Here’s a musical instruments lesson that involves all the senses while teaching the kids to manipulate sound. What kid doesn’t like spaghetti – long strings of food fun?

Lesson: how to play musical instruments with the song ‘On Top of Spaghetti’

This song belongs in the Boy Scouts/Girl Guides tradition of singing silly songs as a way of bonding. it’s a funny, foodie version of the folk song ‘On Top of Old Smoky’. Firstly, I like to stir up their imaginations by conjuring up a picture of tangly white spaghetti.  Then I pour on a ladle of red, juicy sauce, all ready to get on your face and fingers.  Next comes the big round meatball all dripping with tomatoes from the pot and finally a sprinkling of yummy, freshly-grated yellow cheese smelling sharp and tangy.

Once they’re wriggling with delight and adding to the story I know I’ve got their attention so to each child I hand out some “spaghetti” – two rhythm sticks or claves.  Next they receive a steaming “meatball” – this time it’s a single castanet.  Mine are red on one side, blue on the other.  We usually choose to have the red side up to show the colour of a juicy meatball but hey – silliness is always an option and sometimes we might go for the blue food idea! Then I hand out their “cheese-shakers” – maracas – and they have fun tipping cheese onto their meatballs.  Bells work well to signify “rolling” so I give them out next and what about “sneezing”? That explosive sound can be made on drums if you have a small group or on guiros or finger cymbals if there are lots of kids.

Practice the tricky bit before hand

I like to practice making the “sneeze” sound on the drum or guiro before trying it inside the song, because it only happens twice and it’s great fun if the instrumental sound “hits” on the lyric “a-choo!” Other than that, they don’t need instruction.  We know it’s not good for this age anyway, so why not simply “go for it!”  Making sure everyone can see me, I just sing and play the whole song once or sometimes twice through making a big deal about the “Ah-choo!”

It doesn’t have to be perfect, we just have to play ‘together’

Most children will want to follow my lead in this game as I play each instrument roughly around the time it matches the lyrics.  Others will “do their own thing” but at least we are all in the room together playing instruments to the same piece of music and hopefully learning a new fun song they can take home for the dinner table.

Where to find the song

You can find all the lyrics, backing tracks and everything you need to enjoy this activity in the product. ‘Shoo Fly Shoo Lesson Plan.’

Have fun and remember, there’s nothing quite like music lessons for children.