Sing-A-Long Wee Sing Uses Simple Words And Familiar Melodies To Keep The Song In Children

In the song “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” how do the verses go? And in “The Farmer in the Dell,” does the “wife take the child”? How does the “Eentsy Weentsy Spider” end?

What began as simple questions about the words to traditional children’s songs and a desire to teach families the joy of music has turned into a nationally renowned, award-winning business known as Wee Sing, now in its 18th year.

It has been an entrepreneurial adventure - and a financially lucrative one, too - for Wee Sing creators Susan Hagen Nipp and Pamela Conn Beall. But in its wee beginnings, they never envisioned such widespread success.

Susan Nipp was born and raised in Spokane, graduating from Rogers High School in 1962 and from Whitworth College in 1966. She met her husband at Whitworth and in 1970 got married and moved to Portland where she attended graduate school in elementary music at Portland State University.

It was there she met Pamela Beall, also a music major, and the two became friends. After teaching music for a few years, the women found their lives running in parallel: At about the same time they began having babies and quit teaching. They got together in play groups with their young children and invariably the conversation would turn to their personal ambitions.

“There we were, ex-teachers with two children each,” recalls Nipp, now living in Coeur d’Alene. “‘What should we do?’ we asked each other. ‘We don’t want to go back to work full time.”’

They had been singing with their children and found that while many people remember the first few words of classic children’s songs, most could not recall every word. They decided to compile a book with all the words and hold workshops for parents and teachers.

“There is really something missing if these old traditional songs are being lost,” says Nipp, “because through them you learn a lot about our heritage. We researched the words and started teaching traditional music to friends, teachers and at universities. We tried to make it accessible and easy.”

“There was a void in the marketplace for the kind of thing we wanted as mothers, a song book to take in a purse, take in the car and be low-priced,” adds Beall, now the mother of four and living in Lake Oswego, Ore.

To fill that void, they selfpublished an illustrated book filled with favorite children’s songs, including music, lyrics and fingerplays, and called it “Wee Sing.”

Nipp and Beall were amazed at the immediate response the song book generated. What began as a project to enhance their own parenting soon consumed much of their time.

“We had absolutely no idea it would be this successful. We didn’t plan on that, didn’t imagine that,” says Beall.

Two years and 20,000 copies later, they gave over the distribution and production of the book to Price Stern Sloan, a publishing firm in Los Angeles. This allowed Nipp and Beall to focus on the creative aspects of their business.

In 1981, they added audiocassette tapes to the Wee Sing collection. By this time, Nipp and Beall had children ranging from 5 to 8 years old.

“We gathered together the kids of our own families and other kids and trained them as a choir,” says Nipp. “Then we went to the studio and taped ourselves. This went on for many years, until the boys’ voices changed. All 12 tapes have our children’s voices on them.”

They believe that children like listening to children. The words throughout Wee Sing songs are simple and the melodies familiar, making it easy for children to sing along uninhibitedly.

Besides giving children fun songs to sing, the Wee Sing music is intended to teach “first and most importantly, the joy of music,” Beall says. “All the hidden things in music are wonderful, too: coordination skills, language skills, rhythm, melody, matching tones, thinking skills. It’s all going on in their little bodies.”

It seemed natural to carry their philosophy into video as well. In 1985, Nipp and Beall collaborated on “Wee Sing Together,” the first of nine live-action music videos. Other videos followed with enchanting names such as “Wee Sing in Sillyville,” “Marvelous Musical Mansion” and “Grandpa’s Magical Toys.”

Video, with story lines and sets, provided Nipp and Beall the opportunity to teach basic life skills along with music: kindness, sharing, respect, helping others and self-confidence.

Both women participate in the video production process, which is done in Portland, using young Portland actors and actresses.

Although they live in different states, they talk almost daily and “bounce ideas off each other all the time,” Nipp says.

Wee Sing products now play to children in countries around the world. Whether in Russia, China or Finland, children are hearing the music in English, rather than translated into their native tongue.

“We are a traditional American product,” Nipp says, “and we are trying to share American culture, so we haven’t changed any of it.”

Both women believe in the importance of sharing music within a family.

Beall calls singing together “a joyous experience.”

Music, Nipp says, is a “sharing of yourself in a different way than conversation. It’s something of the spirit. When you share a different dimension of yourself, it’s a giving of yourself.”

MEMO: This is a sidebar which appeared with story:

A sampling of the Wee Sing collection

The Wee Sing line features 12 audiocassettes with songbooks and nine live-action videos, for ages 2 through 8. Here are a few that the entire family can enjoy:

Audiocassettes “Children’s Songs and Fingerplays” - The first Wee Sing product features 73 traditional children’s songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” and “This Old Man.” “Around the World” - To celebrate music as the universal language, here are more than 40 songs from all the continents performed in native languages and in English to encourage children to learn about different nationalities. “Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies” - Follow Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue and Mary with her lamb on a journey to London town for King Cole’s birthday while they share 77 classic nursery rhymes and lullabies along the way.

Videocassettes “Wee Sing Under the Sea” - Seven-year-old Devin and his funloving Granny are magically transported beneath the ocean waves, where they meet an array of aquatic inhabitants teaching them that despite their diversity, they can join together in friendship. “The Wee Sing Train” - All aboard with Tusky the Elephant and his adorable friends. Children will dance and sing in enchanting new places and discover that being careful won’t spoil the fun. “Wee Sing in Sillyville” - Silly songs, dances and a lively storyline prove that the world is a much better place when people of all colors live together in happiness. “Marvelous Musical Mansion” - The mansion sets the stage for uplifting songs and dances that instill the appreciation of music and the value of believing in one’s self.