Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?) on Boomwhackers
Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?) is a free color-coded Boomwhacker play-along on bimbadi: the notes fly toward your class in their tube colors on the smartboard or projector, with English lyrics to sing along (also in German, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish). You only need C, D, E, F, G and A. The lyrics run in six languages, including English (“Are you sleeping, Brother John?”) and the French original. Free, no sign-up, no ads.
The player’s menus are in German for now. Press ▶ and play: “Tempo” is the speed slider, “Tonart” means key.
Tubes you need
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- A
- Key
- C major
- Time
- 4/4
- Form
- Round
- Melody
- C D E F G A
- Chords
- C E G
- German title
- Bruder Jakob
No tubes? With the QR wall every student scans a code and gets one color as an instrument on a phone or tablet. Boomwhacker colors: C red, D orange, E yellow, F light green, G dark green, A purple, B pink, high C red again.
Classroom idea
Play the melody together first, then as a round: group two starts after two measures, and groups three and four follow. Students who aren’t ready for the whole tune repeat the “ding, dang, dong” on C and G as an ostinato. That way everyone plays, even while the round is still a little wobbly.
Colored sheet music to print
The play-along is free. Colored sheet music for “Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?)” with a lesson plan is available on eduki (German edition).
💡 German sheet music uses the German note names: H is your B, and B means B♭. The colors are the same.
In other languages
- German Bruder Jakob
- Spanish Martinillo (Frère Jacques)
- French Frère Jacques
- Italian Fra Martino
- Dutch Vader Jacob
- Polish Panie Janie
More songs like this
No lyrics printed here. Melodies are in the public domain or our own arrangements for Boomwhackers; sources are listed in the player under “Für Lehrkräfte” (for teachers).