This page is a guide to learning Children's Song no. 1 on a tapping Instrument such as the Chapman Stick or the acoustic Dragonfly DFA .
There is a score/tablature, fretboard diagrams, and youtube video instructions, that will help you along the way. This song lives in a range that is adaptable to other tapping instrument tunings.
You don't need to know how to read music. You can get 90% of the way there just by watching the videos and referring to the tabs and fingering hints for the song (here) Videos to go along with this piece are at this youtube playlist Children's song no. 1 tappetizer playlist
This song is by the venerable Jazz and Fusion Pianist Chick Corea And is the first song in the collection Children's Songs which were loosely modeled after Bela Bartoks's cycle of songs called Mikrokosmos
The Score (and tabs) are available Here Look for the ones with names that start with the ChildrensSong1. The authoritative one which is for 12 string Matched reciprocal tuning
There is also one for 10 string Classic tuning.
Between these two you should be able to adapt a version to other tunings if you are industrious. The song is not overly complex.
This arrangment is in Eb Major
There is some use of the accidentals A-natural and Db which give the song an ethereal feel reminiscent of Erik Satie.
The tempo is designated as Allegretto, which is something to pay attention to. I've listened to some versions with faster tempos and they tend rob the song of some of that Satie saveur.
Personally, I would recommend staying in the slower end of this tempo. a bpm of 120 is about as fast as i normally go on this piece.
There is two bar Bass Motor that is continuous throughout.
This arrangement is in Eb major (instead of the original C major). Which is typical in guitar transcriptions ( which is what i adapted from ). This arrangement is an adaptation of the Forbes Henderson guitar arrangement for the Children's Songs suite.
I have slightly changed the bass motor in the song by dropping the last note note down an octave. This serves two purposes. It makes it much easier to play on a reverse 5ths tuning, and it opens up the sound of the pattern a bit.
I have added a D.S. repeat of a section of the song which i like doing. you can ignore that of course if you choose.
Note:
- Each of these diagrams is in 12 string matched reciprocal tuning. It will have link to a
.fbjsonfile that you can download and then use in conjunction with the Fretboard diagammer web app- You can read the file into it and change the tuning in the tuning configuration drop down and it will make a (simple minded) try at converting it.
- You can click on any diagram to get an enlarged version.
Here is a heat map that shows you the general areas where one would be playing on the fretboard for 12 string matched reciprocal tuning.
The yellow positions are locations of the accidentals used.
The green positions are locations of the Bass Motor notes used.
