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You are here: Home / Musical Activities For... / Preschoolers / The Clock Song: An Easy Way to Learn Musical Note Values

The Clock Song: An Easy Way to Learn Musical Note Values

July 20, 2015 By Sara Mullett 10 Comments

The Clock Song is a fun and easy way to learn musical note values. It helps kids to understand and recognise the difference between Minims (or 1/2 notes), Crotchets (1/4 notes) and Quavers (1/8 notes) by making it into a fun game. In essence, this simple activity makes the musical concept clear, and the note names and values easy to remember.

Let's Play Music : The Clock Song - An Easy (and fun!) Way to Learn Musical Note Values

Using the the printable sheet (scroll down and click the picture to download).

  • First, discuss the three different types of clock and clap and chant the sound that they make.
  • Slow, long tick-tocks for the Grandfather clock.
  • Medium length tick-tocks for the kitchen clock.
  • Fast, little tick-tocks for the little watch.
  • Then sing the song together whilse pointing at each clock and making the tick-tocks with wooden sticks.

Grandfather Clock goes

t-i-ck to-ck, ti-ck to-ck, ti-ck to-ck,

Mummy’s kitchen clock goes

tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock,

My little watch goes

tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock

tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock.

Chime Bar Tune of The Clock Song

An Easy Way To learn Musical Note Values

Once they have mastered the song, blow some magic on your hands and rub it on your feet – a useful way to encourage enthusiastic participation!  Then you can sing the song while taking steps in time to the tick-tocks, big steps for the Grandfather clock and medium steps for the kitchen clock, and fast little steps for the watch. Using the wooden sticks you can then test them on the note values by playing the three tick-tocks in a different order, and asking them which is which.

If you want to see how The Clock Song fits into a music lesson plans for kids of a variety of ages take a look at my Clocks and Mice lesson plan.

If you are new to music theory, read my Introducing the Note Family post, which explains basic note values in a child friendly way and check out my How To Read Music Made Easy ebook which is accompanied by lots of handy printables and worksheets.

To print the free sheet music (vocal line) for The Clock Song and the free printable resource, click the pictures below

Let's Play Music : Free Sheet Music - The Clock Song

Let's Play Music : Free Music Theory Worksheet - The Clock Song - A Fun Way to Teach Kids Musical Note Valueseducational benefits of learning music note values

Filed Under: How To Read Music, Musical Activities For..., Musical Movement, Preschoolers, Rhythm & Percussion Activities, Toddlers Tagged With: Easy Music Theory, Free Printables, Free Sheet Music, Note Recognition, Rhythm Games

Please note, the posts on Let’s Play Music include affiliate links for your convenience.

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Comments

  1. Sandra says

    October 24, 2018 at 9:07 am

    Hi, how about “our kitchen clock” instead of “mummy’s kitchen clock”?

    Reply
    • Sara Mullett says

      October 24, 2018 at 6:26 pm

      Hi Sandra, Yes of course do adjust the words to suit, I do that all the time in lessons to make them more relevant.

      Reply
  2. whitney groves says

    October 1, 2015 at 2:34 am

    i really like this website! im learning by muyself how to play the piano and i think the clock song will be a fun one to learn!! hope everyone else like this website. i also am learining other song that was listed on here itll be cool if you try both to

    Reply
  3. raju says

    August 22, 2015 at 6:50 am

    I want learn the music note ,

    Reply
    • Sara Mullett says

      August 22, 2015 at 9:45 am

      That’s great Raju! You’ve come to the right place!

      Reply
  4. Sara Mullett says

    July 24, 2015 at 10:34 am

    Hi Grace, You are absolutely right! Sorry if that has cause confusion for you! Yes, in the chime bar clip the rhythm is the same in bars (measures) 1, 5 & 8. But on the printable sheet music bar 5 is slightly different to fit in with the words. Unfortunately, this sort of little mistake can happen when things are written or recorded on different days. Anyway, well done for spotting it! It shows you are developing a good understanding 🙂 I am so pleased to hear you are learning so much from Let’s play Music!

    Reply
    • Grace says

      August 5, 2015 at 1:35 am

      I was struggling with the notes” values in that song and I tried playing it before listening to it, that is why … Thank you Sara

      Reply
  5. Grace says

    July 23, 2015 at 11:56 pm

    Hello Sara, I am taking baby steps in piano lessons with you. Thank you for all the posts. I appreciate. I have listened to the xylophone and I ordered one for myself. Anytime I am getting it. Do you agree with me that *Xylophone beats in the first measure of the second staff are the same as for the first and the third staffs. They seem not to match with the written notes. I thought the beats would sound different *titititi ta ta instead of ta titi ta ta. Let me know if I am on the right track.

    Reply

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