We call this series “I don’t read music” since we are targeting beginners of all ages: children, teens, parents, grandparents.

Folk music traditionally is not learned from sheet music or notes. Instead, it is learned by repetition and from being passed from generation to generation. We believe in this method of teaching, which is easier and more enjoyable.

All 70 songs in this book have been written without using the classic music score system

because it is for the absolute beginners who can not read sheet music. This book is aimed at those who want to add popular melodies to their experimentation.

We use circles with numbers because most modern tongue drums have numbers engraved or painted on their keys. We do not show the note duration. You can experiment with a duration on your own.

We recommend finding each of these songs on YouTube and listening to the rhythm before beginning to play.

Our sheet music is only a guide. The most important thing is to listen and repeat the recordings.

All songs from this book are possible to play in one octave.

These songs are suitable for a diatonic 8-note tongue drum, which should have numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 1 of the next octave.

Please note: if you have a model of the tongue drum with 5 tongues, or if some keys from the octave are missing, you will not be able to play all of the songs in this book.

The songbook includes very simple, popular children’s and folk songs, but even well-known children's songs played on the tong drum will create an unusual magical sound.

Table of contents

PART 1

A Hunting We Will Go

Acka Backa

Bell Horses

Bobby Shafto

Doggie Doggie

Frog in the Meadow

Hot Cross Buns

London Bridge

Long-legged Sailor

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Miss Mary Mack

Ninety-Nine Bottles

Old Bald Eagle

One, Two, Three, Four

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Ring Around the Rosie

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

See-Saw Margery Daw

Ten in the Bed

The Wheels on the Bus

PART 2

Alphabet Song

A Sailor Went to Sea

Are You Sleeping

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Baby Bumble Bee

Cobbler, Mend My Shoe

Cotton Eyed Joe

Ding Dong DiggiDiggiDong

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Doctor Foster

Five Little Ducks

Five Little Monkeys

Happy Birthday

Humpty Dumpty

I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas

I Love Little Kitty

It's Raining

Jack and Jill

Jingle Bells

La Cucaracha

Lavender’s Blue

Little Jack Horner

Michael, Row the Boat Ashore

My Hat

Oh We Can Play on the Big Bass Drum

Old Blue

Old McDonald

Old Mother Hubbard

Row Row Your Boat

The Backer

The Beep and the Pup

The Mulberry Bush

This Old Man

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

PART 3

Bim Bum Biddy

Brahms Lullaby

Chumbara

Cock-a-Doodle Doo

Fiddle-De-Dee

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Kookaburra

Li’l Liza Jane

Ode to Joy

Oh Susannah

Peace Like a River

The Big Sheep

Tinga Layo

To Market, to Market