glockenspiel book?

[kesmom]

We are considering getting our 10 year old a glockenspiel for Christmas, but I'd like to find a book to go with it and I'm not coming up with much when I search. Suggestions?

 

 

[Peaceful Isle]

Off to go google what in the world a glockenspiel is! lol

 

 

...okay, I thought for sure it was a type of dog, not an instrument!

[Shifra]

A glockenspiel is like a xylophone but with metal bars (as opposed to wood in the case of a xylophone). You can use any series meant for xylophones with a glockenspiel. By the way, Kindermusic sells a very good glockenspiel, and you can buy it from their website, even without going to their classes. If your son has ever used boomwhackers in school or elsewhere, Sonor, the manufacturer of the Kindermusik glockenspiel also makes a (pricy) glockenspiel in Boomwhacker colors (called "Chroma-Notes Colored Music System").

 

kesmom, can your son read sheet music? If not, there's a series by Nancy Poffenberger for xylophone that assumes one cannot read notes. I think that Rainbow Resource sells these titles, but they may be available from Amazon:

 

NURSERY RHYMES WITH BELLS AND XYLOPHONE  by Nancy Poffenberger includes these songs: The Muffin Man; The Bear Went Over the Mountain; Ring a Ring of Roses; Eensie Weensie Spider; I'm a Little Teapot; Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush; Lazy Mary; Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be; This Old Man; Down by the Station; Ten in the Bed; A Tisket, A Tasket.

INSTANT FUN WITH BELLS AND XYLOPHONES by Nancy Poffenberger includes these songs: Mary Had a Little Lamb; Jingle Bells; London Bridge; Farmer in the Dell; For He's a Jolly Good Fellow; Hickory Dickory Dock; Pop Goes the Weasel; Row, Row, Row Your Boat; Ten Little Indians; Baa Baa Black Sheep; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; Brother John; Hot Cross Buns

 

Nancy Poffenberger also wrote a book called Xylo-Fun, but I don't own this one, so I can't tell you what songs are in this book, but it is also assumed that you cannot read music (from what I see of the book on Amazon).

 

If your son can read music, he may want to try 8 Note Bell Songs and More 8 Note Bell Songs which have very simple songs to play.
 

[Dmmetler]

I'm an orff specialist, so I use mallet instruments a lot, and personally own 5 glockenspiels :).

 

Any recorder book will work well for most songs. Hal Leonard has a set of easy play ones for basically anything you'd want-Disney songs, movie songs, and so on. These use notation, but have note names written on the heads. Most recorder songs are in G major initially, and most glockenspiels come with Bb and Eb bars. There are some that require more accidentals (The Star Wars and Harry Potter ones do), but many work quite well.

 

If you want a chromatic glockenspiel, I like the F-F Angel one that comes in a case. It's about $25. The bars are not removable like on an orff glockenspiel.

 

In both cases, I suggest getting a very, very soft set of rubber resonator bar mallets. Most glockenspiels come with either wood or hard plastic, which gets painful.

 

For basic music reading, I recommend the complete music reading activities kit. It's designed to be used with a bell set or keyboard.

[FO4UR]

Another option is a Kodaly solfa book. You can play any of those songs on a glockenspiel and learn solfa as you learn the instrument.  It's a really good exercise to learn to sing a song in solfa, and then play by ear (in several different keys).  Then learn to play a song, and figure out the solfa by ear.  So simple, but teaches a great deal.