Start Your Day With A Song

Talk about jazzed! We like to think this energetic big band piece could have been the featured song and dance number in any number of old movie musicals. We can just see iconic images of famous dancers floating effortlessly to the driving tempo and happy melody. And all in their pajamas and robes! What a way to start your day indeed.

Despite the cruising speed, the unison vocal form is still basically A, A, B, A with a few variations, and oh yeah, a key change after which they repeat the basic form. Let your singers listen and read along with our vocalists on the Performance/Accompaniment recording to hear how it all gels together. There are a few nuances to work out, like the glisses or when they can literally shout the word "shout" if they want to. And some of the rhythms are slightly different as similar phrases come back around, so watch for that. As always, these are things you can use or not as you determine best for your singers. Obviously, the most important thing you'll want to have them do is sing out! After all, there's a message here. Speaking of which, wouldn't this make a great tune to use for your celebration of Music In Our Schools Month? We think so.

If you do use this piece in a performance, you may find that your little Freds and Gingers can't keep their tootsies still either. Lucky for you, we have a corresponding video available for this song that features choreographer Melissa Schott and a few of her young dancers demonstrating some movement ideas. Because the song is for school kids, we don't exactly suggest extreme dance a la Fred and Ginger for real in our videos. Which is not to say you couldn't feature some talented dancers of your own when doing the piece. But for most regular folks, our offerings are more achievable, not to mention fun! Kudos to Melissa and her troupe. (Details for accessing this video as well as all of our online extras can be found in the Downloadables reference box on page 76.)

Be sure to consider using costumes for that beginning of the day theme – pajamas, robes, slippers. (Sensible stuff only, of course.) Props are optional, too. Think alarm clocks, pillows, blankets, toothbrushes, hair brushes, boxes of cereal, cartons of milk (empty), etc.

We would be remiss if we didn't at least mention the outstanding work of our arranger, Paul Jennings, as well as the performance of our amazing studio players in Indianapolis. (Check out the masthead in this issue for their names if you're interested.) Also, if you have a chance to play the instrumental version of the song for your students, please do. It wails!