In order to teach Go Tell Aunt Rhody in Suzuki volume 1, I believe that students need a number of prerequisites:

  1. Knowledge of the songs that precede it.
  2. Ability to quickly move to third finger on the A string from open E.
  3. Ability to use good tone.
  4. Ability to move fingers with ease to different letters or finger numbers on the finger board.
  5. Students should start using letters more at this point.

Steps to teaching:

  1. Teach the words to the song:
    Go tell Aunt Rhody, John is very sick. Go tell Aunt Rhody, he threw up on me.
    He ate some pop corn and some jelly beans. He ate some pop corn and some pop
    Go tell Aunt Rhody, John is very sick. Go tell Aunt Rhody, he threw up on me.

    Words help teach the form of the song and organize it in the students’ head. These are silly words that teach a fun message to kids not to eat junk food.

  2. Clap, sing, or tap the rhythm of first two measures (one measure at a time)
    1. Long Short Short Long Long
    2. Long Long Short Short Long
  3. Play “Jelly Beans.” E, D, C# several times to get that quick starting up bow.
  4. Play E E D C# C# several times.
  5. Play “He threw up on me.” B A B C# A several times.
  6. Teach one measure at a time or one small part at a time of the A section.
  7. Have students sing the middle section and play only the A parts for one week. Teach the middle section completely. Going from C# to D will be challenging at first.

If students have facility, this song should not be difficult. Moving from E to third finger D should be the biggest challenge along with the other finger twister.