Bradford 1978: 64)
  • B A Bay (good for learning consonants) (McColl et al. 1965)
  • Stooping on the window (Erdei & Komlos 1974: 32)
so la do re mi so la
  • I had an old rooster (Jones & Hawes: 192-193)
  • Let's go hunting (Owens 1950)
  • There was a little oak (cumulative song)
    (Sharp & Karpeles 1932: 282)
  • B A bay (good for learning consonants) (Arnold 1950: 141)
  • Good-bye my Riley-o (Parrish 1942: #53, Bradford 1978: 96)
  • Hoosen Johnny (Sandburg 1927: 164-165, Bradford 1978: 98)
  • See me cross the water (McDowell 1947: 63, Bradford 1978: 92)
  • Hoosen Johnny (Landeck 1950: 34-35)
  • Dance Josey (Erdei & Komlos 1974: 51)
  • Hold my mule (Erdei & Komlos 1974: 52)
so la do re mi so la do
  • Train is a-coming (secular version of similar song on the Heaven page)
    (Erdei & Komlos 1974: 62)
so do re mi so la do
  • Gray goose, The Kraus: 161
la do re mi so la do
  • Little wheel (Fenner 1874: 100, Bradford 1978: 107)
la do re mi so la do re
  • Another man done gone (Sandburg:84)
mi so la do re mi so
  • On a long summer day (Brocklehurst 1968: 10)
mi so la do re mi so
  • What shall I do? (McIlhenny 1933: 187, Bradford 1978: 115)
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