Why I started a YouTube Channel:

In March, 2021: After once again being furloughed as a music educator in a special needs setting due to the pandemic, I decided to create my own YouTube Channel for parents, children and educators called Singalong Songs. I wanted to provide an online resource for quality renditions of family-friendly songs and activities with an emphasis on music appreciation. Singalong Songs, Folk Songs, Traditional Songs, Fingerplays, Call and Response Songs, Story Songs, Camp Songs and Campfire Songs were all recorded, uploaded and organized into playlists on the channel. I did not announce the launching of this YouTube channel to anyone or promote it in any way. I just quietly put it out there since a number of these videos were just collecting dust anyway. (Some of the initial videos were actually created and used during remote online asynchronous lessons. Other, more "live" performances have been added since.) 

After I finished creating the channel and uploading all the videos that I had at the time, I then shifted my focus away from being a music educator to focus on the creation and promotion of my own original “adult” music and live performances as a singer/songwriter (Bobby Curious) that had long taken a back seat to my commitment as a teacher.

In October, 2021 -  about 8 months after launching my channel, I received a notification from YouTube congratulating me on 100 Subs (that’s cool jargon for “Subscribers”) on my forgotten “Singalong Songs” YouTube channel. I checked on it and to my surprise, it had over 47,000 views (only 900 more subs and 3,678 watch hours to go for monetization). One storybook song “Over in the Meadow” gets about 500 views per day and another that the psychology department in my former school asked me to create: “The Zones of Regulation Song,” gets about 100 views per day. 

So, hopefully parents, teachers and children are all finding this channel helpful in bringing more meaningful music into their lives on a daily basis.

There’s nothing to buy there, no subscription fee, CDs or recordings (but it does help if you subscribe to get notifications when I upload new songs/content). This is a free resource for you to learn the songs with your children. Then, after checking out the songs, I encourage you to shut it off, step away from your computer/phone and sing those songs with your kids every chance you get. See what you can remember of the lyrics and if you forget some, help each other out to fill in the blanks. Also, you don't have to sweat trying to sing the “correct” lyrics -  come up with new lyrics and make your own version. A lot of these are traditional songs that have evolved that way over the years anyway. 

Remember, “Music is a right, not a privilege.”

Special shout out to all of those early childhood teachers/caregivers/support staff. You are some of the hardest working humans on the planet. 

Sincerely, Robert “Bobby Curious” Kennedy

Methods mentioned in the post:

https://kodalymusicinstitute.org/about-kodaly-music-institute

https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/nordoff

https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/jacqueline-birnbaum