Is there an Alef Beis song?

Choirmistress

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 9:15 am

Does anyone know of a tune to which the Alef Beis is, or can be, set?

I've been thinking of making up my own tune, and you can bet it doesn't fit the "Twinkle, Twinkle" rhythm!

More like

Bah bah ba-dum
Bah bah ba-dum
Bah-bah bah-bah Baa-aa-aa-aah

Shall I go ahead and compose one, and if so, should it be in Sfardi or Ashkenazi mivta?

rachel6543

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 9:19 am

Yes, this is the one l learned as a kid

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UiCzoTs1AdE

Barbara

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 9:22 am

Choirmistress wrote:

Choirmistress

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 9:47 am

Thanks, Rachel. I'm not sure how easy this video is for kids to understand. Even less so is a longer video by a rabbi with a guitar, filmed in the recording studio.

I think I'll go ahead with mine, which will be totally in Hebrew and with a minimum of extraneous words.

Thanks for the link to the video.

Regards,
Choirmistress

Choirmistress

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 9:56 am

I think the rhymes to round out the letter names will have to be English. I couldn't think of one in Hebrew for even the first line-ender of yud!

Regards and "watch this space" for my version.
Choirmistress

bigsis144

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 10:05 am

My mother used to sing an alef bet song that went like this:

"Alef, alef, bet and vet,
gimmel, daled, hey,
vav and zayin, chet and tet,
and a yud for play.

Kaf, chaf, loooong chaf,
lamed, mem and nun,
final nun and samach, ayin,
I shall know them soon.

Pey and fey and final fey,
tzadi -- short and long,
kuf, reish, shin, sin, taf and saf,
this completes my song."

it was a nursery-rhyme-esque tune, but not shared with any actual songs that I know of.
(Also, in typing it out, I realize that the song skips mem sofit, but has all the other "sofit" letters. Oops on the songwriter, I guess. And alef twice at the beginning... there's a reason I don't sing this tune to my kids, I think it's unnecessarily confusing.)

PinkFridge

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 11:35 am

I don't know if this was the link but there's was one that was responsive:
Alef beis veis
Gimel daled heh
Vav zayin ches tes
Yud kaf chaf
Lamed mem nun
Samech ayin peh phe
Tzaddi kuf reish
Shin sin taf and saf

And the pre-davening song

There once was an aleph who went for a walk
He met a bais ves and they had a little talk
Shalom Mr. Gimel and how are you today?
I am Baruch Hashem fine is what the gimel did say
Then aleph bais ves gimel went down the street
And whom do you think they happened to meet?
It was the daled and the heh and the vav and the zayin
They went to a fountain to drink some mayim
Then ches tes yud also came with them
Then aleph (continue saying the name of each letter loud)....saaaf
Ran to daven to Hashem.

Choirmistress

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 11:47 am

Yes, thank you for that, and I did notice the double alef and the missing mem sofit.

Well, so far I've got two verses of my version done. I can already see that it makes sense to add a verse with every "level" of learning, so that children in nursery through Grade 1 (depending on the school and the child) would learn only the first verse, then in kindergarten through Grade 2 learn verse 2, and so on.

I've discovered that I already made up a marching tune that lends itself perfectly to my Alef Beit version.
I also think that the third verse will be sufficient to give a young student enough information on the Alef Beit without getting into the deep mystical meaning of the letters.

On to Verse 3!

Regards,
Choirmistress

Lady Bug

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 11:51 am

Check YouTube, there are quite a few aleph beis songs on there.

Choirmistress

Tue, Aug 05 2014, 10:17 am

I've got all three verses done. It is in Word format. How can I upload it here and still retain the coding, I.e., there are syllables in EACH LINE that are bold to indicate the beat of the song. I just wish I could give all you ladies the tune along with the words! It would make the rhythm very clear.

Anyway, how can I upload it to this forum from my computer desktop?

(BTW, this is being done on my break at work.)

An easy fast to everyone, and may we be zoche to see Tisha b'Av turned from fast to feast bimhera b'yomeinu!

Regards,
Choirmistress

Choirmistress

Thu, Aug 07 2014, 2:03 pm

Alef Bét
(Obviously, the bold syllables take the even 4/4 marching beat.)

Alef, bét and vé-ét, gimmel dalet hé-éh,
Va-av, za-ayin, chet, tet, yoo-oo-ood,
Kaph and kaph so-ofit, chaph and chaph so-ofit,
A-and la-amed are sounding goo-oo-ood.

Mem and mem sofi-it, nun and nun sofi-it,
Samech, a-ayin, péh and phé-é-éh,
Phéh sofit a-and tza-adi(k), tzadi(k) sofit,
A-and kuf all have their sa-a-ay.

CHORUS: There are ré-ésh a-and shin, his twin brothe-er si-in,
And fi-inally tav and sa-a-av.
If you lea-earn a-all these, you’ll be busy as bees,
For then you can read Iv-rit, whi-ich you’ll lo-o-ove!

There are twenty-two-oo basic otyo-ot,
A-all wi-ith thei-eir own shémo-o-ot,
A-and with their own mea-eaning, shape a-and sound,
Helped along by the nekudo-o-ot.

A dagésh turns vét to bét, chaph to kaph,
Phéh to péh, a-and sav to ta-a-av.
And five letters change form from the u-usual norm
When a word they’re the end o-o-of!

CHORUS

Every letter keeps a-a meaning deep
And each one for a number sta-a-ands.
And the se-equence of each ha-as something to teach:
Its own place ea-each one dema-a-ands.

Never taking dagésh are the alef and résh,
Final mem, final nun or che-e-et,
Never in an ayin a dot will you find,
Nor in final tzadi(k), you be-e-et!

CHORUS

Every letter's name begins with the same
Very sound wi-ith which it sta-a-arts.
But each vo-owel's sound is the se-econd that's found
In its name -- kee-eep them apa-a-art.

Five t'nu-ot are short, seven o-others lo-ong.
Four half-vow-e-els sound unsu-u-ure.
You will learn the-em a-all fro-om charts on the wa-all,
Or from a-any good si-du-u-ur.

CHORUS

And that's my new version. Enjoy. If anyone wants to learn the tune, just send me a PM and I'll be happy to give you my phone number here in Toronto, so that I can sing you the melody over the phone.

Again, this is l'iluy nishmos horai hayekarim Yoel ben Yehudah Aryeh and Sima bas Yitzchok Eizik.

Let's spread Yiddishkeit from Alef Beis through adulthood, to be zochim liGeulah Shleimah bimheiro b'yameinu.