Have you ever joined in with a song you knew by heart, only to find that everyone else sang the next line differently?
It might be a lullaby someone sang to you, a song you learnt at school or a chorus everyone joined in with at a family gathering. Sometimes the words change from one town to the next. Sometimes two people in the same family remember a different ending.
One of the things I find interesting about folk songs is how quickly the version we learnt first starts to feel like the right one. Then someone sings a verse we've never heard and we find out there's more to the song than we thought.
A Few Questions For Everyone
- Which traditional song did you grow up hearing, and who did you learn it from?
- Have you heard it sung with a different tune, an extra verse or another ending?
- Was there an occasion when people always sang it, such as a wedding, a festival or a family gathering?
- Is there a song your family carried with them when they moved to another town or country?
- How much can the words or tune change before it feels like a different song to you?
The History of Traditional Folk Songs - Songs And Poems
Songs from every country and language are welcome. If you only remember the tune or what the song was about, that's a good place to start. Someone here might recognise it.