American Counting-Out Chant · Elementary Music · Grades PreK–6
The simplest chant in the library — and one of the most useful. Six words, all quarter notes, and the perfect steady-beat anchor for layered rhythm activities with As I Was Walking Down the Lake and Doggy Doggy Diamond.
American counting-out chant · two versions
About this chant
Red, White and Blue is so short it barely registers as a song — but it does something no longer chant can do quite as cleanly: it puts every single word exactly on a beat, with no subdivision, no pickup note, no rhythmic complexity whatsoever. That's the point.
Because every syllable is a quarter note, the chant is a perfect vehicle for demonstrating steady beat, introducing the quarter note (ta), and showing what 4/4 meter looks like in the simplest possible musical context. Two measures, eight beats, eight words. Students who chant it can replace each word with a quarter note on the page and have their first experience reading rhythm notation from something they've already performed.
The chant's greatest power comes when it's used as the anchor layer in a rhythm-stacking activity. Because every beat is occupied by exactly one syllable, Red White and Blue provides the steadiest possible rhythmic foundation. Add "As I Was Walking Down the Lake" on top and the anacrusis becomes unmistakable. Add "Doggy Doggy Diamond" as a third layer and you have a genuine percussion ensemble built entirely from chants students already know.
The short version ("I pick you") creates a quarter rest on the final beat — but note that this makes it less stable as a layering anchor. Use each version for the right purpose: standard for layering, short for rest teaching.
Teaching guide
The complete video demonstration — including the layering activity — is available inside a Singing Classroom subscription.
Any time you need to select one child quickly, or eliminate children one at a time until a final winner is chosen. Point to one child per beat — the steady quarter-note rhythm makes the pointing natural and fair. Whoever lands on "you" is selected or eliminated. Fast enough to use even with a large class without losing momentum.
Once the chant is familiar, draw students' attention to the one-to-one relationship between syllables and beats. Show how each word can be replaced by a quarter note symbol — this is one of the cleanest first experiences with rhythm notation in the elementary repertoire. Students have already performed the rhythm; now they can see it on the page.
The chant is exactly two measures of 4/4. Show students how the eight beats divide into two groups of four, and why 4/4 (rather than 2/4) is the more logical reading: each measure completes one textual phrase. "Red, white, and blue" is one complete phrase — four beats. "All out but you" is the second — four more beats. The phrase structure and the metric structure align perfectly.
Assign this chant to one group on unpitched percussion as a steady, unchanging layer. Then add a second group performing "As I Was Walking Down the Lake" on top — the anacrusis ("As I") immediately stands out against the quarter-note beat. For a third layer, add "Doggy Doggy Diamond." The three rhythms together create a rich ensemble texture built entirely from chants every student already knows.
Switch to "Red, white, and blue — I pick you" when teaching the quarter rest. The final beat is now silent — but it must still be felt and counted. Have students show the rest with a gesture (open hands, a conducted rest motion) so the silence is active rather than passive. This is one of the most direct, musical introductions to the quarter rest in the library.
The three-chant layering activity
See Deborah demonstrate the full layering activity in the video — it's one of the most effective rhythm ensemble activities in the library.
The anchor. Perform on unpitched percussion — drums, woodblocks, or rhythm sticks. Every beat occupied, every note a quarter note. This group keeps the steadiest possible beat. The simpler this layer plays, the more effective the layering becomes. Assign students who need the most rhythmic support here — holding the beat for the whole ensemble is genuinely satisfying.
The anacrusis layer. Add this group once Layer 1 is solid. The opening "As I" immediately creates a pickup note effect against the quarter-beat anchor — students in Layer 1 can hear that "As" falls before their first beat. The contrast between the two rhythms makes anacrusis completely audible without any notation or explanation needed.
The tiri-tiri layer. Add last. The four-sixteenth pattern of "Dog-gy Dog-gy" subdivides the beat against the quarter-note anchor, creating a third rhythmic texture. With all three layers running, the ensemble sounds genuinely complex — a real percussion texture built from three chants every student already knows.
Establish Layer 1 and let it run for several repetitions before adding Layer 2. Add Layer 3 only when Layers 1 and 2 are stable. Rotate groups so every student experiences all three rhythmic roles — the sensation of each part is genuinely different. Debrief after rotating: which layer was hardest to maintain? Why? This is rhythm literacy taught entirely through doing.
Complete the three-chant stack
Layer 2 of the rhythm stack. The anacrusis ("As I") becomes unmistakable against the quarter-note anchor of Red White and Blue.
See teaching guide →Layer 3 of the rhythm stack. Tiri-tiri (four sixteenths) against the quarter-note beat — the most complex layer, added last.
See teaching guide →Another classic counting-out chant — tiri-ti rhythm and a natural companion in any rhythm unit alongside Red White and Blue.
See teaching guide →Common questions
The standard version is: "Red, white, and blue — all out but you." The short version is: "Red, white, and blue — I pick you." Both are on this page above. The standard version fills all eight beats with syllables, making it the best anchor for layering activities. The short version creates a quarter rest on the final beat, making it useful for rest teaching.
The standard version ("all out but you") fills every beat — making it the most stable possible steady-beat anchor for layering activities. The short version ("I pick you") leaves the final beat empty, creating a quarter rest. That rest is a wonderful teaching tool, but it slightly disrupts the pure steady-beat function. Use the standard version when layering with other chants; use the short version specifically when you want to introduce or reinforce the quarter rest.
Because each line of text is a natural four-beat phrase. "Red, white, and blue" is one complete phrase — four beats, four words. "All out but you" is the second — four more beats, four more words. Grouping these into two measures of 4/4 reflects the natural phrase structure. 4/4 is the more musically logical reading because each measure completes a textual phrase; in 2/4, you'd have four measures and the phrase boundaries would fall between measures rather than at their ends.
Divide the class into three groups. Group 1 performs Red White and Blue on unpitched percussion — the steady quarter-note anchor. Group 2 adds "As I Was Walking Down the Lake" — the anacrusis stands out immediately against the beat. Group 3 adds "Doggy Doggy Diamond" — the tiri-tiri pattern provides a third, subdivided layer. Establish each layer one at a time, let it stabilize, then add the next. Rotate groups so every student experiences all three rhythmic roles. See Deborah's video for the full demonstration.
The real problem
Every teacher knows this feeling. You find a song, try it on Monday, and something goes sideways — the kids don't engage, you're not sure how to introduce it, the lesson loses momentum. It's not that the song was wrong. You just didn't have a clear picture of how it actually goes.
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