Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of two part pancocojams series about the American singing game (play party song) "Tideo".
Part II presents instructions about one way of playing (dancing) to the song "Tideo" and showcases three YouTube videos of "Tideo".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/online-excerpt-about-old-time-music.html for Part I presents information about and old lyric examples of the song "Tideo".
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The content of this post is presented for folkloric, recreational, and cultural purposes.
All copyright remains with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in these embedded videos and those who published these videos on YouTube.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/united-states-play-party-songs-other.html for a 2012 pancocojams post entitled "Draw Me A Bucket Of Water & Three Other African American Children's Singing Games". One of the video's showcased below is included in that post.
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLAYING (DANCING WHILE SINGING) "TIDEO"
This is one way of playing/dancing to "Tideo".
From From https://yellowbrickroadblog.com/2017/03/tideo.html
"DANCE
I honestly can’t remember where I first learned this dance, but I used it every year with great success. The directions are as follows:
Students form an inner and outer circle facing each other.
Skip one window, Tideo,
Skip two windows, Tideo,
Skip three windows, Tideo,
The outer circle sidesteps clockwise to the beat. Students step out on the first beat. Then, draw their other leg in on the second beat. To help them with this, I would often model while saying “step, together, step, together…” So, they should be facing a new person on every other beat.
Jingle at the windows, Tideo.
Facing their new partners, students pat the sixteenth notes on their legs. They clap the eighth notes. And finally, the partners pat their hands together for the quarter note.
*You will likely need to save the clapping/patting part till after they’ve mastered the other dance moves. For many of my classes, this was the final step, which I dubbed an “extra challenge”. If they were ready to move on, they were excited about the challenge, even begging for it. If they weren’t excited about it, that was my cue that I should save it for another day or work on the basic dance moves some more.
Tideo, Tideo
Partners swing their right arms, landing in the opposite circle they started in.
Jingle at the windows, Tideo
With the same partners as before, they pat and clap the rhythms. Then, the song begins again.
The dance part of this lesson, usually took up two class periods. After which, students really had a feel for the sixteenth notes."...
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: 3rd Grade Music-Singing Game Tideo (Fairmont Anaheim Hills Campus)
Uploaded by fairmonts chools on Jun 16, 2011 [California]
In this music activity, students experience 16th note rhythms in 4/4 meter, they sing in tune to a wide-range melody, and they work as a team.
At the Fairmont Private Schools - Anaheim Hills Campus, students enjoy music class in our sound-proof studio complete with a dance floor and African drums. Students participate in singing, dancing, instrument playing, and creating music!
-snip-
The lyrics for this version of the song are:
"Pass one window Tideo,
Pass two windows Tideo,
Pass three windows Tideo,
Jingle at the window Tideo.
Tideo, Tideo
Jingle at the window, Tideo
Tideo, Tideo
Jingle at the window, Tideo
-snip-
Here's a link to a video of some students from that school playing African drums to the song “Tideo”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95wwU_rtk60.
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Example #2: Spring Showcase - Tideo Song
Suresh Shanmugham, Jun 2, 2015
-snip-
The tune, tempo, and lyrics for this song are the same as given for Example #1, but the way the two groups perform the accompanying movements/"dance" while singing the song is different.
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Example #3: Tideo Singing Game Demo
Themes & Variations, Aug 9, 2017
-snip-
The tune and tempo for this version are the same as Example #1 and Example #2, but the lyrics are slightly different. The way this game is played is also different from the way that it was played in Example #1 and Example #2.
Here are the lyrics for this version of "Tideo" that were given by the publisher in that video's discussion thread:
"Pass one window Tideo,
Pass two windows Tideo,
Pass three windows Tideo,
Jingle at the window Tideo.
Jinglin' jinglin, jinglin Joe,
Jingle at the window Tideo.
Jinglin' jinglin, jinglin Joe,
Jingle at the window Tideo
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This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Here's a comment that I wrote in the discussion thread for Part I of this pancocojams series:
ReplyDeleteI'm not a proponent of the position that all or even most of the songs that enslaved Black Americans sung always had coded meanings that referred to escaping slavery. After all, if someone fled from slavery every time the songs "Wade In The Water" or "Go Down Moses" were sung, you would think that eventually the slave masters would get a clue.
That said, I wonder if the song "Tideo" originally was one of those coded songs- at least some of the time. The "pass one window...jingle at the window" lyrics certainly suggest to me that something furtive was happening.
Of course, there's no way of knowing if this theory is accurate, but it certainly gives me a deeper appreciation for this song.