



Spirituals
- Ain’t I Glad I’ve Got Out the Wilderness
- Ain’t That Rockin’ All Night
- All Around the Maypole
- All My Trials
- All Night, All Day
- Amen
- Angel Band
- Babylon’s Falling
- Balm in Gilead
- Blow Your Trumpet Gabriel
- Bob-A-Needle
- By’m Bye
- Chatter with the Angels
- Children Go Where I Send Thee
- Come and Go with Me to That Land
- Dat Suits Me
- Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again
- Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel
- Do, Lord
- Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round
- Down By the Riverside
- Down in the Valley (Two by Two)
- Dry Bones
- Every Time I Feel the Spirit
- Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
- Follow the Drinking Gourd
- Free At Last
- Git on Board
- Give Me Jesus
- Go Down, Moses
- Go Tell it On the Mountain
- Goin’ to Shout (see Heav’n, Heav’n)
- Good News
- Great Big Stars
- Great Day
- Great Mornin’
- He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
- Healing Waters
- Heav’n, Heav’n
- Heaven Bell A-Ring
- Hunting for a Home
- I Heard from Heaven Today
- I Want to Be Ready
- I’m Goin’ Home on a Cloud
- I’m Gonna Sing
- Jacob’s Ladder
- Jehovah, Hallelujah
- Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
- Keep in the Middle of the Road
- Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
- Kum Ba Ya
- Let Me Fly
- Lift Every Voice and Sing
- Little David, Play On Your Harp
- Little White Daisies
- Mary and Martha
- Mary Had a Baby
- Michael Row the Boat Ashore
- Mister Rabbit
- My Father’s House
- My Lord What a Mornin’
- Newborn Baby
- No Hiding Place
- Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen
- Oh Freedom
- Oh I’m Goin’ to Sing
- Oh Won’t You Sit Down
- Old Ark’s a Moverin’
- Old Ship of Zion
- Old Zion’s Children
- Open the Window Noah
- Over My Head
- Peace Like a River
- Poor Little Jesus
- Rock-a-My Soul
- Rockin’ Jerusalem
- Roll Jordan Roll
- Roll the Chariot
- Roll the Old Chariot
- Shepherd, Shepherd
- Sinner Man
- Sit Down Brother
- Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door
- Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
- Soon Ah Will Be Done
- Standing in the Need of Prayer
- Steal Away to Jesus
- Sun Don’t Set in the Mornin’
- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
- There is More Love Somewhere
- There’s a Little Wheel
- There’s a Meeting Here Tonight
- This Little Light of Mine
- This Train
- Trampin’
- Two Wings
- Uncle Jessie
- Wade in the Water
- Walk Together Children
- Wasn’t That a Mighty Day
- When the Train Comes Along
- Who Built the Ark?
- Woke Up This Mornin’
- Yonder Comes Sister Mary
Other African American Folk Songs
Often with repetitive lyrics and pentatonic melodies, Spirituals can be easy to learn and useful as teaching tools for lots of things:
- Recorders (there are lots of B-A-G patterns).
- Melody lessons with pentatonic scale
- Many of them lend themselves to using a bordun on xylophones (see Orff).
- Steady beat – it’s easy to find the strong beats in most of these songs – so that lends itself to moving and playing to the beat.
- Rhythm – some of them work well to introduce half notes or whole notes.
- Adding sign language
- Phrases / Melodic Contour – Many songs have four phrases where the first three phrases have the same lyrics (often with a slight melodic change in phrase two) and the last phrase is different. Discuss melodic contour (i.e. “What is different about the melody in the 2nd phrase? Does it go up or down at the end?”). Here are some of these songs:
Some spirituals are rich with hidden meaning, such as:
- Follow the Drinking Gourd
- Go Down Moses
- Swing Low Sweet Chariot (see link)
- Wade in the Water (see link)
In fact, the words, “heaven,” “Promised Land,” “Chariot,” etc. probably meant other hidden messages. (see link)
See also
- Country: United States
- Subjects: trains / work / Christian
- Melody: B,A,G / pentatonic / blues
- PowerPoint

