Looks like You Too can have your own song banned - just submit it - details below.... :-) I know HOW to do the clickies - just won't this time.... :-P


http://www.abc.net.au/learn/sing/

Welcome to Sing Online - an initiative of ABC Books, Sydney.

Sing is the ABC's enormously successful and long-lived primary school music education program. For more than 40 years, Sing has been the leading resource for music educators throughout Australia and New Zealand. The Sing Book, The Sing Activity Book and the Sing recordings make up the annual Sing program. And now we bring you Sing Online - a free resource for children and teachers, music educators and anyone who uses Sing, or would like to!

A central feature of this website is the Sing Online Index. This index lists all songs contained in every Sing Book from 1975 to the present, and will be updated every year. You can browse through all the songs or search for particular songs using the Browse Index and Search Index functions. Two comprehensive listings are provided - a Song Title Listing and a First Line Listing. You can also search by keywords such as Composer(s) or Year (of The Sing Book). Many schools and independent teachers hold their own collection of Sing Books dating back many years. This index is of great assistance to people searching through their own collections looking for particular songs.


http://www.abc.net.au/learn/sing/about.htm

        


A Brief History of Sing.

Sing has been an integral part of the primary school music curriculum in Australia since the late 1950s. The Sing program originally consisted of two radio shows that were broadcast into classrooms across the nation. The shows, 'Let's Hear the Music' (later known as 'Let's Have Music') and 'Singing and Listening' were tailored for lower and upper primary school students respectively. The songs from both shows were combined in the annual release of the Sing book. Many adults can still remember their favourite Sing tunes from when they were at school!

The radio shows, 'Let's Hear the Music' and 'Singing and Listening' were produced by the Education Department of the ABC, which was then known as the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Each state and territory had an advisory committee, comprising of music teachers from both state and private schools, who put forward their suggested songs for the year. An ABC producer contributed songs and pooled all the committees' shortlists to make the final selection, which was then transcribed by a musician and recorded at the ABC in Sydney. The radio programs were still being broadcast weekly up until the late 1980s and were then called 'Follow That Song' and 'Sing'. Audio cassettes of the songs became available in the 1970s and these have been joined more recently by the production of CDs. Today, the annual Sing recordings are available on CD (two volumes). The Sing Books have always contained a broad range of songs, and featured around 60 songs per book in the 1970s - although today the books usually have around 50 songs.

Historically the songs in the Sing program were always divided into two groups - catering for lower and upper primary. Like the radio show, the books were once divided into 'Let's Hear the Music' (lower primary) and 'Singing and Listening' (upper primary) within the one Sing Book. However in more recent years it has become evident that music teachers use songs from the entire repertoire, no matter what class they are teaching. So today there is no longer the lower and upper primary division in the songs.

Over the years, the annual print runs of the Sing book have been enormous, peaking one year in the 1970s with 800,000 copies being printed. At this time the ABC distributed the Sing book, and virtually every primary school student owned their own copy every year. The book's title has undergone many changes. From Let's All Sing, Sing Together to Sing Again, the book has been named simply The Sing Book since 1990. The release year is now always included in the title too.

For many years the illustrator of the Sing books was Allan Stomann, who sketched comical and entertaining drawings to complement the songs. Now there is a new illustrator each year to give The Sing Book a fresh look every time.

'The annual teachers' resource, The Sing Teachers' Handbook, which is the companion publication to The Sing Book, has also had different hats. It was previously known as Sing, Beat, Swing, The Sing Percussion Book and The Sing Activity Book.


Sing Today
The Sing program is no longer broadcast over the radio. It is now published as a collection that includes The Sing Book, The Sing Teachers' Handbook and the Sing recordings.

The Sing Committee
The Sing Committee consists of 10 highly experienced music educators who teach music at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The members include past and present school teachers, composers and private music tutors. They each hold membership in the Committee for three years before others are recruited to fill their place. Ongoing members are the Chair of the Committee, Rhonda Macken (who is also the Music Coordinator of the project) and the Music Producer, John Kane.

The Committee meets once a week for an eight week block every year to select songs for The Sing Book. Producing the Sing program is a long process. Time is factored in for the selection of songs, the clearing of copyright, music typesetting, book design and typesetting, creation of The Sing Teachers' Handbook and the producing of the Sing recordings which involves a large team of producers, engineers, vocalists, musicians, and children's choirs.

How are songs selected for Sing?
The Sing Committee members use their broad collective knowledge of the national and international music repertoire to consider songs that are suitable for primary school students. ABC Books also receives a large number of unsolicited submissions every year, which are carefully considered by the Committee. Each year a new theme is chosen for The Sing Book and 5-10 songs are included which reflect this theme. For example in 2004 it was an 'Australian Historical' theme and in 2005 it was a 'Water' theme.

How do I submit my songs for consideration by the Sing Committee?
Musicians are welcome to submit their original compositions to be considered by the Sing Committee. People submitting material should ensure that the songs are suitable for primary students (Years 3-6, or 7 in some states), are their own work and they own copyright in the material. Please submit only songs which you feel are your best material. Including the following makes it easier for the Committee to consider your work: a sound recording on CD or cassette; a copy of the lyrics; a copy of the score; names and contact details for all people holding copyright in the work. The Sing Committee will sit from around June 2005 for 8 weeks to consider songs for Sing 2007. We will be accepting unsolicited material up until the end of May 2005. Please address all submissions to the Sing Committee, and click here for details of where to send your song(s).

What happens if my song is selected for Sing?
A music publisher represents a composition on behalf of the writer/composer. ABC Music Publishing is an internationally affiliated music publisher and represents over 2500 works and 160 composers. When the ABC includes a previously unpublished composition in Sing, we request the music publishing administration rights in that composition, allowing us to act on the successful composer's behalf. This gives the ABC the ability to take up further opportunities for the composition, on the composer's behalf - this may include licensing the music for other uses outside of Sing such as reproduction into other publications, or the inclusion of the composition on CD releases etc. A music publishing contract is issued to the successful composers which specifies the term, territory and royalties offered by the ABC as publishers of that work. Many ABC-published Sing works have appeared in various licensed publications as well as other CD releases, earning the writers extra publishing income.