Shady Grove

"Shady Grove" is a song with an interesting history. A little research turned up at least three melodies and more verses than one might care to count. The trick is to try to figure out which is the original melody and which are the oldest verses. The song originates from "Matty Grove," a traditional English or Scottish ballad. It has been recorded by many different artists in a folk or bluegrass style. We chose to use the version popularized by the mother of folk music, Jean Ritchie. Of the most common verses, we use three that we deemed the most "kid-friendly."

This is an upbeat, two-beat, two-part arrangement. And it's in a minor key. Part 2 is optional, and we have broken out a rehearsal track for you to use for it. We laid the song out in the traditional style with an instrumental break at the end of each verse/chorus group. We built in a stomp and clap pattern for the instrumental sections with the stomps and claps split between the parts. It would be very easy to combine them all into one pattern if you feel more comfortable with that approach.

The melody of the chorus is basically the same as the verses. If you work on the chorus till your choir has it well-learned, the verses come more easily. Interestingly, it took a little longer than expected to get some of the intervals ingrained with our studio kids, particularly at the end of each chorus or verse: "bound for the shady grove." After getting it down, however, we zipped right through it.

Dynamically, mezzo forte is the rule. However, you could go to forte the third time at measure 22 to add more emphasis to the last chorus.