Tiddalik the Frog. 1: Tiddalik the Frog was thirsty, thirsty
Tiddalik 1 - Tiddalik 2 - Lakshmi 1 - Lakshmi 2 - Anansi 1 - Anansi 2
In the first part of Tiddalik the Frog - an Aboriginal 'Dreamtime' story from Australia - Tiddalik is so thirsty that he drinks all the water in the streams, then the rivers and finally the billabongs. The other animals - Kookaburra, Koala, Dingo, Emu and Kangaroo - have no water to drink and don't know what to do. The music activity focuses on copying rhythm patterns and the listening music explores the didgeridoo.
Tutorial: 'Tiddalik the Frog was thirsty, thirsty'
Join Andy Day and Rebecca Keatley to learn the song 'Tiddalik the Frog was thirsty, thirsty'.
The main elements of the tutorial are:
- Identifying in each verse which notes are short and quick and singing them together.
- Identifying in each verse the notes which are longer and have slower rhythms.
- Understanding how a steady pulse runs throughout the song.
- Listening for the high and low notes in the chorus.
- Identifying how the chorus gets longer as sound effects of Tiddalik's rumbly tummy are added.
- Identifying the fast, lively tempo of the song.
Story: Tiddalik the Frog, Part 1
Tiddalik the Frog is an Aboriginal 'Dreamtime' story from Australia.
Long ago there lived a very thirsty frog called Tiddalik. Tiddalik was so thirsty that he drank all the water in the land - the stream, the river and the billabong. All the other animals had no water to drink and didn't know what to do.
Story questions
- Why is Tiddalik always grumpy? (He is always hungry and thirsty).
- What kind of animal is a kookaburra? (A bird).
- What is a billabong? (A stagnant pool of water).
- In what order does Tiddalik drink all the water? (The stream, the river, the billabong).
- How many different animals are in the story? (Tiddalik / Frogs / Kookaburra / Kangaroo / Dingo / Emu / Koala /...and the flies!).
Song: 'Tiddalik the Frog was thirsty, thirsty'
Sing the song with Andy and Rebecca. In addition to the full vocal version and backing track versions of the song, individual clips are also included for Verse 1 + Chorus, Verse 2 + Chorus and Verse 3 + Chorus. This allows you to navigate quickly to the individual sections of the song and to focus on specific sections while learning it.
Music activity
Focus: Fast and slower rhythms / Call and response / Singing in two parts
- Andy and Rebecca clap fast and slower rhythms and the children copy them.
- Call and response: children divide into two groups. Group A claps a beat which Group B then copies.
- Staying in their groups, the children practise singing some fast and slower phrases from the song.
- Singing in two parts: then they sing these phrases in two parts, at the same time - one group sings the main musical phrase from the song and the other provides the accompaniment.
- Working in pairs the children can make up their own fast and slow rhythms - clapping, using their voices, or playing percussion instruments.
Listening music: didgeridoo solo
- The didgeridoo is a traditional Aboriginal instrument.
- It's made from a hollow tree trunk and it is blown to produce a note.
- There is evidence that the didgeridoo was used as long as 1500 years ago.
- The player has to use a special technique called circular breathing - breathing in through the nose while blowing out from the mouth.
- Can you hear something that sounds like a dog barking? Perhaps the bark of a dingo - like the one in our story.
- Dynamics: is the music loud or soft? (Loud). Listen again to the song music. Can the children hear the didgeridoo drone?
