Jump in your imaginary row boat or grab your toy boat and join Houston Symphony Community-Embedded Musicians Patricia Quintero and Alexa Thomson on a musical boat ride by singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” There’s a surprise in here!
Follow along with one of the musicians and see how cool it is to create harmony together by starting the same melody at different times. This is a called “canon” form in music, or referred to as playing or singing in rounds. If you have any family members or friends at home, ask one of them to sing along with a different part.
If you had fun singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in rounds, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Three Blind Mice,” and “Are You Sleeping” are all songs that you can sing in rounds. Try those out on your own with family members, friends or loved ones.
Now that you’ve experienced singing a canon, we think you’ll enjoy listening to another piece played by Alexa and Patricia, which is also a canon. They are playing the exact same part, just six beats apart. It’s amazing how it lines up sometimes, but they create such interesting sounds together by playing the part at different times. Enjoy!
