ABA is a very common musical form. You have a theme or phrase and label it A. Then you do a second theme or phrase and label it B. Then you repeat A, and your song is done. The classic example is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
A: Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.
B: Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.
A: Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.
But when I went looking for lyrics for student compositions in this form, I discovered that common musical form does mean it's a common poetic form. What we want is a triplet or tercet poem, a form that appears to be sadly neglected. Even "Twinkle, Twinkle" doesn't really fit, because it's actually just a couplet with the first line repeated again at the end. I looked a couplets, but most of them don't make sense if you just repeat the first line again. Any budding poets out there are more than welcome to write their own, and in fact I have a blank composition sheet for just that purpose below. I also have a Mother Goose rhyme and tongue twister.
These can be used just like the Silly Composition exercises that I explained here. The essential point is to make sure the student puts exactly the same notes or finger numbers in the third line that they do in the first.
A: Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.
B: Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.
A: Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.
But when I went looking for lyrics for student compositions in this form, I discovered that common musical form does mean it's a common poetic form. What we want is a triplet or tercet poem, a form that appears to be sadly neglected. Even "Twinkle, Twinkle" doesn't really fit, because it's actually just a couplet with the first line repeated again at the end. I looked a couplets, but most of them don't make sense if you just repeat the first line again. Any budding poets out there are more than welcome to write their own, and in fact I have a blank composition sheet for just that purpose below. I also have a Mother Goose rhyme and tongue twister.
- Big Black Bug
- No Words (write your own or make a piano-only version)
- Three Little Ghostesses
These can be used just like the Silly Composition exercises that I explained here. The essential point is to make sure the student puts exactly the same notes or finger numbers in the third line that they do in the first.