Zipper Songs as Theology

I chuckled at myself when I realized that more than half of the songs in my Pray and Play collection are zipper songs. I love zipper songs because they build responsiveness into the sharing of the song. They invite participants to co-construct the experience, making music and making meaning together.

In a zipper song, the melody and the chord progression stay put. One lyric or movement slot opens for the participant to fill (think Old MacDonald or Wheels on the Bus). Sometimes the slot is a movement. Sometimes it is a feeling. Sometimes it is a melody no one has heard before. The structure is reassuringly consistent, while the content evolves with the community’s input.

That slot is a small act of creation. The participant makes something that did not exist a moment ago. The room receives it. The room sings it back. We were made b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, and the simplest understanding of that image is the capacity to create and the capacity to connect.

This article is for the cantors, songleaders, and music directors who have been using zipper songs, perhaps without naming why they work or understanding the neuroscience to fully appreciate the power you wield when you lead these. Once you can name it, the songs do more, and you can apply the same principles in new ways.

A Small Theology of the Open Slot

There is a long Jewish tradition of leaving room. The unfinished corner left on a home or sanctuary. The silent sections of the service. The siddur margin where for centuries people wrote their own kavanot. The structure is sturdy, providing a safe container for the unexpected. The slot is open, transforming the participant from a passive listener into an active partner in creation, the very definition of partnering with the Divine.

A zipper song is the musical midrash, a melodic version of this ancient dynamic to help make the experience more meaningful and relevant. The melody is sturdy enough that even a tentative singer can hold it. The chord progression is so simple and familiar it reassures. The open slot is small enough to be doable. A two-year-old can fill it with one word. A grown up who has never improvised in their life can fill it with one movement. The room reflects the response back, and the participant discovers, sometimes for the first time, what composing and conducting feel like. I love giving this to kiddos. The imbalance of power in their lives is intense, and a zipper song creates a moment they get to control.

This is theology happening in real time. Each person is a creator. The community’s role is to receive the offering and respond to it. The structure of the song teaches the structure of the relationship.

Why This Matters for Synagogue Worship

Much of children’s music is structured for the leader to perform and the room to listen. The kiddos clap along. They learn a chorus. They watch the leader do the work. I admire the work of children’s performers, and songleading for kiddos is a different craft. There is room for a different design.

A zipper song flips that design. The leader holds the structure. The room does the meaning-making. The leader’s guidance has to be sturdy enough to let go without the room falling apart, leaving the air clear for whatever the room decides to put there. This is a different skill than performing.

When you watch a three-year-old fill a zipper slot and a room of grown ups sing it back to her, something happens to her sense of herself in Jewish space. She is a contributor, and the room has just confirmed it. This is preparation for her first aliyah.

Three Zipper Songs From Pray and Play, and What They Teach

Three songs, three kinds of zipper prompts: a movement, a feeling, and a brand-new melody. Check out 10 Jewish Zipper Songs for Kiddos to see them in action.

How Good It Is, How Sweet It Is: Hinei Mah Tov

The slot is a movement: clap, stomp, tap, blink, breathe. In a room full of infants, we might tickle, sway, and peek-a-boo. Elementary kids might stomp, cartwheel, and dab (LOL). The zipping helps adapts to the piece precisely for the participants (see more about that in What NAEYC Knows That Synagoguges Miss)

Hello Blessing, Bye-Bye Stressing

The thing we “zip” into the song is an intention- what kind of Shabbat should we share? Peaceful, yummy, wiggly, restful…. The grown up next to the kiddo learns what the kiddo is carrying that week without having to ask.

Shir Chadash: A New Song Improv Game

The open slot is a melody: four beats to invent something brand new. Each participant gets four beats, and the room echoes it back. A three-year-old leads, twenty adults follow. An adult who has never improvised leads, and discovers that going first was survivable. They felt what it is like to be create and conduct.