Today’s Teaching Strategy: Swing, Oh, Swing Baby
(Steady Beat to Accompany Chant)
Elementary (PreK-2)
© 2026 Darla S. Hanley
This teaching strategy is all about steady beat, experiencing a musical feel/style (swing) and accompanying an original chant. It goes with “Stand By” by Harry Arnold (1957) and “Stand By (This is Harry)” Remastered by Harry Arnold and His Swedish Radio Studio Orchestra (2011) because of its suitable tempo as an accompaniment and tight swing.
Pedagogical Foundations
Listen to the music… Let it change how you feel, carry you to move around the room or groove quietly, and simply embody the sound. Music can make you rock, bob, sway, and swing! I want that for students (and me, lol).
Throughout history we can see that music is integral to the human experience. We use music to communicate and tell stories; express emotions; entertain audiences; and create a setting. If we really think about it, it’s nearly impossible to go a whole day without hearing music. It’s everywhere—especially when we consider the sounds in nature to be musical (but that’s an idea for another post, lol).
As music teachers, this means we need to consider the music classroom as a unique place where students get to experience new and familiar sounds as informed listeners, audience members, adjudicators, critics, reviewers, producers, composers, arrangers, AND performers. They need to be active participants throughout each entire class period—and engage with music from a variety of entry points. Think about it this way:
When students are informed listeners they have vocabulary on which to draw to label what they are hearing (e.g., artists, instruments, voices, styles, form, tonality, meter).
When students take the lead as audience members, adjudicators, critics, reviewers and/or producers, they use their vocabulary to describe the music they hear and analyze it for XY and Z. They also get to offer their opinion regarding the effectiveness of a performance, the performance highlights, areas to improve, etc., and make musical decisions.
When students become composers and/or arrangers they are creating music for others to perform. Here they are expressing personal choices and applying what they know and can do musically.
Finally, when students perform, they ARE the source of the sounds being labeled by others; the source of sounds being described and analyzed by others, and the creators of music (made individually or with others). They embody the music they are making! How cool is that?
The roles listed above spark student participation through different lenses. This not only elevates the learning, but it keeps things fresh for students and gives them the opportunity to find the ways they like best to experience music. Some of us are born performers, right (lol)? While others prefer to quietly listen—or offer critiques/opinions, etc. There really is space for everyone in the music room!
Call to Action
Make a list of all of the roles you want students to perform in music as part of a unit, semester, or entire year of music in your teaching setting. Then create learning experiences for them (that repeat or are standalone) as part of your curriculum planning.
Today’s teaching strategy includes the opportunity for students to play instruments and perform the steady beat to accompany an original chant. I hope you give it a try with your students. But first, let me remind you who I am:
Hi! I’m Darla, an experienced PK-12 music educator, college professor, and former Berklee College of Music Dean looking to connect with teachers, parents/caregivers, and others seeking to advance creative music making for today’s students—and their teachers. In Darla Hanley’s Music Room you will find teaching strategies, advice and teaching tips, playlists, and more.
Lead students to sit in a circle on the floor.
Today we are going to Swing Oh, Swing Baby (lol!) playing rhythm sticks to accompany a chant. Listen as I speak the chant and you will hear jazzy words.
ProTIP: The goal here is not to formally introduce swing as a feel OR to formally teach jazz vocabulary. The student’s focus is on keeping the steady beat—as they are informally exposed to these other elements.
Pat your legs (patsch) to the beat as I speak the chant.
ProTIP: Having students experience the chant aurally and with body percussion prepares them for the instrument play AND recorded music activity to follow.
Distribute rhythm sticks (1 pair per student), play the recording, and direct students to begin playing when you begin chanting. (Video provided to make it easy!)
ProTIP: Begin chanting/playing at 0.08 following the introduction.
ProTIP: Insert a verbal “Here we go!” prompt at 0.06 to lead students in.
Materials/Set Up
Space to Sit on the Floor (1 Circle Formation)
Rhythm Sticks
🎵 Harry Arnold "Stand By” (1957) Link to Track on Spotify
🎵 Harry Arnold and His Swedish Radio Studio Orchestra “Stand By (This is Harry)” (2011) Link to Track on Spotify
Video
© 2026 Darla S. Hanley
Swing, Oh, Swing Baby
© 2026 Darla S. Hanley
Swing oh, swing baby
scat, scat, scat
you’re so hip
a real jazz cat
Swing oh, swing baby
sing and play
be-bah dee-bop
A-doodle-da-day
Swing oh, swing baby
drums and bass
jazzy rhythms
fill our space
Swing oh, swing baby
feel the groove
cool jazz music
makes us move!
Swing oh, swing baby
so much fun
Csh, csh-csh, csh
for everyone
EXTEND the Learning:
Use the recording of “Stand By (This is Harry)” from 2011 if you prefer the overall sound of the remastered track.
Explore a variety of ways to play rhythm sticks to perform with the chant and recording (e.g., tap sticks together; hold 1 stick steady and pretend to “peel a carrot” with the other stick rubbing across the 1 that is held; tap sticks on thighs).
Ask individual students to select/demonstrate ways to play the rhythm sticks to show steady beat for everyone to perform with the chant and track.
Learning Targets
Play
Learning Outcomes
Respond to demonstrate beat awareness
Create original ways to play the steady beat using instruments*
Perform a steady beat using instruments
*This only happens within the EXTEND the Learning part of this teaching strategy.
Assessment
Informal Observation/Formative Assessment
Thanks for checking this out. If you use this teaching strategy, be sure to leave a comment to let me know how it resonates with your students!