Age 3 and up Archives - Donna & Andy

Ed was inspired by my three boys who seemed to think that the Lego blocks left scattered about on the floor could not have possibly been left there by them. My response was to imagine that some invisible house guest must be making all the messes. Ed, the invisible dragon was the result.

The first children to sing this song were my students at Gaspereau Valley Elementary School in Nova Scotia, Canada. Some of those students went with me to a recording studio where we recorded a cassette that included Ed, the Invisible Dragon plus several other songs I had written. I created a printed book to go with the cassette and made it available to music teachers and other interested folks. This foray into publicly presenting my songs was exuberantly embraced by my mother, who loves to sell things. I think she single-handedly sold most of the first run of those books and cassettes. In any case, Ed and the other songs in that collection started to become well known within music education circles. Over 40 years later, Ed is still going strong. He has travelled to almost every continent, being sung by elementary school children and vocal studio singers in countries around the world. He has worked his way into music festivals, Royal Conservatory vocal exams, school concerts and vocal studio recitals.

Ed was one of the very first songs I sang with Andy Duinker and Wendy LaPierre as a trio performing music for children. As we went on to establish a career as the singing duo, Donna & Andy, Ed has been with us every step of the way. The song Ed the Invisible Dragon has been enthusiastically received by school children at Donna & Andy concerts for the past 30 years.

From early on, we thought Ed would make a great illustrated children’s book. It was a dream that took a long time to come true. We started working with artist, Matth Cupido who painted the covers for all our book and CD covers. We had many philosophical discussions about Ed’s invisibility. Is he invisible, but a solid being? Is he invisible and like a ghost that doesn’t take up any physical space? Is he real at all, or only to the child in the song? There was much we didn’t know how to answer about Ed. Matth’s first renditions of Ed included him wearing a hat. Matth asked us if Ed had hair. We didn’t really know. We were at the mercy of the paint brush!

Sadly, Matth passed away before we had time to work on the illustrated book for Ed, the Invisible Dragon. We had to put our illustrated book plans on hold for several years. Eventually, we were delighted to find out that Richard Bennett, a music teacher colleague of mine, was also an artist. Being retired, he had some time on his hands, and he agreed to try his hand at creating art for our book. We had great fun revisiting the philosophical points we had discussed with Matth. We still didn’t have all the answers! We threw ideas at Richard and he sent us sketches and drafts of wonderful artistic ideas. Richard was a good sport to take on the task of creating an illustrated picture book featuring an invisible dragon. All the pictures cannot be of the dragon hiding behind different objects. At some point, that dragon has to come out from behind the tree and be seen by someone! It took almost four years to bring this project to completion, and for a while, it seemed like Ed might stay hidden away forever. However, we are excited that Ed is finally ready to take this new form to be shared with the world.

Ed, the Invisible Dragon, the illustrated children’s book, is now ready to take its place on the shelf along with earlier iterations: a cassette, a CD, a printed music book, and a single song digital download. I can’t wait to see where he will show up next!

"Ed for Education"

Free Download

You are invited to download the complete Ed the Invisible Dragon music package including 19 cross-curricular activities FREE when you use coupon code EDFOREDUCATION or edforeducation at checkout. (does not include illustrated book)

Free Download includes:

Vocal score
Director/piano score
Lyrics
Accompaniment – with melody guide
Accompaniment – piano
Donna & Andy band – instrumental track
Donna & Andy – performance track
Ed For Education – 19 Cross-curricular Activities in various subject areas including Fine Arts: music, visual art, and drama, Physical Activity, Science and Technology

Enjoy!

Part of a Song Collection

The song Ed the Invisible Dragon is one of 12 songs from the Juno-nominated song collection "Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me" Donna Rhodenizer has written these songs using a variety of styles including lullaby/tango, bluegrass, blues and pop in a variety of skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. The 122-page song book provides the vocal score, full score and separate lyrics pages for 12 songs. Enjoy!

Please note: audio tracks for the e-book version are sold separately. Print copies of the book include CD (24 tracks)

The print book (Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me - song collection - without CD) is also available on Amazon

Performance videos

Ed the Invisible Dragon has been performed by thousands of young vocal students and elementary school students around the world.

You can see performance videos further down this page. Enjoy!

Also available on Amazon

Print copies are also available on Amazon.

Also, go to Donna's Amazon Author Page and click the "Follow" button to get notified when additional new books become available.

