Α song accompanied by a guitar in kindergarten




During the school year in the Kindergarten of Karvounari (Thesprotia, Greece) we sang several songs with the children, which I almost always accompanied with my guitar. On the way to summer, some parents encouraged me to record one or more of our songs on video, in order to better remember the beautiful moments we spent. The idea matured and discussing with the children we chose the traditional Macedonian song "My red apple", which they particularly liked.

The decision was taken. We immediately started daily rehearsals, and I thought about seeing if we could enrich the song with some percussion instruments that would be played by children.
That's where the "difficulties" began. The children liked the song, but it is 7/8 time signature and we had to work a lot with the synchronization. Despite my initial reservations, having in mind the ancient Greek quote "Repetition is the Mother of All Learning", the children were helped to get acquainted with the rhythm. Exercising with claps and simultaneously measuring time aloud, I found that the children were able to perform the rhythm correctly at least in the introduction of the song, where they did not sing. We preferred two percussion instruments: a tambourine stick and castanets. The tambourine stick would play three times in the strongest beats of each measure, while the castanets only in the first beat of each measure. The children understood and we moved on.

The video was shot in the chapel of Agios Georgios on the hill of the old village of Xirolofos, near Karvounari and Paramythia (Thesprotia, Greece), in a beautiful location with lush vegetation, which includes centuries-old olive trees and a few remaining buildings, where the time stopped and its inhabitants have now descended to the lowlands.

The video was directed by Menelaos Sykovelis. This was filmed and posted on the internet with the consent of the children's parents.