Children’s Songs New and Old · A New Twist on an Old Favorite
Miss Mary Mack
Improvisation, harmony, oral tradition, and lyric creation for general music.
About This Lesson
Who doesn’t love Miss Mary Mack! This hand-clapping game was a favorite of my elementary students. I generally used this song to teach simple rhythm patterns, reinforced with the hand-clapping game. I recently recorded this song and, in the process, discovered that it was a great foundation for improvisation.
This lesson describes ideas for teaching students how to use their voice and/or a mallet instrument to improvise over Miss Mary Mack. If you teach general music, you most likely teach the same students for multiple years. This song can be introduced early in students’ music education and revisited in later years with increasing levels of complexity. The lesson assumes that students know the song and are familiar with the hand-clapping pattern. There are even some ‘dance breaks’ in the recording to add a little more fun.
The Song
All dressed in black, black, black.
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.
For fifty cents, cents, cents,
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.
She touched the sky, sky, sky.
And she never came back, back, back
Til’ the fourth of July, ly, ly.
History of Miss Mary Mack
The first publication of Miss Mary Mack is recorded in The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin, and Wide Distribution, published in 1888. The version in this book was collected in West Chester, PA. It is not clear who wrote the song or how it evolved, but the book describes numerous chants and rhymes created by children across cultures worldwide. It is a fascinating book that has been digitized—I was able to download it from the Boston library.
The lyrics in that book differ from what I have used and appear to be a melding of two well-known children’s chants. If you go searching for musical examples of this song, you will discover many variations in the text, which I think lends itself to children’s play methods. Changing up lyrics to match their life experiences is a common technique.
Teaching Ideas
Change a melodic pattern, rhythmic pattern, or both for one line of each phrase
Melody. The simple, repetitive melody is a great foundation for improvisation. The traditional tetratonic scale lends itself to using more notes for improvising or “decorating” the main melody. I started out in E major but quickly found that mixing in the parallel minor scale was a little more interesting around measure 7—changing the original melody note E to a minor 3rd higher, G. I didn’t set out to create in this scale, but as I was recording, I heard the harmony part there and went with it.
Rhythm. Another change was the rhythm for “Mack, Mack, Mack” and “buttons.” Instead of a simple on-the-beat pattern, I created a syncopated rhythm that still works well with the hand-clapping patterns. For the remaining phrases, change one melodic and/or rhythmic pattern per phrase, keeping the melodic change simple by incorporating just the G natural. On the second time through, vary the changes slightly.
Create a background or harmonic idea to flow with the main melody
In small groups, students can take turns improvising a pattern while the others sing the traditional part. Spaces and overlaps in the melody are obvious areas to decorate with a second vocal part. Repeating words can be harmonized, or the main melody can be overlapped with a conversational melody using the lowered third (G natural) and tonic. On “she touched the sky,” try B, A, G, E. Let students take their time experimenting to find harmonic, overlapping, or echo ideas that fit well.
Create an accompaniment pattern using barred instruments or boomwhackers
A steady pattern can lay a foundation for improvising the body of the song. Students can also be tasked with creating an introduction, an interlude for the “dance break,” and an ending.
Change the lyrics while keeping the same flow for the hand-clapping game
Provide a little history of this hand-clapping game, invented by children and written about in 1888. Passing songs down to our children, friends, and loved ones is how songs in the oral tradition stay alive—and how they evolve and change over time. Create a list of topics with your students, then fit them into the pattern for Miss Mary Mack.
Park Springs is cool, cool, cool / Red, white and blue, blue, blue / We always win, win, win / We are a team, team, team…
My dog is fast, fast, fast / He runs all day, day, day / He chases balls, balls, balls / And never stops to stay, stay, stay.
With some experience, students may want to create their own hand-clapping game that differs entirely from the Miss Mary Mack pattern.
Fun Facts
There are many theories about the song’s meaning, none proven, but they are fun to think about. The name Mary Mack could have belonged to a circus performer in the 1880s—which is why elephants are mentioned. Another theory points to the Merrimack River and the USS Merrimack, which had silver rivets. One thing is certain: since children appear to have created this chant, they could have used bits of information from their own experience. Regardless, it has stood the test of time.
Resources
- Picture book (preschool and up): Hoberman, M. A. (2019). Miss Mary Mack: A Hand-Clapping Rhyme (N. B. Westcott, Illus.). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
- Recording: Ella Jenkins, considered the first lady of children’s music, has many recordings useful in the preschool and elementary classroom. Smithsonian Folkways offers Ella Jenkins: Adventures in Rhythm, which includes Miss Mary Mack.
- Reference: Bolton, H. C. (1888). The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin, and Wide Distribution. A Study in Folklore. Elliot Stock, London.
In my career, I have had the privilege to teach students of all ages, from preschool to doctoral students! Recording this children’s album has been a labor of love, because I have been able to reconnect with the songs my students enjoyed and create a new idea within each tune. I hope your students will enjoy these lessons.
— Dr. Sharon G. Davis