the cover of Old Brass Wagon, a song used to teach sixteenth notes

Teach Sixteenth Notes with Old Brass Wagon

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Old Brass Wagon is a great song to teach sixteenth notes to second and third grade students! Old Brass Wagon is a play party song from the 19th century. Play party songs were popular when dancing wasn’t allowed in certain communities for religious reasons. Sometimes I struggle to find songs that are long enough for older kids but still simple enough that they can catch on and analyze for new concepts. This song is a great balance of the two. Let’s talk about some ways you can use this song to teach sixteenth notes to your music students.

The slides in this post are part of the Old Brass Wagon resource I created.  The resource includes:

  • Words to the song
  • Beat charts to the song
  • Rhythm icons for sixteenth notes
  • Standard notation for the song
  • Sixteenth note teaching slides
  • Body percussion slides (2 difficulty levels)
  • Create your own movement or instrument patterns (2 difficulty levels)
  • Fill in the missing rhythm worksheets (printable and Google Slides friendly)
  • Create your own lyrics worksheets (printable and Google Slides friendly)

You can purchase the resource here.

An image from the Old Brass Wagon resource used to teach sixteenth notes. This picture shows the rhythms of the song Old Brass Wagon, using standard notation for quarter and eighth notes and cacti as iconic notation for the sixteenth notes.

Lesson Ideas for Old Brass Wagon

First, you want to teach the song.  I actually use the song in kindergarten and first grade as a movement activity.  The kids hold hands in a circle and do the movements of the song while I sing.  Eventually, they start singing with me.  I do the same activity with second grade, but after I sing it the first time and they get their giggles out, I ask them to sing with me.  

Then we sing the song back in our seats and look at the rhythms for the songs.  I use iconic rhythm for sixteenth notes at this point, and the rest of the rhythms are written in standard notation.  We sing the song again, patting the iconic noets (which I have as cacti in my slides.)

After we sing the song with iconic notation for sixteenth notes, we learn the name and standard notation for four sounds on a beat and look at the song with standard notation.  We sing the song again, still patting on the sixteenth notes.  At this point, I’ll have half of the class pat sixteenth notes and the other half of the class clap or stomp the other rhythms.

An image from the Old Brass Wagon resource used to teach sixteenth notes. This picture shows the pattern "pat clap clap pat" twice for students to perform while singing the song Old Brass Wagon.

Creating Ostinatos for Old Brass Wagon

I love challenging students with body percussion ostinatos while we’re singing!  We’ll start by doing the body percussion slides like the one above. Then, I’ll give them a pattern, like “square circle square circle” and give the kids a pattern to follow during that, like “pat clap pat clap.”  We’ll do a couple of examples, and then I have the kids come up with their own, either as a group or individually.

Another option is to do instruments for the shapes.  If we do drums for “square” and triangle for “circle” we’ll sing the song as a group and do the pattern “drum triangle drum triangle.”  Again, you can have students come up with their own pattern depending on your resources.

An image from the Old Brass Wagon resource used to teach sixteenth notes. This slide shows the pattern "Square Circle Triangle Circle" for students to create their own movements to the song.

Other Songs to Teach with Old Brass Wagon

If you’re looking for some other songs to sing along with Old Brass Wagon, here are some options for teaching sixteenth notes:

  • Alligator Chant
  • Bim Bum
  • Tideo

In the comments, tell me what your favorite song to teach sixteenth notes is!