Recently Michigan Kodaly Educators invited my friend Dr. Miriam Factora to come present for us for a full day workshop. Let me just say how much of an absolute BOSS this woman is and you need to learn from her. This amazing educator wanted to incorporate more traditional Filipino music and instead was challenged to do her own field work. So she did. Her work is the result of two full years (that she funded herself) of folk song collection (plus years more of occasional collecting. Legitimately heroic efforts to make sure it was collected and put together for use. Here are three of her recently released/re-released resources with Filipino Folk Songs.
I’d like to also mention this post isn’t sponsored in any way. I am just super grateful for Miriam’s work that my child will be able to learn songs from his heritage as he grows up! Links are affiliate links but that won’t change your price and I get a small kickback. No pressure!
Musical Folk Games of Manila, Philippines
This book specifically features games from Manila, the Philippine capital. It includes transcriptions and game directions for 28 songs! Here’s a sneak peak of one of the pages.
Buy the book on Amazon
Tarong, Kamatis, Paria
This one is an illustrated song tale about three vegetables who realize that pinakbet (or dinengdeng) would not be as yummy without all of them! This book includes three downloadable tracks, music in both Ilocano and Filipino and 5 activities to do to accompany the song.
Buy the book on Amazon
Philippines Children’s Songs, Spoken Rhymes, and Games for Teaching (Book 1)
This one is a larger collection of folk songs from a wide variety of areas. It has 132 songs in the collection and includes 98 downloadable audio tracks. It includes directions for games as well. Songs have two languages present – the first being the original language that the song was collected in, the second is a translation to Filipino.
Buy the book on Amazon
Her educational background includes Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze training, a PhD, and conducting studies. Find out more about Miriam, her work, and upcoming workshops here: https://miriamfactora.com
I hope you get a chance to check these out!
