Crunchy Leaves

Walking in the autumn leaves, singing, clapping, playing guitar and rhythm sticks, and making crunchy paper bag noises. Does it get any better than that? Actually, if you add in the cool audio tracks that feature electronic kick and claps plus a quirky accompaniment with a tuba solo and muted trumpet melody, then yeah. It does get better. Written for multiple groups of students to perform, you could in fact water it down to a simpler, less-layered piece if you wanted to. Each bit has its own line, so it would be easy enough to do. We have even created parts for the beginning guitar – which only uses four-string D7 and G chords – and percussion. (You'll find them on pages 34-35 in this issue.) The percussion breaks down further, starting on rhythm sticks, then transitioning into crunchy leaves via found noise-making stuff – in this case, paper bags. Because of the nature of making the sounds rhythmically using unusual "instruments," we kept the rhythms at measure 17 very simple. You can try this method, or let your students get creative and come up with their own sound inventions. What else might make a sound like a crunching leaf? Other instruments? Mouth sounds? Mix and match to make it more fun and challenging, too. This could even lead to a discussion about Foley artists, the folks that make all the neat sound effects for movies and such.

Movement, too! - Whether you use all the bells and whistles automatically included with this song or not, you may also opt to add some movement. After all, it is a song about walking in the autumn. Toward that end, we have asked choreographer Melissa Schott to come up with movement suggestions your students can learn for a performance or just for the fun of it. You will find information about her ideas on our web site for free. (See box on page 68 for details.)