You Are Invited

Please drop by again and leave a Review of Ed the Invisible Dragon on this page. Thanks!

"Ed" is on this CD

Ed the Invisible Dragon - music performances

Here are a few of many performances of "Ed".

Enjoy!

The post Ed the Invisible Dragon – Illustrated Children’s Book appeared first on Donna & Andy.

27 New Singing Games for Young Singers

Andy Duinker — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 17:43:32 +0000

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New Singing Games

for Young Singers

by Donna Rhodenizer

Vol. 1 Grades K-1, ages 5-7

New Singing Games for Young Singers Vol. 1 Grades K-1, ages 5-7

Donna Rhodenizer has written twelve original singing games for Kindergarten and Grade 1 students, singers ages 5-7. These songs focus on the early skill development of emerging singers including galloping, action songs, fast and slow, as well as songs with simple tone sets (mainly s-m-l combinations). Individual singing opportunities are built into many of the singing games. Students have the opportunity to work on discerning differences in pitch and pitch matching, leading to singing in tune with others. All of the singing games provide young singers with a play-based learning experience, inherent to their innate learning style and crucial to their skill development. All songs include scores and game instructions, plus adaptations for small group and individual instruction.

Vol. 2 Grades 2-3, ages 7-9

Donna Rhodenizer’s second volume of singing games focuses on singers in grades 2-3, ages 7-9. Eleven original singing games focus on providing practice for skills learned earlier and adding songs and skills with expanded tone sets and more complex rhythmic elements. Individual singing games are still a mainstay as students continue to hone their ability to sing in tune with others. Repetition is a key element of singing games, creating opportunity for internalizing musical concepts for labelling and practicing in future lessons. Games with movement, guessing games and even a few chasing options make these singing games interesting and motivating for students. All songs include scores and game instructions, plus adaptations for small group and individual instruction.

Vol. 3 Grades 4-5, ages 9-11

The third volume of Donna Rhodenizer’s singing games is created for singers in grades 4-5, ages 9-11. Ten original singing games delve into more complex musical elements such as minor tonalities, wider tone sets and complex rhythms. Singing games with individual responses include singing as well as rhythmic and melodic improvisation. Musical challenges for this age group are offered using a play-based learning style that creates a relaxed atmosphere for exploring and learning without pressure. All songs include scores and game instructions, plus adaptations for small group and individual instruction.

Print copies Available on Amazon

Print copies are available on Amazon.

Go to Donna's Amazon Author Page to purchase your print copy.

Also, click the "Follow" button to get notified when additional new books become available.

Composer's Notes

New Singing Games for Young Singers

My music classroom has been singing based from day one. Everything we did hinged on singing, and the best way to get kids to sing is to make it a game. Singing games were part of my music education courses and my approach was influenced by my training in the Kodaly teaching method, also founded on the use of singing games to teach concepts to children.

Over the years I have had certain singing games that I enjoyed sharing with my students. I knew they liked those particular games, it was exciting to play them, and they were motivated to participate. As time and political correctness became an issue in our classrooms, some of the singing games from decades (centuries?) ago began to come into question. Old singing games that were based on less than favourable past-times and ways of doing things began to be considered inappropriate and needed to be removed. Song context aside, the games that went with some of those songs were favourites of my students (and of mine as well) so I set about to create new songs that would fit the games that went with the old songs. I had collected quite a few singing games by the time I was chatting with Nikki Loney (Full Voice Music) about doing a question and answer online session with teachers about singing games. With my collection already started (sort of) it seemed like an opportune time to put together an official version of these songs.

What started out as a single collection across grade levels (K-5) started to get too large and unwieldy for a single book. We decided to split the book into K-2 and 3-5. Then THAT got too big so we revised and split the book into 3 volumes. Now there were not quite enough songs to make a reasonable sized book (in my estimation) so in addition to the songs I already had, I designed some new ones. Trying to figure out games that would work for each of the songs had us galloping, passing sticks to the beat, counting bars to match dance steps and having lots of fun! I also needed to think outside of my elementary classroom focus and create adaptations for singing games that could be used by private vocal teachers with small groups or just one student. That was a fun challenge!

I ended up writing six new songs in a week to insert into various age groupings. I was reminded of my days in the classroom when I needed songs for specific events and I ended up writing them. It was an intense, productive two weeks and I was exhausted but creatively energized by the whole process.