There Was An Old Witch

This old traditional American tune is a lot of fun for your classes whether you do it as a "Halloween" celebration, or any time you want a song full of active, descriptive words.

The song has a fairly long "scary" intro appropriate to the mood of the song, complete with orchestral flourishes and sound effects. Set in a rock style for kid friendliness, the arrangement includes two verses divided by a short interlude. It ends with an elongated treatment of the final line and an ending that echoes the intro, including a chance for your little witches to improvise cackling at the end.

Teaching the song - Even though we provide a very cool orchestral track, this is actually an ideal song to sing with just the children, their imaginations, and some percussion instruments.

Start by reading the song as a poem, with all students doing it rhythmically together, and not too fast. After they have a feel for the tune, ask them what percussion or other effects would help portray the song, especially such lines as:

• She tapped on the windows and she ran, ran, ran.
• Cornstalks flying from the old witch's hair!
• "Swish," goes the broomstick.
• "Meow," goes the cat.
• "Plop!" goes the hoptoad sitting on her lap.

...And so forth. The kids will have great ideas.

Then have them devise simple rhythms for the percussion instruments to play, depending on what you give them to play. And if you want to use pitched percussion, it's easy to plan a simple ostinato for marimba or similar Orff mallet instruments. Half notes on D and A will work throughout, or, for a little more refinement, change to E and A for chords based around the dominant.

Major/Minor - If you have studied major and minor modes with your classes, let them identify the mode used for this tune. If you haven't, here's a great chance to do so. Play the left hand of the piano part at the beginning. What mood does it evoke? Then play the beginning changing the F naturals to F sharps. Do the students hear the difference?

If you want to go a little further, demonstrate natural minor (which the melody to the tune is) as well as melodic minor and harmonic minor. As this song will probably be sung mainly by younger singers, go as far as you care to with them.