The songbook is intended for children starting their vocal adventure.

The repertoire and sound are two pillars on which each choir is based. In the case of children’s choirs, the issue of repertoire selection is of particular importance. It depends on the correct selection of songs whether the children will be encouraged or discouraged from singing in the choir.
A good children’s song must meet several conditions:
• must be liked by children;
• must fascinate them with something: be it with a thrilling rhythm or a lively, cheerful character,
• whether with a funny text, or finally with a beautiful melody or harmony;
• it should be understandable for the child so that it can assimilate it mentally.
The compositions selected by us meet all the criteria that must be met by artistically valuable children’s songs. The choice of songs for the songbook was not accidental. This is the result of many years of work with children’s choirs and many years of experience. There are 37 songs in the book, intended for reading and singing by children. Each song is accompanied by musical exercises in music theory (explanation of musical concepts relating to notation, tempo, dynamics, musical articulation) and performance (vocal exercises, suggestions for instrumentation of songs). The aim of the exercises was not to provide full knowledge of music theory, but to supplement and consolidate the knowledge that children acquire during music lessons. The assignments are also intended to help novice singers acquire the knowledge necessary to work more effectively in choral classes. Musical pieces and exercises were ranked according to their degree of difficulty. The content of the assignments is arranged in a spiral, which means that the child is constantly moving around known issues, gradually expanded with new concepts. The proposed exercises can also be a source of inspiration for conductors to create other exercises that are more suited to a given group of children.
Generally, work on a song takes place in two stages:
1. Learning a piece – music and lyrics – which is usually done with notes. It’s time to get to know the song, its sheet music and perform the musical exercises proposed in the songbook.
2. Work on the piece: memorization, establishing interpretation. At this stage, children should know the song by heart and perform it with full accompaniment at concerts.
Our assumption was to prepare a textbook for a beginner chorister, so there are no accompaniment parts to individual songs in the songbook. Accompaniment scores are in a separate book for conductors.
Alicja Szeluga and Olivia Kaczyńska

The songbook and accompaniment are available at the Choral Academy office: akademia.choralna@nfm.wroclaw.pl.

The songbook is available only for Choirs of Singing Poland.