Readers and writers blog

Yes, I’ve been away — exactly a year, I see by the date of our last entry — but now I’m back. And here’s what I’ve been doing:

Singalong songbooks. I’m now producing and selling them. Cheap.

What’s that, you say? Who needs a singalong songbook? Well, about 17 years ago, I could have used one.

That’s when I showed up for my second session as a backup guitarist for a singalong at a local nursing home and found I was on my own. I guess the activities director who had led the first session a week earlier figured I should do it myself, being a volunteer and all. She was right, of course, but I had only six song sheets left over from that first session, and I sang and played those six songs for a solid hour.

Well, it’s now 17 years later and my repertoire has grown — by about 300 songs I’ve collected over those years. I should say we’ve collected, because for most of those years, I’ve been part of a family band that includes my wife, Bonnie, and her parents, Glenn and Virginia. We still play three times a week at local nursing homes and senior residences.

Our singalong book now contains 313 songs. It’s a collection of oldtime favorites that most everyone over 50 knows — and most everyone under 50 ought to know. Over the past year, I’ve committed those songs to a computer program called PrintMusic that prints them out, one to a page, in simple musical notation that any music enthusiast — from the most basic singer or instrumentalist to the most accomplished vocalist or accompanist — can follow.

Believe it or not, a good singalong book is hard to find. First, you need all the good old songs that have survived the years. Second, you need the words and music — and by music, I don’t mean simply guitar or piano chords over the words, which is what most singalong books offer. No, you need the melody lines as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve known the first few bars or the refrain of a song but didn’t have a clue about the rest of it. However, the problem with most sheet music showing melodies is that it’s too complicated.

Our songbook is simple — single-note melody lines with chords shown above and lyrics below, all in ‘easy’ keys — mostly C and G — that we’ve found most guitarists and pianists can play and, more important, most people can sing comfortably. That’s why we’ve titled the book Sing along with ease.

The book is bound in a three-hole loose-leaf binder. So you can take pages out or put new ones in, make fresh copies of sheets that have been torn or make copies for audiences.

We’re selling our book for $39.95 plus $3.16 for shipping anywhere in the continental U.S. Searching the Internet, the only comparable sheet-music songbook I’ve found — that is, a book of old songs showing melodies as well as words and chords — offers only 53 songs and sells for $79.95. Our book contains 260 more songs and sells for 40 bucks less.

This book is perfect for volunteers or staff members who lead singalongs at nursing homes or senior residences. It’s also great for family or community get-togethers.

You don’t have to be an accomplished musician to accompany these songs. For hobby guitarists, the chords are simple. For hobby pianists, just play the chords on the left hand, the single-note melodies on the right. In fact, the book tells you where to find basic guitar and piano chords.

So tell your friends. For the price of a couple DVDs, they can sing along with the old standards, more than 300 of them. And do it with ease.

– Sid Leavitt