The Song Tree
The Song Tree is a BBC schools radio series from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, covering Music for primary school pupils.
A series about singing and listening for infant children, joining the school radio series Time and Tune, Music Workshop and Music Makers for older children.
The title originates from the idea that the programme represents a tree that grows out of a song, as the presenters encourage children not just to sing but to play accompaniments, as well as rhythm and melody games, listening activities and other related activity.
When it began the series strictly focussed on one song per episode with no overlaps or development, so that teachers could record the programmes and play them back in a different order or skip episodes completely - in fact I think that several of the terms without titles in the episode list below did not have a title or theme at all. In the mid-1980s it adopted a similar approach to the other BBC school radio music series, with a uniting theme every term, sometimes even a cantata to be learned, and songs to be remembered and built-up from week to week.
The series had originally been scheduled to begin in the autumn term 1980, on Fridays at 10:45am, but it did not go out in 1980-81 at all (possibly due to the severe school radio budget cuts around that time, but that's only speculation) and it began properly in spring 1982.
The Song Tree was broadcast in every school term from 1985 to 2000. After that The Song Tree was still broadcast in most terms, and from 2000 to 2007 Let's Sing! was broadcast whenever there was no Song Tree.
Episodes of The Song Tree were originally 15 minutes long, but programmes produced since 1999 have been 20 minutes long. When older 15-minute programmes are repeated in 20-minute timeslots, they are bolstered by a couple of extra songs at the end to make up time.
Episode Guide
Can't find the productions you remember here? Maybe they were from the BBC's other music radio series with drama productions, Time and Tune, Music Workshop or Music Makers?
If you have any of the Song Tree pamphlets that you can scan please get in touch by email. Similarly if you know any of the missing titles from the 1980s please get in touch by email.
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